All the time I hear people saying, “I wish I had a VW bus, it would be so much fun”. And after owning one for over 3-years now, I can say that they are indeed a lot of fun. At the same time they are a nightmare.
Owning a classic vehicle requires A LOT of maintenance. This isn’t some ’93 Honda Civic that will just keep going and going with regular oil changes. Owning a classic vehicle means you always have a list of repairs that need to be done, some more important than others.
I enjoy learning about and working on the bus, not to mention saving money, so I try and do as many of the repairs as I can with the help of the internet and a repair manual.
Sometimes working on the bus, I want to pull my hair out or just drive it down to the lake, put a cinder-block on the gas pedal and throw it into drive heading straight for the watery depths of Lake Ontario.. Then my sanity and patience come into play and I chill the F’ out and get back to making it happen.
It can be seriously frustrating, working on a 30-odd-year-old vehicle. Parts get rusted solid, things break when you tighten or loosen them, dealing with hack jobs by previous owners, fixing one thing which leads to a new problem, etc. It can seriously test ones patience.
Most recently I fixed the ignition switch on my bus and now the horn won’t shut off. I think at this point after half a day spent trying to fix the thing I am going to take it to a mechanic and let him deal with it. Sometimes you just have to leave it to the professionals.
That being said, as much work as it is owning one of these classic VW’s, within minutes of cruising around, you start to see people smiling at your bus and throwing you peace signs, it makes it all worth it. Just the joy of spreading good vibes and smiles.
Like most things in life, I’ve found the more you put in, the more you get out. The harder the struggle, the deeper the reward.
Hopefully the mechanic can get my horn sorted out so I’m not driving around like little miss sunshine (see video above) Ha Ha. Until next time.
