Eddy Collins of Eddy and Dave's Garage

Today I talk to Eddy Collins of Eddy and Dave's Garage in Orange, California. They're a full blown parts warehouse. Eddie specializes in high roof buses but he's really in the business of finding you parts. If there's something rare you're looking for, he will find it for you.

Find Eddy at https://vwvintageparts.com/

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Today I talked to Eddie Collins of Eddie and Dave's garage. It's in Orange, California, and they're a full blown parts warehouse. Uh, Eddie specializes in high roof buses. They will do some work on your car, but for the most part, He's really in the business of finding you parts.

He's a parts house. But, if you have something rare you want from him, he will find it for you. Uh, and he can also recommend other vendors and, uh, other specialty, outfits. People who do specialty work, specifically on Volkswagens. Here's my talk with Eddie. tell me a little bit about Eddie and Dave's garage when it started,  how it started. Has it always been in this location, et cetera. 

it's funny. There was something that I basically wanted to go ahead and,  find a place where I can actually work on my own cars and, uh, not have my wife ask me, when is this gonna get picked up?

When is this gonna get cleaned up? How long is this gonna be here? What's this stuff on the ground. You know, that whole stuff. And so, um, my buddy, Dave and I, we both worked together at Disneyland for many years. He was actually my boss. And, uh,  I remember, uh, backing up a bit. I remember one day he had asked me, he said, Hey, I'm inviting all the managers to go grab, you know, bite to eat after work.

And I said, yeah, cool. I might be a little bit. And he said why? And I said, oh, I've gotta deliver a, a middle seat out of a VW bus, to some guy who's buying it. And he said, what? And I said, yeah, I go, I sell parts. And I said, I'm into VWs. He said to me, he said, well, ah, my first car was a VW bug. And I said, oh cool.

So we started chit chatting and he said, uh, how, how do you like the parts thing I said, I love it. It's fun. You know, you can make a little bit of extra money. And I told him, I said, no offense. You're my boss. And I said, but you don't pay me enough. And I said, so I gotta go ahead and subsidize my, uh, my income.

And so,  you know, we hit it off. We were like best buddies. And he said, you know, if you ever want to go ahead and do that together, he said, that'd be fun. And I go, yeah, that'd be really cool. So we decided to go ahead and find a warehouse where we can go ahead and, not just sell parts, but work on our own cars. 

And we found a place over here in orange and we found one unit. And from there it got to the point where we needed a little bit more space. So we got another unit and it just kind of grew from there. And then we used to, you know, sit, hang out, have a beer and, and look down the cul-de-sac and think, how cool would it be to go ahead and have a place where you could actually  have kind of like a one stop shop, if you will.

And enjoy the fact that you can go ahead and, , buy your parts, uh, work on your cars. You know, it'd be neat to have somebody that did a, you know, body shop and blah, blah, blah. And so it was just kind of a dream, but, uh, as time went on and you know, our careers just continued to go on and so forth.

We just kind of grew and it was, it was fun. And,  before you know, it.  We had four units and unfortunately Dave had a, had a tragic accident and he ended up, uh, dying in that accident. He was driving in 1959 Kia and, uh, had an aneurysm while he was driving and unfortunately died, you know, in that accident it was horrific accident.

And so, uh, at that time I thought, wow, man, you know, I don't know what I, what I wanna do. Um, I still continue to, to work at Disneyland, but part-time, but I thought it would be cool to actually go ahead and, keep the, keep the thing going, keep the tradition going. At that point in time, I decided to just kind of stuff, everything that I had, parts, cars and everything into one shop, because I had to do everything on my own, suddenly from licensing to paperwork, you know, I mean, it's a legit business and I was very fortunate.

We had secured accounts with all the big boys Wolfsburg west Wolfgang, you know, west coast, Metro, all these, all these great folks and great vendors to go ahead and work with. And, as time would go on, I had a friend who was a mechanic and I told him, I said, I'll tell you what, I'm not working on cars anymore.

If you want to go ahead and take on the labor aspect of it, I'll be more than happy to do that. You know, just buy the parts from me, cuz I really only have time to really be selling parts, going to getting 'em selling 'em and so forth. So he decided to go ahead and take over the original shop. And so he had those units and as time would have it, uh, my friend, Brian of Washburn's metal, he used to work for Grumpy's and uh, grumpy was gonna relocate to Texas.

I asked Brian what he was gonna do. And he said, I'm staying here. I said, Hey, there's another unit in my complex. Do you wanna come over? And it's kind of funny now looking back on it where he was a little bit nervous back then thinking, well, I don't know, you know, it's kind of a tough nut to crack every month and looking back on it now, now he's got, you know, a couple year waiting list and so it's, uh, it's been pretty neat that. 

We've got, obviously I sell the parts. I've got Brian who installs them and, and does everything else. And then I've got Brian Washburn, who's doing all the sheet metal replacement. So the only thing that we're missing now is an upholster don't want to delve into the whole paint and body thing because of all the licensing and EPA standards that you've gotta go ahead and adhere to.

So, um, but in the meantime, it's been kind of nice and it's been nice to have a symbiotic, uh, relationship, uh, and as time would have it, the other units around the complex, as they came up for rent, I decided to go ahead and add 'em onto my lease and basically lease them out to friends that are also in a Volkswagens.

And so we ended up doing that. And so this little complex here has now become a really neat centralized Volkswagen location, which is nice. And not too long ago, we had one tenant move in who's OC Westy, and he does all the Westy interiors and, and Westy buses. And so it it's, it's been really nice. It's kind of cool that, uh, you know, people can come here. 

And check out some fun buses and so forth, but so that's, that's how Eddie and Dave's got started.  But my Volkswagen roots, they go way deeper than that. I mean, to when I was a little kid. So I, um, tell me, 

sorry to interrupt, but no, no, no. Tell me about your first earliest memory. Of those Volkswagen roots.

Uh, you know, it's interesting. A lot of people don't know, but I was born here in the states. I always say that I was made in the us, but assembled in Guatemala, central America. I was born here in about when I was about a year old, ended up going down to Guatemala and lived there for the first six years of my life and my aunts and uncles, cuz my mom's from Guatemala.

So my family down there actually had Volkswagens. And so as little boys, I mean I remember being in the back of a 66 beetle. And it was funny because I remember specifically it was a Pearl white beetle, but it had a black deck lid. It had been replaced at some point in time and it was just black and I still had the 300, uh, 1300, uh, badge on it.

But I remember, uh, being there with my cousin and she, and I would be in that little hole behind the rear seat, which I always think to myself, how did I ever fit back there behind the rear seat, behind the rear seat? Yeah. In that little, in that, in that, in that tiny little compartment. Sure. And it was just really interesting because I loved it and I loved the fact that, you know, the, the rear, uh, windshield was just really pretty much an inch away from your face and just looking out and the smell.

And then, uh, when the weekends would roll. We would all go to this really, really cool park. And, uh, as a family and my uncle had a, um, he had a little bit of a newer bus, so he had a bay window bus and we would all pile in there on the weekends. And I thought that was the neatest thing. But the one that really got me was my other uncle.

He had a panel van and I believe it was a 64 and it was VW gray. And it was, uh, the coolest thing sitting in the front, sitting on the bench seat and just having him drive it. It was, uh, such a, such a great feeling to be in that. And so my love for commercial buses actually started then mm-hmm  and then, uh, in the mid seventies ended up coming back here to California.

My mom realized there wasn't much of a future for us in Guatemala. And I remember as a kid, my, um, my mom had told her dad, my grandfather, that we were gonna come back to the states  and he was pissed. He thought, I can't believe it. You know, first you left, then you got pregnant and then you had a kid and now you're back.

And now you want to leave, you know? So he told her, if you leave, I'm not helping you. I'm not giving you a dime. And she said, that's fine. She said, I'll, I'll do it on my own. And I remember as a kid, people coming over to our house and we lived with my grandparents, in fact, cuz we didn't have our own place.

And so we were pretty poor. Um, but my mom sold everything that we had from my bed to my clothing, to everything, minus the clothes that I was wearing that I wore on the plane. When we flew back here to California and we were coming here to the city of orange to be with her best friend, whom had said, if you guys come up here, you could live with me until you get a.

And so came here to the city of orange and, uh, probably like about three miles away from where we are right now sitting and, uh, lived there for a few months. My mom got a job, didn't have a car, took the bus. And so at age seven, she threw me into school. I didn't know how to speak English, cuz spoke Spanish for, you know, six years of my life.

And uh, before you know it there, I was, uh, latchkey kid walking myself to, to school. Um, my mom and I finally got an apartment together, which was kind of cool. And uh, it was just kind of interesting where it just kind of took off. It took off from there, but uh, going through grade school and obviously I learned how to speak English very quickly cuz you know, either sink or swim, I ended up.

Really just be mesmerized by Volkswagens all the time. And, and ever since I was a little kid. And so when I went into high school at that time in the eighties, it was the mini truck scene. And of course I loved mini trucks and I thought it was the coolest thing. And, um, my mom had to remarried wonderful guy.

So he proved that you don't have to be blood related to be a good father and, uh, really, really cool guy. And I remember he helped me get my first car, which was a 73 Ford courier. And of course I lowered that thing and I thought it was the coolest thing. And then of course I killed the poor little truck over time and eventually moved into a, uh, a new little, uh, Dodge, Dodge, Ram 50 truck.

And by then I had started working at Disneyland so it was kind of cool, you know, making my own payments, bought my own little car.  And it's funny. I still have that little truck today. Oh,  That little truck. I went to go put a sound system in, at a place then called circuit city. And I ended up meeting a guy there.

His name was David wild. And what was wild, you know, pun intended was the fact that the guy that put the sound system in my car was hard of hearing. In fact, he was deaf. Oh. And I thought this is pretty incredible. And so we started chatting. He wore hearing aids that he could read your lips. And I thought, wow, you know, this is pretty cool.

