Planned Activities

We have a few things planned for this year already. Unfortunately nothing with organized bus folks yet, but there is time. We have to juggle around baseball and football too. But that won’t slow us down too much. The first trip on the agenda is actually getting the bus. We hare considering a few alternatives. Driving down to pick up the bus and driving back, flying down and driving Kermit back, or either Marilyn or I flying down and driving back. Personally I would like to find the cheapest plan. This will allow more money to spend on family outings 🙂 . The maiden voyage will be to Michigan over the 4th of July. We will be meeting friends from Colorado and DC for a weekend on Lake Michigan. Then to Hartford Michigan to my cousin’s wedding. This will be the first time Kermit will meet the rest of the family. Then to Indiana over Labor Day weekend to the Bean Blossom Blues, Brew, and BBQ festival in Nashville. I have wanted to go this for a couple of years. This year they have added the BREW and BBQ to the event.

 

His Name is Kermit

We got a great review of the of the bus from our scouts. Their reports are as follows:

“It was very clean exterior, rode in it, it goes good, the engine is clean, not oily or gunky.

Underneath they crawled up under there, no heavy oil leaks or anything.

The right rear wheel, a little oil, could be the shock and or the brake. But, all the other wheels were clean. He said he’d check out the leaky one.

The inside is clean, all original side flip out windows, the interior glass looks good. He’s put all new rubber around them all and the doors. He’s got some inside trim around the inside doors too.

A firm believer in the laminate, rather than solid wood. They use laminate coated plyboard in the original construction. Has pics of Kermit before it had been redone.

One dent in the right rear end and some rust there, too. But, the floor pan and the frame and underneath, no rust looked very good. The heating worked.

He’s restored a lot of these, beetles, and busses for a good many years. He pretty well knows what the cabinets were like from the factory. H Has his birth certificate, date of its birth, date of mfg, etc. obtained from the orgi owner who had done some restoration. Has a bunch of pcs from original owner.

Woody seems to be a pretty nice fella, his business is cabinetry, and he does a nice job. He did a nice job on the one they drive around.

He didn’t see anything bad about it. He took ’em up the road, and it runs sweet. No misses, or roughness to it. Give it the gas and it shifted good, the gears sounded good. Tires were pretty decent, not brand new, but looked good.

Needs the windshield wiper, horn, fuel gauge.

All the glass was in good shape, no white spots, all the push buttons for opening the engine compartment seemed to work well. The previous owner had done a good bit of the restoration.

Opened the doors, looked for evidence of rust and there was none.

The guy before him had the engine rebuilt. The upholstery was in very good shape, the passenger seat had one little hole, but he said they’d fix it. There was some door trim areas and the overhead liner was missing. That he’ll put in to finish it off.

He’s not a mechanic, anything he has mechanically done, he goes to VW.

The passenger side mirror missing, only one hubcap on the vehicle, but he has the other 3. No draft latch on the passenger side is gone. Probably have to replace this; b’c you can’t latch it, it does leak water.

The door latched fine, getting in and out was easy.
The seat cushions were in good shape, and so was the vinyl. No seat belts. Didn’t make them in 1963.

After they drove around, they took the dipstick out and it didn’t smoke or smell hot. Look like the engine was kept pretty clean. Ran good. ”

His sidekick added ” Thinks the Oak would look good in Kermit, because of the color pretty lime green and creamy eggshell white.

It had boot scoot to it. Has a lot of potential.
Since he’s done so many of them, he really does know what he’s doing. He knows what was in there from the pictures. So, he could pretty much get it back to its original state.

We should ask him what he recommends to get it back to its original theme. And give us a figure on that. He does a lot for other people as far as the cabinets, so he’s just that kind of guy.

You might want to hop on it, b/c this is good deal.
It actually looks better in person than the pictures.
He didn’t lie about anything, he’s a good guy. And his wife was really sweet, too.

Get the windshield wipers & seatbelts & the horn. Get a personal license plate: Kermit”

We are taking the above advice and are working on a final price. We have found out that the gas gauge works! Although we had decided that it would not be a deal killer. We were happy that the sending unit was good. That would have cause the motor and tank to be pulled to correct. The wipers and vent lock are a non issue. Those should be easy to fix.

The next step is to come up with some with some floor plans and Laminate samples. The floor plans are about finished. We have company in town this weekend, so the laminate may need to wait. Then we can begin negotiate the final price. The next challenge seems to be the quest for the sconces….. stay tuned.