1971 Volkswagen Bus/Vanagon

Campmobile

1600 dual port - Original Motor to Bus!

Manual - 4 speed

2312091450

Clear

Gasoline

This vehicle is a HIGHLY original 1971 Volkswagen Westfalia Campmobile in running / driving condition. It remains in stunning shape for its age, having spent most of its life in a garage while covering less than 80K miles on the roadway. This camper van still features its original engine (documented), and most of its original features (e.g.: original literature, flooring, curtains, child’s cot, etc.). As you probably know, the early baywindow westys are becoming quite sought after, and it is widely believed that 1971 is the best year of this era as it combines front disc brakes with the 1600 dual port type 1 motor. The steering is this bus remains nice and tight, the doors open and close like new, the brakes have recently been redone - this thing is NICE! A big part of why this bus remains so nice is due to the fact that the bus was undercoated, which was probably its saving grace. Vehicle was repainted long ago (in original color), paint remains very nice and presentable (with a couple of small exceptions - which I'll get into below). Please take the time to review not only the pictures provided inside this listing, but the detailed descriptions AND links to hundreds of other pictures focusing on the entire bus in minute detail. Pictures and description of the bus are broken down into the following six areas: EXTERIOR, INTERIOR, UNDERSIDE / ENGINE, IMPERFECTIONS, LABELS / LITERATURE & MAGNET TEST. I reserve the right to end listing early as vehicle is also for sale locally. Also please note that the following pictures, taken ~8 weeks ago, do NOT show the rebuilt icebox that is now in the bus. The sink, faucet, water tank, folding side table and icebox have all be added to the cabinet shown in the pics! We have added a link to show the icebox down below as well. Here are links AND descriptions to pics not included inside this listing, don’t forget to double-click on the pictures inside photobucket for larger resolution views. EXTERIOR: EXTERIOR: - Front doors open and close like new, as does the sliding door. SUPER SMOOTH! (In fact, its crazy how nice they open / close if you’re used to older “normal” buses….) - The ignition key (there are 3 OEM keys cut for this) opens / locks both front doors and rear hatch. A different OEM key locks the engine compartment (there is only one of those). There are also two keys to the “car alarm” (not hooked up). - Front turn signal plastic in nice shape, as are headlights. Both high and low beams work. - Both turn signals and emergency flashers work. - Tail lights and trim rings in great shape. Tail lights, turn signals and brake lights all currently working. - License plate light works. - All the rubber on the outside is present and in nice shape. Door scrapers are super nice, as is the chrome pieces around the windows. Some parts of windshield seal are becoming a little scale-y, for lack of a better word. - Front glass has original SIGLA logo. I believe the rest of the glass has all the correct logos as well. - The side “jalousie” windows usually show a fair amount of shrinkage in the grey rubber seals – these are not shrinking – super nice still. They open and close super easily / smoothly. - The vent windows (two front are chrome – rear is painted) are all in SUPER nice shape – no rusting or pitting, unreal! All open / close / lock as they are supposed to. - The fiberglass poptop is in great shape, as is the luggage carrier / roof rack section to the rear – correct seals present and in nice shape (although w/ some wax reside present). There is a little bit of sticker residue on the back side, a remnant from a Previous Owner's (PO) ham radio number. - I believe the poptop canvas is original. The screens are all intact, all zippers function as they should. There is no dry rotting, but there are some pin holes, nothing that would make it need replacing however. - Rear hatch seal is in GREAT shape (good thing, as these are big bucks!) Rear hatch needs to be closed firmly to catch properly. - Front antenna works, but doesn’t appear to be OEM, and is unsightly. Should be replaced. - Side marker lights (x4) in nice shape (plastic and seal) – note that only one is working – most likely bulbs, haven’t checked into. - Wiper arms in nice shape, new wiper blades. Wiper motor probably needs replaced, it died a couple weeks ago. - All the door handles work well and the chrome is in nice shape. There is no pitting on the chrome pieces anywhere on the bus. - The outside mirrors are correct but aren’t original to the bus. There is some shrinking / chipping on the seal that surrounds the mirror (worse on pass. side) – and they don’t move very easily. - Front tire cover looks like heck, needs to be replaced obviously… - Front bumper has a few dings, repainted by PO #4, who did a nice job (other than the fact that he didn’t fill dings). Same deal with rear bumper. - As for the paint respray on the bus itself (not the bumpers) – it was most likely done by original owner or second owner. It’s a professional job – I don’t find any