Hmph. Where do I start? The hardest part to a build thread I think is getting it started. Made many road trips to camp spots over the years when the kids were still in school. At the time it was a series of RAM trucks, dog and kids in the back seat, coolers, cabin tent, and everything else in the bed. NY, MD, VA, FL, but our favorite place to go was Lancaster and York counties in PA. I love my Mopars, I've had several RAMs, a Dakota, YJ, XJ, WJ, ZJ, an Eagle sedan, etc though my favorites have always been aircooled VWs, probably because that is what I grew up with. Around 2005, I decided I needed one in my life and picked of a '68 Beetle, which I turned into an Emory baja 'tribute' (Gary Emory is considered the father of the VW Baja Bug), using this as the guide:
My results:
As you might notice in that last pic, circa 2009, there's a few buses in the background. Those came about after some excursions with a few friends and realizing that I really like Buses more. The main influence being the "party pickle" pulling the Sammie out of the drink that belonged to a buddy of mine. This spot is an old Superfund and current landfill location. I now shudder to think what was in that water :(
Even made the journey to Moab from New England.
So I picked up the blue '79 in the pic in 2009 along with a '70 Westy. The Westy is a different tale for another time. The blue bus I bought as a non-runner for $500, the keychain that came with it had a rubber duck with an afro so it got named Aphroducky. It was painted with house paint over spots of 2" thick bondo from a crappy accident repair. I'm not a purist, nor do I really like having a vehicle that can't be used as it is intended because it is too nice, soooooo, I dove in to get the 2.0l FI motor running, the electrics back in shape, and the body respectable. I was moving a nice, happy pace. Funny how life has a way of tossing a wrench into things when you say "nice, happy pace." Within two days I had lunched the transmission in my truck and my son hydrolocked the motor in our shared ZJ. Hammer time!! Whipped the bus into shape quick with a scuff and squirt of TSC paint, got the BFGs off the Party Pickle that was being parted out, and used it as my daily for a year from 2012 to 2013
Parked Ducky in the spring of 2013 to replace the exhaust and a few other things, since I had gotten a new truck. Parked for a few months became a few years :(. This past summer it needed to be moved from where it was sitting so I dragged it up to my place in Maine to ponder what to do next. Right about the same time the better half and I were returning from the annual family gathering in NY, passing through beautiful, rural VT. She said to me that it would be nice if I could take a break that wasn't a family thing and her and I go for a weekend here and there, and she wouldn't be hurt if that meant crawling through some small New England towns and camping for a few days. She then asked how hard would it be to turn "that ugly yellow thing" into "one of those camper VW things?" Ahhhh :).
So, upon returning home I started working on Ducky, fixing new rust spots, cleaning it up, stripping out the interior, going through the suspension, brakes, and fuel system.
That got cut short when Mother Nature decided that we really needed winter to start the first week of October...
And has sat in the snow since then as I plan out the attack
The plan is - as soon as I can work on it again - to finish body work, replace the window\door\body seals, paint it up in Mexico Beige, and build out a usable interior. There's only two of us so a back seat isn't as important as a bed. We use Japan futons at home to sleep on, I have a few extra that will form our mattress, the rest of the interior will be storage and kitchen (sink, single burner butane stove for hot water\coffee), plus probably a small chuck box for outside cooking or a swing out like this.
I'm planning on adding a house battery under the bed to power auxiliary lighting, radios, charging ports, and the thermo-electric cooler. Yeh, going with a cooler for now as we only plan to do short trips and I cannot justify the expense of a refer this year.
I have these for interior lighting, they charge by USB, are CO detectors, motion detectors, security alarms, flashlight, and general lighting. Yeh. All in one $5 unit. We have 4 in the house, I picked of 3 for the bus :). They sit very securely in the base and are removable for the flashlight feature.
Outside I'm hoping to build up a roo\light bar for the front, a rack for the roof, skids for the trans\motor, and sliders.
Ok, thanks for reading this. Now please, send SPRING!!!
My results:
As you might notice in that last pic, circa 2009, there's a few buses in the background. Those came about after some excursions with a few friends and realizing that I really like Buses more. The main influence being the "party pickle" pulling the Sammie out of the drink that belonged to a buddy of mine. This spot is an old Superfund and current landfill location. I now shudder to think what was in that water :(
Even made the journey to Moab from New England.
So I picked up the blue '79 in the pic in 2009 along with a '70 Westy. The Westy is a different tale for another time. The blue bus I bought as a non-runner for $500, the keychain that came with it had a rubber duck with an afro so it got named Aphroducky. It was painted with house paint over spots of 2" thick bondo from a crappy accident repair. I'm not a purist, nor do I really like having a vehicle that can't be used as it is intended because it is too nice, soooooo, I dove in to get the 2.0l FI motor running, the electrics back in shape, and the body respectable. I was moving a nice, happy pace. Funny how life has a way of tossing a wrench into things when you say "nice, happy pace." Within two days I had lunched the transmission in my truck and my son hydrolocked the motor in our shared ZJ. Hammer time!! Whipped the bus into shape quick with a scuff and squirt of TSC paint, got the BFGs off the Party Pickle that was being parted out, and used it as my daily for a year from 2012 to 2013
Parked Ducky in the spring of 2013 to replace the exhaust and a few other things, since I had gotten a new truck. Parked for a few months became a few years :(. This past summer it needed to be moved from where it was sitting so I dragged it up to my place in Maine to ponder what to do next. Right about the same time the better half and I were returning from the annual family gathering in NY, passing through beautiful, rural VT. She said to me that it would be nice if I could take a break that wasn't a family thing and her and I go for a weekend here and there, and she wouldn't be hurt if that meant crawling through some small New England towns and camping for a few days. She then asked how hard would it be to turn "that ugly yellow thing" into "one of those camper VW things?" Ahhhh :).
So, upon returning home I started working on Ducky, fixing new rust spots, cleaning it up, stripping out the interior, going through the suspension, brakes, and fuel system.
That got cut short when Mother Nature decided that we really needed winter to start the first week of October...
And has sat in the snow since then as I plan out the attack
The plan is - as soon as I can work on it again - to finish body work, replace the window\door\body seals, paint it up in Mexico Beige, and build out a usable interior. There's only two of us so a back seat isn't as important as a bed. We use Japan futons at home to sleep on, I have a few extra that will form our mattress, the rest of the interior will be storage and kitchen (sink, single burner butane stove for hot water\coffee), plus probably a small chuck box for outside cooking or a swing out like this.
I'm planning on adding a house battery under the bed to power auxiliary lighting, radios, charging ports, and the thermo-electric cooler. Yeh, going with a cooler for now as we only plan to do short trips and I cannot justify the expense of a refer this year.
I have these for interior lighting, they charge by USB, are CO detectors, motion detectors, security alarms, flashlight, and general lighting. Yeh. All in one $5 unit. We have 4 in the house, I picked of 3 for the bus :). They sit very securely in the base and are removable for the flashlight feature.
Outside I'm hoping to build up a roo\light bar for the front, a rack for the roof, skids for the trans\motor, and sliders.
Ok, thanks for reading this. Now please, send SPRING!!!
