I've Been Thinking....

Ok...call me crazy, but lately my interests have forked from strictly hot rods and classic cars to everything vintage Volkswagen. I've been using my newly acquired 1965 VW Java Green Type 1 as a daily driver, and have actually taken it to a few shows and cruise-ins, including two ALL VW events.

But what I've been thinking about lately is a VW bus and/or truck. Now looking at Ebay and places like www.thesamba.com, I realize that VW buses can bring a pretty penny. But what about finding a decent starting point and building something cool and utilitarian?

To compound my thinking, I was watching the Season 3 premiere of one of my favorite television shows last evening: Salvage Dawgs, and watched as they brought home a VW bus that looked like someone took batting practice with a telephone pole on the passenger side. There intention was to salvage the cab and build a yard truck. Well...they didn't show the results on this episode, but being the Internet detective that I am, I did a bit of googling this afternoon, and found a picture of the end result...a very cool yard truck!

Which got me thinking....what else could you do with an old VW Bus? What about a one-of-a-kind camper?

All of these would be pretty cool ideas....but many, what if you found a true "barn find" (which you know, as these former hippies are reaching retirement age and beyond, they have to be out there). How cool would it be to do a mild chop and build something really trick?

Well, for those of you who come to this site to get your daily fix of everything hot rod...I'm sorry....but if you are like me, your idea of "what is cool" may be a bit broader. Would love to hear some reader comments on this topic. Maybe you have pictures of something you've built from an old VW? Or maybe you can search and find something I have overlooked.... HAVE FUN.