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This weekend in SoCal I went to the 1st OCTO event of the year. The Orange County Transporter Organization (OCTO) organizes an event for pre-67 VW buses (splitty) which usually draws a huge turnout of splitty buses (200+) in Long Beach. With the great weather (clear skies 70 degrees) Saturday was especially crowded. As a big-time VW fan I've owned a few of these and this event makes me jones for another.

Here are some highlights... For best viewing click on pics to enlarge.

OCTO1Feb23OCTO2Feb23OCTO3Feb23OCTO4Feb23OCTO5Feb23OCTO6Feb23OCTO8Feb23OCTO9Feb23OCTO10Feb23OCTO7Feb23OCTO11Feb23OCTO12Feb23OCTO13Feb23

MusbJim - aka; El Guapo, the most guapo hombre in all of SoCal! 

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We've all had one or more VW's (and 356's) in our youth (circa 1960-1980) that were dirt cheap and at the time were all that we could afford in our youthful careers that NOW go for CRAZY money. I won't bore you with my list of got-aways.

My wife, Ginny, after seeing the prices of these buses tells me I should buy a project bus (like the patina'd single-cab pictured) and restore it to sell (or keep). As my buddy @Stan Galat noted, the days of turning profit on such a project are Looooooog gone.

If I were ever to buy one, it would be THIS bad-boy...

OCTO22

...otherwise, I'll just keep driving the vehicles I currently own until the wheels fall off.

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  • OCTO22
Last edited by MusbJim

OK Jim you put me in a Flashback mode. Growing up in Auburn, CA Because of the local College there was a strong connection the Berkeley. My Neighbors were highly educated folks from UC. One was school teacher at Folsom Prison and the other the City Librarian. They had a 59 Split and an BMW Isetta. When her sister came to visit from Berkeley they also drove a Splitty. They were was ahead of the Hippie Movement as in the Bus they brought Chickens and a Goat for dietary reasons. The neighbor across the street saw the ass end of the goat, thought it was a deer and was going to drop it until his wife intervened when the goat turned around.

My friend Dennis just picked up a '59 split-window single cab. We're talking about installing a car ramp/loader onto it. He runs Vintage VW, a body shop 3 miles from me.

I LOVE the old stuff! Keep the buses coming, Jim!

Along with a decent 1600 and a taller 3.88 box, but keeping the reduction boxes, it should be able to handle my Vee on it.

It always blows me away that I hardly ever see an early bus on the road (or even a later one, for that matter), but when I go to the New England VW show in the Summer, 60+ of them show up, like they come out of the woodwork or something.

And they're always a treat to see, I rode all over Honduras and Guatemala in a 4-door pickup like Jim wants.  It wasn't especially fast, but the roads wouldn't allow speed back then either.

There are a lot of Brazilian splitties for sale on thesamba.  The seem more reasonably priced.  They were made there into the mid-70s.

Michael, at this meet there are usually a couple of replica (fiberglass) Samba buses shells for sale. They are from Brazil, all you need to do is gather all the tid bits to put it together. Still big money to complete that kind of project.

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