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The Rest of the Story

Some readers may recall a previous Autoist article entitled “End of a Great Friend,” about the author’s decision to part with a 1979 VW Bus owned for nearly 20 years.

By Don Capestrain

The Bus was sold, the money safely deposited in a savings account as winter approached. The original plan was to consolidate to only one “hobby” car and use the proceeds from the sale to finish the restoration of our 1971 Super Beetle Convertible. It was already mechanically complete but needed bodywork and a complete repaint. I soon found out that to have the work done right would consume the majority of the funds available. That discovery led to a reevaluation of the entire plan.

The main question I had to ask myself was one most old car enthusiasts have to ask at some point: “Is this the car of my dreams?” If a lot of money was going to be sunk into it, money that probably could not be recovered if the car were sold, was it “The One”?

I reminded myself once again that my desire to own air-cooled VWs was somewhat selfish. “Hobby cars” take resources (time and money, not to mention garage space!) that might be better spent on something else. If the hobby car and the activities surrounding it are something the whole family enjoys on a regular basis, that can go a long way toward justifying the desire. Other than a few car shows a year, we really didn’t enjoy our Bus very often, which was part what drove me to sell it. What about the Beetle?

Well, gee, what’s more fun than loading up the family in a convertible Beetle on a beautiful sunny day to cruise the backroads, stop for a picnic and enjoy family time together? Nothing, except that my two daughters absolutely hate riding in the back seat of the convertible at any speed over 35 mph. The wind-whipping that one gets riding back there is simply inconceivable to those riding in the front, and as speed increases it only gets worse. Nearly every attempt we ever made to live that fantasy of the “day in the country” ended in misery as my daughters begged and pleaded for us to put up the top. This usually resulted in an argument between parents and children, and in the end, nobody enjoyed the outing.

So, if not the Beetle Convertible, then what air-cooled model would be right for us? Hmmm ... how about an old Beetle with a ragtop sunroof? The girls would be a lot more protected from the wind than in a convertible, but that big sunroof would be a close approximation of “top-down” motoring. Plus, it would fit neatly in the garage in the same space that was being occupied by the convertible! To the Internet, I went to search out my new choice of “The One.”

Whoa. I did not consider some little details about ragtops. First, they were only produced through the 1963. As a result, even finding one in decent condition, let alone a nice one that hadn’t been customized, was a difficult task. Those I could find were priced such that I would likely spend the combination of the sale of the Bus and the convertible to purchase one. Then, I started thinking about some of the basic safety features of our ’71 VW that we would not have with a ragtop — things like dual circuit brakes, double-jointed rear axles, padded dashboard, safety steering column, shoulder belts, etc., and began to have second thoughts. I toyed with the idea of buying a hardtop Super Beetle and adding an aftermarket ragtop, but that just didn’t spark any enthusiasm. Then, I saw some ads for late-model Mexican Beetles that had been legally imported and had a full-length electrically-operated soft top. But, I could never warm up to their clear plastic rear window, or the way the roof looked when it was open with all the folds piling up where the rear window should be.

Of course, my daughters had been telling me the answer all along, but I was resisting.

Daughters: “Daddy, we want a Camper Bus.”
Dad: “But then we’ll have to rent garage space again, and I don’t want to do that!”
Daughters: “Daddy, buy a Camper Bus.”
Dad: “But we’ve never gone camping before — it’s not like going to summer camp, girls! I’m not sure you or your mother would like it.”

At this point, my wife, Sue, joins the conversation.
Wife: “You are the one who’s been wary of camping. I camped a lot as a kid — I think we’d like it!”
Daughters: “Yeah, why don’t you get a Camper Bus?”

I’ve had a soft-spot for VW vans since I bought my first one in 1984. Uh-oh, the wheels were starting to turn. OK, what if we bought a Vanagon Westfalia? There are quite a few out there in decent shape at reasonable prices. It would be a new family adventure for us to try camping. It’s a relatively modern vehicle with safety features. It could actually sit outside if it needed to. It could be bought with the proceeds from the sale of the Bus, allowing us to keep the convertible while we decided if it was what we really wanted.

I decided to do some initial investigation without the kids’ knowledge, lest they get too excited about a bad idea. My wife was humoring me but was lukewarm to the looks of a Vanagon despite my explanation of how much more modern and safe and affordable it was than an earlier bay-window Bus.

I test drove one just an hour away on an unseasonably warm and sunny winter day and there was much to like. Buttery smooth steering, a nice heavy ride, crisp gear shifting and comfortable seats were just a few of its charms. It was a 1984 model, water-cooled. Wow, great heat, too!

The price was a bit high, though, so I kept looking. One turned up in San Jose, Calif., home of VWCA’s own Lois Grace. After some e-mail exchanges, she test drove it for me and I think she nearly fell for it herself (much to her husband’s dismay — I think a seed has been planted there that he’d like to uproot)! It was more of a project than I wanted to take on, though.

By then, I was ready to reveal the idea to my daughters. I had an ad for a Vanagon Westfalia on the computer screen and called my oldest daughter Morgan into the room.

