Category: VW

We bought a canoe today!  Saw this thing on the side of the road, and bought it right then and there.

We had just been talking about wanting to stick a sweet old canoe on top of the bus when Noelle saw this sitting in a field with a for-sale sign.  I slammed on the brakes and whipped the car around to take a closer look.  The current owner, Dwayne, came out; we chatted about how cool the canoe was, and we struck a deal – Sweet!

Turns out it is a 15 ft. Grumman aluminum canoe made in Marathon, NY that probably dates from the late ’60’s – in other words, it is the perfect canoe to sit on top of a ’67 VW bus!  It is in great shape, no rust at all, one minor dent, but extremely well built.

The next post will hopefully document my slow, but continuing progress on getting the first piece of replacement metal welded onto the bus.

I jacked the bus up today and went to town with that angle grinder.  My goal was to remove the front bumper brackets that had been welded on by a previous owner.

Started by grinding down the welds, careful not to remove original metal.

A little bit of muscle.

A little more grinding and cutting…

Whew this is a lot of work! (thanks to Noelle’s paparazzi like camera work)

Finally got the two brackets out – they look pretty good, and I won’t have to buy replacements – Success!

I also cut out the cargo area heater tube.  This is the one permanent non-stock hack that I am making to this bus – we are turning it into a camper, and that space will be needed for storage.  I will weld a cover plate over the hole, so that hot air can still make it up front.

Going to work on the cargo doors next!

Well I haven’t gotten much bus progress done in the last couple weeks – but I did successfully quit my job, and we did successfully move across the country to North Carolina!

We’re planning on staying with Noelle’s parents for the next couple months in beautiful Mooresville, NC.  Hopefully the next cross country jaunt we take will be via VW bus… In the meantime, I’ve now got the time and energy to really get started fixing this thing up.  Norm’s garage is awesome (and about to get real messy!), and I’ve got boxes and boxes of replacement parts, metal, and tools; I bought a welder (Cheap flux-cored thing from Harbor Freight – I’ll take the much deserved criticism and save my $700), and I’m ready to get going!

Took a couple days getting everything somewhat organized for the work ahead.

First, a nice video of me taking the bus off the trailer… wouldn’t be complete without a little “Oops” moment!

I started getting the bus cleaned up this week.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the projects that are suddenly now a priority – I haven’t quite quit my job yet, but the pace of bus work will be fast a furious from now on!

I decided to start by wire wheeling the back luggage area.  This should be a pretty easy introduction to the labors of VW bus restoration, and getting it done will feel like I’m making progress.

Hours of work later… and I’m not done yet…

More hours, more sweat.

The end result is a proper luggage area that is clean and primered.

My shipment of funky green metal from Klassic Fab (via bustoration.com) arrived – looks like I’ll be welding soon enough!

We started taking the bus apart! By the end of the day, I’m super stoked to actually dig in and get started getting this thing fixed up – at the same time, I’m partially terrified at the work ahead.  I know it seems like a lot now, but we are going to keep plugging away one project at a time until this bus is up and ready to go.

We started by taking the front window frames out – the windows are supposed to slide open, but are rusted shut.  Like everything on this bus, the frames were only held in by 3 of the 6 screws/ bolts.  The two outer screws were so rusty I had to drill them out!

The pop out window ledges have some rust holes that will need a fixin’.

We pulled the seats and got started wire wheeling various areas to see what type of replacement metal I need to be buying – fun times!

I also pulled all of the dash electrical out.  I’m going to attempt to restore the speedo and all of the switches – hopefully I can put everything back together…

This is plan F… load up the chairs and roll ‘er out as she is!