My friend Pete is moving to New York, and needed to sell his Bus. After some thought (and camper-envy in a Phish show parking lot), I decided to give the 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Campmobile a good home.
I have loved VWs ever since I can remember (my dad had a Bug when I was a little kid, and I saw Star Wars when it came out at a drive-in theater in the family Bus). I live in San Francisco near Golden Gate Park, and see a lot of old VWs drive by.
I'd been wanting to get a VW again for quite a while. When I was in high school, I had a 1972 Super Beetle (which I foolishly sold to buy a 1984 Jetta the year before I went to college), and the idea of buying an old Bug had been nagging me every time I heard the tell-tale whistle of a pea-shooter drive by.
So, then my friend Pete gets a job in New York and needs to sell his Bus. It's a 1976 Westfalia Deluxe (pop-top, sink, stove). "How interesting..." I tell him I'm interested, and that I'll think about it...
The straw that broke the camel's back was a road trip to Utah to see Phish. There were a ton of VW campers in the lot (no surprise), and when a beautiful split-window drove by me, I couldn't stand it anymore, and called Pete right then and there and told him I'd buy his Bus.
The interior is in great shape. A few nicks and scratches, and the table is missing. But the carpet is perfect, the canvas is almost perfect (couple of small tears near the top, and the zippers need to be resewn), and there is almost no rust (just some minor surface rust in a few spots). Underneath is rock-solid. This bus must have spent its entire life in California.
The engine has a couple of minor oil leaks, but they're the kind you expect on an engine of that vintage. It drives really well, idles nicely, etc.
Here are some photos I took the day I drove it home.