Spotted - VW 1303 Cabriolet

This Volkswagen Cabriolet caught my attention a few weeks ago. Hard to find one this nice around here...

Spotted - 1961 Double Door VW Camper by Caravelle

Volkswagen campers are cool but a double door camper, now that is just awesome. I did not even know these existed. This one is a conversion originally offered by Caravelle Campers of Oregon. I recently came across this impeccably restored example at the Auto Collections showroom in Las Vegas, Nevada. This bus is great but the $85,000 USD asking price is just insane :-)

Spotted - Volkswagen Type 2 (T3) Pickup

Another rare sight in the the U.S. A single cab Type 25 pickup. A nice example in awesome shape.

2012 NW VW Club Fall Fling

Fall is here and dry days and blue skies are becoming pretty scarce so it was great to finish up this car show season with one last cruise to the Triple X. This time for the 2012 Volkswagen Fall Fling organized by the Northwest VW Club. There is always something cool to see..

2012 Bumpy's Dubfest

Summer is not going to be around much longer so every weekend counts. It has been a long while since I have stopped by a VW show so today we made our way to Puyallup to see what is going on in the air-cooled community. Excellent weather, interesting people and a number of cool rides. Here are a few of my favorites...

Spotted - 1959 VW Karmann Ghia

This beautifuly restored 1959 Karmann Ghia spotted at the 2012 PNW VW Springmeet was definitively one of the highlights of the show. It is also the oldest I've have seen first hand. Amazing looking car!

2012 VW Cruise-in at the Triple X Rootbeer Drive-in

Some of my favorites from the 2012 VW cruise-in...

UPDATE - 04/08/13: Photos of the 2013 event are available on another post...

Volkyland Spotlight - 1958 VW 23 Window T1 Samba

This 1958 Deluxe Microbus or Samba is definitively the one to have if you enjoy cruising around. This one is a little older than the one I saw last year but just as cool.

Volkyland Spotlight - VW T1 Krankenwagen / Ambulance

I have seen the pictures but this is my first encounter with an original VW Krankenwagen (ambulance). This T1 ambulance got to be the coolest microbus in the Volkyland collection. A very nice piece overall and a microbus variation I am sure I won't see again in a long while.

Volkyland Spotlight - VW T1 Type 21 F - Fire Engine

Very cool to see one first hand. A bit simpler than the Unimog-based fire truck I saw last year. Another cool VW of the Volkyland collection. The question I have is, will it get there before the house burns down? ;-)

Just another microbus stuffed with equipment.

Volkyland Spotlight - VW Type 147 Fridolin

One of the coolest vehicles at the Volkyland collection in Yauco, Puerto Rico is a Type 147. Also know in the VW community as a Fridolin. These vans were produced for use by the postal service in Germany and Switzerland in the early 1960's. This one has been nicely restored unlike the one I photographed last year.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Very nice shade of yellow.

Volkyland Spotlight - VW Type166 Schwimmwagen

The Schwimmwagen is just what I need to cross those pesky rivers in the Northwest! Or hang out in the beach in the Caribbean ;-)

All kidding aside, this is a fabulous vehicle and I am grateful to the guys at Volkyland for giving me a demonstration of the propeller mechanism and checking out the engine compartment. It is a simple solution to what seems at first hand like a complex problem. More about this cool museum on a previous post...

Volkyland - A Volkswagen Museum in Puerto Rico

If your passions include air-cooled Volkswagens, Volkyland should definitively be in your bucket list! Tucked away in the Southwestern coast of the island of Puerto Rico, this museum is positive proof of the enduring popularity of this timeless classic. From an early KDF and WW2 military vehicles to Mexican Ultima Edicion (Last Edition) Beetles with Cabrios, Type 3s, Microbuses and everything else in between, this is a pretty sizeable collection of air-cooled Volkswagens. A product of Dr. Norman Gonzalez's true passion for the brand.

UPDATE March 24, 2023: As reported in Jalopnik and TheDrive, sadly, this wonderful collection was sold off in 2019 after the museum's closure a year earlier. As of this update, photos of all the vehicles can be found in Oldbug.com for those of you interested.

Sunday Drive - Southern Puerto Rico

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than cruising the southern roads of this tropical paradise in your vintage Volky...

Spotted - VW T1 Doka Pickups

Volkswagen Type 2 commercial vehicles are very thin on the ground in my nick of the woods. Spotting one that looks this great was a rare treat indeed. I always wondered why pickups and vans are so rare. Now I know is mostly because of the "chicken tax".

Here are a couple I have seen around my region this year...

Model Power Minis 1:87 Scale Volkswagen Samba

I was browsing the model train section of the local hobby shop when I stumbled upon this awesome Volkswagen T1 Microbus. These are meant to complement HO scale railroad layouts but I am sure it will look just as cool in my desk. At 1:87 scale, these models are so tiny that it is hard to comprehend the dexterity needed to paint them. The amount of detail is great for such a small scale. I could not pass it up! It turns out that although the one I found is marketed under the Model Power Minis brand, these are primarily sold under the Schuco brand the world over under the Edition 1:87 collection. I got another one that is even more bizarre so stay tuned to see what it is...

Raupen Fuchs Half Track VW Type 2 T1 Minibus

I stumbled across this unusual Volkswagen Type 2 T1 microbus while browsing through old books at the Seattle Public library earlier today. Apparently the German firm Raupen Fuchs created it as a prototype in the 1960s intending to sell these for use in sand/snow. It appears that it survives to this day. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Spotted - VW Beetle With Front-mounted V8

This one is ready for some serious business...

Cool Car Dashboards - Type 34 Karman Ghia

Type 34 Karmann Ghia I saw earlier this year...

LEGO 10220 - Volkswagen T1 Camper Van - Part 2

If your read Part 1 of this post and the post about my experiment with the transporter, you already know I got myself a Lego Volkswagen T1 Camper Van the other day. Well it took me three days to find enough time in the evenings to put it together but it is finally done.

I think it looks great. The amount of detail is just awesome. There were a couple of kinks along the way as I ended up modifying the section of roof over the cab to make it more sturdy as it seems there wasn't much support to keep it together when opening the Safari windows.

 Roof rack, pop-up top and Safari windows. It is all there.