Claude's 1965 VW Bus

My 1965 VW Bus is 46 yrs. old now (2011) I adopted it in 1976. In 1984 I finished restoration and gave it a new paint job in 1986. My kids are posing in front of it in 1990. The dogger's are in animal heaven, black one lived to be over 16 and the kids aren't kids anymore. We all had a lot of fun memories traveling and camping with it over the years. Although there is only 77K miles on the engine I haven't driven it in several years and so this summer I began the second restoration cycle and prep work for it's new life.

History: Long Stories are always the best!
First it was a 'roadkill' that broke down near Parks, Arizona and the owner, thinking the engine was blown sold it to a friend of mine, and then resumed his trip back to California. Later examination found that the points were the only thing wrong with the engine. My friend also had a '65 VW Bus but with a high mileage 1600cc engine and asked me to put the 'roadkill' engine in his bus and he would give me 'roadkill' and his old worn out 1600cc engine. A great deal as I had a 1959 Double Side Door with a lot of rust and a old high mileage 1300cc engine that was on it's last leg. My '59'er was originally imported from Germany to North Carolina before finding itself in Arizona, but many years in NC caused it to rust out badly...very badly. I gave the '59er away to a guy for a storage shed but kept the chrome-moly full length luggage rack and the Westfalia camper interior wood benches and fixtures.

The '65 'Roadkill' sat for several years waiting the for the day that I had enough money to bring it back to life. That day came in 1984, eight years and about eight miles from where it originally broke down and eventually became mine. The bus was moved four different times during those eight years and served as extra storage space.I spent two months prepping it while Burk Franke rebuilt the 1600cc engine for it. Before I installed the new engine I was lucky to stumble upon and buy a rusted junker 1966 Deluxe for a hundred bucks with a 1 Ton Transaxle in it that I installed. (B/W Photo Right: 1983)

So, now I'm into the 2nd restoration, which is pretty much going through the whole vehicle again, especially restoring the wooden benches and closet panel that were built 52 years ago (when the rusted out '59 VW Westfalia Bus was new). I replaced the rear luggage compartment floor with a custom fit cut wooden stained and polycoated one. We are now ready for the rubber replacement for the all doors, windows and rear engine compartment. We're also ordering new molded horsehair seats for the front and I'm having new custom fabricated seat cushions made for the passenger rear seats. Next will be the mechanical work: New air ducting, engine tuneup, ect.

We'll hit the road together in the summer of 2012 for San Diego. My son in the maroon shirt will pamper it and I can already picture the top rack stacked with surf boards and headed to nice waves. Some heads will turn as it passes by. Our family heirloom and the circle of great memories is unbroken.