Date:         Sat, 6 Jul 1996 21:39:14 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         bighouse@socomm.net (Ken Hooper)
Subject:      Strangers wander by...


My Dad rings up. The 71 lives in my Dad's driveway, and its muscular system
lives disassembled in his garage. He's been a prince about it, it's been
there for at least six months and he hasn't raised a fuss about it yet or
called a truck in from the boneyard. My Dad has always been a patient man.
That's probably the only reason I lived past seventeen. ;)

"There's a feller here, he works up the street. He says he drives by every
day and sees your bus! He wants to know what you want for it!"

I don't blame my Dad for being excited. Mine is the only yard car in his
entire neighborhood. People in my Dad's neighborhood don't even have
dandelions in their lawns, much less yard cars.

I get the guy on the phone. I saw your bus, how much, you know how they do.

"Hell, I dunno," I say. "It's apart, right? It's all there but there are a
lot of parts out. How about...$350?"

I got the 71 for $250 from a cracker family who had got tired of spending
money on it. They had parked it in front of their house, and it had become
the casino of some local sporting men. Had a card table in it and some
folding chairs. When I dragged it home I had to clean it out with a shovel.
It wasn't but a Standard to start with and by the time I got hold of it, it
was sub-standard indeed.

But the only reason it didn't run was that the green wire had fallen off
the coil, so I pushed it back on and ran it. Eventually loaned it to my
brother when his car was reposessed (he's a bonehead), and he drove a rod
out of it. So there it sits, mostly rebuilt but never finished.

"I'll have to ask my wife," he says. <groan> God made women so men would
have somebody they could turn to when they needed deal-breakers.

"No, my wife loves busses! They're getting hard to find." Well, maybe
that's OK, then. Meanwhile my own wife is pissed that I didn't ask a
thousand or something. See? See?

So we'll let what happens, happen. But since I called it "for sale" to a
stranger, I thought I may as well do it here, too. Specs:

71 Standard Transporter. Vaguely white. Type 1 DP engine out, new crank,
ready to assemble less heads. Interior thrashed. Body fair. Undercarriage
excellent. Its ball joints scare me. Trans good. Has aftermarket sun roof
(I mean the smoked-glass hatch sort of thing you see on Japanese sedans)
installed by FPO. $300, U-haul. Lying Memphis.

--Ken
  68 Westy, 71 Bus