And he started talking about the system in his car and I said, well, where's your car? And he pointed across the street and here was a 62 rag top and it was candy purple. It had, uh, you know, a light gray interior. And he was showing me what he had speakers, amps, you know, and so forth. And it was just kind of funny that here's a guy who's hard of hearing and he's got a system in his car  and he said, I can feel it.

And I thought, okay. All right. Okay, cool. So we, we became friends, but it was interesting because. Uh, seeing the Volkswagen and telling him how much I love Volkswagens. He and I decided, Hey, how fun would it be to actually go ahead and let's buy a bus and, uh, we'll go 50 50 on it. And we found a bus one day, we went, uh, grabbed the recycler for those of you that remember the recycler, uh, you'd go Thursday morning, seven in the morning, we'd go down to where it would be published.

And we got it. And it was just the funniest thing. Cuz here was a bus $800 not running 67, 13 window down in San Clemente. And I thought, wow, this is really cool. Let's go check it out. So we go down there and guy was super nice and he said, yeah, it just, you know, he goes, it runs, it just hasn't started. And so long story short on that one, We, we got it figured out what was wrong with it before we bought it. And so I told my friend, I said, what do you wanna do? And he said, ah, you know, and so he's kind of, you know, speaking to me and he said, let's, let's. Um, let's think about this it's 400 bucks each. Well, in the meantime, while we're debating on, you know, should we go for it or not?

Which looking back today, you'd be like, yeah, why wouldn't you, the guy comes over and he says, listen, you guys. I told my wife, this car would be gone today. You give me $600, it's yours and I'll throw this in. And he brought out a three quarter length refrack he brought out a Bentley manual  and a bunch of other stuff.

And by the way, it had all the seats in it. And I said, yeah. Okay. Sounds great. And so he brings out the title. Of course it's clear. I mean, it was like one of those picture perfect things and it was great. You know, he signed it, I owned it. Now we gave him the cash and we said, okay, we're gonna go run an errand real quick.

We'll be right back. And he said, okay. And I told him, I said, we'll just push it onto the street since now it's our responsibility. Sure. No problem. We went to like a Craig and auto parts bought a coil. We realized that was what was wrong with it. The coil was bad. It would turn over the battery was good, but there was no spark.

And so for 20 bucks we came back.  Still to this day, and this is probably 33 years later, I still kind of feel bad.    for the poor guy who looked out to the curb and even looking at the Bentley manual that he gave us all the greasy thumbprints were all in the ignition section. And I felt like, you know, he was just about to get there.

Mm-hmm  but he didn't and who knows what happened, but we threw in a coil, turned over and it stuttered, and the guy had this bewildered look like, you gotta be kidding me. And then we did it again, give it a couple pumps of gas, started up and I thought, let's get outta here before this guy changes his mind or something got in it and, uh, and took off.

And it was, it was great. Now the cool part.  Pomona was that next weekend. And I said, oh, let's go to Pomona. We'll hang out. You know, we'll camp out, you know, maybe have a couple beers and blah, blah, blah. And so we did, and the Sunday morning rolled around when we woke up, some guy was walking around the bus and I'm like, what does this guy want?

And he, uh, comes up to me and he said, Hey, he goes, uh, you guys selling this bus? And I said, no, we just bought it. And he said, well, if you did sell it, what would you want for it? And I said, I don't know, we just got it. And I looked at my friend, Dave, and I said, what do you think, dude? And he said, I don't know, tell him 3,600 bucks, you know?

I mean, we just paid 600 bucks. Right. We're and I'm going, okay, all right, we're gonna go big here, you know? Yeah. And I said, yeah, we'd want 3,600 bucks, you know? And it was hilarious. The guy.  I'll take it. And I went, oh shit, we gotta find a ride home.    what 

year was that you 

think about? Oh, this had to have been in the nineties.

So it was in the nineties. Yeah, this was in the nineties. And, uh, so it was kind of cool, you know, it was pretty neat. And so the funny part was that, um, you know, we took our money and, you know, he got his 300 back plus the 1500 that we just made on it. And I took mine, my cut. And, uh, he went and, you know, he had some debts that he had to pay and I.

I'm gonna go buy another bus. Yeah. And I went and I found another bus and I thought, all right, cool. And at that point in time, um, my girlfriend's dad said, oh, you should take it down to TJ and have it done. So I took my bus down to TJ. Oh. And I had it done and it was nuts. I actually got this thing painted and upholstered. 

I think I paid, I think I paid $900. Okay. For a two toned paying job and got, got the holster and it was a 66 walkthrough. it's funny. It looked like something out of a Coca-Cola commercial and driving that thing back across the border. I got the ultimate contact high from the amount of glue that, that they had used on the headliner, in the seats.

I had the worst headache the next day, but, uh, I, so I got it. And then, uh, that over the course of time that I bought it, got it done. The next Pomona rolled around and I thought let's do this again. And at that point in time,  I took that car to Pomona and I met this Japanese guy, really cool guy, uh, soft spoken.

And he said, uh, you know, how much do you want for the bus? And I thought, well, 36, hundred's always been a good, you know, number for me. And so I told him, I said 3,600 bucks and I figured, you know, I'm making a couple grand easily on the thing. And, uh, cuz I'd paid 600 for the bus paid, you know, let's just say a thousand bucks of my time.

And I, so I thought, yeah, cool. Well, he drove it and he said, yeah, that's great. I'll buy it. And he just drove it like about a hundred yards. And uh, he thanked me for the fact that I didn't up the price or make it ridiculous just because he was Japanese. Because back then, sadly, you know, people were a little bit on the racist side where you would see somebody, you know, uh, Japanese coming down the road, you knew that these people had money.

They had a backpack filled with cash. And so you'd be like, oh, you know what? My $3,000 car is now $5,000 and they would try to negotiate or a lot of the times they would just say, okay, that's the price. And they would pay it. But. I wanted to be fair, you know, I thought, okay, that, that that's crap. You know, look, you know, don't take advantage of it.

If, if you want five grand, then ask five grand, but don't just up it because of the fact that the guy's Japanese. And so, , The guy was really, he was very thankful for that. And I asked him, I said, do you, what do you do? And he said, oh, I export cars. And for me, as I was growing up, I always wanted to have my own import export business.

I thought it'd be really cool. My, my, uh, some of my uncles in Guatemala, they did, they were in the export business and they exported Sesame seeds, coffee, and a lot of the other, you know, general products that you would find down in, in central America. And so I thought, Hey, how cool would it be to go ahead and get involved with cars?

And he said to me, he said, if you can find cars for me and do 'em, blah, blah, blah. Uh, he said, you know, let let's do business together. And I said, yeah. And before, you know, I found myself getting cars, doing 'em up, you know, uh, inexpensively and then driving to the port and then having my friends gimme a ride home.

And it was kind of cool. I sent, I sent a few cars over there and, uh, it was just, it was just pretty neat, but it got to the point where.  , you know, almost like a drug addict where, or, or a dope dealer that starts doing his, you know, getting high on his own supply. Mm-hmm  I thought to myself, okay, well, I think I want to keep one.

So the money that I was making, I thought, okay, I'll sell a car, but then have enough money profit to go buy another car for me. And it got to the point where I was very fortunate and plus I was working too. I mean, I was still working full time at Disneyland. I was also washing cars around the neighborhood.

I've always been like a hustler and just, you know, work, work, work, work, work. And so I got to the point where I kept graduating onto the next best car, next best car. And, uh, but my, my first car after that one, , that I had sold to him, my first car that I finally kept was a 1960 double door panel. And what was kind of cool was it was, it was actually built on my birthday in 1959.

And so it was 10 years. I was born in 69, but it was kind of cool that it, I was like, oh my gosh, This bus rolled off on my birthday and I thought, cool. So I saved that car for a long time and, I didn't sell it until about 2006. I had it from the nineties until about 2006 and I used to drive into Disneyland.

In fact, and I used to park behind main street back in the day when, when I was in management and could park back there. And I even took that car out on a main street during Christmas time. And I have a photo of that bus in front of the Christmas tree on Disney. Yeah. On main street, which is pretty rad.

But then, uh, you know, as time would have it I I'd. Got in my double door panel and I'd sold some of the cars. One day, I saw a high roof for sale and this was now the internet was coming into play mm-hmm  and I found an internet on the SOMBA, which back then it was just, you know, I mean, the Sobo was somewhat new and, uh, and it was just really kind of cool that here was a dove blue.

And by the way, my 60 double door panel was dove blue. So that's my favorite, color double door panel, you know, that I had, and I saw this French,  dove blue high roof for sale. And I went, wow, I'd never seen a high roof before. I thought that is so rad. And in the meantime, I was actually working a little bit at Wolfsburg west and one day the phone rang and it was Bob, uh, the owner of B, B T Bob van Heiss.

And he called me and he had called and we started chatting and he said, oh, who are you? You know, I've never spoken to you. And, uh, we immediately hit it off. And, uh, we started chatting and he realized that I liked buses. And I said, yeah, in fact, I said, there's this bus in France looks really cool. And he said, oh, and so he went online and he goes, oh yeah.

He said, do you speak French? And I said, no. I said, I speak Spanish and Italian, I dig an Italian in college. And he said, oh, I speak French. Lemme call the guy and see, you know, what, what he'll take and so on and so forth. And let me find out the details. And I said, okay, cool. Thanks.  The next day rolls around and he calls me back at the office and he said, Hey, it's done.

And I go, I'm sorry, what's done. And he said, I spoke to the guy. He said, he, he accepted a, a good offer. And he goes, so it's done. And I said, what do you mean it's done? And he said, well, I told him that you'd buy it. And I thought, Hey man, I'm not rich.  you know? Yeah. And so I told him, I thought, all of a sudden, you know, you think to yourself, dude, I gotta come up with some money now.

Right. And so I told him, I said, Hey, would you be interested in a 1960 double door panel? And he goes, isn't that your bus that you were telling me about? I said, yeah. And I said, it's a great bus. It's Bulletproof. And all the bugs have been worked out and it, and he said, sure. And I told him, I said, I'll just ship this bus to you and go grab that bus, cuz he's gotta go to France, pick it up, bring it back to Belgium, put it in a container and then have it shipped over.

