theres a small chance i might be picking up an old school 70's VW bus, i was wondering what you guys could tell me about them, as far as reliability,can they get to hwy speed (65mph here), if there hard to work on?
i know the body is in perfect shape, if i get it ill be buying it from a friend of my g/f who's husband does body work/painting, but is there anything structurally or mechanically thats common to go bad in these
Is it a pop top camper(westfalia)? panel van? kombi/truck ?
The underneath of them rust pretty bad
They are slow. They can do the speed limit on the highway and thats about it. You can swap different motors in them or build a stroker motor fairly cheap.
Air cooled vw's are very cheap and easy to work on because they are very simple. They are very reliable once you get all the small stuff fixed that is associated with any old vehicle. My dad used to daily drive beetles for close to 30 years and I've had a few over the years...
im not sure i havnt gone to see it in person yet, thats why im asking questions now so i know better what to look for in there specifically that i might not know being unfamilear with these machines
if i can get to 60-65 with modern tires ill be more then happy, im hoping its a pop top though
yes the pop tops are very cool and are worth considerably more than regular buses. The pop tops even have cool lil sinks and fridges in them. Regular 68+ "bay window" buses aren't really worth a lot. The earlier split windows or any pop top is desirable. What is the price on it?
What year is it? It more than likely has fuel injection, which is kinda bad because it's hard to work on and parts are obscure. Most people just swap a carb on it.
IIRC, those things need the valves adjust on a fairly regular basis. Something that without experiance can be a bit annoying (or so I am told).
at 1970 is a type 2, which is a swing rear axle, which means don't hot rod it around corners or it might not sit down nicely. But with all of 50 hp, I don't think you are going anywhere fast.
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