Dad: “What do you think of one of these?”
Morgan: “Is it a Camper?”
Dad: “Yes, it is.”
Morgan: “Cool ... But is it a VW?!”
Dad: (Utterly deflated) “Yes, it’s a VW. You know I wouldn’t consider anything else!”
Morgan: “I don’t like it. If we’re getting a camper, it has to be a camper Bus.”
Dad: “But it is a Bus — just a newer one!”
Morgan: “I don’t like it. It’s got to be a Bus like the one we sold.”

Well, I must pause here and apologize to all the Vanagon owners reading this!

Unfortunately, my younger daughter and my wife also shared Morgan’s sentiment. I was now shopping for a bay-window (i.e., 1968-1979) Westfalia camper Bus. Storage considerations were pushed aside. We’d figure that out later. The family had spoken, and I had finally gotten the message. In the end, it was no great effort for me to embrace the idea of owning another bay-window Bus. Oh, what a slippery slope I was on!

After all the agonizing about selling our ’79 Bus, and all the reasons for doing it, here I was shopping for another bay-window Bus! Well, sometimes the love of VWs can’t pass tests of pure logic and reason. And, this would be a Westfalia Camper Bus, not just another seven-passenger model. Besides, it had the full backing of my family!

My previous experience with these vehicles steered me toward the fuel-injected models, 1976-1979. The decision of whether to sell or keep the Beetle would be made later, based on the purchase price of a camper. Let the searching begin!

Of course, there were absolutely no campers for sale locally, so the Internet would provide the means to find one. The Internet is like the Wild West when it comes to buying a vehicle. Browsing is one thing, shopping to buy is quite another.

On the one hand is the eBay auction site. It’s a fast-paced, high-pressure way to buy a vehicle. The auctions are typically too short to arrange for a thorough inspection of a vehicle once the reserve price has finally been met, and the sellers are sometimes less than forthright with their information. Many are dealers or resellers who don’t know the vehicle history, or would not prefer to give honest answers. While wrestling with all of this, the clock is ticking and the bid amounts increase. I was shocked and amazed at the winning bid amounts for some of these VWs. I got caught up in the bidding frenzy in a couple of auctions, bidding far more than was appropriate to keep my hand in play. Thankfully, I was always outbid.

On the other hand is the VW classified ad site, www.thesamba.com. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if the seller is really interested in selling his car, or just wants a lot of people to fawn over it. This is encouraged, I believe, because the ads are free. In many cases, there were campers I was interested in learning more about, but I simply could not get any response to follow-up questions from the seller, either by phone or e-mail.

While all this shopping was going on, it was becoming clear that my daughters had a color preference. The Sage Green versions were their favorite. They thought the green campers looked like tortoises. I agreed that the analogy was good — not only because of color. Like a tortoise, a bay-window Westfalia is old, slow and carries its house on its back!

Over the winter, I looked at dozens of ads and just couldn’t seem to find the right combination of car, price, and responsiveness on the part of the owner. Then, finally, at the end of April, an ad appeared on www.thesamba.com for a 1978 Sage Green Westy in Boise, Idaho. The owners, Jon and Nadine, were quick to reply to e-mail messages with additional photos and information and also provided their telephone number.

After numerous telephone conversations over the course of two weeks with both Jon and Nadine, I really felt like they were trying to be as honest and descriptive of the Westy as possible. They also went out of their way to provide additional digital photos of any part of the Bus I asked to examine.

Finally, I made an offer significantly less than their asking price, and they accepted. We were now bay-window Bus owners again, but Westfalia camper owners for the very first time! The best news was that the price, even after allowing for shipping and sales tax, was still less than the proceeds from the old Bus.

I arranged to have the camper shipped from Idaho, and at the end of May the truck arrived, carrying the new member of our VW family. On the fall day our previous Bus was picked up by the car hauler, it was a cold and rainy. The evening the Westy arrived, it was warmer, but again pouring rain, due to severe thunderstorms moving through the area. On the trip home from the truck stop (the same one where the old Bus left us), I had to park under the canopy of a gas station until a brief hailstorm passed!
I knew from our conversations that this Bus was would have some mechanical and cosmetic issue to address before we decided to try camping in it, so I spent a good portion of last summer making these repairs and outfitting it for camping.

Finally, on Aug. 17, 2005, we packed the Westy and headed for Mohican State Park Campground near Loudonville, Ohio, to see whether we had found our new family VW activity. The event was a resounding success, and was definitely something everyone enjoyed and wanted to do again soon! Our next opportunity came over Labor Day weekend when we met friends in their monstrous fifth wheel trailer at a campground near Columbus, Ohio. It was a great success as well (not to mention a very relaxing way to spend the holiday)!

It’s amazing how things have worked out. We’ve found an entirely new way to have fun together as a family, as well as satisfying my desire for a “hobby” car. Better yet, it’s one of my all-time favorite VW models, the bay-window Bus. Because we were able to find our favorite Sage Green color, the license plate announces the Westy as R TORTUS. A retired neighbor who spends his winters in Florida has offered us his garage to store the Westy over the winter months — at no charge!

And, at least for now, our Beetle Convertible will stay with us, although it will have to soldier on with its dents and dings and disintegrating paint for the foreseeable future. Selling our old Bus a year ago provided the opportunity for an entirely new “old VW” adventure. The whole family is glad we did, and we probably should have done it sooner.

And now you know…. The rest of the story!