First rescue!

My bus was picked up and brought to my house without me even being in the same province. Thanks Darrin! Since he couldn't angle the trailer into the driveway, he had to leave it on the street. Grant was good enough to scoot home to put it in the driveway. The guy across the street saw him fussing with it and offered to help push, so that was also our first time meeting the neighbors! Nothing like a VW bus to get people talking :) All of this while I was off at a conference in Edmonton.

So my bus had already been home a few days before I even got to see it. I played around for a bit, but it was stinky inside so I didn't do a whole lot of exploring. But I did want to get a picture of the M-plate so I could take it to this website that decodes them, tells you all the features your VW came with, which landing point it was imported to, stock colour, etc.

I did successfully manage that. I also successfully managed to lock my keys in. I guess I was so proud of myself for remembering the hold-down-the-button trick to lock older cars, I forgot the reason they make it a trick in the first place. So that was kind of a bummer.

Went online to find out how to break in. Found a few typical methods like the shoelace trick, which I thought might work since it has the right kind of locks. Tried that for a bit but couldn't get the shoestring in between the doors and didn't have anything to jamb it with.

Eventually I found the correct trick for breaking into pretty much any classic VW. Of course, in the interest of security, I'm not going to broadcast it. It's a trick I'm sure every VW owner quickly becomes aware of, and the rest of you don't need to know. So the crisis was averted, I got in without damaging anything. I knew breaking glass was not an option, this baby has all original glass knock-on-wood.

On the topic of original, I'm not going to be overly concerned with that. I'm not doing a classic restoration to like-factory condition. That just doesn't speak to me. It's not hot off the assembly line, why should it look it? I don't want it to look brand new, I want it to look good for its age. I've got the inside cleaned up nice and it looks great. I'm going to get the rust taken care of, and obviously get it running and everything. But that's basically it. No big restoration, no hunting for NOS (new old stock) parts, no crying because it's not perfect. I have my 2012 Yaris if I want to make something stay in new condition, and even that's already too late. I should probably do something about THAT rust, or at least get it undercoated. But I probably won't. I know from experience that you can drive a Toyota for about 20 years (not from my experience of driving a Toyota for 20 years obviously, since I haven't even had my license that long, but rather from having driven plenty of 20 year old Toyotas because I was too cheap to buy a new car, until I wasn't), and that the rust can be largely kept at bay with regular washings, which I have been doing. I took it for a good rinse every time the weather warmed up this winter, and always try to get the bottom as good as possible. Which isn't very good since you have to be at ground level. But better than nothing, which is the other option I would choose.

What's that smell?

Pippin has sitting in a barn for almost 20 years. He's in great shape because of it, but not without its drawbacks. Mechanical considerations aside, the two big ones were mildew and mice.

The cab was covered in mildew. Thankfully the fabric mattresses seem fine, it's just around the dashboard and doors. The treatment I used was a borax solution: 1 oz borax, fill to the 14 oz line of a sprayer with hot water, dissolve the borax, and then top up with vinegar (aprox 3 oz). I sprayed everything thoroughly, taking out the vent covers to get inside the vents. It took about 10 minutes to do the spraying and by the time I finished, the area where I started was ready for wiping. I wiped it down with microfiber car cloths from Costco, cut in smaller pieces for manageability.

The first round took care of the vast majority but there was still a white haze in places so I went over it again. By the second round, it was shiny and spotless. The directions on the internet said not to rinse off the borax since it will inhibit new growth.

Before and Afters:

The mice were a lot less fun. Grant volunteered for that job, and thank goodness he did! While the mouse nest wasn't empty, there also wasn't anyone currently living there. I did the "ew ew ew" dance a lot.

After vacuuming it out, we hosed the whole engine compartment down. I'm still not sure how I feel about all that water on the electrical components, but Grant seemed pretty confident and anyway it's too late now. Either way, it looks really good now. Before & After:

Meet Pippin

Pippin is a 1978 VW bus.

She's a Canadian Deluxe Campmobile in Dakota Beige.

There's some rust, but it's not too bad, especially for Saskatchewan. I'm going to have that part professionally addressed since they'll know how to do it best, and that's not an emergency skill that will hang me up on the side of the road.

I'm determined to do as much of the mechanics myself as possible. Not only will this save a ton of money, but more importantly, it will get me the skills and experience to save myself when I run into problems on the side of the road.