It's gonna come to the bay area. I mean, it was exciting stuff, but I thought, listen, hopefully my bus will cover the cost and he goes, yeah, you know, it should. And uh, so he was  extremely instrumental in getting my, my first high roof. And you know, it was funny because the high roof, even though I had an engine and so forth that didn't run and drive supposed with motor around, but I didn't care because I thought I want this, this high roof.

And, uh, it was really cool because  suddenly I was getting a photo of it in a contain.   and one day I'm on a film shoot at Disneyland. And while I'm, uh, while I'm on set, I get a text message from, uh, Ray of, uh, you know, Speedwell up in up north, uh, with, uh, Mark Merrill and, um, and, uh, anyway, Ray Scher, he said, uh, he calls me and he says, Hey, he goes, this is Ray Schubert.

He goes, we've never met before. And he said, bet, uh I'm I just took delivery of your car in one of Mark's cars that came over in the container. I said, cool, man, you know, I'm like, okay, what do I do? Right. And I'm thinking, I gotta figure out how to get that thing down here. He says to me, he said, I'm rolling, empty down to orange county to go pick up another car.

He goes, would you like me to bring your car for you? And I thought you you're kidding me.  yes. I said, yeah, that'd be fantastic. And he said, cool. And so I give him my address and he said, where do you want me to put it when I get there? And I said, in my driveway, if you don't mind, so I do this 12 hour film shoot.

I get home that night. And when I get home, there's a 1966 dove blue, original paint high roof in my driveway, which of course my wife was like, um, excuse me,  , were you gonna tell me about that thing? You know, and, uh, where do I park my car? And I'm like, who cares? You know? And it was, uh, it was, it was so cool.

I remember coming home and, uh, I pushed it into the backyard and, uh, cuz we lived in a 1920s home and it was just a skinny little driveway, but perfect for a bus, push it in the back, went, cracked, open a beer. And I went and sat in the driver's seat and just sat there. And it was funny cuz my wife was like, you know, looking around for me and she comes outside.

She.  What are you doing? 

you know, at least my pants were on, you know,   were they zipped out? You know? No, they weren't. Then I told her, I said, I go, oh, I said, I'm just dreaming of the day that I can actually drive this thing down the road. And she's like, well, hopefully it's sooner than later. , you know, And, so that, that was cool, man.

That's when the whole high roof craze, uh, kind of started I had to go through everything. I think the bus had been in a flood or something. There was water in the tranny. And I thought, I, I didn't care, man. I did not care. So I didn't. Yeah. You know, I ended up doing brakes, tranny, motor, blah, blah, blah, you know, three to eight ring opinion conversion so I can drive it on the freeway.

And um, yeah. And then I learned about how, how, uh, much fun and yes, I'm being sarcastic. It is to drive these things on the freeway. Oh man. And especially when the Santa Ana winds are blowing down here in Southern California, uh, you need to carry a, uh, box that depends with you because it is absolutely frightening.

Now I remember one specific day looking outside and I always tell people if I look outside and I see the Palm trees kind of, you know, the, the leaves blowing, that's not a high roof day. Mm-hmm  well, this particular day, I didn't have my regular.   I had the high roof at home and I had to take my son to school, which was about nine miles away.

And the only way to get him there on time was a either leave 45 minutes prior and take streets or B.  Go for it. Get on the freeway and get into the carpool lane. Even mm-hmm , you know, there we're gonna do it and I'll never forget my son. He was in, uh, gosh, I think he was in second grade at the time and we were on the freeway and of course I put lap belts in it, you know?

And, uh, we're going, we are in the, we are in the fast lane and I mean, I'm white knuckling it and I've got my hands pointed the other direction, thinking good, God, you know, here we go. We're gonna die. And uh, all of a sudden, you know, my son says to me, Dad are we gonna die?   and to which I told him, I said, well, son, I go, I'll be honest with you.

I said, I don't know, but you will get to school on time.   dead on arrival, man. You know?  Yeah. It was, it was scary, you know, but yeah. So good, good, good staff 

fan. I love it. I love it. And so let me ask you, so we're sitting here, as I mentioned at the beginning, and there are four high roofs that I can see within my line of sight.

Is this blue one? The one you're talking about. 

This blue one right here. This, this was the one that started it all. And, uh, yeah. You know, so it's kind of a trip how, uh, that one started it all.  Probably, uh, I would probably say maybe about a year later, uh, I received a phone call from Bob and he said, Hey, there's a 66.

That came up. It's a XW postal bus, right hand drive, sliding door, uh, walk through. And he said, I don't know if you'd like it, you need a ton of metal work, not to today's standards, you know? And uh, I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be so cool. Cuz I had this dream of having 2 66 is and the original color on the other 66 was Pearl white.

So I thought, oh, I'll go Pearl white on that. But with the blue logos and so kind of have a carbon copy and, but then 30 days later after.  You know, had said yes, on that high roof, he called me again and he said another one came up, it's a bullet bus. It's also a right hand drive. And he said, and it's a much better condition than this other one.

And I don't know what the hell was going through my head at the time. Cause I just bought that one. But I said, yes, just, you know, just do it, just send it. And I thought, what, what am I doing, man? You know, 

You had the sickness. I mean, you had no choice. And when you say bullet bus, you mean front bullet turn signal indicators.

Yeah. Yep. So bullet indicators, which ran through 63 in Europe. So I had the, as we know, 'em the 62 to 71 taillights, um, which started in 62, but in Europe, the bullets ran through 63. So it was kind of cool. Uh, the other thing that was pretty neat was the fact that the, the 66, uh, Swiss postal bus actually had a fiberglass sliding door, but the 63 was a metal sliding door.

And to date, I haven't seen another metal sliding door, so that's pretty unique. And so I got that one and I thought, all right, that's pretty cool. Pretty neat. , but then, then one day I'm sitting at the office of JWS and I see an ad pop.  For a cleaner mobile, and I'd never seen one before and that's the ivory ambulance over here.

And I thought you gotta be kidding me. And it was in the Netherlands. And of course the ad says offers, which basically just means, huh, I think I can get X amount from my kids' liver or something on the black market. I'm like, you know, I gotta sell something. Right, right. And, uh, so I called the guy and he was very, very cool.

I told him, I said, look, I don't know what you want for your bus. And I said, but I want it. I said, let's make it fair. Let's make it, you know, let's make this work. And he was super cool. And he said, all right, sounds great. And he goes, why don't we do this? He said, you just wire me X amount of money each month under this amount.

So nothing blips on the radar. And, uh, I said, sounds great. So then he was willing to work with me.   it was my turn to go ahead and start liquidating, whatever I had. And so one of the things I had sold was the 66 right hand drive. And I never really wanted to sell it, but a friend of mine who wanted to start his own bakery business, and I thought, how rad would that be?

I thought that would be really cool. So I told him, I said, dude, I'll sell it, I'll sell it. And I said, I think it's pretty cool what you want to do. And, uh, so it's gonna be converted in a sales flap and oh, you know, just really bitch and bust. And so that went and I thought, okay, now I've got the funds for that.

And, uh, you know, of course is, uh, luck would have it.  My friend shin, who's the editor of hot VWs ends up texting me at midnight. A couple years ago, I think it was in 2019. And he says, look at what I'm photographing right now. And he knows that I'm a high roof fan. And so the funny part is that the text messages are coming in at midnight.

And of course now I'm sitting up in bed and you'd think that I'm having an affair and my wife's sleeping and I'm looking at my phone. So the luminescence will, you know, won't wake her up and I'm looking at these pictures that are turning me the hell on , you know? And I'm like, oh my God. Oh my God. You know?

And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. And so of course, I'm texting a back going, dude, dude, what's the story on this car? What story on this car? And he is like, oh, super nice guy, blah, blah, blah. And then he said it, he goes, he's thinking of selling it. And so suddenly I thought to myself, oh shoot, man,  what do I have left?

You know? Yeah. And so I thought, okay. And, uh, so I thought, all right, well, You know, it's time to go ahead and cash in on a retirement . And so I, uh, yeah, decided to go ahead and cash in, on my retirement and just, I just had to go get money. I had a Myers bank, I had, I had some other fun cars and I thought, okay, gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.

You know? And, um, I didn't care. And the crazy part was the fact that this was one of the toughest deals to do because of the fact that the original loan is super nice guy, but he was still kind of unsure as to whether he really wanted to sell it or not. And it took about a year to finally go ahead and land it.

And even the night before he was reluctant to receive a large.  Uh, currency of cash in, you know, on his person and a friend of mine, Ben, uh, who's a really, really nice guy and this guy doesn't get the credit that he deserves. This guy has helped so many guys here bring cars over and, uh, and find cars, super, super nice guy.

And, um, just like Bob super instrumental in getting a lot of cars for a lot of people here, Ben was kind enough to go ahead and drive across the border and to go pay this guy, cuz Ben was in, uh, Belgium. And so he's, you know, he had to go across borders and technically they're not supposed to be carrying, you know, anything, I think over 3000 euros.

And uh, he texted me, one night Ben and he says, I don't know what the hell's wrong with your guy. Then he says, but he's now saying that he's nervous about going through this deal. And he said, I'm done. I'm done dealing with this guy. I've got too much, you know, stuff to do. And I thought to myself,  oh my God, Okay.

All my savings and everything are with this guy on the other side of the world, COVID was kind of starting to start up and I thought, how the hell am I gonna fly over there and go do this myself. And this was in the evening. So of course I'm like, I think I'm gonna need a glass of wine. You know, daddy needs to calm down here. 

And, uh, oh, and by the way, I was keeping this under the radar from the fam, you know, cuz I wanted to make sure I'm like, okay, I wanna make sure that everything goes well and then it'll be like, all right, okay, fine. You know, but in the meantime it's kinda like you did what you gave money to who, and have you ever met this guy?

No, you know, it's like, oh, it's just ridiculous. And um, probably the closest clue that she, she got to the fact that this was gonna happen was I was going to, uh, I was going, where was I going? I, I was going to Indonesia with, with shin Watanabe and, and Shinai. We were gonna go cover a car show down there.

