Vintage Tuesday - Monkey VW

1969 Popular Hot Rodding - the Super Bug

The Static Files - because it's about how well you handle going slow, not fast...

VW Camper Family Circa 1975 - The great barn-raising of the summer of '75

In July of '75, the original members of the VW Camper Family gathered in an remote location in Northern California to hang out and have some fun. I was a little high at the time, so I don't remember much, but this is the story my camera tells:

The group gathers around Peter's VW

The group gets a "hobo stew" going on the fire...

Static and Big Blue's Driver try to make the stew as, um, special as possible...

There are songs...

John keeps tasting the stew before it is done...

EP and Oak find a quiet spot to hang out.

Westywoman (above) takes a break by the creek.

Romy contemplates the Tri-Tip.

PJAlau (above) gets drunk while considering ways to stick it to the man...

Later, PJAlau remembers he is allergic to beer...

Blake H sets up his drum set, upset there isn't any other instruments around except that stupid guy with the fiddle...

PJAlau, Big Blue's Driver and Static taste the stew... Wondering how much to spice it up.

Static is quoted as saying, "There is never enough spice."

One of the Wild Women of Wongo stokes the fire.

And the whole crew has a fantastic time and enjoys the Hobo Stew.

Keynote Presentation: What VW bus/van is right for me?

Editor's note. This week, I had a tweet from @ArtBeatnik who asked, "I'm a non-mechanically inclined guy VW Van lover, looking to become an owner one as well. Any suggested starting points?" At first I thought I would hand him over to the wolves on TheSamba.com and watch him get eaten for calling a "bus" a "van", and then watch the vultures move in and pick at him until he decided to stick to his Saturn because the VW guys are all jerks.

The only issue I have with the VW community is if you haven't wrenched on VWs for years, you are considered one of the folks bringing the whole scene down and making it too cliche and what not. But, everyone starts somewhere and, because I once thought the washer fluid reservoir was the brake fluid reservoir, I will go ahead and put my opinion out there. First warning, @ArtBeatnik; everyone in the VW community has an opinion.

What follows is an actual transcription from the 56th Annual Symposium on Volkswagen Culture held in Eschede, Germany, where I was invited to present my latest publication, Fünf-ions! The 5 Questions of Entry into the VW World.

{original, unedited transcript}

Hello, my friends. It is, um, an honor to be here. Certainly, I traveled far to be part of this conference and since I only had 4 months to get here, I left my Kafer in Berlin and took the train!...

{light laughter}

Okay. Well, thanks to the Langenhagen Transaxle Society for inviting me to speak today. And special thanks to the Burgwedel crew for making sure I found my room last night and the great Brötchen this morning. Whew! Nothing keeps it down like Brötchen!

Okay. Very well then.

I am here today to speak on the 5 questions of entry into the world of VW transporter ownership Now, these are just opinions. But I'm the one on the stage, so that makes me the expert, right? Slide 1, my Bruder!

Here are the 5 questions you must answer...

1. How often do you plan to drive this VW

2. How far do you plan to drive it?

3. How much money do you have?

4. Do you want to maintain the VW yourself?

5. Do you have extra time on your hands and are you looking to get wrapped into a culture that leads to excessive opinion-sharing, forum-stalking, Facebook posts and that drunk feeling when you realize that you know someone who is good friends with the son of Ben Pon? In other words, is it important that your bus have style and personality?

Ha! Just threw that last one in there as a joke. Good thing that doesn't happen to any of us in this room, huh?

{As much laughter as a crowd of Germans can create}

Let's run through a scenario. Let's assume you are a non-mechanically inclined guy VW Van lover, looking to become an owner of one as well. You want to travel to & from work, in the neighborhood, go on road trips. You want to learn the engine. And you work odd hours and are free during the day a lot. You need a hobby and would love for it to be restoring/maintaining a VW van or bus. Let's play this out, shall we?

First question.  How often do you plan to drive this VW?

All VWs can be daily drivers. I mean, some guy is driving a 1930 Model A around Michigan right now to prove a point. What point? That Darwin was wrong. Look, some cars aren't meant to be daily drivers. If it's a daily driver, stay away from 6-volt cars. And stay away from drum brakes. Of course, my daily driver was both of those for 4 years, so do as I say, not as I do. When I drive through a rain storm in the dark, I sometimes pull over to let a car by that I can follow by their taillights! See! Darwin was wrong!

So this leaves you with a 71 or newer bus.

Second question.  How far do you plan to drive this VW?

For the sake of making the answer hard, let's focus on "want to do a little of both, travel to & from work, in the neighborhood, go on road trips". VW owners will tell you their bus will go 65 or 70. And it will. But it will not cruise at 65 or 70 and, if a bus driver manages to get it going that fast and maintain that speed, one can assume they are hyped up on some sort of common-sense blocking drug like pot or Redbull or Metallica. 

If you want to take 6 days to travel a few hundred miles tasting ice cream and picking apples the whole time, take any VW you want. You want to make it to Buses by the Bridge and be back in time for work on Monday morning? You are are going to need something relatively new.

If you want to go far distances fast without stress, newer is better. Let's assume you've left the bus category (1979 and below) and entered the van category (1980 Vanagon and up).

Third question.  How much money do you have?

Because my bill is still to come and Brötchen isn't cheap. Ha!

{Crickets}

Seriously, though. If you want to do some of the work to both save money and, as a wise man once put it," come to kindly terms with your ass, for it bears you", then you want to stay away from the Eurovan. Volks have called this the $2000 van for 2 reasons; first it costs $2000 to fix anything and second, its resale value is right around that figure. Let's assume you also haven't just won a bet with Mitt Romney and walked away with $10,000. This leaves you in the early 80s.

Fourth question.  Do you want to maintain the VW yourself?

This is good. This is part of the VW experience. BUT - rememeber, each learning experience is a potential failure. If your goal is to camp, then pay someone to get your beast up and running so you can enjoy it. These buses were made to be used. Too may buses across America are sitting without engines. Too many buses are half done. Get it out there and use it. Then, when something breaks, try fixing it but don't be afraid or ashamed to get help if you fail. Let's try to keep you driving the VW, not looking at it wishing you could. Focus on maintenance for the first year. After that, be more brave. Early 80s aircooled is still good for this.

LAST question. Is it important that your bus have style and personality?

Okay, so here's the lifestyle angle. There's something to be said for a unique car representing the personality of the driver. And every era of VW has this option if you dig for it. In fact, I think I have found the perfect bus for someone like this. I present to you, "the suggestion": An early 80s aircooled Vanagon Hightop. Style, grace, cruise and distance. Get one with the original size black wheels. Like this:

Whatever VW you choose, do not get discouraged working on your VW. Four years ago I couldn't figure out how to take the brake drum off and last month I replaced the whole front brake system. Time and breakdowns are your teacher. 

Now, my Freundin and I are of to Edelweiss for some skiing. Schlaf gut!

{Standing ovation, cheers all around!}

VW friends and freaks. I've never asked you your opinion before, but I am asking this time; offer your own opinion below. And, should @ArtBeatnik decide to buy a VW bus/van something or other, let's agree to give him a chance and help him and give him a break when he leaves a socket on his spark plug and tries to start his bus...

Vintage Tuesday - Euro rag...