The Caravan
Posted by david dagoli on April 16, 2021, 4:59 pm
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Posted by RickF on April 16, 2021, 7:44 pm, in reply to "The Caravan"-----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Vicki Mercer on April 16, 2021, 7:49 pm, in reply to "Re: The Caravan"
My guess is this year, if not today. | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Benito on April 18, 2021, 10:47 pm, in reply to "Re: The Caravan"
if you look closely at the license plate, pretty recent
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Posted by Grant on April 16, 2021, 7:58 pm, in reply to "The Caravan"
The oddest one of the bunch is the white van....I’m guessing 1971. I had one identical (round air scoop for engine) One of the best vehicles I ever owned..bought brand new | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Penny M on April 17, 2021, 11:56 am, in reply to "The Caravan"
We started our van travels in a 71 also - not new- Called it our ' Little Red Bread Box ' as it had a white raised roof. Loved it! So many nemories! | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by CraigB on April 18, 2021, 11:05 am, in reply to "Re: The Caravan"
This story begins in Athens Ohio. My first wife Jane and I were studying for final exams at Ohio University. Jane majoring Art History, me English Literature. At the same time we were preparing for our escape from Ohio to California. My preparation was converting a VW van into a camper van by installing a folding bed, shelves, cooler, and most importantly rebuilding the engine. Spread across the living room floor of our small house were the parts from the completely disassembled VW motor. I would lay dreaming of sonnets and cylinder heads. Just days after exams, I assembled and installed the motor, poured in three quarts of 30 weight, Valvoline Racing Oil, started it up, set the dwell and timing and we were off to California or bust. I had loaded what I thought were essentials; my toolbox, a nice 16 gauge, side by side Grouse gun, and a couple of fishing rods. Jane had boxes of very heavy Art books. I slightly protested to no avail thinking of the climb over the Rockies with our as yet untested, 50 horsepower four cylinder. It was a time of innocence and freedom. I am driving across America with a beautiful girlfriend, the smell of Patchouli and Michoacan filling the cabin. The plains went by filled with native grasses, Hungarian Partridge, Pheasants, and Sharptail Grouse. I am thinking to myself, I will be back for the birds. Then came the Rockies. As we climbed steadily, we began to see other VW buses along the road broken down like Conestoga wagons gone"bust". VW engines had a serious design flaw. They were air cooled and the internal oil cooler blocked air flow to number three cylinder. As a result, under heavy load and high temps at best the exhaust valve in number three would burn leading to no compression, at worst the number three cylinder would throw a rod. The ones with thrown rods had pools of oil running out behind. Having been brought up modifying motors I knew the solution was to remove the internal cooler and plumb in an external one on the rear side of the bus in clean air. As we climbed and climbed I watched the temp gauge stay in the green, looking out my side view mirror at the oil cooler passively doing its job. At least to get her to California, Jane instinctively chose wisely in a mate with certain skill sets. | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Lynne W on April 18, 2021, 4:02 pm, in reply to "Re: The Caravan"
I like stories about people in Ohio (I'm from Cleveland) who set out to have adventures. In my case, I never had a VW van, but I learned to drive a stick shift in a friend's VW bug in the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, Colorado. I got so good at it that a trucking company hired me and a male friend to drive an 18-wheeler from Denver to LA, and later I delivered specially ordered VWs to customers across Germany via the no speed limit autobahns. (It's a good thing that none of these vehicles ever broke down because I didn't have a Craig to fix them.) Even later, my own first car was a Karmann Ghia convertible, which I drove until it died of old age. Those were the days! | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Dennis F on April 18, 2021, 12:41 pm, in reply to "The Caravan"
I too, like so many have a VW past, and present. I had 2 '71 type 2. My Westfalia was a hard top...darn! But I used to take it all over the SW'st US on the craziest roads, some of which were really staircases. I remember on one very rough road watching my speedometer rotate in it's case from the sever vibration. Once, on "the loneliest road in america" hwy 50 my points broke. Fortunately I had a spare one and a feeler gauge and was back on the road in 20 minutes. My other '71 was a double cab pickup. that turned out to be a collecters item. Only 500 imported to the US and the last year for that model. It was my work truck for 13 years (I bought it in the late 80's from a gringo friend I knew from Barra) was kind of beat up and sold it for double what I paid. This morning we're leaving for eastern WA in our '85 Westfalia that I just re-wired the engine compartment harness. Interesting that in the caravan only one pop-top. | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Stephanie on April 18, 2021, 3:08 pm, in reply to "Re: The Caravan"
Loving this communication on vw vans! I too had a 78 Westphalia with pop top! Richard and I bought the body for $500 without an engine and he proceeded to put a more powerful engine in and completely rebuilt the whole system! Genius! But cannot remember what the engine was! Damn! What I do remember is all the fun we had taking it all over the place and then driving her to LM when we finally came back for 6months in 2002! She made many trips back and forth with dog and cats and books to start the bookstore in 2004! She was well loved and well travelled but I so.d her after Richard’s passing to someone who understood the specific needs of maintaining her! Which I could not explain! I know where and who she is with and have been offered to take her out whenever...and this might just get me to do it when I return to the North! So thanks for the sweet memories and those of others who lucky enough to own one! | -----------------------Re: The Caravan
Posted by Lars on April 19, 2021, 9:26 am, in reply to "Re: The Caravan"
You know, I used to always have a spare set of points, went thru many Vdub's, always set the points with a match book cover which always worked great, wish I still had that 61 Karmann Ghia convertible, one of my favorites! | -----------------------
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