I needed to leave a small box with $15,000 in it, uh, for my friend Ben. And, but he wanted to come by the house and get it, you know, cuz I'm like, what am I gonna do? Stash shit. I left it behind the wheel. It's chalking, uh, the tire of a bus. No, you know, so I told my wife, I said, Hey, listen. I said, there's a guy that's gonna be coming by.

I said, you never met him. He's. You know, from Belgium and she's like, is this some sort of a joke? And I said, no, seriously, there's this guy who's gonna come mine. I said, you need to give him this box. She's like, well, what's in it. I said drugs. I said, and it's money . And she said, well, how much money? I said, there's $2,000 in there.

okay. And she goes, and of course she like $2,000 and I'm like, oh babe, if you only knew, you know, and she said, you know, so I told her, I said, yes. And she said, well, why is it all duct taped and everything? Cuz I mean, I was like, I'm not just gonna give her a box so she can open it up and go, oh my God, he's financing a small war, you know, mm-hmm

And so I duct taped it and the whole bit and, and you know, just for, you know, shits and giggles, I initialed it to make sure that, you know, and so, uh, it was funny while I was over there. She, you know, when after Ben and in friend of his, I was along with him, she, uh, she texted me. She said, wow, She said you were right.

And she said, these two guys came by the door with accents and everything asking for this box. She's like everything. Okay.    well, 

you know, I don't always make my wife listen to my podcast, but I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna force her to listen to this one.  because it'll, it'll make me look, you know, not, not as crazy as she thinks I am right 

now.

Yes, yes, exactly. And, uh, anyway, so no, it was, it was pretty interesting. So that night, uh, when Ben was telling me, I don't know, what's wrong with your guy and blah, blah, blah. And I kept thinking to myself, okay, I'm going to bed right now, thinking my savings is over there. And I  don't know how I'm gonna explain to my wife that I need to fly over to Europe to go take care of some business.

She's gonna be like, okay, what are you smoking? And so.  I don't know what happened, but the next morning I woke up and I was afraid to look at my phone and suddenly here we were in messenger and there are pictures of Ben now shaking hands with the, with the owner of the bus. And they look like they've been best friends since day one.

And the bus is on the trailer and he said, everything's good. You know, uh, taking the bus back, uh, everything's done. And I just thought, okay, I don't know what happened,  but thank God, you know,  because I thought, wow. So then from there it was just the anxiety of, uh, is there gonna be a container tall enough because, uh, this, this, uh, you know, ambulance slash fire bus has these, these lights up on top that make it even higher.

And the, the other thing about this bus is the fact that it's so original and it's got 13,000 original miles on it. And I thought, okay, you know, this is, this is one of these buses where it's, you know, it, it would be complete heartbreak. If anything happened to the sing in transit and, uh, fortunately, uh, nothing happened to it.

And what was really cool, was it actually the container that it came in? Oh my gosh. I mean, not only did it have this bus, but it also had Carl Schuler's head Mueller, uh, that was in there. And then there was also a pretty cool Mike Mike bliss had his, uh, 65 standard beetle. There were a couple trailers. I mean, it was nuts, man.

If that, if that container had gone in, in the ocean, I would've been like, okay, you know what, we're gonna go ahead and do like, uh, the Titanic here, I'm gonna go buy a sub and we're gonna, we're gonna bring this damn thing out, you know  but yeah, no. So fortunate, fortunately, that was, that was it. So, yeah, so that was, that was the last high re that, uh, that came into play.

So, wow.  To go kind of way back to the beginning  you also said like, you know, I got this high roof and it turns out like it had been in a flood, but like, you didn't really care.

Right. Because you're all in, you reach a point when you decide to buy a car sight unseen, where you know that  you have to live with the good, bad and the ugly. Right. And, and even though you could see pictures. It's not like the recycler days. And it's funny you bring up the recycler because several of my other interviewees we've talked about the recycler and how that was, how you did it.

Oh yeah.  But even though you're seeing photos, it's not the same as an in person look at a car, right? Yeah. And sometimes the photos, uh, don't tell the whole story because the person is just not a good photographer or they did it on purpose or they did it on purpose. Right. A lot of times, in fact, as my wife will attest, I've bought plenty of cars off of the SOMBA where  once you get it, you know, for a fact that, , they specifically took the pictures to, deceive you.

Yeah.   There were, there were good parts to the internet, the advent of the internet and how it affected our hobby, your career. Yeah. Um, and then there were bad things. So what are your thoughts on that? The, the internet and slash The Samba, you know, it, it, it's interesting when  with the advent of the internet, I definitely think it obviously went ahead and made our world a lot smaller in the sense. 

You know, here we are looking at cars to this day in Sweden, let's say, and all of a sudden, you need to go ahead and figure out how could you ship this? So you go online and you find a shipper, you get a quote. I mean, it's, it's definitely made things a lot simpler. Sadly. It's also opened the doors to a lot of fraud.

Mm-hmm,  a lot of people that post stuff. I got burned, uh, where I bought a trailer, um, original west Follia trailer from somebody in Germany. And I was excited and, and even had a decent conversation with the gentleman that was, uh, selling it via, via email and so forth and talking about how he had his first born and all this stuff.

But then the sob ended up, uh, taking my money and just ghosting me. Oh. And, and never, never appeared. And I thought, wow. Okay. So that, you know, you've got those type of people. Mm-hmm, , uh, you've got the type of people that also say, um, yeah, go ahead and wire me the money. It's like, well, no, you know what? I'm the type of guy.

With the exception of this bus, because I had friends representing me, but I'm the type of guy that if I'm gonna buy something for an exceptional amount of money, I'm gonna get on a plane or I'm gonna get in a car and I'm gonna go do the deed. And that that's just the way it goes. And the, the sad part is  I also feel like, you know, back in the day, John Wayne days, let's say back in the day, people's word meant something.

I feel like today people's word doesn't mean Jack to a lot of people. People don't take pride in a handshake, you know, a gentleman's agreement kind of a thing. And so with the.   sadly, you know, even though you're not, you're still giving somebody their word, or, you know, giving them your word, uh, via, an email.

The bummer part is the fact that if they give you their word, let's say it might not mean anything. And so it, it quickly they'll say, oh, okay. Yeah. Sounds great. Even though you're the first person to call in the car and you say, Hey, I'm interested. I'm not even backing about the price. I'll take it. Then somebody comes out and after you emails the person and says, Hey,  You know, I'm interested.

Well, I got this other guy, I'll give you a thousand dollars over your asking price. And it's kinda like real estate today. People trying to sell their homes, you know, it's like, well, you're asking a million on this house and I'm willing to give you a million. Yeah. Well, this guy over here is gonna gimme 1.2.

It just kind of sucks in that sense because it, it it's kind of come down now to who's, you know, who's got more money let's say. And the bummer part is that again, going back to people's word, meaning something, the seller, if they posted it for sale for that much, then they should hold to it instead of them going, Ooh, maybe I did post it too low.

Oh, you know what? I'll tell this other guy that I changed my mind and I'll sell it to this other cat for another, you know, 5,000 bucks or whatever, you know? And so,  you know, that's kind of a bummer by the same token. Of course, you've got your, the, the pluses of the SOMBA and the internet where I was looking for.

The brain, that basically handles the sirens and everything to the KLEO mobile. And immediately, I couldn't believe that within minutes I went online having the, the part number, the hella part number for this giant looked like small TV fuse box. And, uh, I found an nos piece for less than 50 bucks in Germany.

And the guy was totally cool selling it to me and cost me 40 bucks to ship it. So, you know, that's kind of cool cuz otherwise if we didn't have the internet, then I would have to fly over to Germany and then go and start looking for, for that part. So from that aspect, it's kind of nice that it can actually go ahead and, and help you by the same. 

speaking of technology, when Google maps came into play, it was crazy how many people were immediately realizing, oh my God, I can go do aerial views of my neighborhood and see if there's any buses or anything back there. And so a lot of people were finding that kind of stuff. So the old deals of, you know, driving by and saying, oh, I remember this old man, you know, and what's, what's interesting is cuz this just happened to me this year in January, since I was little and living in this neighborhood, I used to ride my bike.

I was into BMX and I used to ride my bike and I would always see this old man. He had a single cab and a 66 66 single cab and a 66 beetle, both sea blue. And I'm like, that is so rad. And I'd be like, wow, that's so cool. That's so cool. Then when I got to the age of driving, you know, I kept driving by and, and I would see the guy driving in them every once in a while.

And then one day  I decided to go ahead and stop by when I didn't see the single cab and then knocked on the door and gentleman came outside and he said, yeah, he said, so a friend of mine said he was interested in the single cab.  Excuse me. He said my wife had passed away and so on. And so far that just need one car. 

I decided to go ahead and sell it to him. And this little old man got so mad and he goes, and you know what, that son of a bitch did. Three days later, he sold it for more money and I'm like, oh my God, his friend flipped it. You know? And I thought, dude, that sucks. And he said, so now he goes, I've got my beetle and there's no way in hell I'll ever sell it.

And I thought, well, thanks douche that flipped the car. Now there goes my chance of ever getting a car . And so I told him, I said, well, listen. I said, if you're ever interested in selling it, I said, I would be very, very interested in buying any well, not for sales, not for sales, not for sale years. Went by and as my, roles of Disneyland would change and I had a business card change and phone number would change or whatever.

I was always going by it saying it's still me, still me still me still me. Okay. fast forward, I'll be 53 this year. I get a phone call in January and I'm thinking, oh, I wonder who this is. You know, I'm thinking of probably somebody. Calling inquiring about parts. And I said, hello. And he says, hello?

He said, I don't know if you'll remember me. And it's funny, cuz he, he was a German guy and I said, I know who you are. And he said, what? And I said, you're a gentleman that has 66 blue bud  and he says, holy crap. And I said, yeah,  you know, I'm like, it's been a couple decades, but I've been waiting for the phone call.

you know,  I love it. And uh, he said, I think I'm interested in selling it. I said, I'll be there tomorrow morning. And he is like, holy crap. And I said, yeah. So I went there with cash in hand Tobar and um, he said, look, here's a deal. You know, it needs a ton of work and this and that. I said, look, I don't care what it needs.

