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Ok. Here is our latest theory on getting history of this bus.
The years of history we are missing are from 1967-1983 (16 years). This is all a guess at this point.
Given all the aviation parts on this thing, this is the latest story that I will try to figure out.
- Bus was purchased new and delivered to Germany (confirmed).
- It was delivered to an air force member located on Ramstein Air force base – This was the major German US air force location in Germany since mid 1950’s
- The Air Force member who bought this bus is a bit older person who was stationed there for a few years prior to 1967 and already owned a bus.
- This person either was an aircraft mechanic of some type with an attention to detail.
- He had an accident in an earlier camper which was an SO34. The bus was totaled from a front end crash but he was able to keep all of this bus camper goodies except the flip seat.
- The guy bought a new camper via special order. He got good money for his totaled Westy. So, he bought a new SO42 all decked out with a shit ton of add-ons such as, custom two-toned paint, ambulance step, steering lock and gas heater. But, he ordered this camper without an interior and just front seats.
- This guy was very mechanical, so upon receiving his new bus, he hacked the bulkheads and made a great patch (there some very intricate and riveted pieces where the bulk heads were). He didn’t have a flip seat, so he made custom back seat attachments that allowed him to remove the seat-backs when camping. These seat backs were made of high quality, machined parts and included aircraft clevises and bolts, etc.
- He then utilized the SO 34 interior that could now work since he created fabricated removable front seat backs. The area cut of from the front seats were also painted to match at the time of the hack since the paint up there looks OG.
- This dude then added accessories from time to time continuing to deck out the bus including compass, night mirror, trucker mirrors, pon ton fog lights, roof running lights (probably added when home in the US).
- The guy eventually came back state-side in the early 70’s and keep his bus for some time. He eventually got married, had little kids, had to buy a house and decided to sell his bus.
- This guy lived in Loveland Colorado. so, he went to the used car dealer and traded his bus for some station wagon to haul his family and kids around. I assume he actually owned this vehicle for sometime in the US since he loved his bus so much and put so much work into it.
- He traded his bus in 1983.
- Gentlemen bought this bus and lived in both Montrose and Arizona. This person actually registered this vehicle with Davis Monthan AFB in 1991 for sometime. So…the sticker on the bus was from the 2nd owner.
- This 2nd owner owned this bus from 1983-2016 (23 years).
- The guy I bought this from owned the bus for less than a year and flipped it to me.
So…….if I need to confirm this. I need to find probably a guy who was stationed at Ramstein AFB between 1965-1969 or so. This person was originally from Loveland, Colorado. He would probably be around 75 years old today.
In order to keep looking I need to find a connection to historical records of service members from Ramstein AFB during that time. OR………I could post something in Loveland’s VFW or American Legion since this person would definitely be a member of one of those local chapters at sometime.
Anyone else have any ideas or thoughts relative to my hypothesis and next steps?
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