Howdy from Louisiana, USA

[aircoolerej]

I'm EJ and I'm a member of the Aircoolers VW Gang (http://www.aircoolers.org).

I had a '71 Westy, "Freakshow"

....and now am working on a '70 tin top shell.

I have nothing but maaaaaaaaad respect for you guys and all the metalwork you have to do in the UK. I've been through the pics in the gallery waiting for sign-on rights and .....well .....You guys rock!

I'll be stripping the '70 as a casual deal over the next year or so and doing a lowered 1/2 camper kind of thing for cruising to camps and general Tom-Foolery.

Glad to see this site and I'm looking forward to learning alot from you folks and what you do!

-EJ

 

[Snakey]

Hello EJ and welcome..
I assume you sold 'Freakshow' (mad paint by the way!)
Is that a pucker bay bus tow frame leaning up against the resto project :?:

 

[aircoolerej]

Nope, Snakey, that's a garden variety regular old Bug towbar.

I gave Freakshow to a fellow Aircooler whose niece got her license. We hook each other up all the time. He gave me the tin top (a description I've picked up on this site) as a partial thank you. I'm torn between full seating and camper interior.....

You don't see too many non-campered early Bays anymore.

But campers are fun.

But full seating and electronic gadgets are cool.

I'm conflicted.

Wife has a '78 Super convertible to ease the pain of not driving a Bus for now.

It's 6:16PM here, so I'm off to the monthly Aircoolers meeting!

 

[Snakey]

Go for the camper dude!
The minute you transform back to an 8 seater microbus you'll be ferrying all your buddy's to the pub :!: :!: :!:

Oh and don't drink too much at the meeeting :wink:

 

[Shaggy]

I have a none camper tintop, the amount of space is amazing, throw in a few bean bags pillows a litttle camping stove and you can still camp for just crash out of an evening, but what ever you do it will ROCK! cause I don't think you can ever do wrong with a type 2

 

[JohnS]

Welcome EJ - it's good to have a coonass on board. Having spent Mardi Gras day in Mamou a few years back they made me an honorary coonass and I've got the sticker to prove it (see top left).....

 

[Scampi]

Welcome to the site/forum!

Hope you enjoy your time here and loving the buses! :wink:

 

[Araon]

Welcome fella, looking forward to seeing the progress!

Go the contemporary seated version, a cool chill zone with somewhere to crash for a night.

What way you going for the paint on this one?

 

[aircoolerej]

Thanx for the kind words, folks!

I'm about as coon-ass as you, JohnS! I'm what they call a Yankee-with-a-U-Haul. I'm originally from New Jersey on the east coast. You have the sticker, though.... YOU WIN! :lol:

The paint will probably be some derivative of psychedelic colors with bubbles, etc. I love the whole '60's-'70's hippy thing as that's my childhood memory range. Born in '64. Kids loved Freakshow! Going to cover the interior panels in goofy fabric and do the seats in loud primary colors or viney-looking tapestry material.

Groooooovy, baby!

 

[TexasAirCooler]

Hello EJ.

Welcome to a great site.
Your right about the sheet metal work these guys do. I was thinking about junking my '68 bay till i started going through the refab threads on this site. I have to take my hat off to them.

Good to see another Aircooler Gang member here. See ya around.

 

[JohnS]

I'm what they call a Yankee-with-a-U-Haul. I'm originally from New Jersey on the east coast.

I bet you have to keep that quiet down there in the bayou. Guess I was fooled by the purple shirt - thought you had to be a genuine cajun to wear that.

 

[aircoolerej]

The purple shirt was a BRAC Attack III show shirt produced by the shop (Moberly's Foreign Car Repair in Baton Rouge) that lets us hold our shows there. We hold 2 free shows per year, a BRAC Attack in April and a Bug Ruckus in November. BRAC Attack V was awesome and Bug Ruckus V should be just as fun! In addition to our own shirts, the shop makes thiers with thier logo on front and I wore that one that day out of respect for Ken Moberly, a 40 year Wolfsburg trained VW mechanic and all around good man.

 

[easy]

Hello mate and welcome, nice looking tintop project there, looking forward to seeing the pics 8)

 

[aircoolerej]

Got a complete set of seats for BRACula yesterday. Full width black rear, 3/4 width black middle and highback black fronts with headrests. Small blems except for driver's seat which'll take a reskin on the side. Boohoo, it was all free.

I already had a full tan rear and full width black middle, so other than the seat clamps (where I'm going to have to bend over and take it in the wallet sans lube) I've got the pieces for a passenger interior. Best deal I've seen on the seat hardware is TheSamba where a guy wants $14/each.

Oh, and I now have 2 perfect dash assemblies (except for thin metal strip that screws on at window base) for this Bus and mine was good to begin with! :lol: LHD, of course. Queue to the rear, mates.

Now looking for the camper cabinet and bed.....

Question:

Due to availability, I'll end up running 15" smoothies on the rear and 14" Bus smoothies on the front. Anyone run into problems with this setup they'd like to warn me about? Currently stock height and intend to someday drop 2" with spindles.

Next up:
Aftermarket front seats were used last and the mount strips for the original seats were ground off. For expediency's sake, I intend to cut the wheel tub tops out and replace them with tubs from another bus that has the stock seat rails. Alot of welding, but I'm afraid I'd never get the darned rails positioned right.... and where do you find rails, anyway without a bus already welded to them? :roll:

Cheers from the land of 3.2 beers.

 

[aircoolerej]

BEETLEWARRIOR!!

Dang, man, how did I miss that post?!

How is you at, brutha? You needin' anything? If I ain't got it, I can scrounge it (or it don't exist).

I'm learning all new terms for everything on this board and lovin' the work they do. Humbles me right out on the stuff I can do.

Check this: I have a '70 tin top in good nick. :wink:

LOV'N IT!

And thier beer is more beer-y than ours, too! Bummer.

Granted, we do have some right tasty whiskeys over here if you know the right roads to drive at night. :twisted:

(Pre-empt the admins note: Please take all flame-the-Yank comparison posts to a purpose built thread and I'll stop high-jacking my own project thread from now on.....deal?) :lol:

 

[aircoolerej]

My stash of freebie seats. I'd rather have the lowbacks for the front, but I think I'll get used to the whole headrest thing. The glass on the middle seat are both rear sides to get rid of the vent window and nasty purple tint.

One of our "gang" members has a '71 camper in a warehouse he's wanting to do as a passenger Bus, so he's giving me all the camper goodies if I take them out for him.

Dang! :shock:

 

[aircoolerej]

Got the hubs unstuck and scrounged some 15" Beetle rims for rolling it around for bodywork:

This is how it looked back in 1998!

Been collecting alot of DA sander equipment and wire wheel goodies and am about to attack the roof section and rain rail. Slow going as the job, family and life in general all fight for attention. Well, that and I've screwed together 2 motorcycles since my last post!

 

[Araon]

interesting tail pipe in 98......

 

[super-craig]

welcome to a fellow motard rider 8)

 

[aircoolerej]

welcome to a fellow motard rider 8)

Shhhhhhhhhhh.... Everyone will want one. Let's just leave it at the one-wheel salute!