I said, it's a fact that it's nostalgia for me at this point in time. And sure enough, man. I mean it's like the, the gas tank was, was rotted underneath the motor had caught on fire. It had a little fire damage on deck lid and blah, blah, blah. And the interior was kind of thrashed. I think. Give a rat's ass, you know, because I thought, okay, cool, man, I'm gonna leave it all.

Patino on the outside, but I'm gonna redo the interior.  I said, yeah, no worries. I said, I'll drive this car by your house, you know, here in the near future. And, uh, he was happy. I was a Hogan mud. We made a great deal. And he said, you know, Hey, he goes, that's great. Enjoy it. And so I took it and I thought this would be a really cool car for my kids to learn how to drive, stick in because they were getting to be of age.

And so even though my son learned to drive, stick in a high roof, that was the first car, which is pretty RA. Yeah. And I told him too, I said, Hey, come on, get in the car. And he goes, dad's drinking. You know? And I go, no, I go, I want you to learn how to drive, stick. And I said, but I want you to someday say, I learned to drive, stick in a 1966, you know, high roof.

And, uh, but then when I got the bug, um, I said, Hey dude, check this out. And he fell in love with it. That was a cool thing. And suddenly. I was taken back to those days when I was a little kid in that 66 beetle. And it was, Ugh, it was so nostalgic for me. I thought, no way. Cool. This is so cool. So not only, you know, did my life start in a 66 beetle, but now suddenly here I was with my kids in that car  learning how to drive and I thought, wow, talk about full circle, man.

You know, it was, uh,  it was pretty cool. Cool moment. That's an amazing story. I love it. Thanks for sharing that with me.  

I, I I've got one last cool story for you that I think a lot of.

Bus hunters and people will definitely like, so let me know when you want to hear that one right now, right now. Okay. So let's travel back in time to 2003. And you know, obviously internet was, you know, not old, but still. And then, uh, people looking for buses and bus values, hadn't gone to where they are today and I'm working for Disneyland.

I'm doing international sales and I'm traveling throughout Mexico. And one day I was told to go and do a presentation for 300 travel agents down in. Puebla Mexico. And I went, oh my gosh, Mexico, you know, I'm or Volkswagen, you know, 

that's, that's where they make the new Beatle. Probably at that time they were still making them in Puebla.

Yep. And so I was super excited. And my, uh, one, one of my managers down in Mexico city, I told him, I said, dude, I am so excited to go to Puebla. And he knew that I was in the Volkswagens and he said, Edy, they do not have the old German ones. These are the ones they make here in Mexico. And I said, yeah, I know, but still dude, I said, it'll be cool.

And so we go down there, we're there for a couple days and I just finished doing this presentation. I'm in a suit and time we're in my Disney name tag, we're leaving the hotel. We're going down the street. And I mean like a shark smells, blood, you know, gazillion yards away. I see this trapezoid shaped window rear window on a bus.

And I realize it's not a single cab. And I went.  Holy shit. That is a barn door. And as we're getting closer and we're in traffic, I told him, I said, Jack, I said, you need to pull over dude. And he goes, I cannot pull over. I said, I'm jumping outta this car, dude. I said, you need to pull over.

And he goes, I cannot. And I opened my door. He said, Edy, what are you doing? And I'm like, I don't give a shit. I will roll outta the car. So he finally slowed down. I jumped outta the car and I said, just drive, keep driving around the block, man. I said, come back for me. It's like, what the hell are you doing?

I said, just don't worry about it. And so I see this bus and I'm going no way, dude. This is amazing. The bus is actually, it's missing one wheel. It's on, it's on a Jack.  And uh, I'm looking at this thing and it's funny, cuz it looked like a silver bullet. It was painted silver, but I'm looking and it's got deluxe molding on it.

Now it's an 11 window, but it's got deluxe molding on it in where the quarter panel is where the, let's say the 13th window, you know, would be, you know, like for like a deluxe on a 13th window where the stationary window would be. There is a Chrome emblem. And I can tell by the indentions that it's a three prong BLE.

So I'm like, oh my God, it's got a Chrome emblem on both sides on both quarter panels. And there are three prong and I'm okay. So the Barner era and I go to the front, it's got a bear air scoop and the fans are still in it. I look at the front seat, it's still original pry, which was interesting on the front.

And I look at the rear seat. The back rest, upholstery is still there, but the bottom isn't Springs, but it's the seat. And I'm like, oh my God, it's got the front and rear seat. Of course, middle seat is gone. And the inside's been painted some funky, weird light blue color. And so I'm thinking to myself, I need this bus.

I'm taking this damn bus . And so I thought, okay, I need to make sure that my heart rate comes down before I go inside. And so again, suit and tie Disney name tag white guy. Okay. Walk inside the small little shop cuz it was in front of a shop. And I said, excuse me, excuse me. And I'm like,  you know, and so these guys are looking at me like, what is this guy doing here?

And he's white and speaking Spanish. I said, who owns that bus outside? Now? They're really like what, you know, who owns that bus outside? And this old man comes out,  you know, and an older man, I should say, you know, I'm still like the sixties, maybe seventies comes out and he says is meal. It's mine. And I go, cool, what are you doing with it?

And he said, well, I got a flat tire. And he said, so I'm fixing that so I can put it up for sale. And suddenly I felt like the sky was opening. The angels were singing. And I thought to myself, calm down, dude, calm down. And I said, oh, okay. I said, well, what do you want for it? And he said, well, you know, and he got kind of confident.

He said, you know, I was thinking of asking, asking 45,000 for it  pesos. Oh, so.  And so I said, okay. And I quickly did the math. And at the time that with the exchange rate, that was about $4,200. Oh my God. And I said, okay.  I said, I'll give you 45,000 pesos. And now his friends are looking at him like, holy shit.

You know what, you know? Sure. They thought he was crazy before that. Right. And, uh, and it was interesting because, uh, later on, I would find out from people in Mexico saying that, um, they thought it was too much money. Sure. You know, which was interesting. And I'm like, are you kidding me? You know,  because at that time, at that time I decimated, it was probably worth about 12 to $13,000 then back here at home.

So I told 'em, I said, I'll tell you what I said, I will buy it from you. I said, I work at Disneyland in California. I said, I'm from the states. And I said, but I have an office in Mexico city.   I'm on my way to Mexico city, which gives me about three hours to figure out how to transport that thing to the Mexican us border.

And I said, can I have your phone number and so forth? And, and then by this time, my friend Jack had finally parked and he comes in and he's looking at me like, what the hell are you doing? And I looked at Jack and I said, Jack has a ban ATX account. I know he does. And I said, so I'm gonna give him the money and he's gonna wire it to you.

When we figure out it's being transported,  easiest transaction I've ever done. Wow. Seriously. It was insane. Gentleman was very honorable, which was really cool. Again, somebody that actually, you know, gave you his word and it was solid. And he said, sounds good. He said, you call me when you had the transport thing, uh, coordinated.

And I said, then I will call you. And he said, in the meantime, I will have the bill of sale done. And down there, it's not like a bill of sale where we do it here, blah, blah, blah. You can do it on a barn napkin down there. It has to be notarized, everything. And it was like this huge contract where it finally in the middle, it says, Mr.

CHASS sells me this bus. And I'm like, alright, cool. You know,   and so he went ahead and did that DH shed it to me. And then when the transporter finally went, I found somebody that would take it in a container for a thousand bucks to TJ. And I told him, I said, yeah, this is great. You know, let's do it. And so I'm thinking to myself, man, I'm getting myself an 11 window barn door.

And uh, I thought it's the standard. And it's that brown on light brown color combo. And, um, I was excited. And so, um, the deal went down, the transporter came, the guy said, okay, you know, here's the transporter guy. Oh yeah. Hello. I said, S you know, I'm going through bully car, blah, blah, blah. And he says, it's gonna take me five days to get to the border.

I said, I'll be there when you get there. And he was like, all right, cool. You know? And so when I went to the warehouse, Dave, at the time, fortunately he was alive. Uh, I'd called him from Mexico saying, oh my God, dude, you wanna believe what I just found? And it was funny cuz at the time I had a deluxe that I'd been saving money to go ahead and paint and I'm like, screw the deluxe.

I'm taking that money. That's how I'm paying for this thing. You know  and so that car never got painted for like 10 more years, you know   and so I, um, I went down to Tijuana and when I got there, it.   amazing seeing that it got there and it was in good shape. And, uh, I walked inside. I had to go pay the fees, you know, for the transport and everything.

And I said, is there a key? And he said, Nelson nos, there is no key. And it was hilarious because when I had asked the gentleman does it run and he, and he showed me, he never said anything. Like, I don't have a key, this slick guy and his sixties or seventies, Hotwired it without me seeing it. But, you know, I didn't care.

Right. Three wires, boom done. And, uh, so the funny part was that I took my, I, I took a small briefcase with me and inside. I had cuz at the time I still had my double door panel. This was before I got my high roof. I had the plates from my double door, my M code play and my VIN play. And Dave asked me, he said, what the hell are you doing?

I said, unless the guy at the border, I said, here's the deal. I said, I legally own this car. And I said, but I have this funny feeling that I'm gonna get F with at the border. And I said, so in order to prevent that, I said, unless the guy at the border knows the difference between a 54 and a 60, I said, Here's the paperwork on the plates and it's currently registered and he's like, you're fing crazy.

And I said, yes, let's go chase vehicle. And I said, let's do this. So we went down there and, uh, and it was great, man. I, I took all the stickers, all the registration stickers off the barn door that even remotely made it look like it was a Mexican bus put all the stuff on there. And, um, when I got there, it was starting to run hot and I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna kill this motor.

Cuz I still had to go. It was like about 2.1 miles past the Mexican border to where I knew it was less than a hundred miles for triple a to come get me. Oh yeah. So I had this thing planned man. So everybody that has the auto club, Hey Harrah. You know? And so it was a funniest thing because, um, of course I'm sitting at the border and I'm crossing the uh, O time Mesa border, not, not the TJ one mm-hmm  and um, the car feels like it's, I'm like, ah, thing's kind of running hot.

