An Unexpected Find...

Some years ago I had made the decision to buy a bay window camper van. As we already had a T3 Caravelle I wasn't looking for another bus. After investigating the options, however, I was set on a LHD bus of US origin that needed restoring. It was sourced from the ACT and was then owned by Steve Müller of Kombi Rescue.

It might be worth noting the remains of the stickers on the back door.

In the end I bought a Westfalia Camper which is also LHD but another story that is...

So I ended up with a nice collection of photos of the '72 bus and that was it.

Until this bus came into my sights again rather unexpectedly...

Trolling ebay looking for various transporter paraphernalia I stumbled upon a Victorian "Collectables" merchant offering a 1972 VW Bus Owner's Manual. I wouldn't have given it a second glance except that the seller had included a photo of the actual vehicle in the auction.

I had never seen any other bus with this white striping. The one in the photo was clearly North American specification so I took a gamble and placed a bid eventually winning the auction against one other. I had a photograph of the US Federal compliance sticker so I had a VIN reference of 2222155504.

A few days later the parcel arrived (very securely packed I might add). The manual contained the original owner and vehicle identity and, sure enough, the VIN matched. It also had about 40000 miles worth of service stamps indicating extensive travel across North America and eventual arrival at Cusacks in the ACT for the final service entry.

Flicking through the manual I also found a hand written note, dated 1982, which described each of the stickers that were on the back door!

We now had the original owner's name and the original purchase history (Darian, Connecticut). Fortunately the original owner wasn't very hard to track down as the surname is rare and there is only one entry in the white pages for the entire country. And it was in the ACT!

Steve followed up on this and telephoned the previous owner who did turn out to be one and the same original owner of the vehicle. He was very pleased about being contacted and will furnish more about the history of this vehicle.

So many things fell into place to give this VW back it's story. If I had not been shown this VW I would not have recognised it in the auction. If I had qualms about LHD I would never have seen this vehicle either. I was originally looking at a Sunliner camper but got swayed into looking at alternatives. Which worked out for the best really. I have a rather unique Westfalia and now we have restored another old bus it's history.