. I hope everyone is safe and staying healthy, I'm a volunteer EMT up here in Maine and things are not good all over 
. Anyway, thought I'd share what I've been up to. First, a tribute to Eggplant, I do miss that little thing. Last I had seen, it had been dragged out of the junkyard, painted grey, and ended up on CL without motor or interior for $2000
. So I picked up a blue '79 in 2009. I bought as a non-runner for $500, the keychain that came with it had a rubber duck with an afro so it got named Aphroducky. It was painted with house paint over spots of 2" thick bondo from a crappy accident repair. I'm not a purist, nor do I really like having a vehicle that can't be used as it is intended because it is too nice, soooooo, I dove in to get the 2.0l FI motor running, the electrics back in shape, and the body respectable. I was moving a nice, happy pace. Funny how life has a way of tossing a wrench into things when you say "nice, happy pace." Within two days I had lunched the transmission in my truck and my son hydrolocked the motor in our shared ZJ. Hammer time!! Whipped the bus into shape quick with a scuff and squirt of TSC paint, got the BFGs off the Party Pickle that was being parted out, and used it as my daily for a year from 2012 to 2013.
Parked Ducky in the spring of 2013 to replace the exhaust and a few other things, since I had gotten a new truck. Parked for a few months became a few years
. This past summer it needed to be moved from where it was sitting so I dragged it up to my place in Maine to ponder what to do next. Right about the same time the better half and I were returning from the annual family gathering in NY, passing through beautiful, rural VT. She said to me that it would be nice if I could take a break that wasn't a family thing and her and I go for a weekend here and there, and she wouldn't be hurt if that meant crawling through some small New England towns, hit some trails away from people, and go camping for a few days. She then asked how hard would it be to turn "that ugly yellow thing in the driveway" into "one of those camper VW things?" Ahhhh . So, upon returning home I started working on Ducky, fixing new rust spots, cleaning it up, stripping out the interior, going through the suspension, brakes, and fuel system. Unfortunately, winter came early and not much progress was made. The weather up here finally starting to cooperate last June. I still had a few snowbanks left but was able to drag Ducky out of the side yard and over to where I can work on him. Dove in replacing consumables, fuel pump, lines, almost burned it down with the VR shorted out, pulled the interior, and started planning. Nice fan, huh?
Picked up these seats from the dump in great shape.
Had a good weekend for weather late August so pulled the windows and got down to painting.
1) Yes the body isn't perfect, don't care, it will get banged up and I don't want to stress about it.
2) Yes, the windshield got painted. It is badly delaminated and cracked so I pulled the weather stripping and popped it back in place cuz it was easier than masking that big hole
. Put on some lights and a winch (not big enough to recover the bus but at 5000, should move obstructions out of the trail), made curtains and a rack.Then had to park for the winter. Again.
Almost up to date.
. I also got my amateur tech license so I have a vintage 2m to go in it too.
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