Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Story of Our Bus as We Understand It

So, Dave, Diane and I recently purchased a 1978 VW Bus Campmobile (Westfalia). It isn't exactly running as of now, but hopefully with a few adjustments and replacements it will be. Here's it's history: Some guy in California, won it in his divorce (even though it was his in-laws originally). He then eventually moved to Wisconsin. On a drive through Missouri at some point around 2005, he met these gas station owners (who we bought it from) while in Lebanon. Well his mother got cancer so he had to fly out to California immediately and put the bus in storage while he did this. He stayed quite a while in California (is actually still there) and couldn't afford to come back for the bus. So over telephone and email he sold it to the gas station owners (the only people he knew in the area). They were ecstatic and wanted to fix it up to take on a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi. Unfortunately they were not well funded, and the bus continued to sit for the next 3 years (out of storage and in the rain now). Then we saw it on Rollanet, and swooped in to save it.

It's not in as bad of shape as it could be. The rust is fairly superficial and will just take a little sandblasting and repainting to fix. When we first got it back to Rolla, we tried to start the engine (which was turning over) but with no luck. I'll post pictures soon.

1 comment:

Laura said...

Your story inspires me! I have a 1978 Westfalia as well that is sitting in my driveway not doing a whole lot right now. Needs new pistons. :( Hope to get it running again before the end of the summer.

i have the story of how i acquired mine on my blog which is http://lauraslivingoflove.blogspot.com

check it out!