The Camper (s)
A friend of mine, Eric, wanted me to look at this VW camper in the Bronx for him. We go up and look. I say to him, "Listen, whatever you do, don't buy this piece of shit. If you do, don't pay more that $350 for it." He buys it for $400. I'd call up Eric and say, "Yeah, so how's it coming?" and he would reply, "Oh, not bad, not bad." He asked to borrow a distributor one day, so I lend him one. Then he never calls back.
Now, at the time I was rebuilding my bug; I needed that distributor, so I called up Eric... often. He would never reply to me. "Hello, could you please tell Eric that I need that distributor back, for my engine?" No replies. So I go out and buy another distributor for $60 and live my life. As I enjoy driving the bug, I keep thinking how cool Eric's camper was... sure it was rusty, but I know how to deal with that now. I keep an eye out in the newspaper and one day I found one; $400 or best offer. I call up and guess who it is? You got it! Eric! That bastard!
So I say to him, "Okay, $300."
"But Kris, I paid $400 plus it has a new muffler and some other stuff I did to it,
how much do you really think its' worth?"
"I think its' worth $350, but I'll pay $300 for it."
"I'll get back to you."
He doesn't get back to me. A few months roll by and I get this call, "Hey Kris, you can have it for $300."
The honest truth is that I didn't have the money. I tell him that I only have fifty bucks to my name. A few days later he calls back nd tells me no problem, just get it out of his house. That's what I did.
So my father gets his stupid friends, who are slightly loaded still from the previous night, to come and help me tow this beast. A beast it is, and with no real breaks we take it for 15 mile trip, only a rope holding me to a pickup truck.
To make a long story short, I stripped down the camper, and worked many hundreds of hours on it until I realized that it would cost more to fix the camper than to buy a perfectly good one. It was a sad day sending it to the wrecking yard and there is a whole story that goes along with that, but I'll save that one for when we talk, okay?
However one day after I sold my VW Bug, I decided to look for a VW camper, see what's what... I for some reason looked online at Classifieds2000, and lo and behold I found the kind of camper I wanted; a 1982 Diesel Westphalia. I also wanted a diesel for some reason; they always intrigued me and the 1982 is the newer type camper. It is slightly more safe and certainly has more creature comforts. The inside has a full sink and electric pump, fold-out bed, a two-stove burner, a twin bed, a pop-top, plus many extras. The diesel engine is fairly strong, though extremely slow, and gives me around 30 mpg!
Let me tell you during the summer months the thing is an absolue blast. I have had my boats inside and out, with plenty of room to spare. It has acted as a nice place to get in the shade, a place to have lunch, a nice place to sleep after a long day. The best part of the van is that no matter where you go, you're bound to have fun. Sheila and I have had wonderful times just pulling over on the side of the road, turning the chairs around, and play cards in the nice sun, with the top popped open.
I have stocked the camper up with blankets and cooking utensils, and cleaned up the interior to my liking. It didn't need too much fixing up, just some minor engine work, cleaning, and getting the kitchen (including propane tank) in order. I had to refurb the propane tank myself which after several hours of cleaning and repainting came out fine. My grandfather and brother helped me on a few things, and its' been great ever since.
There is a run on the Blue Ridge Mountains with VW Vans at the end of May every year, and I have always wanted to go. Perhaps this year I will finally be able to go!
The VW Fox
When my father passed away, it was given to me by my mother. She said that my father always called it his baby. I feel the same. Besides normal items, like tires, brakes, exhaust, and oil it has rarely needed much attention. Its' first 100,000 miles were tought too; my father carried lots of tools in the trunk, and was driven daily for many miles. At 130,000 it still has original everything in the engine/drivetrain. After awhile, it just started to go, like everything in this world, and I sold it to a friend for him to drive it into the sunset, which was about a year later. Its' quirkiness was too much for him to handle, so he gave it to a friend of his who still putters around with it from what I understand.
The Volkswagen Beetle
I was reading the newspaper and in the classified ads there was a VW Bug for sale; $300. Now at the time I was making my final thesis "Hit Man" and a roll of 16mm film processed and printed was about $300. So I took a plunge and bought it. I figured it would be fun to play around with, and the very least, I could crash it in the movie. As I started to strip it, the more I learned about volkswagens, and car restoration in general. I signed up on a listserv, and met a Volkswagen guru who inspired me when I needed to be lifted up. When I finally stripped down the buggy, it was too far gone to repair, so my father found another VW for $200. We towed that baby home, and I stripped that one.
My father found me a welder/painter, named Paulo. He was a local guy, painted cars on the side. We should have guessed what kind of person we had since my father met him in a bar. I will have to admit, Paulo's job was good, and it is only just starting to rust in the area's welded. Paulo's real problem was that he was extremely lazy. I would be at his house, waiting to help him, and he wouldn't be there. Thirty minutes later he'd show up and say, "Oh, sorry Kris, I was fucking my girlfriend, ju no?"
He wasn't even going to paint it indoors, "Oh jess, main, we can spray it outside, no?" Holy moses! No, you can't paint my car outside, so we split the cost of bringing it to a spray booth. "You gonna love it, main, the cello really chines!"
As for the work I did on it, I rebuilt the engine, redid all of the interior, added a kickin' sound system, did all of the fiberglassing of the rust holes, as well as sanding down the exterior of the car. Paulo did some of the welding work, and the painting of course. I did the window rubber and my father always helped me when I needed an extra hand. I have a whole lot of fun in it, and for the first year after rebuilding it, I used it as my primary car. I have since inherited my father's car, and since that one has such luxuries as heat and air conditioning, I tend to drive it more, but the bug is fun...
It wasn't hard redoing the beetle; it only took time. I knew nothing about auto restoration, engine work, auto paint, rust repair, etc. I read every book I could have during my project, and use the internet often, subscribed to several different listservs on the subject. I often used Bob Hoover, a man very knowledgeable on VW's, and he gave me inspiration and advice along the way. He is much a testament to the car as my father or myself are. That VW was one of the last projects my father and I ever got to work on... and I think about him often when I drive it... especially when it breaks down, and I feel him next to me, perplexed as I am. Eventually, I had to sell it. I found it hard to keep up with the maintanence, and I had already purchased the VW Camper and had the fox, and I also felt that all things must pass. I still miss the car, but I think in the long run I made the right decision.
