[T2] Any Body have Camper Story?

[Chris Sheridan]

Leaving my last grateful dead show, 6-9-95 at Giants stadium, I lost all
oil pressure in my 1973 Bus and ultimately blew the motor and had to be
towed back to queens. I rented out a garage and proceeded with a long
rebuilding process. the motor in there was a 1971 411 motor which I
stripped, cleaned, sent to rimco and had the case align bored to an
oversize bearing to get rid of the wear, and redo all the heads with new
valves, springs guides etc.. Reground crankshaft from Storm Crank in
Yonkers, brand new NOS german solid camshaft from John Anderson, nos solid
lifters, etc. I ended up with a 1971 411 1.7 liter with an 002 1973 bell
housing and a 091 1978 transmission. The thing had a tighter than normal
shift range but with a hurst shifter was really quick and fun to drive
around new york city. An artist friend lusted after it and offered me $3k
which doesn't seem like much to you now but sure seems good to me then as I
had invested only about $3k in the engine rebuild and had gotten the bus
for free. He agreed to throw in his 1971 mystery westy and I took the deal.
He later traded that bus to an artist for a custom build wood table for his
bookstore but whatever, I now had a beat up 71 westy with no poptop just a
plexiglass covering over the roof hole. The motor was unknown. My wife and
I immediately drove it to florida for a huge all night long NYE phish
concert. We made it 500 miles on the first day and as we glided into the
hotel parking spot, the oil light came on and stayed on and the motor was
unfortunately cooked. My wife caught the flu and stayed in the hotel bed. I
called the AIRS rescue list and after some consultations with Charlie Ford
and a couple other geezers, I ordered a long block from Durham and a friend
delivered it in his father in laws minivan to the hotel. I hid the old long
block behind some hay bales at the back of the parking lot. Two days later
we were on our way to florida. Right before we got there the car stopped
moving on the highway, engine was still running fine, it just wasn't moving
forward. Found cv joint had disconnected from the wheel - reattached it on
the side of the highway burning my forearm on the heater box kept going -
made to Phish had a great time that couldn't be beat until 3 days later we
drove back to New York City, where I sold that bus to pay for the new long
block I had just put on my credit card. Two girls from Sarah Lawrence
bought it to drive to Colorado for a womyn festival. Thats my westy story
for today.
Chris
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