Well this Ol'Hippy finally did it

[MadMike]

I bought a Bus ,I was minding my own biz sitting behind the 917 at a carshow and was approached by a another o' guy an asked 'u want to but a VW Van?' well the next day Matt(body/painter) and I went to take a peek to see if it's worth grabbing??? Well it was in good shape except for the rear corners are a bit rusted,PO sez it's a 71? but I think it's earlier(no title) :'(Maybe Bren,AJ/ somebody?can educate me ) Has upright motor,3rib Bus Trans ;)wide 5 drums,slide side door and a non plastic dash,does this help(ballpark)I.D. it? I forgot the camera ,Pic's will come when I get it home Thanks,Madmike

[MadMike]

Hey Volks,From what I'm told from thesamba guys it's an early Bay 8-)Pic's when I get it home tomorrow ;)I'll be lowering it forsure,back window stickers,like Deadhead/funny stuff,LOL,Might turbo it ()or at the least dual idf's

[bren]

Early bay is '68 - '71.
'71 was the first year for front disc brakes.
Not familiar enough to know the difference between the other early bays.

[blue71]

Lucky for you I'm a fountain of "worthless", according to school friends, early bay bus knowledge since I have all of them but a 1969

I've only seen US spec and tourist delivery spec early bay buses. They have the black mottled plastic covering foam dash like in the 68+ bugs. From what I've heard in the past, a bare metal dash shaped like the black ones is some sort of European spec option. An M code plate decoding site like www.vw-mplate.com/mcode.php will help you with that. It's riveted on the bulkhead behind the front seats and is painted.

The 3rd digit of VIN will tell you the year if you want to go the quick, simple way. That plate is behind the seat on the bulkhead as well, not painted like the M code plate is. Dash vin plates on the left lower corner can be unreliable due to dash swaps by folks.

Here are some identifying features:

68-70 is 5x205 drum, very early 68 is some sort of transition rear drum, more of a PITA to find than normal early bay drums. Also lots of 68 bits are one year only.

Push button lock front door handles = 68 only

Round reflectors on the doglegs and rear corners above bumpers = 68 and 69
Square reflectors in the same places with wiring going to rear ones = 70
Metal neck inside rearview mirror arm = 68
Plastic long neck rearview mirror arm = 69
Plastic short neck rearview mirror arm = 70


can't be a 71 as that is 5x112 narrow pattern with discs as already mentioned

As you probably already know from your monster engine building days, bus blocks have the tapped bosses for the mustache bar like T3 and universal cases do.

Jonce told me once you can get a title in MI with a VIN on a c0cktail napkin. I've done it for a bug through friends in college, so you shouldn't have too many problems.

[MadMike]

8-)Thanks Bren & Nick, heading out in an Hour to pick it up

[bren]

So, where are the pictures?

[MadMike]

[MadMike]

Attachment Deleted

Attachments:

[MadMike]

1970

[VDub63 ( Steven )]

Nice score.

[MadMike]

Is this called a 'walk threw'?

[MadMike]

Even before we loaded it Matt got stung by Hornets :' must be a 100 nests Thought of calling it 'Horny" but wife sez she'll divorce me so Fill-more might be the name I'll stick with

[MadMike]

Thanks,Steven,wait till u find out what I gave for it Looks like an aftermarket/reman. block no #'s 1600 DP, changing oil today and seeing if it fires up ;)he needs a front VW Emblem up front!!!!!! anyone have one to part with???LMK,Thanks

[gokart]

Cool. Now drop a 2332 w/48 IDA's in it and see what it will do. 8)

[MadMike]

What?? guess it has dual everthing,LOL