Willoughby is 1972 VW Bus – Contempo Camper conversion from the great state of California. He arrived to us on May 4th, 2007.
But that is getting ahead of the story. We had been searching for a Volkswagen camper for about 4 years off and on. When we would find a bus, we didn’t have the money, and…well…we never had the money, until recently. So the search began again with Carmen (my wife) saying she wanted to get one for my birthday.
After a couple of prospecting and one unscrupulous seller we found Willoughby. He was for sale on thesamba.com, a website devoted to Volkswagens. The guy selling Willy was named Jason and he owns a shop in Visalia CA. called The Rust Box. He does custom fabrication for all kinds of vehicles and was even on Monster Garage. Jason was selling the bus for a friend, who had rebuilt the engine for another fellow who did not pay him. So Jason’s friend just wanted to get his money for the rebuild. All in all we paid a fair price for him and made arrangements for transportation to Wisconsin.
Willoughby finally arrived, a week and a half late after some unforeseen delays. I was at school when he was delivered but from the pictures and stories the wife tells it was an eventful occasion.
The driver parked on a hill and his ramps were nowhere near long enough. Add to that, Willy was out of gas and there was a car parked infront of the dudes truck, and you get one nerve racking experience. But all is well that ends well, right?
That is how Willy has come to stay with us. I hope he enjoys our company and his many adventures that we hope to tag along on.
