Great pics and story to boot!
What is the story about the 45?
How did you acquire it?
I am luvin' the Westfalias helping out @ move time.
I was the local VW mechanic @ the university I attended and drove a Thing for about 3 years.
Great in the Summer, cold in the Winter, but still always started
Hippies rule, yuppies drool.......
john
Thanks Redcorn.
Let's see...... the 45. Well, I was driving an old Rover (Series IIA 88") before I bought the LV. I went home to see my family in Tulsa, OK for Christmas and drove the Rover. It was 900 miles and a very long trip going 50mph.
I got to Tulsa fine but the next morning I went to drive over to my Dad's house and I lost 2nd and 3rd gears in the tranny. This old Rover was not going back to Durango with me.
My Dad lent me his truck to drive around Tulsa on Christmas break. He also set me up on a blind date with a girl from Honduras. She lived with some friends of his and worked as their kids' nanny. She had just arrived from Honduras and did not speak much English. Since I am fluent in Spanish, my dad and his friends thought it would be a great idea for me to show her around. Anyways, we went out and when I took her back home, I spotted this weird looking Cruiser parked a few doors down from where she lived.
After I dropped her off, I went back and had a closer look at the Cruiser. I saw that it was an LV and that it had a a for sale sign in it. The next morning I called about it and took it for a test drive. The owner said that he inherited it from his uncle who had just died. His uncle used it at his lake house to tow his boat to the docks. I bought it took it home. I did a complete tune up, changed all the fluids and set out for my 900+ mile trip back to Durango.
I drove it for about a year and then sold it because I had finished my FJ55 project. It was a cool LV and I got a lot of looks and compliments about it. I basically did nothing to it except drive it. I worked in Moab, Utah for a few summers and I had the LV in Moab for one summer. I worked out in the field and when I came back I found a ton of notes on it asking me to sell it. I guess a fellow Cruiserhead had spotted it during Cruise Moab and decided to tell everyone about it.
A few years ago, I was surfing the web and came across Treeroot's website. I saw my old LV and saw that it belonged to Merbesfield here on the board. It looks pretty rusty compared to when I had it. It would be kind of neat to get it back and restore it but not sure if I want to do that yet.
The Westy's belonged to some friends of mine. The yellow one belonged to my room mate. He lived in the tipi with me. The tipi was great for 2 people but when my girlfriend moved in, it was a little tight. The tipi was a 25 footer and we had it set up really nice. 2 beds, kitchen, couch, and a woodstove.
The red Westy belonged to a good friend of my room mate. He had driven out from Massachusetts and stayed with us for about 6 weeks. He's the one that sent me the picture.
Yep, hippies rule. Even though I cut off all my hair and have less facial hair these days, I'm still a hippie at heart.
I want it back.
--all you need is the tipi for the roof.
