1975 VW Bus - Very solid.

1975 Volkswagen Bus/Vanagon Description

I thought I might have gotten my forever bus this time...but I lost my job this week and "Jerry" will have to go. This is a very sold bus. Amazingly so, for 41 years old. The floors (front and back), doglegs, rockers, all solid and I don't see evidence of any bondo. The only rust issue is the battery tray issue, which is very common (see pictures). There is a little surface rust in the gutters and around the back window. I'd say if this is a keeper for you, I'd want to get the seals around all the windows done...sooner than later. They are dry rotted and probably original. I don't see that any of them leak, except the back window and not bad. The bus looks like it might have had a really good respray at some point and I'm guessing, years ago the nose was replaced. I can find no evidence of that except there are no holes for the VW on the front. The title is clear but says rebuilt, so I'm thinking at some point the front was messed up and replaced. If it was, they did an excellent job. I can't find any weld marks anywhere. And everything on the dash works and looks original.
OK, mechanics. Engine runs very strong. It's a little cold natured but again, normal, especially for dual carb set up. I let it run for about three or four minutes and it drives out nice. Runs very straight down the road. Doesn't smoke at all, not at all. It does drip about three or four "quarter-sized" drips after a hard run, and that's it. Transmission is smooth and doesn't pop out of any gears. Reverse is easy to find. Seems about normal as far as gears and shifting go. The brakes work great, but they do squeal a bit. I think it's really from just sitting all winter. It needs to be driven. Almost no play in the steering. Newer tires with lots of tread and not dry rotted at all.
Electrical seems to all work. Turn signals work but you have to turn them off manually. Can't say how accurate the fuel gauge is, haven't pushed it to empty yet. Glove box is there, nice stereo works with some extra speakers.
Interior: This is the best part about the van and one of the main reasons I bought except for the extremely solid body. Someone paid a lot of money to have all the upholstery done in blue and white "marine quality" vinyl. No tears in the seats. It has the "day camper" seat arrangement in the back with the fold out table, but this came from somewhere else as the bus was never a camper. Panels in the back are good and there is only one small rip in the headliner all the way in the back. They only thing I was going to do to the inside was repair the bottom portion of the front door panels. The tops are nice but the bottoms have had speaker holes cut in them and need to be fixed (easy).
All in all this is a great van for a daily driver or to do a little to it and have fun in it for a long time to come. Shows 35,000 miles and my mechanic says he thinks it could be original given the body condition. I wouldn't guarantee that but I certainly don't think it's more than 135K. If you want a fun bus that super solid this is a steal. I've looked at lots of buses and owned several. This one breaks my heart to sell.
Look at the pictures, write with any questions. As you can see from my rating I'm a straight up seller. I'll tell you the truth and leave it at that. I think the price is fair given what these things, especially dry ones, are going for. Good luck.