[tcb] Re: ...now I got my Magic Bus! Trip report (long) without weird code symbols this time
- From: Mark Sawyer <mechmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 07:59:38 -0700 (PDT)
Cool story and great find on the 23 window Deluxe.
James Dwan <james_dwan_2000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Trip Report -
It was a rainy Friday night as I picked up Billy and Larry around 8. By then I
had already driven 4 hrs through Memorial Day
let?s-get-outta-town-in-the-rain-traffic from downtown Dallas to my house in
Garland, out near Lake Ray Hubbard, to Love Field to get the rental car to New
Hope, East of Mckinney. Got a nice Impala with XM and a trunk big enough for 2
dead hookers.
Found out on the way that Larry had an expired license so he wouldn?t be
driving. Billy took the wheel in Oklahoma and got pulled over around 11ish. I
love how they always ask, ?Do you know why I pulled you over?? I mean why do
they do that? Are they hoping someone is gonna confess to having just knocked
over a bank and hauling dead hookers to Kansas? Anyway Billy figured he was
speeding and she agreed. Took his license and my rental agreement. She came
back on my side and asked for my license. As we waited we noticed another cop
pull up, then a third then a sinking feeling came over me as I was told by the
drug dog handler in the flack jacket to roll up our windows as he led the
German Shepard around the car. Not good.
Of course we didn?t have anything on us we didn?t even gave a cooler of beer!
We did have a little bottle of Jameson for medicinal puposes that had been
opened for some medical emergency earlier in the day. But other than that all
we had was a briefcase with alot of cash, long hair and a one way rental car
with Texas plates close to midnight on a Friday night speeding through Oky-land
on ?Zero Tolerance? weekend.
Larry was told to get outta the car first by one of Oklahoma?s finset. A rolly
polly 5 ft, 350 lb no neck goon with something to prove. Then I was told to get
out then Billy. They seperated us then told us to empty out all our pockets. I
was waiting for them to ask us for consent to search the vehicle - they never
did. I would have said no and waited for the search warrant to arrive. They
obviously thought they had something and weren?t gonna be inconveinienced by
laws about illegal searches or civil rights or profiling. Then the fat one
popped the runk and announced he smelled marijuana. And grabbed my briefcase
from the trunk. ?What?s in it? he asked me. ?Money? I said ?How much?? ?Alot?
?How much is alot?? I told him and he told me to open it.
At this point I was getting a pissed and told him no. I had nothing to hide and
was getting tired of this. I was imediately cuffed. They brought the dog over
to the case and told him to sniff it, he did and did not bark or do anything,
they told him again and pointed at the case, again nothing, after three more
times the dog put his paw on it then it was like ?Good boy!?
I was then told by the fatman to open or he would open it for me. I had to give
him the combo and it took him a while with those sausages to work the locks. He
opened it and it appeared empty. ?Where is the money?? he asked with a smart
ass tone in his voice. In the pocket I said. Then they took out the envelopes
and smelled the money! By this time they had removed the spare tire and my bag
unrolled my socks, looked under the seats and I swear they tried taking the
seats out but didn?t probably because it was a rental.
I figured this was about to go very badly and told the cop who was going
through my bag why we were going to Missouri and that I could prove the money
was mine by showing them the cancelled check. I also showed him the M-codes I
had printed out from the Samba. I told him how much these buses were worth when
restored and that was why I had that cash and they had no choice - they then
let us go. If I didn?t have my checkbook I doubt I would have made it to
Missouri to get that bus!
We got to the hotel around 2:00, woke up at 6:30 and ate breakfast at the Boss
cafe in Clinton around 10:00.
Picked up the Uhaul and met the owner around 11:00. We crawled under the Bus
with a drop light, looked at the cancerous rust hole in one of the belly pans.
Billy picked at it and pulled out some rat hair and dirt. There are probably a
couple of rodents still sitting in the bus as I type this, hanging out between
the belly pans and the floor.
So I tried to noc off some off the price and he met me halfway. The rest of the
Bus is in good shape for sitting in shed with a dirt floor since 1971. He even
draine the tank. The engine turns by hand! I gave them the money and Momma and
the family friend took the money and a Colt revolver to the bank while we
figured out how to get the Bus out of the shed it had sat in for 36 years. The
wheels wouldn?t turn so we hooked it up to the tractor and they turned! He
rolled outta the shed and the rest went pretty smooth except when Larry was
guiding the Bus onto the skids and fell backward onto the transport while the
Bus was rolling onto it!
The guy I bought it from, Virgil, was the 3rd owner. The second owner, Virgil?s
brother-in-law, blew the engine on the way back from Kansas City and sold it to
Virgil. Virgil blew the new motor it before he found out that the valves needed
adjusting on a regular basis.
He built the new motor and drove it 50 miles before he parked it in ?71. It
didn?t move again until Saturday May 26th, 2007. Evidently Virgil liked the
free company truck he just got in ?71 and by the time he thought about driving
the Bus again, years later the rag top had been ruined so he left it where it
was. Virgil was the only guy in the area that would work on VWs back in the
day. He has a rusted out 58 Panel sitting next to a Super and a Notchback. He?s
got lots of other parts wich he tried selling to us but I told him politely I
was only intyerested in the Bus. If I were going to make a movie about a VW
barn find of a lifetime I would cast all the people the same right down to the
waitress who brought me the biggest chiken fried steak breakfast I have ever
eaten.
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354833.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354832.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354806.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354820.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354800.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354822.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354817.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354831.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354824.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354830.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/354807.jpg
James
DAC
'59 23 Window Deluxe
'73/'77 Westfakia
'78 Super Vert
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