VW Archives -

Sold the Bus

March 1, 2015 Drew

I started this blog a couple years ago when I bought an old VW bus. I started out clueless, and bumbling around trying to get the thing to work – after two years – I’ve had a lot of fun with it, and have learned a bunch. I’m still pretty clueless, but owning this bus has certainly impacted my life in a lot of really positive ways!

We’re changing our plans with the camper, and starting to look for a more permanent base for our rambling ways. To help with that, I’ve been closing up some loose ends – the bus is definitely one of those ends.

I took about a week to clean up and beautify the bus. I painted and assembled the front and rear bumpers. Earlier, I bought the front bumper accessories and entire rear bumper assembly from Wolfsburg West, and was pretty happy with how they came together. It took some creative ratcheting with a strap to get the things to fit properly onto the bus, but I think they look really good.

I also did a little tuning to get the engine running decently again, and then, posted the ad. Within 5 minutes I had a call. After about an hour and a half, and a multitude of calls and emails, I had the thing sold – to the guy who called first no less!

He came to pick it up, and away went the bus. Two good years of trial and error, fun times, and a few doses of stress and worry. I never thought I would be someone who would enjoy something like an old air-cooled VW, but now I’m not sure I want to be someone who doesn’t own at least a couple. I’ll have to make do with an old camper right now, but who knows, I could see a nice shiny Bug in my future!

We’re getting back on the road soon – headed west for some new adventures.

North Carolina, Road Trip, VW

Camper Regroup

November 15, 2014 Drew

Our camper shakedown cruise is officially over! We completed our round-about circle through the backwoods of North and South Carolina, and headed back to do a little house sitting for the in-laws.

It was certainly nice to have a stationary roof over our heads for a little while, but I’m also really happy with how our first bit of camping experience went. All the systems seem to be functioning properly on this thing; we didn’t really have any major mechanical troubles – sweet!

It was fun to do some catching up with the kitties – we’re very thankful that Norm and Carla are taking care of them while we are on the road!

We also got to do some catching up with the bus. You know… that stupid rotting VW bus that started us on this whole wingdinger of a trip!

I mentioned that I had decided to “outsource” the bus work to a shop in Charlotte before we left for Amsterdam. Unfortunately, they didn’t actually have the capacity to do anything either, so the bus just sat outside for a couple months. I would rant more about car shops and how worthless each and every one of them is, but it’s just not really worth it.

The drive back from the shop went really well – the bus fired right up! I almost took a wrong turn down the on-ramp to I-85 which was fun, it was really cold with no windows, but the thing drove beautifully. We made it an hour or so up the road, and it’s now tucked away nicely in the garage – success! (kind of).

I’ve got a camper project list a mile long, but at this point nothing is critical. We’re planning on heading south next – hopefully we’ll find a beach soon!

North Carolina

Our Next Project

October 11, 2014 Drew

We’re back in the good old US of A! We had a great time living and working in Amsterdam for the last 2 months, and are now back in North Carolina ready to keep living it up.

Our original plan when I quit my job back in May was to spend the summer getting the bus ready for a long road-trip. By August, it was clear that the project was going to take a lot more work (and welding equipment) than I was willing to invest. So we decided to outsource the thing to a local VW shop, and see what they could get done. Well… it turns out my luck with find an efficient and timely VW place has not improved at all since the Illinois days! The bus has sat outside for 2 months with nothing done. At this point, I know I don’t want to do all of the heavy lifting myself, and it seems like I can’t even pay someone else to do it either – so we’re moving to plan B.

What is plan B you ask? Such a great question! While the details are still being fleshed out, it might involve something along the lines of a cute vintage pull-behind camper, and a fully functioning (already paid for) Jeep Liberty on a road trip around the US and Canada. If we can get this plan off the ground, good times will be had by all!

To get a feel for things to come, Norm and Carla took us up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a little side trip. The leaves are just turning, and the scenery up there is truly breathtaking. Something about a belly full of Chik-fil-a seems to make those vibrant fall colors look even more awesome!

