LOL bear with me here, I just had to take a minute and brag...
Today I took a day trip to Atlanta, Georgia to visit and purchase the car I've been after for years now...a 1976 yellow-orange Volkswagen campmobile! I'd been planning to buy one of these by sometime this summer, but I couldn't resist when I saw a good condition one for less money than I'd intended to pay. Hey, why wait three months for the vehicle you want, when you can push yourself to work a little harder for 2 weeks and get that car now? Especially since old cars come and go very quickly, and each year makes the VW busses harder to come by? In Philly, all that snow and rain makes old cars very susceptible to rust, so I kinda expected to go a long distance to get the car I wanted. So yeah, it was a hike and a half to Atlanta, especially since I was running on no sleep at all...I worked 10pm-5am last night, then went straight from work to the airport to Georgia.
Here is a picture of my baby:
What I like about it is, the owner obviously put a lot of work into it and had a lot of fun with it but simply doesn't have the time to go camping with it anymore. The engine and transmission were taken from 78 and 79 busses, respectively, then rebuilt and installed in 1998. The clutch was replaced, too. Then only a year after the restoration work, the car was garaged and driven less often, so it doesn't have much mileage on the newer engine. It runs pretty good, although steering it is a challenge in itself(LOL!), but I just need to get used to it. It felt so foreign, especially since I had to rely on my side mirrors for driving because the back window visibility isn't the best since it's a van! I'm used to a brand-new little Mustang with power everything, whereas this VW is a much older, simpler built vehicle.
It should be arriving at my place in another week or so! I'm having it shipped via truck/trailer, because driving an unfamiliar 30-yr-old car up 7 states just isn't a very wise decision, especially since Georgia doesn't require annual inspections on older cars so I'd want my long-time VW mechanic to check out the bus before attempting any long drives. Hopefully everything will go good! I'm going to be worried up until the time that it enters my hands, fully tagged, insured, and registered. But hopefully it'll be here soon! Anyone else have any VW stories they want to share? Any advice or tips I should know about maintaining it? Thanks!


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Tho' I totally want me a Herbie for my next car !! Then I will eventually buy one of the new style Herbies and totally pimp it out (well, two-tone paint, rims, decent stereo system, and so on).
I should be okay with having a Herbie.
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