I bought my first type II in St Paul in the fall of 1970, and it's the only one that I don't still have! I learned all about dropped valves, roadside rebuilds, makin' sure to have enough hitchhikers aboard to push to a shady spot--the basic transporter survival facts--on that G-case engine living in her and travelin' around the west, so, when 235049172 presented herself in Colorado a year or two later, the G went in her engine room (and the transaxle, front end, windows, seats in as cargo, you get the picture) and we rolled on in a classy rust-free Idaho body. Finding myself back in Minnesota one fall, I couldn't bear to expose 172 to the salt, so 710701 joined the fleet. Knowing that VW had wisely ditched the morphodite G series only made me more stubborn I guess, or perhaps it was euphoria at having four jugs of the same diameter on her, but ol' G went into 701. 'Course, by then I was in the habit of carrying a complete short block under the bed in back to save splitting the case to fetch that one reluctant lost piece of #3 valve. She was/is a stout old truck: towed most of the other vehicles on this page home at one time or another.

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The red beauty above is a 1954 that I found sitting behind a shop in Royalton Mn around 1975. Towed it on a short rope with a tire hung on the front bumper--no brakes, natch--and my courageous GF steering the 300 miles back to the farm. It has semiphore turn signals, 16" wheels, the original engine, and a lot of potential (read: big project, but worth the work).

Below is another gadzillion windowed deluxe sunroof, I bought it from the original owner and enjoyed many smilin' miles in her. All original.

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The blue busses 493 and 765 have more nebulous histories, but they, too, were my daily drivers for awhile. Finally, #983 belonged to my good friend Josh when he was growing up and is, of course, responsible for his volksmasochism. When it got crashed he naturaly towed it 200 miles (can't remember if he used the short rope) so that it could spend it's remaining years with its peers.

In 1982, my interests turned to old Mercedes-Benzes of the 1950s and so all of these busses have been retired since then, waiting patiently for that long-promised restoration to begin. I have finally accepted that I'm not going to restore them and am ready to let someone else give them a good home.