Post by vwkarl on Feb 16, 2015 8:48:44 GMT -8
I bought my DC back in 94 or so from a little old man in Maple Bay who truly LOVED it. As the story goes.... In 1970 Mac Blo "logging" bought 3 of them and used them for crummies . This was one of them. It was purchased at Speedway in Victoria and also serviced there as my warranty book says so. After 17000 miles they sold it back to Speedway and that is where the fella I purchased it from bought it in 1971. He used it to transport his kids all over to hockey and scouts and stuff. He had it repainted once also at a body shop in Duncan "crappy job" they used galv. flashing for patch panels and gobs of bondo. He was very reluctant to sell it because he was so attached to it. He also was the fire chief in Maple Bay for a time so when he went there it just blended in he said. It was time for another new paint job as the rockers on both sides were lifting up sort of like wings were forming . So he drove it around for quotes. He was getting $10000 quotes. So he made the decision to sell. At the time you could get a decent westy for about $1000 – 2000. So at $1900 I doled it out knowing one day this thing would at least double or triple my initial lay out of cash. But I had to have it anyways as they were cool with not many around and a 1 ton to boot. Oh ya it had 104000 on the clock. He said he couldn’t drive it as much as he wanted to in the last several years as the water from the roads were getting in all over. So with a handshake and a promise to show him it all fixed up we were off. Could swear he had tears streaming down his cheeks as I drove off. I didn’t get around to restoring it til about ’98 or ’99 as I had other priorities. Like building a 24’ boat and restoring a 65 kombi for my sons first vehicle and…. Now it was my turn. Had all the pieces waiting to weld in for years , inners outers jack points… basically everything 10 inches up . Took me about 2 months of weekends and evenings after work to do it. In the ‘90s you could get the birth certificate from VW if you wrote them so having done that and finding NO paint code?? Figured it came over in primer then to a paint shop for Mac Blo red. So I took a piece of cut off panel to a paint supply place and got the paint matched perfectly . And this was before the fancy computer matching thingy’s !!!
So after painting it in my garage and reupholstering the front seat and a new windshield I was on a mission to go back to Maple bay to show it off as promised. Well as soon as I drove up the drive way the tears were flowing again from this much older guy. Let him take it for a test drive and he was very happy with a grin from ear to ear the whole time. Then the big question is it for sale? No sorry. Turns out his wife told me that since he sold it to me he never stopped looking for another one to replace it.
Unfortunately I have only one picture of the restore