And so I killed the motor. In the meantime, these guys that were coming up to me and saying, Hey, wash your windows, wash your windows. I said, I'm gonna make a better deal for you guys. I said, listen. I said, All I want you guys to do is to keep pushing my car along in line. Just keep pushing it. And we're I know we got like two football fields go, and I said, but at the end I will take care of you guys.

And the funny part was they were like, really? And I said, yeah, I go, I'm gonna give you guys 40 bucks. And they're like, holy shit. I got my car washed   you know? Oh yeah, dude was great. Yeah. Tires rotated. And um, so.  It was funny. And I said, and then when we get to that point where you guys can't go past that one point, you know, so you guys don't get in trouble.

I said, I want you to gimme a really good push. And I said, cause I'm gonna bump, bump, start this thing. And, uh, so I did that. And when I got to the border, the guy said, guy didn't even ask me if I was a us citizen. And he just said, uh, bring in anything back from Mexico. And I said, yeah, my bus. I said, I brought it down here to get it restored and look at it.

And the guy just said, good luck. And I didn't have headlights. I mean, it's like, nothing was working on this thing. And I drove across and I said, by the way, I said, the guy behind me, he's my chase vehicle. And he goes, okay, sounds good. And Dave calls me on my phone and he said, holy shit. He goes, and we wonder why our borders aren't safe.

You know,  , it was amazing. But the best part was so he, he said, Hey, you know, hero of the day, how far are you going in that thing? You have no taillights. You have no headlights. I said, there's a gas station slash liquor store up the way I said, and then we are 97 point 98.7 miles away from home. I said, and then I'll call AAA.

He goes, you plan this out. I said, hell yes, I plan this out. Yeah. And I said, plus, we can have a beer there. And while we're having a beer beer there, people are like, you know, at the gas station taking pictures of the car, cuz they thought, wow, check out this old bus. But I had asked the old man, I said, Hey, I go, do you have any pictures from the bus or anything like that?

And he.  He goes, oh, he said, I do have this one book. That's ha that has pictures. And I said, well, you know, I'll take it. And I said, just put it underneath the front seat. And he said, oh, and I also have the 16 inch wheels. And I'm like, cuz it was sitting on fourteens. And I said, please throw those in. Yeah.

And so I got the sixteens, which is great, but that book that he spoke about, that book that he spoke about  when I went to go lift up that original pollster seat, that brown seat I looked underneath. And to this day, even Charlie Hamel, the bus guru has never seen one. It was the dealer, the dealer manual, the blue. 

in Spanish. No way. Yeah. From 55 because they weren't building them in Mexico in 55. This was sold out of a dealership in Mexico in 55 as a German bus. 

Yes. And what we speculate because on the vent trim tr well, on the vent, there were holes there for trim. So what I speculate was it was a, one of the first buses that shipped to Mexico B I think it was a dealer type of bus to showcase the trim and stuff, because let's face it it's Mexico.

They're not necessarily gonna be doing, you know, 23 window deluxes down there. So this was considered the deluxe of the time. So it was, I mean, it was crazy because even when you looked at the belt trim, the belt trim was barn door, era, you know, it wasn't early, like somebody added it, no Uhuh. And the neat thing too, is that it, it didn't have piping in the middle.

It was painted, the red was painted. So it was, it was really, really cool. It was kind of neat and, uh, So I had that bus for a few years and, um, I decided that I was time to go ahead and do some, uh, upgrades to the house and no better person to get it than, uh, Bob at BB T. Oh. And, uh, I just saw that bus three weeks ago when I visited his warehouse and it was, and it's still the same and he loved it just because of the fact that it had never really been welded on it's all it's original stuff.

And, um, but of course I love roof rack, so I did add a roof rack to hi to that barn door and it was off of a 54 fire bus. Wow. So it's just pretty rad. Yeah. So yeah, it it's kind of crazy, but it was just interesting. Uh, you know, the, the main thing is for people that are listening, if you ever know of a bus or you see a bus  and you think it's too far or too difficult,  don't stop.

Go for it. I love it. 

Yeah, absolutely. And so. As we kind of close this out and again, I mean, good thing. We don't have a six pack of beer cause we would, we would just talk till the snow went down. But, um, yeah, let's kind of plug your shop a little bit here. So do you consider your shop like a full service restoration shop or how would you describe it to somebody who, who who's not really, uh, familiar, mainly parts, you know, mainly parts.

Uh, I have a, my friend, Josh, good friend who.  Really well versed in Volkswagens and to top it off just very detailed oriented. And so I will actually have him do some, some work here, but as far as anything else mechanical, since Dave passed away, it's just been way too challenging to really take all that on and especially restoration.

So the main thing that I do is parts. I specialize in parts, not only, , you know, the best reproduction parts that you can get, but original parts, cuz over the years, I've acquired a lot of, you know, original buses and, and when we were doing some restorations, a lot of those parts, you know, just they, they didn't need 'em.

They wanted everything new. So I, I try to find. People original stuff. And, and I love that kind of, that kind of stuff, because it's a, it's, it's about the hunt and where you're looking for stuff. And so people will call me and say, Hey, you know, I just need one bezel from my headlight, with the two and seven o'clock, you know, screw adjustment.

And, um, it's gotta be original or, Hey, I'm looking for a piece of, uh, glass barn, door, glass, you know, or barn door windshield, uh, you know, I've got that kind of stuff, which is really cool. So, um, I, I like that. The other thing too, that I like to do is before I became, you know, a business owner, I was an enthusiast and. 

one of the neatest things, was that a lot of my knowledge and a lot of the help that I got when I first started was from John Shabo of top line parts in Anaheim. And, uh, because the wheel was about to come off of my double door panel and I thought that's weird. And he said, you didn't grind out the, the backside of the wheel.

And so it was, it wasn't, it would bolt have, but it wasn't bolting up square onto the drum. And he was kind enough to go ahead and, and, uh, drill it out for me and showed me. And, uh, I remember I was working at Disneyland at the time and. Go. And I would spend my two weeks vacation and I would say to him, okay, I'm your, I'm yours, man.

Tell me what to do. I'm gonna learn about Stephanie. He goes, oh, I, I can't afford to pay you. I go, I'm not looking for pay. I'm looking for knowledge. And he said, great. And he goes, go take those engines apart and do an exploded view so I can figure out what happened to them. And by doing that kind of stuff, I learned what makes a motor tick.

And then I grabbed the good old, you know, idiot manual it, you know, and, uh, started looking in there and, and I built my own motor, you know, God, 30 years ago, or so, in fact, it's in that double door panel that I sold to Bob, which then he sold to the museum in Hanover. Oh yeah. So, which was kind of cool. And, uh, it was, uh, it was just, it it's, it's been interesting.

And so, you know, for, for people that are listening.  If you want to go ahead and get knowledge about these cars, because I love the fact that you can fix these cars yourself. You don't need a diagnostic reader or anything like that. You can fix these cars yourself. You can find out what works, what, what tick and what doesn't, you know, go get in there, volunteer at a shop, you know, go learn about it.

Um, obviously watch YouTube videos and so forth and, and really, really soak it in. And for me, I've been very fortunate that so much has been passed down to me as far as information. And, and, and also like what we were speaking earlier, getting burnt by certain sellers you learn and all that knowledge is of absolutely no value.

Unless you share it with someone. And so many people like to kind of hoard that knowledge and they don't share. And, uh, I, I'm not that way. So like on the side of the high roof, it says quality, parts, sales, and advice, you know, and I can't tell you how many times I've spoken to people and told them, don't do that.

Don't do it yourself. Don't buy that. You know, you could save your money going this route and this route. And, and I like to, I like to help people out because you know, it's not just about making a buck as a business.  It's about the hobby. It's about the community. Uh, everybody always says when they go to car shows, wow.

Even my son, he said ever since I was a little kid going to car shows, he said, I feel like you could go up to any Volkswagen person and just sit down and kick back and chat. And, you know, they take you in, you know, it's almost like the old hippie days, you know, where everyone's cool, man, peace love. Right.

And, and I like that aspect of it, you know? So if you, even to this day, if I'm driving in, in. You know, on the freeway or something or on the highway. And I see a VW broken down, I'll get off the next ramp if need be. If I can't pull over, be like, Hey man, you know, what's going on? What is it? Oh, my pulley broke.

Hey, you know what, gimme a sec. I'll go grab pulley at the shop. You know? Um, or even just some of the local guys here, like hot dog, Fred, uh, called me one time and he said, Eddie, he goes, I'm picking up a whole bunch of brat where for the, you know, for the bug in this weekend. And he goes, I'm in front of smart and vinyl.

And all of a sudden, you know, my clutch cable brought I'm on my way. You know, it's like, you know, so like in, in, uh, in the high roof here, I carry extra throttle, cables, clutch cables, you know, clevis pins, all the stuff that will usually kind of break because I remember the day when I was on the side of the road in the middle of the night, broken down and thinking, okay, MacGyver, figure it out. 

I love it. And, you know, uh, I always relay a story. My buddy has a similar story. He's from the east coast, Maryland. He had a shop. He lives here now in Topanga, but cool. Uh, he, he was driving, he saw a woman in a GIA on the side of the road. So he pulled over, he said, what's going on? And she said, well, you know, I just got this thing from the mechanic and, and he's a couple, whatever, 40 miles away and every couple miles, my engine overheats.

So I pull over. And so he said, all right, let, let's see what we can do. So he is looking around, he's looking around. He said he stuck his head all the way in. He looked behind and this mechanic's business card was wedged into the fan. Oh my God. So the fan was not spinning somehow. It was like, just wedged in there just right.

And it wouldn't spin and he like pulled it out. So try it now, like, woo, like seemed fine. And she drove off, you know? Yeah. So, so that's the kind of thing. And then, to share a story, I have, that's similar to what you're saying. So, um, I went to college in Tucson at the U of a, and, uh, I bought a 69 Squareback from the original owner, little old lady named Marion.

