Author Topic: 1979 Green Kombi Project (latest bus!)  (Read 2855 times)

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Offline kinggeorge13

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1979 Green Kombi Project (latest bus!)
« on: July 12, 2016, 08:20:26 AM »
So picked up this bus around 2 weeks ago.   Some of you may be thinking WTH George, you have enough, quit taking them!    Well, I only have 5 and they are sooooo cute!  Who the heck can resist?  This latest one, a dark green 1979 Kombi Transporter with the two rows of passenger seats in the back.   Whereas my other Kombi has only a headliner over the front two seats and bare tin everywhere in the back, this one has a headliner that covers the entire front to back ceiling as well as panelled walls inside.   

The good?   First off I was luckily working from home (Langley) the day this appeared on Craigslist and the owner amazingly lived only 5 blocks away and I was quick on the response and getting over there.    The gentlemen still had his German accent and had just retired after 40 years as a VW mechanic in Langley and had owned this particular bus for the past 20 years and used it as his daily driver.   It runs really nice but does need the typical oil leaking area such as the valve covers dealt with.    Inside is nice and clean and the two rows of back seats are in great condition.  He had turned the front row around so the seats face each other which is kinda cool but no seatbelts for that row now........   But it runs and I drove it home.    That very day was my younger daughters Grade 12 Graduation and I arrived at her outdoor photo session with her friends outside and we ended up using the bus for a prop for some of the pictures and I then drove her to her grade 12 Dry Grad party in the bus.   Maybe not quite the same as showing up in a huge stretch limo but it still made a great impression!   

The bad?   Rusty bones.   Sadly this is not one of the lucky busses who got undercoating.    The body panels have lots of rust in the usual places and the gentleman who owned it spent some significant effort and time riveting on tin panels over the rusty areas which looks kinda cool in a not-so-great way but does nothing to slow down the rust progression.   Those will have to go and we will redo the body panels.    Rockers.........gone:  no surprise there.   The bottom rail for the door is in pretty good shape but needs all the rocker parts/support replaced and welded in.    The two main longitudinal beams seem not too too bad but the rear axle mount on the left side has major rust hole damage and will need attention sooner than later before it decides to just let go and cause me a real exciting day.....   Like I mentioned above it needs the oil leaks dealt with at least with the valve covers.   

One other interesting change he made was he removed the entire heater fan assembly from the engine compartment and put a "puller" fan in the front under the bus to pull the air from the heater boxes which he was certain made it more efficient.   We shall see.   The reality is until I get the oil leaks fixed, no heated air from the heater boxes is wanted inside the bus, if you know what I mean!
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: 1979 Green Kombi Project (latest bus!)
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2016, 09:27:23 AM »
So here is something I have not done since I was a teenager (in Ontario) nearly 40 years ago...   We took this bus to an outdoor Drive-In movie last night.  Just for something to do as a change.  We had Oliver (kids named him Oliver cuz he's medium-dark green) on the road yesterday from Fort Langley out to UBC and back and was so much fun driving him around, we decided to go to the Drive-In theatre on Fraser Highway (Twilight Drive-In).   I've never been there before but I was pleasantly surprised.  It's well set up and clean and the concession stand was modern, well-stocked, the food was good and lots of variety.  Much better than I expected.   Clean washrooms.  Three movies for a reasonable admission price and opportunity to head out (or come in) between each movie.  We didn't last to the third movie that started after midnight.   We were the only VW bus there but I can say we got a lot of looks and the bus looked pretty cool sitting there like many used to do  back in the day.   I should have taken a picture but didn't think until it was already too dark.  Tons of people with kids.  They come in cars, minivans, trucks (and one bus).   They back up their minivans or trucks and out come blankets, lawn chairs and it's a giant good time for the family.   

Remember the old days of having a bad-sounding metal speaker that you hung on inside of window?   These days they broadcast the movie on two different FM frequencies so you can listen to it nice and clear with great sound on your FM radio.   Oh yeah.....if you are like us with an old VW and no FM radio, bring a portable with you.  I brought my DeWalt charger/radio and it was plenty loud. 

Anyways, I thought I would share in case you have not taken your vintage VW wheels to a drive-in lately.  It was quite fun and we will likely do it again. 
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline kinggeorge13

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Re: 1979 Green Kombi Project (latest bus!)
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2017, 08:28:41 AM »
I have a Dodge Ram 1500 with a large box for carrying lots of stuff but I gotta say when the opportunity presents itself, I'd rather use one of my buses.   Just for fun here's a couple snaps of last weekend when we were moving a ton of stuff over to the house for a two day garage sale.  We thought it might take two trips but you really can pack in a lot of stuff.   
1975 Westy, Serenity
1975 Westy, Jack Sparrow
1979 Kombi, Pistachio
1979 Kombi, Oliver
1977 Tin top camper, Cosmos
1974 Westy, Garfield
1973 Tin top camper, Bart (now thinking he's 1976)
1974 gutted Riviera, Casper
1975 Westy, Stella
1979 Super Beetle, Penelope
1967 Fastback, Green Hornet

Offline Jeremy59

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Re: 1979 Green Kombi Project (latest bus!)
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2017, 11:14:53 AM »
Impressive!