orange peel or runs, and there is little to no overspray on the bus, outside of the rear of the bus. On the rear of the bus, there is mainly overspray on the engine lid seal and license light seal. It wouldn’t surprise me if the engine lid was resprayed a second time, as the paint job on the front doors is super clean by comparison. INTERIOR: INTERIOR: I won’t feed you a bunch of useless facts that you can get out of the owner’s or camper manual (like a lot of sellers do), I will let you know about the condition & completeness of everything however. As a general rule – most of this stuff is time capsule nice! - Original front seat covers and front door panels – in excellent shape! - Dash is in great shape, not cracked. Vents in great shape. One hole in dash (factory I believe) where switch was removed to right of ash tray. All four HVAC controls (two blue, two red) on dash are present, but not installed. - Sun visors are present and remain in far better shape than the norm for this age. - Headlight switch, turn signal and high/low beam switches work as they should, as do flashers. - Lights inside speedometer and dummy light pods all work. Speedometer / odometer both work. - Unsure if rear defrost works. - OEM Sapphire XV AM radio works and sounds great! - Front dome light works. Rear dome light works (from dash and/or rear). This is a three-way light, and all three positions work fine. - Both front window regulators work. - Front floor mat and walk thru mat in great shape. Mats under both front seats present and in great shape as well. - Both front OEM seat belts present, in nice shape, and in good working order. - OEM jack still sitting under passenger seat like it’s supposed to. - Camper interior correct and mostly complete for 1971. It is missing a few things, noted in IMPERFECTIONS section down below. - Front child’s cot and wrap around curtain appear to never have been used before I set them up to take pictures. Child’s cot still has strap to hold it together (unreal!). All front snaps and child’s cot hooks present. - Wood on the long wall is in super nice condition, as is the wood inside the sliding door and rear hatch. This is pretty much unheard of! - Rear screen is present and in great shape still. All snaps to hold it in place present. - Table (on long wall) is in amazing shape. - Icebox is mostly correct – spice rack to side, table and sink in great shape. - Original linoleum is present and still extremely NICE. - All camper cabinet doors open, close and latch as they are supposed to. - Mirror in closet is still there! (As are coat hooks and hangar pole). - Cushions to make up bed are supple and very clean – far better than most. (One little tear noted below). The underside of the rearmost cushion is even in nice shape – unreal! One of the PO’s make a triangle piece for the corner above where the factory spare tire tray sits. Non-matching material, but a nice addition if two adults are sleeping in the back. - OEM curtains, which are usually absent or ruined, are present and intact (exception being the ones on the rear hatch – explained below.) - “Upstairs” cot present and in nice condition. - Poptop opens and closes smoothly, like it should. Pictures of icebox rebuild found here: UNDERSIDE & ENGINE: UNDERSIDE & ENGINE: - One of the best points of this bus is the documented / running original motor. This is HUGE in the collectible car world, and VW’s museum stopped blindly providing people w/ their engine numbers on birth certificates many years ago as a result. I think this is also the only year that a 1600 dual port was available from the factory, another really nice feature. Both of these facts should protect (and even enhance!) your investment in the years to come. The engine runs well – although I would describe it as mildly hard to start when warm. (Time for some carb or at least choke work I’m sure.) The heater boxes have been removed somewhere along the line. Engine doesn’t knock, smokes a little upon startup but not for more than a coupld seconds, and easily pushes the bus down the road at 55mph with plenty of pedal left. Shifts through all four gears smoothly, doesn’t pop out of any gears, and the shift linkage is in EXCELLENT shape! I wouldn’t think twice about driving this thing a hundred or so miles, I would think twice about driving it 1000 miles or more however. It’s 40+ years old after all! - At some point there was a factory gas heater installed – its an Epersbacher BN4. Includes proper switches on the dash. Unsure if factory, dealer or aftermarket install however. (Edited to add: No mcode - so not factory.) Probably pretty early on in the buses life if the latter, based on how clean the spare tire tray is. The timer in the dash works (still lights up too!) - The underside of this bus is in amazing condition. I believe most of the undercoating could be removed with a power washer & oven cleaner (or even simple green?) if one were to put it up on a lift. This particular bus has belly pans down both sides, but not the middle. (Normal westfalia setup). The splash pan under the front pedals is present. - There are a couple of deficiencies underneath. There