Sharing the back story of my Green/White 1966 Bus.

The day I bought it. 9/26/2006
Bus was listed on Craigslist, and was nearly 2 hours away. When I called the seller, there was multiple interested parties. Ended up making a deposit via Paypal as I wasn't willing to drive 2 hours for an already sold bus. (In the end I ended up paying $500 more than the add price as people were trying to steal it out from under me).

Looks good right???

Issues; bad transaxle, poor brakes, electrical issues, no keys to anything but the ignition, no interior panels, rust through in the floor, missing the additional pop-out windows... and the entire interior, covered with mice nests. Mice in the headliner, in the seats, in the jack compartment, inside the heating system, under the headlight buckets...

Interestingly, the teacher I bought the bus from says he purchased it from the inventor of the spin on oil filter that goes beneath the stock oil cooler (who knows if its true). But the engine has the oil filter and an extra light in the engine compartment to "show it off." I remember seeing these in HotVW back in the day... Still running the original engine I got with the bus, keeps kicking, so why mess with it?

Oil filter right below the coil.

Tuned it up, fixed most of the electrical, and rolled it as is for a couple years. Here is a pic of the bus in motion 2008 CFTC.

2008-2010 I got down to work and made the bus what you have seen today.

My thoughts; I already had a show VW (bright yellow 65 bug, lowered...), I wanted to drive this one, take it camping, etc...

Step 1, fix the pop-outs and window seals. Here is my right up on "how to" on thesamba. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=310879

Step 2, interior. Ended up stripping all the previous interior to get rid of any residual mice issues (and the smell.) Tried lots of different cleaners, but in the end, the smell was eliminate with POR 15. Got a set of interior panels and headliner still in the box from Craigslist (initially I was going stock, but couldn't pass up the price). Sewfine was the manufacturer, same as my bug, and now my DCab.

Decided I wanted a fold out bed, so did a bunch of homework, and ended up writing up how to make one. Also on thesamba.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... highlight=
My wife made the covers, and I used from Ikea furniture scratch and dent corner.

Purchased front covers from Sewfine Added rear seat belts for the kiddos, and started going on trips/camping, etc... didn't get the headliner done for several months...

Interesting item found while fixing the front air vents... look up sales tax token for back story on these...

Headliner installed by a pro. Also covered the gauge pod and sunvisors.

Built a jump seat / child entertainment unit. Bay window table set up. Powered by a PS2, and a dual battery / inverter set up (also good for running Christmas lights...)

Scored an original HWE rack from another bus junkie...