And I've told this story in other podcasts about this car, but not this particular story. And so I owned it for, it was totally original car and it had like 79,000 miles when I bought it. And I owned it for a few months. Mm-hmm  when I blew the engine and it was probably my fault. I'm sure. And, um,  so I was back on my bike, but, you know, I knew I was gonna fix it, but I didn't really know what to do.

And so down the alley I lived, uh, in this like alley mm-hmm , down the alley, there was a VW shop that I'd seen before, but I'd never gone there. And so I went in and there was an old timer guy and I wanna say his name was Dan Troutman. Mm-hmm  if I'm correct, this is some.  Five years ago or something. But, um, I told him he, he, so he was an older guy and we walked about a block.

He helped me push my car all the way to his shop. Wow. He went in there, he did a compression check. he said, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna order a long block. Mm-hmm  from this company called GE X  . Which of course I had never heard of, you know, uh, this was pre-internet buy a long shot.

Pre-sale pro phones, pre all that stuff. And he said, and, um, you're gonna have it delivered here. He said, but, um, I can't work on these type threes anymore, cuz my back is shot and I can't bend over this engine bay like that. Like you have to, he said, so you're gonna come down and I'm gonna talk you through it.

That's awesome. And so yeah, every day after classes I'd go down there. And he was classic because he was a, you know, factory trained mechanic from back in the day, he had a, like a 55 oval up on a lift that he was like, this is me and my wife's retirement, you know, and what's funny is back then, it was probably worth five grand or something, you know?

And so, um,  He just talked me disassembling, the whole thing. We pulled out the old block, put the new one in and I mean, the guy was talking about like MacGyver. cuz I bought separately, we switched to dual carbs cuz of course it was fuel injected at the time. And uh, the linkage was a little off, like one of the pieces of the linkage.

And so he was like, all right, so he cut it down and he had some, you know, he welded it back together just right. I mean stuff. That was way beyond me. Mm-hmm  and he was classic cuz he he'd go, okay now put about three or four turns on that. And he said, and then, you know, turn it one more. So it's gluten tight, you know, all these like German jokes, you know, but the same kind of thing where, um, I mean I learned so much from that guy.

Yeah. I don't know where he is today. No, I can't find him. I looked for him a couple years ago. He was  probably pushing 70. Oh wow. Back then. So, uh, but um, yeah, to your point, um,   these cars are different, I think, than a lot of other cars. And I think it's why it attracts younger, broke kids. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And I mean, let's face it. Their initial intent was to be economical, uh, easy to work on and versatile. Versatile. Yeah, no doubt. And so. By the way, listeners, I see,  a metal sun roof, roof clip hanging from, for a bugs hanging over there. It's probably 64, 65 bingo, 64, 1 year only.

But, uh, okay. Yeah, nos, nos. I mean, it's beautiful.  um, but I only see  buses, so you're really a bus guy. I'm mainly a bus guy, although I still, you know, I've got the little 66 blue bug and, uh, but I've had plenty of bugs in my life, but the main thing for me were buses, just because when we're talking versatility, um, they're, they're fun.

You know, I mean, I surf, uh, it's fun to throw boards in, go surfing and hang out. And, uh, you know, I think, uh, whether it's a bug or bus or type three or, you know, any, any cool Volkswagen, I think one of the neatest things  is in comparison to pretty much any other car that you see on the road is the happiness that they bring to. 

Not just people in general, but specifically to little kids. I don't know what it is that they look like toys to them or something. But it's funny, like, especially if I drive  the fire bus, I mean, kids turn around, everybody turns around. They're just like, oh my gosh. But what's neat is  how many times I'm sure people that are listening and they've had this happen to 'em when you go to the gas station to fuel up, how many times do you get somebody coming up to you saying, oh my God, I had one of those, you know, every time.

Yeah. And they tell you a story, you know? And, uh, and it's funny, cuz I remember, uh, friend of mine who worked at, uh, Wolfsburg west, Ron bery one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. Um, he drove daily. Uh, it was his wi rag, you know, rag top. So in original paint, original interior, beautiful little car, you know, it's funny cuz he used to tell me, he said Eddie.

He goes, when I go to the gas station, he said, I, I act like I'm talking to somebody on an earpiece. And I walk in, I pay, I get in the car and leave. And he goes, because honestly he goes not to be a jerk and he goes, but I  am tired of hearing everybody's stories, you know? And I go, yeah, no, I hear you. You know, so yeah.

So it's kind of funny and one of my favorite comments about high roofs that, uh, that I love getting are when people say, wow, you know, so somebody, somebody did that. Huh? Did you do that? You know, did you, did you, you know, and I'm like, yeah, I got super hammered, got a Sozo you know, and uh, you know, 12 pack of your favorite hooch and, and went at it.

No, you know, 

well, I have a.   right now. I have a, a 66, 10 top. So 42. Oh, sweet. Yeah. I'm I'm public green. It's uh, Pearl white. Okay. I'm an S so 42 guy I've had, oh, tons and tons of so 40 twos. And, uh, without a doubt, I, prefer a tin top Uhhuh. They don't leak, you know, let's face it. The whole German, you know, philosophy is like, simpler is better.

Right. You know, and there's less parts and all that stuff, but I can't tell you how often I have people come up to me and say like, oh, I had a bus like this, but it was a camper. And I'll say, well, this is a camper. And they'll go, no, no, no. It was a real camper because it had the pop top. And I'm like, well, this, this is a real camper.

You know, it's a, it's a, whatever it is, it's a D 42 or whatever the, the code is Uhhuh. Uh, so yeah, to your point, uh, it's funny because those are probably people who aren't as hardcore as you and I are. Yeah. But so when they see things that's a little less outta of the ordinary, uh, they just assume that, uh,  And let's face it back in the day when these were 50 bucks each probably before our time, when we were really into 'em, people were  trying to get crazy and cutting 'em up and doing weird stuff to 'em.

So it probably kind of makes sense that they think, oh yeah, you went ahead and welded like that roof on there or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And, and it, it is funny, speaking of your 50 bucks and recycler, I remember one time we would always look in the free section cuz it was crazy how many people had free stuff.

And um, I remember I, I said, oh wow, check this out, man. I go, there's, there's a bug 62 for 50 bucks. I'm calling it, you know, and I called this guy and this guy sounded like he would just kick your ass for fun, just joking. And uh, you know, or like he just had a 12 pack for breakfast. He's like, yeah. And I'm like, hi, you know, I'm 16, you know, I'm like calling about the bug.

Yeah. I go, it's 50 bucks. And he goes, yeah, what do you wanna know? And I said, well, I go, does. Does it run and he goes, of course it doesn't run. I go, okay. And then he goes, what are your intentions with it? And I said, well, I go,  my friends and I, we were just gonna cut the roof off of it. And he goes already done.

you know, it was awesome, man. I was like, okay, this thing, you know, I'm like, come on. But those were also the day that, um, I remember seeing there was a 65, 21 window C blue, Cumulus white,  $750. And I called a guy, you know, early in the morning, of course, you know, like, hi. Yeah. I'm calling about your VW best for sale Uhhuh.

Well, it's my sons and I go, okay, cool. Yeah. Can I talk to him? He's like, well, he's asleep right now. And I said, and I'm going, dude, it's eight in the morning for real, you know? And I go, oh, okay. And he said, yeah, he works a graveyard shift. Now I'm 16. I've never heard the term graveyard shift, but I went, oh, 

He goes, if you want, I can have him call. I go. No, thank you, sir. Appreciate your time. Bye. Hang up. My friend, Tony goes. And then I said, dude, we don't want that boss.  and I go, you know that dude, he works at a graveyard. I go no way. And he goes, oh yeah, no, we don't want any part of that. Yeah.  Uhhuh running, driving 21 window bus.

750 bucks. Yeah. Later on when I learned what the, that term meant, I just, I, I, I seriously, I wanted to go outside and grab a sledgehammer and just start bashing my hand, you know, think, I thought, oh my God, that's crazy. But I did score a, um, I remember down south in, um,  That Scando mm-hmm some dude was selling a 56 Baja for 500 bucks.

There you go. And I went down there, bought it and almost died. Just getting on the freeway. Cause the, uh, striker was all worn out. Oh. And I was just really happy. I had big tires in, and of course there's no weight on the front and it was a bugeye, you know, fiberglas Setta and uh, and I, it was just loud as I'll get out.

And I had a 40 horse in with a stinger on it and I'm like, ah, this is fine.  You know? And I go to get on the freeway and the freaking door just opens up, man. I'm like, holy shit, here I go. Yeah. It was gnarly. And of course, you know, that's when it's like you close it the first time. Nope. And it still opens and you slam it, you know?

Yeah. It was just awesome. But yeah, 56 oval. That was, you know, Baja. That was great. But yeah, I've, I've, I've had some, I've had some fun buses and it's funny because whenever you sell. It just kind of hurts sometimes. So that's a question 

I ask everyone. Okay. So don't feel, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but, um, I ask this question to everyone because I, I have an answer for this question and that is what car do you regret most selling? 

Ah, gosh, you know, I had to sell it, but I would probably say  I had a, a 67.  Zenni blue beetle. That was, uh, it was, it was all original, all original. And it's funny, cuz I've had a lot of buses and I love the buses and, you know, had my barn door and so forth. But I mean, I sold it for a reason, but the one that I sold that I probably didn't necessarily have to sell, but I was going through point in my life where, uh, you know, I just kind of, my, I had lost my dad.

Um, I was going through a divorce. uh, work. Wasn't very fun. And so, I mean, I had the, the trifecta where I just felt like, you know what, I, wasn't just a point where I wanted to take my own life. Um, but I was definitely depressed and I just wanted to get the hell outta here. And I thought, I just want to leave.

And I remember I was being, I was at, I was at the airport and I was being sent by Disney to go to Canada to go do some presentations. And I just, I don't know, it didn't feel like didn't feel like I really had anything to look forward to. And I thought, I just wanna get outta here. And I remember calling shin, uh, who, again, he's now the editor of JWS.

