'74 Bus [13.9k]

Ok, now this was a bad idea on my part. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with this relic, but it was a hazard. I bought this thing knowing full well that VW's are known for not having heat. No problem, I can handle that, I had an upright kerosene heater that I used a bungee cord to hold it's handle to one of the camper cross members so it wouldn't fall over. The first component on the bus to actually fail was the ignition switch. I took it out and put in a toggle switch (for the on/off) and a push-button (to activate the starter-relay). If that wasn't a bad enough idea, then the turn-signals stopped working. The lights would come on, but they wouldn't flash. My solution, flash them by hand (one hand devoted to moving the turn-signal switch back and fourth). Then the muffler went out and one of the local sheriffs was nice enough to not give me a ticket as I promised to get it repaired. Then about a week later, I have a bus load of people in it and the same officer pulls me over again. I hadn't fixed the muffler yet because I had to order it and had just picked it up that morning. I had it in the bus so he let me off on that again but was nice enough to point out that I now had no brake lights. The tail lights still worked but when the brakes were applied, no lights. The Michigan winters had taken their toll on the master cylinder and the break-light switch in it and it no longer functioned. In my investigating I found that the switch took the 12-volts and dropped it to ground and when I did this manually the lights would come on. My solution, run wire up with a stripped end and when I wanted brake lights, touch the bare end to the metal of the dash (another bad idea). Oh yeah, and like most VW's, it was a stick. So picture this, coming up to a stop where I want to turn. Left foot on the clutch, right foot on the brake, left hand holding the wire on the dash for brake lights and also moving the turn-signal back and fourth for turn markers and my right hand down-shifting so I could be in the proper gear when I got to the corner.

Around x-mas time 1995 (about two weeks after I totaled the Corvette) I was at a friend house and we were going to make a run to the store. While trying to start the bus it had a backfire through the carburetors and caught fire. The design of the VW bus engine compartment was such that getting water to the fire was extremely difficult. Keep in mind that it was December in Michigan and everyone had taken their garden hoses in for the winter. We threw bowels of water at it until it went out but by then the engine and electrical was a total loss. I had it hauled off to the scrap yard shortly thereafter.
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