is some rust flowering up where the driver’s side belly pan meets the outrigger, and there is a scratch / gouge in each rocker panel. - There is decent tread on all four tires, but there is weather checking on the rear tires. If driving this very far to home, I would encourage replacement of them. - The parking brake does work. - Bus has a brand new battery. IMPERFECTIONS: IMPERFECTIONS: These are items not mentioned anywhere else for the most part. - One of the previous owner’s was a ham radio enthusiast, there are several holes where antennas were once mounted. Included both front corners of the poptop, the RF bumper, and both sides of the spare tire. - One of the previous owners had “truck mirrors” mounted on front doors – each side door has two holes up top from these. - The bus was repainted at least 20 years ago. There is evidence of a couple of small areas of body work, including a baseball sized spot near the bottom of the sliding door, and a golf ball sized spot on the rear hatch (see pics). - There is a deep scratch / gouge on both rocker panels. - There is a chip in the top middle of the windshield. It is not turning into a crack. - One of the previous owners installed a car alarm in this thing – there is a key mounted in the front grille, a speaker mounted in the ceiling above the radio, a switch on the steering column, and a switch near the sliding door. It was disconnected by another P.O. but these items remain. - The horn “buzzes”, it doesn’t honk. - The flat panel that sits inside the rearmost side curtain on the passenger side is missing. - There are a pair of filled screw holes on each side of the door to the rear in the passenger side long cabinet. I believe there are two other unfilled screw holes in this cabinet. - There is a small tear in the middle of the rear seat (scotch tape). - There is a patch piece towards the left side of the black inner panel behind the front nose. - PO #4 decided to machine wash rear curtains – (see damage) epic fail here…. - PO #4 went wild with touch-up paint (mostly rock chips) everywhere on bus. See pics. - There are a couple of camper cabinet doors where the “t-molding” is warping. - The storage cabinet under the passenger seat is non-OEM. - There is some rust about a foot in from the doglegs on both side of the front floor. - There is some rust at the end of the belly pan on the driver’s side. - There are a couple of very small dings on the bus, but far less than one would expect given the flat surfaces and age. The worst is behind the dogleg on the drivers side. - No side tent (bus was m-coded for one). No camp stool. - Rear facing seat is not original to this bus. One of the PO’s put the icebox there, for more room evidently. It came out of another 1971, and the bottom cushion has some shrinkage in one of the corners. This piece isn’t as nice as the other camper bits on the bus. - The fuel gauge doesn't work. - The reverse lights don't work. - Bus came to PO with painted hubcaps, he replaced with chrome ones shown. They are somewhat dimpled and could stand to be replaced. - There is a screw sized hole on the passenger side of the icebox. The flat piece of wood that runs behind the sink towards the bulkhead is missing. There is some veneer missing from the icebox door. (Extra veneer is included however!) Nozzle to add water to water tank is broken/missing. The very hard to find upper pipe is present, but the very end needs glued (see pics). Can be installed w/o gluing and it still looks 100%. - Like most old VW's, this one drips a little oil - "marking its spot". - Lastly, when the bus was repainted, the entire bus (including poptop and bumpers) was repainted in the body color. Technically, the poptop and bumpers should be a lighter shade of white. - These are all things shown in the pics, but they’re easy to not see if you aren’t told about them (the biggest problem buying a vehicle with 2D pictures, but now you know!) LABELS & LITERATURE: LABELS & LITERATURE: These pics pretty much speak for themselves. - Original owners manual - Original service manual w/ engine #, VW service dates up to around 40K, etc. (SUPER nice!) - Original campmobile manual - Original small wonder 1971 owner’s magazine w/ original dealership stamp (very HTF!) - Original owner’s ID card, and presumably, the business card from original salesman - (Presumably) the original spare tire (Continental) - bus is m-coded for Continental tires. - LOTS of original stickers throughout the bus – most are camper specific. - All the OEM seat belts w/ tags (+ 1 extra in rear bed – non OEM). Rear facing seat is loose in bus, not installed - Note the original ham radio license on the steering column. - There are still a couple of 1970’s era oil change stickers mounted inside the driver’s door! MAGNET TEST: THIN magnets were used to show the commonly rusted areas down low are all metal - including the battery corner, the bottoms of all the doors, the dog legs and rocker panels. HISTORY: The m-code plate reads as follows: 12 091 450 518 697 523926 A02 P32 507 517 48 2 7773 UK 2310 21 Go to website www.VW-Mplate.com to decipher what this means. Here is the history