OK - so in honor of the 4th & because I remembered to take a pic when I went to the post office today - here is a real VW "Micro-Bus"!

IIRC - it originally when customized had a FAT Performance bored & stroked T-4 in it, but don't know if that is still the case.
.... plus I suffer from half-zymers & only remember half the shit half the time!

Those of you in Orange CA & Orange County may recognize it from the former "Plaza Muffler" shops in Old Towne Orange & Huntington Beach.

With the demise of the original shop's owner, it now "lives" on the NEC of Chapman & Lemon a couple of blocks west of the Plaza/Circle in Old Towne Orange. There is still a Plaza Muffler shop & Hoffman Radiator there on that corner, but the prior guys who ran Plaza Muffler there opened a new shop elsewhere in Orange - so there's some confusion/controversy there shop-wise.

It used to have their logo on the side of a cartoon version of itself with flames out the pipes, just below the shop name on the side (both shops are disputing that logo now).

Anyway - a fun eye-catching VW Mod to look at & see in any case!

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I guess you can only carry short boards in it!


Burn some animal flesh & have a Happy 4th All Y'all!

Here's another longer shot of it to give you a better idea of scale next to other compacts & a 70's Triumph Spitfire Roadster on the left, next to this sweet little black laquered, chopped & shortened 60's VW Panel Bus!

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there used to be a shortened v-8 here in the bay area years ago. looks like a simular year of my old 57' beater! we had this thing airborn daily as you can see. memories... about as old as this picture
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I hate seeing those things.

I had something completely different in mind Mike, when I first read "airborne" in the email notice!

The was a guy a couple of years ahead of me in HS in San Diego who came from a wealthy family, so his folks get him a brand spanking new `69 911S, which he wrecks the front end within about 6 months, so he gets an old `60+/- ~ 21 window bus & transplants the 180hp 911S motor/transaxle into it, leaves it with primer & rust on the body, & makes sport of dragging guys off the lights in his "sleeper" & popping wheelies (small ones) & laying rubber in the school parking lot everyday!

Why??

Here's the 914 equivalent!

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that too
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I love the real deal. When people cut them like that they all shed a little tear.

you have to remember alot of these were done long ago when they were plentiful and cheap. my 57' cost me a whoping $100 AND i overpaid

if it helps i do feel guilty about some butchering i did to some (now) rare or high cars. in reality that helped the survivers bring higher $.

Ohhhh - that `57 VW custom camper brings back other old memories buddy!
"If the van is rockin', don't come a knockin'!"

Paul, I understand what you mean.

I'm guessing half the guys on here have similarly cut their 914s & customized them into something non-original.

I've always looked at those who treated their 914's as "disposable Porsches" - as folks contributing to increasing the value of the ones left in original condition as either survivors or restored examples through attrition. So far it's worked, with upper end values growing from $6-8k in the 80's to high teens to twenties now for 2L 4's!

Same can be said for VW Buses or anything else out there.

Even though mine was my DD & only car for 10 years & PO/OO's 3 before that, I always took care of it & kept after the rust issues, until I had to store it after it got whacked in 85 a few years after a very expensive rolling resto 80-83. So it suffered from lack of attention since 85, but is getting the care now & will hopefully be a top resto when done.

Have a good 4th!

The one thing we disagree on, cuz I love them. I wouldn't do that to one, but I would love to get one already done for cheap

Interesting how exactly the same thing can be seen so differently. I had a 57 double door myself, and later a 59 Westy, but I'm of the "live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse" philosophy; don't hold back and don't die on your couch. Creation, not conservation. Further!

Manufacturers have to make so many compromises when they build cars, to please as large an audience (consumer base) as they can. I hate compromises. Add to that 914's weren't tech marvels even when they were new. I admire and appreciate people who keep them original, just like I enjoy visiting museums. But I sure wouldn't want to LIVE in a museum. I'm glad I've had fun with all those cars when they were cheap. And about me making your untouched examples more rare and valuable: You're welcome. But don't even think about it, I had fun. Still having it, in fact.

I love my bus, but it handles like a wet noodle, that thing is downright dangerous.

I won't put up with stock HP, I like custom, but I don't cut cars up. Shorty busses are cute to look at...as long as they are someone else's.

The difference between a hacked bus and a 914 is a 914 can be brought back. You cut the center section out of a bus and you are done. You can't go back. No one makes a center section to replace the one that you cut out.

Here's a "short bus" reunion

This is a local one owned by Wild Bill's Tattoo.

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I wouldn't mind rolling in this one.

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....and for those of you who hate to see shorty's, here is one on dubs so now you have two things to hate.

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Actually they do. In Brazil you can buy every panel, aftermarket. But it's still expensive so no one ever really goes back, and why would they? Wreck their cool shorty? Never! Like no one puts hacked 914 race cars back to stock... and why would they?

Here's better repair panels than brazil http://www.klassicfab.com/marcos.htm
Plus there's a lot of donors if you did want to put it back, but DB is right.

I love the stock vs mod debate, personally if I couldn't modify the engine in a 914 I'd buy a Vette.
If I couldn't modify the engine in my bus I would have some POS minivan.
If I couldn't modify and lower the bug I'm building I'd just buy a POS VW golf.