We’re also back in the market for some sweet antique camping gear. I’m always looking for a good deal and good find.

Yes. BBQ. Mmmm Yes.

A little fun at Bass Pro!

The first part of plan B is to get Noelle’s Jeep cleaned up and trailer ready. The U-haul hitch electrical connector that we’ve had trouble with in the past finally gave out when we were towing the bus to NC. We got them to look at it, and it turns out that a wire was installed incorrectly. This had caused a short that fried the electronic tow module. Sparks flying inside concealed compartments of the car – not cool! Luckily for us, nothing really bad had happened, and they replaced it all under warranty.

Next, we tackled the shabby front grill on the Liberty. This thing is some aftermarket addition that is falling apart. A little googling told me we could pop the entire front piece off very easily, and we quickly found out that this plastic chrome-ish nightmare is just clipped on. Pulled it off, cleaned the underlying grill, re-installed. In about 30 minutes it feels like we have a brand new looking car – success!

We’ve also decided to plan on spending a big chunk of our time in Florida – warm weather, sandy beaches, no state income tax, and we’ve got family there on my dad’s side – I’m sold! We will drive down to get everything set up when we eventually find a camper.

Amsterdam

Spui Square

September 12, 2014 Drew

An outdoor book fair, a hidden courtyard, and a floating flower market – it’s Spui Square! Noelle and I both got hit with a pretty bad flu bug over the last couple days, but we managed to stay coherent enough to wander around this cool part of the city.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful for the last week or so, and today was no different. Spui square is a fairly short walk away from our apartment in the Jordaan neighborhood, and the route takes you over some of the best canal views in the city!

I’ve also spotted some sweet VW’s in the area. Seeing these makes me miss my rotting piece of metal back home just a little bit. On Fridays, the square hosts an outdoor book market (I guess going to outdoor markets is a thing we do now?) We didn’t actually buy anything, but it was fun to sit back and watch the bustling activity. Amsterdam is definitely a city in motion; people riding bikes right and left, cars honking, trams streaking by. We love it, and it’s quite a big change from the automobile gridlock of suburbia Chicago! We soon found our way into the Begijnhof courtyard. This hidden quiet space is completely opposite and insulated from the busy Spui square right next door. This place is actually super old, dates from the 1300’s, and used to house a group of religious women known as beguines. Today it is a nice, bright courtyard with a couple cool churches and private houses. We then wandered back out to Spui, walked down the street a bit, and found ourselves at the Bloemenmarkt. This floating flower market area was pretty cool. We wanted to visit this place in anticipation for our soon to be trip to the famed flower auction at Aalsmeer. Honestly, I was expecting there to be more actual flowers for sale, but most of it was the bulbs or seeds, along with the obligatory wooden shoe or kitchy windmill trinket. A little too much on the tourist trap side for me!

At this point, the flu symptoms were starting to kick back in, so we headed back to the apartment – hopefully we will be back at it soon with a couple decent trips planned for next week!

Outsourcing

August 16, 2014 Drew

We finally dropped the bus off at the shop on Wednesday. It’s been a good summer, one filled with lots of bus work and time spent with family. At lot of progress has been made, but a lot of work on the bus still remains. With all the additional metal work needed on the bus, working on this thing was beginning to become more of a chore that I originally intended. The solution: outsourcing!

I’m planning on having Monkey Nut complete the remaining welding including the front floor, cargo floor, and rocker panels. They will also fix that big dent in the front nose – sweet! Now that my life has a sudden gaping hole of time and energy (remember I quit my corporate job back in May,) we have decided to switch gears and get started traveling. So… While we wait for the bus to get more work done, we are headed to the Netherlands!!

We are renting an apartment via Airbnb.com in the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam for about 2 months. This will hopefully be our first of many different destinations and travel experiences, and I am planning on continuing to log it all with pictures and a few insights into what will (hopefully) be the start of a great trip!

In the coming week or so, I will be updating the site to be a little less about the bus, and a little more about our experiences – stay tuned for more.