The Egotrip bus: slammed Nov 69 Kombi

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EgoTrippin

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I've been threatening to do this for a while, and now I have owned the bus for 5 years, I thought it would be a good time to start a thread on my bus :)

After stumbling across Brighton Breeze in 2005, I got totally hooked on Volkswagens, going to every show I could (usually on public transport!) and getting every mag I could lay my hands on. Finally in 2007, I got the money together for a bus and the search was on!
I kept coming back to an advert on the Roadhouse Retro website for a neptune blue 1970 Kombi. After chatting with Tim, I went up to view it once it had arrived in the country from California. It was in better condition than either of us expected :)

Photo from California
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and some of Tim's first photos of it when it arrived in the UK
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The bus left the factory in November 1969, and was shipped to California where it was bought from the Wes Behel VW dealership in Sunnyvale by Mr Keiter of Vacaville, California. Apparently the engine caught fire on a cross country trip to show off there new baby son to the rest of the family. After many years, the bus was handed down to Jason (the son) who used it for trips to Lake Tahoe to windsurf and fly radio controlled aircraft. The bus still has the 'Academy of Model Aeronautics' sticker in the rear window. There was also a rack fixed inside the bus for the windsurf boards.

The bus has a great patina to the roof, and also the drivers door where Jason and his dad lent their arm out of the window whilst driving.
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There is a dent by the right front indicator which came from a deer strike!

After agreeing to buy the bus from Tim, we both agreed it needed to be dropped (by a long way), so I left the bus with Tim for the slam job.
This was one of the first bay windows in the UK to be running a king & link pin set up, using a 2" narrowed CB performance beam with drop spindles and notches to the chassis. The rear was dropped by 2 splines on the existing springplates (no adjustable spring plates were available back then for 1970 buses).
For wheels, I went with JGE Torkers as no one else was running these wheels on a bay, and I prefer the 5 spoke look. Tyres are 185/60 on the rear, and 175/50 up front.
Work in progress...
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This is how the bus looked when I collected it. To say I was pleased would be a massive understatement!

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First thing to do in it was to drive it from Stamford in Lincolnshire to Newquay for the RTTS weekend :shock:

I made it! And managed to pick up a rough Westy interior, which I installed with the help of the vendor on a street in Cornwall somewhere...
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The classic 'Watergate Bay' shot from that first trip..
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The rest of 2007 was spent getting to as many shows as I could..

Deva 07
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Bus Barn open day 07
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with the fresh on the road Speedmaster bus...
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Peppercorn 07
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BVF 07
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Down the Gower peninsula
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With Grazy at Beachbuggin 07
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and Vanfest 07 (Grazy ridin' high!)
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VW Action 07
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Brighton Breeze 07
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Autumn 2007, and I was lucky enough to score a genuine VWOA roof rack from Mark at the Bus Station..

Meeting up to collect it, with Mark's lovely 68..
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and fitted.....
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Parked up at the first (and only) Earlybay camp-out in Northamptonshire..
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and catching the last of the winter sun, Seaford..
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2008, and time to start getting the bus ready for the Volksworld show.

First up, a trip back up to Stamford for a gearbox conversion. I scored a 1302 box from Slammedkustom, which Tim fitted with one of his conversion kits...
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man it was cold!
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Then it was on to the interior. The westy interior I had was rough, and with no headlining and only hardboard panels in the rear it wasn't the prettiest or that comfy!
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so out it came, and the only place it could go was in my flat :shock:
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All the ply panels had to be varnished in my flat, so the flat reeked of yacht varnish for 6 weeks! This was all done without any templates (as they were not available back then). I sourced the aluminium trims from Gooding Aluminium after much research. These are a very close match in size and form to the westy headlining trims.
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Scratch-built ply hinge cover, made with no templates..
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and all fitted up, with re-upholstered seats (style and thickness to match the original Westy upholstery, but in a shade to match the existing front seats..
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All this work was done in my flat and out on the street....
 
Time to get rid of that plastic badge, so I got hold of a steel badge, stripped the paint, left if to rust in a damp bathroom for a week, then sprayed it lightly in white, then left it in the bathroom again for a week with salt on to let the rust come through the paint. The only bit of faux patina on the bus.
Looking much better...

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I also managed to get a set of over-riders ready in time for the show...
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Whilst at Volksworld 08, James Peene asked me if I would like a feature on my bus in Camper & Bus. Er, yes please!

On the search for a photoshoot location, I spotted Re-val in his 72 crossover Neptune blue crew cab..
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This looks like a good spot, by the power station in Shoreham...
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and some shots from the final photoshoot...
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The feature came out in the August 2008 issue of C&B, super stoked!
 
2008 saw my first trip to Europe, with Clem and Wally for EBI2

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Peppercorn with the earlybay crew...
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Cornwall Jamboree..
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Ooro..
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a rare sunny moment..
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and a wet Vanfest 08 with the freshly completed Deluxe Dry cleaners PV...
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and with Faux...
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and Evil Ben..
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earlybay camping...
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2009 and an increase in power was needed..

A brief flirtation with a 1776 started like this (yes thats oil everywhere!)
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and managed to make it to Ninove..
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and 500 miles later ended like this :cry:
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Rod bolt came loose, wrecking the case, barrels and pistons, cam followers, rods, crank etc.

So back in with the trust 1600sp..
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and back on the road for Big Bang..
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Nice pics , nice story and journey

Very cool bus :msn4:


Chris
 
this bus along with "easy's,grazy's,faux's and the speedmaster bus" really caught my eye
a few years ago stance wise and made me want to go down the earlybay route 8)
 
Cheers lads :) Plenty more to come...

2009 saw more trips to Europe..

Ninove
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Holiday including BBT, Hessisch Oldendorf, then on to Kassel, Koblenz, Luxembourg and Chimay for EBI3.

Rolling in to BBT
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Camping on the bank of the Rhine in Koblenz
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Then later in the year it was a first trip to the awesome Le Bug Show at Spa. An unmissable show...
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The bus just keeps on truckin'...
 
A trip to Swanage resulted in another trip home on the back of the AA truck (with the same driver as when my engine blew up!), this time due to a fuel pump diaphram failing, which meant the case being half full of petrol.
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Over the winter of 09/10, it was time to upgrade a few things.
New CSP 14" disc brakes were fitted to the front, the king & link pins replaced, and the pitman arm changed for a late split one so I can finally get full left lock! All fitted by Radish on here, supervised by me ;)
Also fitted 165/50 tyres to the front to get the front end down a bit more.

Then it was off to Ninove for the Earlybay Extravaganza!
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