Hi There,

Thought I would finally write a few lines to all you folks to say a big thanks to all the committee that obviously work so hard for the club. I always feel so guilty for not getting more involved, however my work takes a lot of my time (50hrs + in a good week) and subsequently leaves little time for my wife, let alone my bus! I hope you all get to read this letter and know, without your efforts there would be no club. Every time I get my copy of wheelspin the day is lifted, CHEERS.

This letter has been prompted by an invitation to look at the forum from an email. I went to the club website and thought I would leave some pics of my bus to join all the others I found. The note at the top of the screen said leave a few details, so this is it, this is my bus.

It's a 1971 Bay Window. The bus went through a complete bare metal resto, thankfully the majority of the body work was in very good order. The sills as far as I know are still the originals and are as solid as a rock as is the rest of the underside. The body was repainted Old English White (A Rover colour) and an odd shade of blue/ grey/ lilac (make of that , what you will). It was actually supposed to be more grey (well it looked like that on the paint chart and in the tin) but when my wife and I saw the bus for the first time we loved the colour (apparently the new Renault’s use a similar shade). Dave, Tim (at Airwerx, who did all the work) and Angus (Who Painted the bus) where much relieved, I'm not sure they liked the colour as much as we did. The bumpers are NOS parts that have been chromed. The bus has also had a full set of opening 1/4 windows fitted. The screen is tinted at the top (in Blue). It is also Lowered, has up-rated Suspension (Roll Bars & Gas Shocks). And a set of Polished EMPI 5's (May change these soon if somebody makes me an offer?)

Inside things are a little slower (i.e. not finished) but what has been done so far is this. Front seats are from a BMW 7 Series and have been recovered by Bernard Newbury along with the front door cards. The seats have been mounted on the original VW sub frames and with a bit of welding have been adapted so that both front seats can slide. The Steering wheel was a leaving present from my last company and is made by Motalita. The dash is the really good bit and all credit must go to Dave at Airwerx for the hours he spent on it. The dash was almost all welded up! The round air vents at the side were reduced to accept a pair of tweeters and a full set of Auto Meter 'Ultralite' gauges were installed (Fuel, Volts, Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, Revs and Speedo). They look wicked at night with the red lamps. To replace the warning lamps I used tamper proof stainless steel units from RS (they have a huge selection). Finally to top it all off the gears are changed with a locking shifter from Gene Berg. The rest of the interior is pretty empty and is yet to be done.

In the back the bus is packing a later model box, this has a higher gear ratio. This is OK but does mean the engine gets a little hot under load, even though a deep sump and external filtering have been fitted. The engine is 1776cc that has been flowed with counterweighted and balanced crank, Engle 110 cam, mildly ported heads, electronic ignition and a phat pair of carbs (Webber twin 40's), all topped with a 65 Amp alternator. The exhaust is stainless steel from Auto Cavan. After hitting Santa Pod for Bug Jam this year I know this is a small engine for a bus, but it rocks me along pretty nicely. Ian at Wolfsburg Performance did all the engine work and did an excellent job.

So far it has cost more than a few quid to do my bus, in fact I stopped counting long ago and figured if I could not afford it I would just have to wait, which is why the bus has taken nearly 3 years to do. This bus is my only hobby (anorak) in my life and I don't spend much on anything else, so I will happily justify the time, effort and work I had to do to get this bus done. Most people would not put up with the hours I do at work, anyone fancy 10am start to 4am the next day! For a week! Anyone?

Sorry to get bitter at the end there but I had to have my say. I love all VW Buses, good or bad (anyone check the bus owned by Dean Bradley on the cover of 'Camper and Commercial', not perfect but who gives a s**t, that is one cool bus). It goes like this, I used to have a crap bus (owned 8 years and renovated myself and explored Europe in) and now I don't, I wanted something a bit more reliable and still have a bus. I moved on.

That's it. Enjoy the pics, thanks for listening.

Paul Bussey