Junkyard Find: 1978 Volkswagen Transporter
Like the Fiat 124 Sport Spider, your typical second-gen VW Transporter typically spends many years as a never-started project in a back yard or driveway (because everyone loves an air-cooled VW bus!), then washes ashore at a junkyard. I’ve been seeing these vans in about the same numbers in junkyards for a couple of decades now, even as only the nicest street-driven examples have been kept alive. Here’s a ’78 with some extremely Malaise-y custom touches that I spotted in a Colorado yard last week.
It’s hard to imagine anything more 70s than a brown Transporter with hideous crypto-Native-American custom striping, also in shades of brown.
Like most junkyard VW vans, this one sat for many, many years before taking its final tow-truck ride.
The question here is: did the van’s final owner store the engine inside, or was it placed there by a junkyard customer who pulled the engine and then decided not to buy it?
It’s not especially rusty, by air-cooled VW standards (i.e., it’s not a vaguely vehicle-shaped red stain on the pavement), but it’s pretty much used up. Next stop: Crusher!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I see the VW haters still exist . They're not overly slow *IF* you bother to maintain them . Pops went to Germany in 1954 and bought a Kombi , this being the very cheapest VW Van made , it had rear seats but no inner trim panels , in New England's freezing winters it wasn't so cold when stuffed full of 6 kids and two Adults . In time , I became an Indie VW Mechanic and drove air cooled VW's across the U.S. , Canada and Mexico more times than most , as I'm not too lazy to take basic care I was never left afoot , never . Hanging a sheet across behind the front seat area really helped the heat issue, I remember one chilly night in Reno , Nev. when a kid was following in his bus that he'd declined my offer of free heater parts & installation we stopped for gas and his wipers froze to the glass . My bone stock single port 1600 engine never had any difficulty ascending hills in 3rd. gear . If you're a whiner , any cheap vehicle will be the fault , not you of course . lots of kids in here who miss out on how wonderful a gift life and living in America is by whining non stop instead of learning to deal with whatever the situation is . My son still has my old # 211 one ton VW Panel truck , it's no cherry but runs *perfectly* *easily goes 65 MPH . -Nate
That's what " Blue Roads " are for ! . I commuted in four different Ford 'A' Models during the 1980's & 1990's in and around Los Angeles after simple up grades of brakes and adding overdrive - they were good reliable cars . -Nate