My dad had a camper bus with the woodgrain sink, fridge and trim, plus the fold-out table and folding seat/bed, plus various cubbyholes and closets and such..but it didn't have the pop-top. We still have the square seat that fitted between the fridge and the seat behind the driver's seat. I've never seen another bus that was fitted out like this without the pop-top. Was this a one-off conversion or were they pretty common?
There was a bay window for sale on my way to work this AM that I stopped and peeked at that is a non pop-top westy. Not sure how rare they are but there were at least two - or maybe just one that gets around, who knows ...
knt
MarcKyle64 wrote:
maybe it wasn't always a westy there are lots of conversion stuff around...
That's the basic Westfalia weekender package. I have a 77, but the PO removed all of the cabinetry except the cooler and the storage spot beside it, doggonit! I can't guarantee that it's a Westfalia, since there were a great many other conversions available, but it reads like one.
Did it have the "crank up" louvered side windows? I expect if it just had the sliders, it probably wasn't a westy, someone may have just transplanted all the goodies into a transporter.
Year mosel can make a differnece also.......................
I had a 61 Campmobile with all the things you are talking about this one having. It was not a Westfalia built van/bus...............It had a tag on it , but I can't remember what the company name was.could this be the same in your case?
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I definitely remember the three slat crank up side windows, but not a birch top, IIRC, (he only sold it 20 years ago) there wasn't wood on the headliner, it was basic VW headliner like in the beetle & ghia. It had a hammock for use over the front seats, with attachments that looked like bottle openers to put the supports for the hammock into. I'd sure like to find one of these buses now, it'd be great for camping with my family!
It wasn't that common, but you could order them with whatever fittings you wanted - pop-top or no pop-top.
I think in N. America it was the habit for VWOA to get them built with a standard set of options which always seemed to include the pop-top, but in Germany the options packages were more flexible.
Many VW's, especially campers it seems, were popular items for Canadian & American service personnel to order in Germany while posted there. They would have them built to N. A. safety standards, and them bring them home with them to N. A.when they returned, thus avoiding many taxes.
Or, some enterprising tourist would order one for delivery in Germany, go there and take delivery and get a temporary "export" German registration, use it for a big trip around Europe, then ship it home, again paying a much lower or no tax/import duty on it, depending on how long they were out of the country and owned the vehicle.
I know of at least one VW bus around Toronto in 1972 that came over this way, and was ordered without the pop-top. They cost about C$6000 new back then with pop-top.
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