[T2] Friday Content: Bus canvas template search

[Nick volkswagen collector]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

As a disclaimer to everyone: I harbor no ill will, intend to insult,
generate discontent, intend to undermine the integrity or financial
well-being of, or any other similar adjectives that you can think of
towards any person or company that sells bus canvases.  The new canvases
available that I have seen and touched on friends buses have been of high
quality and great fit.  They are also similar in color to the originals,
which is wonderful for a perfect restoration.

My Friday type question involves hunting for used/tattered/hole filled bus
canvases.  However, there is a bit of a long backstory involved:

On a whim back in 2010 I was in touch with family friends who know members
of the local Amish community very well and asked about a canvas for my 71
westy since I knew they make boat covers and other things for people.  The
family friends put my father and I in touch with their Amish friends and
they kindly made a canvas for me and for a friend in MI (they needed at
least two to be made to make it worth their time.)  It and the friend's
canvas have functioned well over the past four years with no issues.

Jumping forward in time to late 2013 early 2014, a few friends asked me if
we still had such connections.  After talking to my father, he was able to
get in touch with the Amish family our family friends know again and
cultivate a nice friendship with them.  Around the holidays we organized a
group buy with local club members for westy canvases (68-73) again.  We
also added in 74-79 canvases after getting a template, but we still don't
know if that one fits as the friends in the group buy have yet to install
theirs.  Due to this increased volume of canvases made the second time
around,  our Amish friends requested that I place an ad online with the
larger VW community to get their product out there into the wider vein of
interest.  The way this wound up being structured is that I am essentially
the go between for the Amish family that we know since they don't use the
internet/phones/etc.  You could call me a middle man if you wanted, though
I'm not screwing anybody over like middlemen typically do.  Our Amish
friends told us a price for the early bay westy canvas and I added $15 to
it for shipping and made the Samba ad (late ones we're still trying to
figure it out.)  As a result I've had people from all over the USA and now
Canada purchasing these early bay westy canvases.  There is interest for
the late model version from Europe and across the USA, but as mentioned we
have yet to hear if they fit from friends.  There is also a large interest
in the non Westy/Campmobile versions, but I don't have such a template.  As
a result I put a wanted ad online with the particulars.  This isn't really
a business venture for myself or my father (who does a lot of the running
around for these things.)  It is to help spread the word for our Amish
friends who can make different canvases or other items for niche markets
such as the bus one.


My question to my fellow list members is as follows:

Does anyone have such a tattered canvas sitting around for the
non-Campmobile/Westfalia buses of any year?

If you do, you can contact me off list and we can work something out to get
the canvas into the hands of the Amish.

If this doesn't abide by the slightly relaxed Friday rules, I apologize in
advance and will not post such a topic again.



Sincerely,

Nick G (blue71 on thesamba)