1970 VW Hippie Van

S

Steeze

Guest
So a buddy of mine got a DUI right before we deployed and is now getting kicked out of the navy in 2 weeks... He has a 1970 VW Hippie van with the pop up roof. His plan is to travel the country living out of the van down by the river... no **** he's planning on bathing in rivers and sleeping in his van while traveling and attending music festivals.

He's given me $120 and a weekend to get the van in decent shape... he's done a lot of bondo repair and he clearly had no idea what he was doing. He primed the van and taped off the windows and whatnot... that's about it.

I've got a lot of body work, weld in some patches, and put a paint job on it... put it back together and maybe bedline the interior floor. It looks like hell and honestly probably wont look much better with $120 and maybe 20 hours of actual work.

Challenge accepted... it's in my garage and I've already started some work. My biggest hurdle is the lack of cash.... and of course time. I've got to make every penny count and rush the **** out of it. Should be fun as hell!

I'll post some pics here in a minute
 
Macland

Macland

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
SW OK & formerly Eastern NM
A solid green paint job, shag carpet, a bead divider, aluminum foil window covers. He could call it the mystery shaggon.

l_3c594240-84aa-11e1-9c4d-57122fe00002.jpg
 
Last edited:
S

Steeze

Guest
Right now the plan is to use whatever leftover steel I have to plug some holes... get some bondo gold and sandpaper... do a lot of sandng... do a rushed rolled on rustoleum paint job with only 1 gallon... a few cans of spray paint... maybe bedliner if i can fit it in the budget...

That's about all I can do with the time and money I have available... he started taping off the windows and stuff. He did an alright job taping things up but it's been sitting outside a while and is starting to peel. I'm not wasting the time re-taping everything so I'm just going to do what I can with what I've got.

This will be the most ghetto restoration ever!!!
 
S

Steeze

Guest
Oh yeah and he said I can paint it whatever color I want... he doesn't give a f*** how it looks... just want's it to have a paint job and look a little better than it does now.

In typical Steeze fashion... I'm going with black and white....... Black body.. White roof... white wheels and white accents.
 
gorillamel

gorillamel

Lockers Installed
Founding Member
Location
Idaho!
This I gotta see...

He gonna grow dreadlocks and wear tye-dyed clothing and bell bottoms, too? Just tell him with a rig like that it is best to not carry controlled substances on board, hahah!
 
ThePlasticOne

ThePlasticOne

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Boston, MA
Steeze said:
Oh yeah and he said I can paint it whatever color I want... he doesn't give a f*** how it looks... just want's it to have a paint job and look a little better than it does now.

In typical Steeze fashion... I'm going with black and white....... Black body.. White roof... white wheels and white accents.
Click to expand...

What, no obscene graffiti?
 
S

Steeze

Guest
Actually this guy is the complete opposite of me... he's the Christian Conservative right wing homophobic from Texas.... We have completely opposite views and he's going to try out the whole hippie earth peace and love thing. We clashed on a lot of things so I'm glad he's taking this opportunity to try something new and experience a different lifestyle... it'll be good for him. He was a little too extreme in my opinion.

I just pulled off the "Volkswagen" emblem... the guy tried to tape all the individual letters off lol.

Other than that I've been sanding and using up the leftover bondo he had in the van...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Creepy Cruiser

Creepy Cruiser

Sliders
Site Sponsor
Founding Member
Location
6 Feet Under
Hahaha, that's funny. we just drug my mom's old hippie VW bus out of the woods. It's been sitting there for over 20 years. My buddy is going to rebuilt it and start driving it.

2012-12-06150258Small_zpsf2ad5d4f.jpg

2012-12-06150324Small_zps814b2da2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Cyclemut

Cyclemut

Wheeling
Founding Member
Location
Morrison, CO
Ah, a Bay Window Fat Chick. I hate the smell of the insides of those things after people live in them for a bit. We have a couple of customers like that.

When he rolls through Denver, you should have him look us up. We have a Wild Westerner (made for the '78 Worlds Fair), a '76 RHD Double door African Type 2 and a couple of single cab Transporters sitting here.

Type 2's are pretty nice actually when they're put together right. I'm working on a '66 right now, but it's a salvage and the customer thinks it's gold! Had to replace the beam, reseal the swing axle, unFUBAR the engine after he tried to tune it up and get the brakes going.

Love to see the painted pics.
 
S

Steeze

Guest
Here's some pics of the van by the way... all the work was done in 48 hours...

Before...







After...





 
S

Steeze

Guest
So here's what I got accomplished in 2 days...

-cleaned out interior, removed old foam, welded/patched several holes in the floor with sheet metal
-bedlined interior
-exterior metal repair, bondo gold, lots of sanding
-gloss black rustoleum roll on paint job
-sprayed bumpers and wheels white and re-installed
-hubcaps bedlined black
-fresh coat of white on the pop-up fiberglass top

As of now the van has all the lights put on and new tires... its no longer in my hands... cool little project though...

I think the best part was experimenting with a rustoleum roll-on paint job.... that was educational.
 
M

midget

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
what cheer,Iowa
Umm maybe Im mistaken but DUI means no liscense for 6 months to a year depending on the state. Im speaking from experience here after just getting one myself.
 
AZhiAZiAM

AZhiAZiAM

Suspension Lift
Location
Fresno,CA
nice work steeze! i've wanted one of these for every, when you find them around here though they are junk or fully done nothing really in the middle.
 
S

Steeze

Guest
Yeah the van runs... sometimes I had to crawl under there and give the starter a couple taps with a wrench. Other than that it does run.

I don't know if he has his license or not.. it's been 6 months since his DUI anyways... I don't know and I don't really care.. He's done and out here in a couple days anyway. I'll probably never see him again...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top