A few weeks ago a friend that I met through the VW world, sent me an email stating that he had finally found his �Dream Vehicle� a 1961 VW Double Cab Pickup. He had sold a Baja that he had in order to make the purchase. That�s OK; he still has the Camo Baja. On with the story�He shot me an email and said that this D-cab was in Purcell, Oklahoma at DKV Euro which is about 5 hours from where Jerry, aka. BajaDragon, Lives. I asked him if he needed any help in going to pick it up and he said sure he could use the help. After all the prep of getting a car dolly set up to rent, he emailed me and said that everything was a go and that we would head out on one of my days off. We could not have picked a COLDER day to do this. Here in The Texas Panhandle, the Monday before we left, the temp was in the 70s F. when we left out on Wednesday morning the temp was 14 F. I drove about 50 miles to pick him up and we were off about 9:00am that morning, ready to hit the Interstate. We got to DKV in Purcell, Oklahoma about 2:30-3:00pm that afternoon and the truck was sitting outside ready to go, or so we thought� the owner, Don, did not have it exactly ready, but that was fine with us. We found out that he was from England and had been in the States for about 13 yeas. Still had the accent also, Pretty Cool! He needed to change out the rear drums on the D-cab in order to comply with the 5 Bolt front disks. As our luck would have it, things took a little longer than expected. Don had a few stories to tell about while he was working on the rear drums. He had said that he was pretty well off, but times got hard so he packed up and moved to the States. He said that he had built a few race cars and could get 9000rpm�s out of a stock motor. Of course, everything wasn�t stock but some was.
We had to push the D-cab into the shop and then put it on a lift, to get started. The truck was in really good shape, only minor rust and the front end had been converted to a late model Disk brake system. I think it was out of a 79 bus. The motor had been replaced with, I believe, a Type 4, water-cooled Vanagon. The cooling fans were located under the Dcab which looked pretty cool also. New window seals, the interior was in good shape also. The glass was intact wit a new set of seals. After we got the drums changed over, a few other guys at the shop helped us load it on the dolly behind my truck. That was easy, four people pushing a D-cab on the car dolly, looked pretty damn funny! Jerry and Don made the sale and we were off, heading home. We had spent 3 hours there at DKV Euro, on the D-cab before we finally got everything ready to haul back. About 5:30pm we headed out and got back on the road. I told Jerry that we should have had enough fuel to make it about 2.5 hours down the road. I mis-calculated a little. We made it about 2 hours down the road and we needed fuel. We stopped in Weatherford, Oklahoma�got to be the Coldest night I can remember in a while. The wind was blowing about 40 mph and there Jerry was trying to take a few pics of the D-cab while I put the fuel in. I think he could not hold the camera steady enough to get a good pic due to the wind and COLD. We got back out on the road about 8:00pm and were heading back home. The D-cab pulled like a champ, not a problem one. Even though we had thought that the rear bumper and tailpipe might drag being so low to the ground while on the Car Dolly. Not a scratch on it from anything. We pulled in about 10:30pm and off loaded the D-cab and I let go of the trailer so he could take it back on Thursday. Jerry has been nothing but help, good advice and willing to help in any way he can. I have been in need of a pan for my Baja Project that is on my home page and he said that seeing how I helped him out with getting the D-cab home, he had a pan and would give it to me, (NO RUST) I never expected anything like this for driving him there. I offered to help because I wanted to help. All in all my day started out on the road at 7:00am and I got home about 12:30am that night with 725 miles logged. My second VW adventure and it was a good one. One I will never forget. Jerry, I appreciate all the help and advice that you have given. Thank You |