Damn....we own a POS golf and we're talking about getting a POS minivan

funny thing is, VW probably could have sold a shorter bus like these back int he day along side teh real deal.

very nicely executed they are.

yes once dime a dozen, I used to find old microbusses in teh dumps, teh juck yards all over just waiting for parts to be removed. now it would be a rare sight for any condition microbus to be found in my local wreckers. sad how they have gone

at least these shorties are being saved, well kept and loved by there owners and many admirers. chance are that some of these shortys would not be around today if they were not modifed into something specail. there specialness is probably what has kept them out of the
wreckers!

to bad the 914 is already a shorty, else we could do likewise. take out the middle and the car would have to be remote controled, no driver!

HUH!!?? Did you miss my post above??

Redux just for YOU!

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.

Here's my wife's DD & the family trip car - 200,000+ 1 owner 88 Westy with mostly original paint, BUT the next motor rebuild will be a GoWesty 2.4 or 2.5L for more juice! Blew a hole in the case back in `99 returning from a 6000 mi XC trip anyway, so it's not a matching numbers example now any-hoo! We've been refreshing a few things over the past months, & doing preventatives to ward off the rust demons.

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BTW - with 116,000 or something 914s made - there's plenty of room for racers, modders & CW restos IMHO! I helped my uncle "hack" his Model A Roadster & 58 Vette & a few others into Hot Rods, Dragsters, etc! To each - his or her own!

does the shorty white 914 drive, what motor? any details, frankly it didn't look real to me. now I am interested in finding out more. can it possibly have a real 914 engine and tranny (looks too short to me)


nice van, I got an 86 same color, standard van, no camper. just got a new motor first one went 178 k miles, now is a 2.2 from a 2.1 with the gowesty pistons set. I had it built locally though (gowesty will sell the piston sets seperatly if you ask them, although they dont advertise that) got there special cam also.

new motor just broken in, a bit more zip than the old one.

it probably pays well to do it right, I heard of many aftermarket piston kits that were either too low a compression ration, making it a dog, ot so high (10 plus) that they were a hand granade with the pin pulled. so make sure you get some quality pistons and have the builder check the compresion ratio.


ps you will need an auxilary oil cooler with fan, even the stock vanagons need them, typical stock oil temps are 225F + on a moderate air temp day, moderate loads on freeway. this is a must I believe.

glad to see a vanagon running strong!

I think the 914 shortie is just a kiddie car, maybe even pedal powered!
I just found it on the web somewhere & pull it out for a now & then!

Our van's all stock still, with AT by my wife's choice, & served as the lerner car for both of our now grown kids.

We had the AT rebuilt earlier this year, & top end work in 05 on that 99 reman 2.1L stock motor when the other original motor threw a rod through the top of the case. My mechanic was trained on 914s & VWs by the factory & I've been going to him since 75 when he checked out the various 914s I looked at before buying my 7 2L when he gave the nod. They know Vanagons, 914s, etc.

I'll probably just do a core out from GoWesty directly for a complete engine at 2.4 or 2.5L for the better HP & TQ, & have my mechanic in HB R&R it for me with the GW motor, since they're comfortable with that & the fact that it's a 4/48 warranty instead of their usual engine builder's 2/24.

We did our annual XC trips though the desert southwest in August every year without an aux oil cooler, but probably a good idea along with a complete cooling system overall with the GoWesty motor.

BTW - GoWesty is now advertising the full engines & engine kits on their website, if you look at the main engines page it lists both.

Just one thing, it still gets hotter than hell and doesn't have enough beans to pass a truck on a grade. Thats just not my idea of a fun trip. Try to pass two slow vehicles at one time. A suby fixes all that and has a good ac and will get a lot better mileage. Smallcar vanagons has been doing it for a long time, check it out.

It's a Photoshop job. Pretty well done, but the perspective is wonky on the rear wheel... not to mention, where do you get a 24" 4 lug Fuchs?

Roll over is more like it. I had a '58 shorty I picked up for $50 years ago and got running. 36hp was enough to get the front wheels off the ground and scrape the rear valence.

Scary fact #1 - the wheelbase was 48" which made it twitchy as hell to drive

Scary fact #2 - hit the brakes just hard enough and you did a reverse wheelie.

I sold it to a local kid who ended up parting it out. As it turns out, '58 had a one year only engine lid that was worth about 5 times what I paid for the vehicle. I didn't discover this until I bought my '58 single cab about 10 years later that had the wrong year engine lid

My apologies about the picture quality...

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Thanx Todd - I can't usually tell the made-up pix these day, but I just like it for the fun! I posted to Steve G. with the beautiful 73 2L Sahara Beige in the O&H "The Few, the rare..." nailed topic on still original 914s, & accused him of leaving Sahara Beige out in the rain & had it shrink! He got a good out of it!

Thanx Tomeric - I'd suspected as much about them being squirrelly with that short & close-coupled wheel base! The one I originally posted is more of a mostly parked "billboard" for their business, although I occasionally see it at local car & Dub shows - probably mostly for advertisement there too!

Cheers!