My birthday present

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fig
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Re: My birthday present

Post by fig »

8) Story time ...

I first spoke to Marius when he contacted me via the ZebraSafari website shortly after our return to SA in 2002. He was looking for advice on rebuilding his Westy’s engine. I invited him to the first ever Kaapse Kombi Kult gathering at Innisfree Park in Sandton and got to see his amazing, original 1970 Westfalia for the first time, and after that we became friends. Marius was a very private person and was not in the habit of showing his bus.

He later attended the first two KKKult kamp-outs with his bus. Unfortunately pics of the bus were posted online and shortly afterwards an exporter rocked up at his father’s house asking after the bus, which was still registered in his father’s name. This offended Marius in ways I can’t explain, and he never took the bus to any kind of show again. He did continue driving it though, and completed a tour of Namibia, Caprivi, Botswana and Zimbabwe in 2010, a journey the bus had done a number of times in the hands of his father.

About two years ago Marius stopped responding to my emails. By late last year I was meaning to call him and find out how he was doing when I received an sms from his number from his wife, asking what the bus’s value was. I knew immediately that something had happened to Marius, as he would never consider selling that bus as long as he was alive. It took me two days to pluck up the courage to phone her, and she broke the news that Marius had tragically passed away in mid-2010 after suffering an embolism at the age of 43.

I gave her my view on what I thought would be a realistic asking price for such a well preserved and desireable bus and said I would be interested in buying it myself. She replied that a family member was interested and had first option. She also mentioned that the exporter who had harrassed her father-in-law had continued to bug her about the bus, especially after Marius died, spinning her a huge BS story that was clearly designed to persaude her to part with the bus. I was glad I’d given her an honest valuation as I figured it would be unlikely the relative would come up with that kind of money, and I was right.

A couple of weeks later I went and saw the bus and made her an offer, which she accepted. When we met she shared more info about the exporter and his kakstories. Fortunately she had always mistrusted his motives and had not given in to his advances. She didn’t know anything about him, other than that his name was Rob, that he was 50-something and came from near Muldersdrift. It didn’t take long for me to put two and two together about exactly who was trying to get his filthy claws on Marius’s westy. I won’t name the scumbag here, but he is still involved in the air-cooled community and was named on these forums as recently as last week. The guy always concocts a bullshit story tailored to persuade ignorant people to sell him their classic cars for well below their value (I fell for his BS once before ...). When I first met him he was exporting ACVWs, especially buses, and I have since seen him operating in classic Alfa Romeo circles, and heard this weekend he may also have been exporting classic Fords and who knows what else.

Marius’s widow and I struck our deal in December. Then followed two months of nailbiting while I pulled together the considerable sum of money I’d agreed to pay for the bus, while the scaly exporter harrassed Marius’s widow on an almost daily basis. Finally, I was able to pay the last money over and I collected the bus on my 47th birthday, a few days before this year’s KKKult kamp-out. It was 17 years to the day since I had picked up my 63 Dormobile on my 30th birthday.

Although Marius has passed on, his father, who bought the westy new, is still alive. I have arranged to meet him and hopefully he will be able to share photographs and stories about the travels he and his family did in the bus.

He ordered the bus in July 1969, after being offered it by a VW dealer where he did a lot of business as a fleet buyer for his employer. He collected the bus from Lindsay Saker in Mooi Street, Joburg (still there today!), on 22 November 1969. He recalls that the dealer took delivery of four of these campers, each in a different colour. As the first person to put his name on the list, he got first choice of the new buses and chose the red one.

Both father and son were fanatical about the bus and scrupulously maintained it in perfect condition. It was always kept in a locked garage and only saw the light of day when they drove it on holiday.

I never imagined I would one day own this bus, as I knew Marius would never sell it, and I regard it as an honour to have my turn to preserve and enjoy this amazing bus for posterity. It was also a personal victory for me to have snatched this bus out of the grubby grasp of one of the most evil exporters I’ve had the misfortune of meeting.

Image

Decoding the M-plate reveals just what a special bus this is. Its construction started on 14 August 1969, which was the fourth day of production of the 1970 model year, and the bus was the 6,115th built in the 1970 model year. It was the 64th Westfalia SO67R built for that year, and SO67R was built specifically for the South African market. In addition to the Westfalia option codes, the bus had option codes for additional dust sealing in the engine compartment, and a heavy duty oilbath air filter for South African conditions.

I only know of one other fully dealer imported 1970 Westfalia (jolas’s Jackson). I suspect they were ordered to test the market before VWSA committed to local production. Most 1970 westies I’ve seen here were assembled locally, which makes them the only Westfalias not built at the Westfalia factory in Wiedenbruck. The SA production of SO67R westies was the first production run of right-hand drive westies; before that RHD westies could only be had on special order.

I don’t know if it was supplied new with the deluxe trim or whether Marius’s dad added it later. It’s one of the questions I will ask him. I’ll share more about the bus after I meet Marius’s dad, and hopefully I’ll also have some period photographs of the bus as well.
:hangloose:


fig
Kaapse Kombi Kult

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right." -- Henry Ford
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Re: My birthday present

Post by beetlepower »

Cool Story!
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Re: My birthday present

Post by MarshallGTi »

unfortunate circumstances, but at least the bus is in good hands now. i bet she has some awesome stories to tell...
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An ingenius solution to a problem that should have never existed in the 1st place

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Re: My birthday present

Post by Jdt1976 »

fig wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:33 pm 8) Story time ...

He ordered the bus in July 1969, after being offered it by a VW dealer where he did a lot of business as a fleet buyer for his employer. He collected the bus from Lindsay Saker in Mooi Street, Joburg (still there today!), on 22 November 1969. He recalls that the dealer took delivery of four of these campers, each in a different colour. As the first person to put his name on the list, he got first choice of the new buses and chose the red one.

Decoding the M-plate reveals just what a special bus this is. Its construction started on 14 August 1969, which was the fourth day of production of the 1970 model year, and the bus was the 6,115th built in the 1970 model year. It was the 64th Westfalia SO67R built for that year, and SO67R was built specifically for the South African market. In addition to the Westfalia option codes, the bus had option codes for additional dust sealing in the engine compartment, and a heavy duty oilbath air filter for South African conditions.

I only know of one other fully dealer imported 1970 Westfalia (jolas’s Jackson). I suspect they were ordered to test the market before VWSA committed to local production. Most 1970 westies I’ve seen here were assembled locally, which makes them the only Westfalias not built at the Westfalia factory in Wiedenbruck. The SA production of SO67R westies was the first production run of right-hand drive westies; before that RHD westies could only be had on special order.

Fig, if you could remember at KKK I said to you I had a suspicion our Westies are brothers. After searching for something on the forum this morning I found this thread and it reminded me to have a look at the numbers.

Mine was definitely one of the four ordered by Lindsay Saker Mooi street at the time. :hangloose:

If my decoding of the M-plate is correct the production date of mine was 15 Aug 1969.

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Haans
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Re: My birthday present

Post by Haans »

Smart!,,,you are not considering adopting a fairly healthy 63year old boy???.

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Re: My birthday present

Post by brucet »

Wow what a stunning bus! Well done Fig.
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Re: My birthday present

Post by TurkishZa »

Great story. If anyone deserves to own this vehicle Fig, it's you. Well done on the purchase, and a happy belated birthday!!
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