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What I loved was the trill of automatic lane changes with a side gust o a windy day.They had what we called 470 air conditoning with all windows rooled down. Of course that require the mpetal to the metal as they said.Also be sure to have the vaslve adjusted every 3000 miles or so.
I agree - I got the valves adjusted every time I brought the car in to get the Oil changed. If you get a VW, I highly recommend GT precision motors in Massapequa for any kind of Mechanical work you dont want to do yourself.
We've had several buses - currently a 72 (known as one of the prone to rustiest years)... stick shift. We had a 76 automatic. trust me, you do NOT want an automatic. They were slower - which is saying something. Go on "the samba" for VW bus questions. They rarely had air, again, you likely wouldn't want it, because it slows it down. You need a camper bus, so you can sleep in it. Ours has an icebox, but some had refrigerators. sweeet.
They sway in the wind, but you can get sway bars I guess. YOu also have different maintenance issues like doing the valve seals. And bus parts aren't cheap. There are Internet sites that sell the parts though. It is not like the beetles where they made millions of them. Hopefully you know how to turn a wrench yourself.
Good luck, I suggest going to a VW car show, there are always some for sale.
I had a blue and white 72,in about 77,78.Bought a set of new camper curtains at vw and i had a rolling apartment on the road.Drove it about 35,000 miles.Down to florida and all over the northeast. Came up from florida through a big snow storm,afraid to stop.I sold the roof rack for gas money before i left.Luckily i had my northeast parka with a hat on and the hood up.I stuffed some blankets up near the front wall to avoid frostbite in my feet.Got lost in a circle around dc.Going through the gears to keep going sometimes in second on 95n,down to 30 mph.Betsy brought us home.I was young and fearless then.I wouldn't trade the memories for anything.
72 type 2 1.7 dual carb engine. Nice when new but a piece of crap to work on when it came to repairs. VW shortened the stroke to get more power on the bottom end and the linkeage became hard to adjust after wear and the carbs were a bear to adjust. As a mechanic hated to work on them.
The 1.8 and 2.0 were no different with the carbs or Fuel Inj. Add the Auto tranny and more headaches.
There short lived life span tells all.
Later on VW in Mexico did put in a Rabbit inline engine inside that made them more powerful. Had a chance for a VIP tour of the VW plant and saw the assembly line.
I was one of the very few people in the after mkt VW trade to see the production line in it's entirety.
Look what happens when Chip Foose gets ahold of one-
And my favorite feature- the ventilating windshield!
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