At 4:15 PM 9/26/96, Joel Walker wrote:
>on a camping trip to Mammoth Lakes, CA, i ran into this older fellow who
>said he and his wife were wanting to sell their vw's. they live in Bishop,
>CA.
>
>1972 Bus, 7-passenger,
>     Sierra Yellow/White top, extremely good body condition (the ONLY
>     detraction was the sand pitting on the front "face"). all the glass,
>     rubber, chrome, etc. is in excellent shape. even the interior, seats,
>     rubber mats, and especially the headliner are in almost showroom
>     condition. the bus looks no more than a year or two old.
>     124,000 miles. factory rebuilt engine (20,000 miles ago). owner's
>     manual and a little vw owner-fixit manual that i'd never seen before.
>     original dual carbs, oil bath air filter. good wheels and tires.
>     i did NOT drive the bus, so i can't say how it ran or stopped. but if
>     any of you know the Mammoth Lakes area, he made it down to and back
>     out of the Devil's Postpile area. :)

I saw this bus too, and talked to the owner at length about it.

Positives:

Not a spot of rust.  All floors have perfect, shiny off-white paint.
Roof is also perfect - was always garaged.
Upholstery flawless
Headliner flawless
Comes with an extra set of Solex carbs

Negatives:

It's not a camper
Small scrape/dent on right rear about 4" square
Some loose wiring under the dash (no big deal)
Heavily pockmarked paint on the nose of the bus
Engine running rough - won't idle
Engine and tranny wet with oil and caked with dirt on bottom.

The negatives are probably all minor, except the first one.  With a little
TLC, this could be one heck of a show-winning bus!  I don't know exactly
how much he is asking, but I got the impression the asking price would be
considerably less than that of one now-notorious 74/75 Camper.

Oh, I have to put in my two cents about an $800 brake job.  That is an
incredible amount of money, even if you had to replace everything.  Rotors
are $100/pair brand new, pads $20.  I've heard of people paying $300 for a
full brake job and I thought that was horrible.  $800 just blows my mind!
Even if I couldn't do the work myself, I'd shop around a little before
paying that kind of $$.  Ouch.  As for the $2800 (I think) engine, that's
not too far out of line, assuming it was installed for that price.  Not
cheap, but not too far above retail.

-David

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David Schwarze                   '73 VW Safare Custom Camper       (Da Boat)
Dallas, Texas, USA               '73 Capri GT 2800                (Da Beast)
e-mail: ddes@anet-dfw.com        '87 Mustang Lx 5.0          (13.986@100.81)
or:     des@eskimo.com           '93 Weber WG-50                  (Da Piano)
http://www.anet-dfw.com/~ddes    '95, '96, '96 cats        (Aackkk! Phhttt!)
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