A camping forum for VW bus and camper owners.

Introduction (Mike South)

Hi everyone,

My name is Mike South (btw, if you google it--I'm not THAT Mike South, just so you know). I live in McKinney and I have an 85 Westy. It's just plain brown, but maybe a brown van between the orange and green would help the colors work together better.

Right now the engine and transmission are sitting on a creeper under the van, waiting to be rolled out and sold. Next to the van on an engine stand is a zero miles Zetec engine, waiting to get dressed up to power the camper.

I have maybe three or four parts left to order and some supplies and I'll have everything for the conversion.

If anyone is interested in coming by and taking a look at the project let me know and I'll be happy to give you the tour. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I didn't know much about working on cars when I started. I'm learning a lot.

I'm also most of the way through an auto->manual conversion on the same camper. Since I'm moving to the Zetec, I didn't want to deal with an auto trans that didn't know what kind of engine was running it.

It's been a long process. I am cautiously optimistic that it could be complete in a few months if all the stars align. Looking forward to finally being able to use it as a camper again instead of a newbie mechanic's training ground as it has been for longer than I care to think about now. :)

If anyone wants to come see or has any questions, let me know.

mike

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kirk on February 3, 2011 at 12:16pm

Welcome Mike! Names Kirk. I'm in Sherman, just north of you. We have VW get togethers up here first Tuesday of every month. This month we cancelled because of all this crap, but we will be together next Tuesday. Sherman Air Coolers, a chapter of the Air Coolers (www.aircoolers.org). Bunch of different VWs and different guys. Come up sometime if you like. Otherwise, I'd like to check your project out sometime. I go through McKinney all the time. Once the weather warms, we'll start putting camping trips together. Hopefully you'll be able to make it. :)

Permalink Reply by Gregory Moore on February 3, 2011 at 6:11pm

Welcome Mike... I'm right in the middle of a build too so feeling you :) Nice to have you here...

Permalink Reply by Michael South on February 3, 2011 at 6:29pm

Whatcha workin on?

Gregory Moore said:

Welcome Mike... I'm right in the middle of a build too so feeling you :) Nice to have you here...

Permalink Reply by Gregory Moore on February 3, 2011 at 6:36pm

'75 Westy... It's a 2 Westies into one kinda thing with my rusted out '78...

Permalink Reply by Toes on August 17, 2011 at 9:43am

i thought i had replied to this thread...guess not.

HEY! I'm Toes (Mike Bartoszek) have had my Bus (Bean) a little over a year now. I'm in Killeen/Ft.Hood, you'll make it this way if you come down for Transporters at the Point, which you must do.

look forward to meeting you! Cheers!

Permalink Reply by Michael South on August 17, 2011 at 10:06am

Hey Kirk,

I don't know if I ever reached out to you, I was having problems with the ning interface a while back, and just saw this thread again because of Toes' comment. Still working on the conversion, the engine is ready to be attached to the transmission, pretty much any time is a good time if you happen to be driving by. I work from home. I'm also right off of 75 so it's easy to stop by quickly.

Anyway--give me a ring if you happen to be coming by: to won for, five nein too for seven seven seven.

mike

Kirk said:

Welcome Mike! Names Kirk. I'm in Sherman, just north of you. We have VW get togethers up here first Tuesday of every month. This month we cancelled because of all this crap, but we will be together next Tuesday. Sherman Air Coolers, a chapter of the Air Coolers (www.aircoolers.org). Bunch of different VWs and different guys. Come up sometime if you like. Otherwise, I'd like to check your project out sometime. I go through McKinney all the time. Once the weather warms, we'll start putting camping trips together. Hopefully you'll be able to make it. :)

Permalink Reply by Jordan Kauffman on August 22, 2011 at 8:33pm

Wish I could be of more help! Hopefully you have a group of VWers in the area that can help you out. Is there a VW club there? I live in Dallas, but actually work in Allen and working in McKinney at McKinney High and then Boyd High. Never hear of anything while I worked there about VWers though. Good luck!

jordan

Permalink Reply by K-J on April 30, 2015 at 9:28am

I would love to come see it! However, since im in the middle of a divorce, and trying to get the house on the market asap, it might be a while until I could. I live in Houston.

Don't feel bad about the time it takes to complete it, it's the end result that counts, not how or when you started on the journey to get there. I've been in the same situation, life comes in the way. In fact I have had my westy, too an -85 btw, but tan, decommissioned to change brake booster and pump for well over 3 years. It was driving and running fine, but brakes was leaking inside of the van. On that note, if anyone wanted to come over to my place for some moral support in getting the brakes done in the middle of everything I'm dealing with, that would be highly appreciated.

Not that I wanted to hijack your request. :) I'm just in the same boat kind of.

My goal is to get the van running and take the small kids out on camping trips after I'm settled again. AND meet up with people like YOU, and the others in this thread! :) Hopefully one day soon....

Permalink Reply by K-J on April 30, 2015 at 1:16pm

Wow, I see now that this was a REAl old message. Lol! For some reason it was emailed to me as a new message today. Hm, Strange.

Permalink Reply by Sarah Kieschnick on April 30, 2015 at 6:50pm

I belong to this.website and facebook updated frequently. We are new club. http://texasvanagons.com ;