Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia Full Camper

Price: - Item location: Santa Cruz, California, United States
Description:

1981 Volkswagen Bus/Vanagon Westfalia Full Camper

Hello everyone!
I'm selling my beloved 1981 Westy to the first person willing to love this awesome Van as much as I do :) This is an air cooled van which can be kept up as is or upgraded to a water cooled Waterboxer or Subaru if desired. I've owned it for 5 years now and had a lot of fun, but the priorities are changing in my life, as they do occasionally, so it's time to pass this fun weekender on to the next deserving owner!
Right now, the engine runs great around town, on the highway, and in general. Where it lacks is when you strain it, i.e. over 17 on a hot day or something similar, it will overheat. The engine was rebuilt from the previous owner, but the air cooled engines don't last too long so realistically it'll need to be done in the next 10k miles or so. There's 160k on this baby and ready for another 160k with a few mods. I've upgraded a lot of the components on the inside as well as a couple things with the engine, but let me know if you have any specific questions or concerns.
Interior
- All of the fabric's in very good condition, no tears
- Carpet is dirty, but vacuum's up nicely
- Large 2nd AGM Sealed Battery ($350) giving you all the power you need off grid
- Built in Fast Charger for both batteries (they fully charge in less than 5hrs)
- Installed duel battery control which switches power to the spare battery when the engine is off so you never kill your starter battery
- Removed the old refrigerator, which was broken, and made the empty spot extra storage with shelves
- I'm also including a removable fridge/freezer (looks like a big cooler) that can go from room temp to 0 degrees in a couple of hours with it's fast freeze feature. It's a $500 unit and works really well due to better insulation and compressor unit. It's much better than the stock fridge.
- Replaced the terrible stock faucet with an electric variable pressure faucet, common upgrade, and a new water pump.
- Replaced all the plumbing hoses
- Installed a GoWesty quick connect hose adapter for the shore water hookup (no more leaks or broken connectors)
- Painted all interior shelving
- Replaced cardboard backing to cabinets do to water stains, dirt, etc.
- All the curtains are original burlap
- The pop top bed is perfect as well as the shell, but the tent needs to be replaced. Right now there's a hole that I patched with outdoor fabric
- All new seals on the pop top so there are no leaks or loud sounds on the freeway
- The van only came with one table that I have mounted in the back location. This is actually a good thing as it allowed me to install a huge inverter (3k watts) behind the driver seat as well as a 3 port 12 Volt hook up.
- Everything works and is much more robust than the stock items you usually find in this van
Engine
- I've added a external oil cooler as the stock one is terrible. It has a 12 volt fan that you can turn off in order to warm up faster.- All new brake rotars and drums as well as pads for all four wheels.- Upgraded brake lines to steel braided- New rear shock absorbers
- The tires are brand new and mounted on repainted Mercedes rims. They're wider than the stock rims which makes the van more stable and gives it a much better ride, plus that look way better :)
- Rebuilt Alternator done by Old Volks Home in Santa Cruz
- New exhaust/muffler also done at OVH
- This van has always passed smog easily
- All new fuel lines and filters.
- All new vaper/vaccum lines
- New belts, valve cover gaskets, seals of various types, etc.
- New Spark plugs
Some other notes, the frame is perfect, no rust, no issues, but the body needs some dents taken out as well as some rust repaired (all of which you can see in the pictures). The shifter sticks a bit in first gear, making it awkward to put into gear as you get used to it, but once you've driven it a bit it's no problem, hence why I never fixed it. With any Vanagon Westfalia, there will be some money spent, but this one has no seam rust (common killer of Vanagons) or any of the other major issues you commonly read about or see on the streets.
Westy's are slow and sometimes hot, but you'd be hard stretched to find another vehicle that makes you smile more than this one does :) This one's name is Jeddy and he'll take care of you as long as you take care of him :)