Big Blue's friend...

Peter hitting the open road.

I wanted to draw your attention to a friend, Peter, and his adventures as they are always impressive. We met him through some VW camping as he has a red 1971 Westy he is restoring (and it's looking great) but he is always into things and always on the road - usually on his BMW motorcycle rather than in his bus.

He just finished a pretty epic ride which is photo-chronicled on his blog. I've never really thought of myself a motorcycle guy, and my parents would freak if I were to head down that road, but Peter's adventures make it tough not to feel the pull of the open highway.

You can try to keep up with him here.

An excellent article on the joys of Bus

Click here for the article.

The bus as the symbol of Hippies...

A cover of ODE magazine from a few years back.

VWs of Mexico

We returned from a week long vacation in Mexico last Monday and I have some pictures of VWs to share. First of all, when I first got there I was trying so hard to take pictures of all the VWs I saw, but soon realized that they are EVERYWHERE down there. Here are a bunch I took:

Note: Many of them had the grill on the front. I'm a little confused because they sounded like air-cooled engines...

These are the Mexican-built Bugs. There is something very odd about the headlights on these cars.

One of my Favorites.

Now this bus was interesting - I'm pretty sure it was a German-built Westfalia. See the website on the back (pic below). It's a Volkswagen club in Costa Rica! Click here for the site.

Many of the cars down there have these odd sun visor tinting on the windows.

This bus was obviously owned by some VW fans. We saw them later and they were certainly hippies and certainly ex-pats. There were VW stickers all over the inside, including one from HOT VWs, although I'm guessing this guy will never be featured in their magazine.

Looks like the front has been "fixed" at some point. I'm kinda jealous.

A close-up of the badge on the grill. Not sure what it is.

The only other "German" looking bus I saw.

Little Blue's cost of restoration and receipts

Here is a list of what we have spent on on new VW bug, including the purchase price. I will update this as costs are incurred. Below that are not only receipts since we have bought it, but receipts we found in the glove box and records from when Jack owned the car.

COSTS FOR US SINCE PURCHASE:
$4300 - Initial Purchase of 1963 VW 1200 Sedan (Bug)
$32.46 - fire extinguisher
$8 - Fuel filter and line
$340 - Tax and title transfer
$16.03 - Replacement 6 volt lightbulbs
$2.58 - 2 valve cover gaskets
$4.58 - More fuel line (5 mm)
$118.43 - rebuilt carb from Viking Auto in Novato
$.74 - new vacuum tube cap
$16.91 - new driver's side headlight
$438.23 + 6-pack Stella - New German rear brake cylinders, brake fluid flush, new pts, condenser, weld job on the accelerator (fixing the sticking down problem)
$171.71 - Fix right, front brake shoe (which was on backward), adjust kingpins.
$7.50 - Spare belt
$18.00 - New wipers
$17.10 - new headlight bulb

$280 + a "Big Blue is a Friend of Mine" t-shirt - yearly check-up, new brake pads, working horn, working turn signals, alignment, tune-up
$97.82 - New 6 volt battery (12-16-09)
$396.00 - 5 new tires from Cain's Tires (12-26-09)
$440.00 - 10-2010 - tune up and brake work at Valley Wagonworks
$2300 - convert to 6-volt and new (used) 1600 engine
$150 - front wheel cylinder and brake pad replacement

RUNNING TOTAL: $9156.09

A cool old Ghia picture...

My friend Cristiano from Brazil gave me this photo to scan. It's his parents from back in the day in Brazil. He also has some good stories about riding a VW bus to school everyday as that was his school bus.