of this bus as it’s been told to us. We bought it for a pretty large sum of money from owner #4 , a nice young couple in eastern Iowa who purchased it to flip it. They were forthright about this fact, wanting to use the profits to paint their first bus which they were restoring. We purchased it based on four pictures and a half hour phone conversation, under the premise it was in its original paint. It’s not, the bus has been repainted once, so we have elected not to keep it (although in their defense, it is rather hard to tell…). (The other reason is that most of our camping these days takes place in a Scamp, which has a shower, and is towed by a vehicle with A/C...) Anyway, they purchased it from Owner #3 – and older gentleman who was into VW’s and had owned it for ~18 years according to the title they received. During that time, he put less than 100 miles on it. He kept it stored in his garage, and had about a dozen mouse traps inside of it reportedly. You will receive the contact information for both these owners. As reported by Owner #3 – he bought the bus from a Pastor / Church, who acquired it from the original owner. Unsure if it was donated to the church (charity vehicle donations were not a popular occurrence back in the early ‘90’s like they are now) or the pastor purchased it. Prior to that was the original owner (name and contact info. inside service manual). One would not expect this nice of a bus to come out of Iowa – we are not the desert southwest or California. It’s just one of those stupid rare occurrences that happen in the car world – thankfully – this wasn’t a 1974 Maverick or 1976 Cordoba showing up this time, as is usually the case around these parts. COMPARABLES: -Here is a bunch of recent sales data of other baywindows (mostly campers) to compare to. -There is also information on this bus from auctionwatch. Please note that this bus was the 2nd "most watched" VW on eBay two months ago (out of around 1100 VW's for sale that day), so we're not alone in thinking this is a very special vehicle. (That was the first time we auctioned it - we ended auction early but deal fell through.) It was the 5th "most watched" VW on eBay the 2nd time we auctioned it - but the reserve was not met. -Another 1971 westy recently went for $15K BIN on here - item # 330727761900, and there are several later models (less desirable IMO) selling for more than our B-I-N price. -I have attached screen shots of these things and others, including a shot of bidding on this bus at $10,100 before the auction was stopped (1st time around), and $9,700 the second time the bus was auctioned off (when reserve was not met). In the end, this would make a GREAT summer driver / camper as-is. It would also make a super easy restoration if you want to take one back to showroom nice. The choice is up to you. Thanks for reading, and good luck! “FINE PRINT” Sorry, but it has to be said, this vehicle is sold as-is, where-is. You are encouraged to come and inspect the vehicle prior to placing a bid. If you are unable to come see it, feel free to hire someone to do so in your place. Remember, this is a 40+ year old VW. There will be imperfections / blemishes. It will need to be properly maintained. If you are looking for perfection, you need to go back in time somehow! ;-) In the end, please remember that you are buying a used vehicle that does not include a warranty and shows signs of wear that may or may not show up in the pictures. I represent my items as accurately as possible, with tons of pictures and descriptions bordering on overkill compared to most sellers, but my interpretation of this vehicle may differ from yours. I have clear and clean IA title in hand and ready to transfer to the winner of this auction. VIN number on title matches VIN plate on dash and on each plate behind each front seat. This vehicle is being sold as is, where is, with no warranty, expressed—written—or—implied. No allowance or set-aside will be made on account of any incorrectness, imperfection, defect or damage. Any descriptions or representations are for identification purposes only and are not to be construed as a warranty of any type. It is the responsibility of the buyer to have thoroughly inspected the vehicle, and to have satisfied himself or herself as to the condition and value and to bid based upon that judgement solely. The seller has and will make every reasonable effort to disclose any known defects associated with this vehicle at the buyer's request prior to the close of sale. Seller assumes no responsibility for any repairs regardless of any oral statements about the vehicle. DEPOSIT: A $500 NONREFUNDABLE DEPOSIT VIA PAYPAL IS DUE IMMEDIATELY. THE BALANCE TO BE PAID IN FULL VIA WIRE TRANSFER, CASHIER'S CHECK SENT VIA FEDEX, OR CASH IN PERSON WITHIN 7 DAYS. OVERSEAS BUYERS IF YOUR VEHICLE IS BEING SHIPPED INTERNATIONALLY, THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE IT WILL BE CHOSEN BY US CUSTOMS FOR INSPECTION. IF THIS OCCURS, BUYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY FEES DUE TO CUSTOMS. WE WILL GLADLY HELP WITH ALL SHIPPING RELATED ISSUES, WILL HELP LOAD THE BUS AS WELL.