I called shin and I said, Hey, shin. I go, when is the next show in Japan VW show? And he said, oh, there's a big one in December. And this was around August. And I said, huh, I go, I would love to go. And he said, oh yeah, that'd be great. He said, I'll get information for you. And I said, And I want to take my own car.

And he said, whoa, really? He goes, you're crazy. And I said, yeah, I go, I'm feeling kind of crazy right now. And I was making good money at Disneyland. And so I said, you know what? I go, this is what I want do. I said, I want get the hell outta here. And I want to go, I wanna take my own car. And I want to drive my own bug to a car show, you know, in Japan.

And, uh, he said, that sounds amazing. I said, yeah. And so I called Dave, Dave was turning 50 at the time. So this was sadly nine years before he passed away. But I'm glad we did it. So again, people that are listening, if you ever have wild dreams, man, just freaking go for it. You know? And so I called Dave and I said, Hey dude, I said, I've got this crazy. 

and I told him, I said, I'm, uh, that little 67 beetle that I have. I said, I'm gonna ship it to Japan. And I said, I'm gonna take you to Japan for your birthday. Wow. And he goes, you're fucking nuts. Yeah. And I, and he said, I know how much you make and you don't make that much. And I said, no, I've got a plan.

I said, I'm gonna ship the car over there. We're gonna drive around. And then I'm gonna sell the car to finance the trip. And he goes, you're still crazy. And so I thought, yeah, so I got on the plane, took off. And, uh, when I landed shin had called me and he said, Hey dude, he goes, it turns out that you're the first American to ever do this.

What? Yeah. And he said, uh, yeah, no other American ship, their own Volkswagen over to a car show to Japan. And he said, so we're gonna. Oh, and he goes, and we're gonna go ahead and do an article. And, and, uh, back then he was working for let's play VW, uh, Japanese, uh, publication and, uh, fantastic publication by the way.

And, uh, so anyway, so he said, yeah, it'll be really cool. And so I shipped the car out. It had plenty of time and I, when I left the port, I called Dave. He was in a meeting and, uh, I left him voicemail. Hey, dude, I go seriously, make time. And I said, we're going. I said, I'm leaving the port right now. The car's going to Japan.

And I said, and we're gonna meet it. And he called me because his birthday was in, um, you know, in November. And so he's like, you're kidding me. And I said, no, dude, I go, we're doing this. And so we went and uh, we flew over there. And one of my friends, Johnny who at the time were for the LA times, uh, Johnny Barner mafia, Johnny, he, he was, he found out what we were doing.

He goes, holy shit, I wanna go. And I said, come I go, I don't care where you sleep. I said, crash out. I said, you know, shin said, he's got a friend. Who's gonna let us, uh, stay his, uh, you know, at his place. It's unfurnished and blah, blah, blah. And uh, I said, I, I, I really didn't care. I didn't care if the plane went down.

I didn't care. I mean, I was just like, I just want to leave, you know, And, uh, so we went and, uh, it was amazing. We landed and shin immediately took us to, , this place close and somewhat kind of close to, Tokyo Disney because we saw the fireworks in the distance and he said, there, there are a whole bunch of cars that are gonna come out to greet you.

Oh.  And he said, um, my friend's Kuboto sign is actually bringing the car on a flatbed, bringing your bug in a flatbed. And, uh, and he said, and everyone's blown away that you're doing this. And I'm like, cool.  We had, well over a hundred cars that showed up. It was like a fricking car show and, uh, over a hundred cars that showed up and all these people. 

Coolest nicest people to show up and greet me. And what was really bitching was one guy even brought his 67 Zenni blue beetle. Oh, that was originally from Yana. Say the dealership over there. And his was right hand drive. His made mine look like a turd , you know, mine was all California Petina and stuff.

Sure. And, uh, and it was a cool thing. They actually had me give a speech as to why we wanted, you know, why I was doing this, you know, and of course I didn't want to go into, well, I've been really depressed for a long time. And, uh, I was thinking about jumping off a bridge instead of chip my car over here, you know, , you know, it's like, yeah.

And, uh, so no, you know, I told him, I said, look, I go, many years ago, I said, I met a Japanese guy who was very instrumental in me, shipping cars over here. And I said, and I've even met some of you guys at shows over there. And I said, I've always been intrigued by the culture. I've always been intrigued by the country and I've always wanted to come over here.

And I said, it's pretty much, you know, far for me. So I thought it would be really cool to come here and go to one of your guys' car shows. I said, but in my own car. And so, oh, it was, it was amazing. And so I took my black and gold plates cuz we didn't ship 'em with the car. I brought 'em in my backpack, put 'em on there.

A bunch of pictures taken, blah, blah, blah. And then they said, okay, we wanna film you going through some of the most popular parts of Tokyo.  So we took off man and, uh, you know, and it was, it was amazing. The only thing that, that kind of bummed me out was the fact that I had my original paint wheels on there with some really ratty bias FL, but they, dude, I'd been driving on those things for a couple years  and, uh, my friend took 'em off.

He said, dude, this looks so unsafe. And.  I know, you know, they're original, I don't care, you know, and he put on some other 15 inch wheels. So I was kind of bummed out about that, you know, with guitars, but he was looking out for me and I'm like, that's fine. That's fine. You know, safety. Yeah. You know, so we went to the shows we cruised around, we probably averaged three hours of sleep every night, cuz we were just busy going and going and going.

And then when the show rolled around, um, I, I had taken 200 t-shirts over there. Wow. And uh, and it was rad because I'm like, okay, at first I thought maybe I'll sell something to kind of help finance a trip. And I sold maybe two and I said, these aren't coming home. So I told Shannon, I said, I'm gonna go give them away.

You need to come with me and translate. And so we went and then people were having me sign them, autograph, these shirt, which was pretty rad. And uh, because it said Eddie and Dave's uh, uh, tour Eddie and Dave's garage tour around, you know, America to U us to Japan and. Cool. And it was pretty cool. And, uh, anyway, it was fun.

The funny part was fact that my, uh, car did not sell  . Oh. And there was zero interest in it. Oh. And in the meantime, and then, you know, uh, screw the whole being depressed thing. I'm like, dude, I'm 6,000 bucks in the hole here, you know? And I looked at my friend and I said, Hey, I go, here are the keys of the car.

And he goes, what do you want me to do? I said, I don't know, dude, just sell it. I go, I need six grand somehow. And uh, so three months later he wrote to me and he said the car sold. And so I got my money. I paid my bills and, uh, and life got better. So that was, that was a cool thing. You know, just when you think, oh man, you know, I'm at the end of my rope here.

Uh, it's crazy how life is and everything, everything got better, everything was great. And um, it was, it was just kind of neat, you know, it, it's funny how you have to hit certain lows to, to be able to really rebound hard enough. You know, if you go low enough, you're gonna come back higher. You know, 

I love it.

What a great story. I mean, good stuff on so many levels.  Well, you know, again, I think I've already said this once, but we can talk forever. It was such a pleasure to meet you. Um, what I might do, if you don't mind is just take a few stills because sometimes these are gonna be on social media. And so we'll have some stills to kind of go along with it.

It's a mess. No, Hey, no, it's, uh, it's terrific. And, um, I really would like to slate another time. Like, uh, once this thing gets going and we'll come back and we'll just kind of pick up where we left off. Let me know. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time. Likewise. And, um, you know, if you need parts,  uh, come see Eddie.

Uh he's here. He does orange. Um, on barley. 

Yeah. It's uh, barley avenue. So just look up Eddie and Dave's garage in Google maps. Um, and unfortunately my website right now is just a, it's a turd. So I'm working on that, but of course I'm a one man band now, so, but, uh, I'll be more than happy to help you out.

You need anything from, from sheep metal to safari windows. Uh, I've got that stuff. So, yeah, I, and I, and I love, love to talk to bus people and bug people as well. So everybody's welcome.   

awesome. And, you know, I think, I might even try and go hit up, uh, Brian at Washburns and, uh, you know, try and get an interview with him because you know, I you're here.

It's a small world. Mm-hmm  I mean, here's the weird thing about VWs. It's like a global phenomenon, right? Mm-hmm , it's not like other cars.  I remember when the bus had its 50th anniversary. And I think it was the UK, the, the who played and like half a million people showed up or something to that effect.

Yeah. So, I mean, that goes to show, but then at the same time, you, you're bringing up all these names early on in our talk. Uh, and, and I know who you're talking about. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, I'm not buddies with them, like you are, but it is a small world and, uh, yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a neat hobby.

Real quick 

thing about the, who you're gonna laugh about this, but do you remember the bus that they painted a VW bus? Yes. That was a British flag. Yes. That was my bus. Oh, really?  yeah.  Yeah. Bob had actually asked me if I had a panel bus and I said, yeah, I've got a 65 panel. And, uh, he said, great. He said, go ahead and, uh, restore it for me.

And I said, okay, sounds great. And then he had, uh, Rick who, um, used to work for bug pack and now he worked for empty. He had Rick pick it up from my place. Uh, when I lived in Fullerton and little did I know that Bob had made a deal to go ahead and have that bus. Wow redone in the British flag. And, uh, you know, I mean, it was, it was pretty rad, so yeah, that was my bus. Crazy. 

Awesome. Well, hopefully this, this interview goes down in the annals of history too, because I'm glad I'm talking to you. I have a feeling, you have a lot more stories and we do, we could go on and on and I do to, so, um, again, I wanna thank you very much for your time. It was you're welcome.

Really a pleasure to meet you. And, uh, I mean, this is pure gold, what we got here, so awesome. Talking to Eddie was great. It was a real surprise. I had been a customer of Eddie's for years, but I'd never met him in person. Super cool guy. Super personable. Obviously, super knowledgeable when it came to VW's, uh, buses in particular.

And, uh, his shop is awesome. When I got there, he was chatting up a different customer about a bus. Giving him some, what I would consider, good advice. And, uh, great guy. Good interview. You can visit him in person in Orange, California, or you can go on his website, which is  vwvintageparts. com.