Buying A Thing- My Adventure

[greg mgm]

2466 miles. Freeway lag. Too many Subway sandwiches. Rain.... A Bitchen time!

I just got back from a road trip to Hamilton Montana to have a look at a 73 Thing that I saw on Craigslist. The previous owner sent quite a few pics, and his description of the condition of the 73 Thing sounded good to me. So last Tue at 6am, I started out on my "Buy a Montana Thing" adventure.

The first day (last Tue) was a straight shot from Idyllwild CA to Salt Lake City Utah. Arrived at the hotel in 12 hours, right in time for dinner.

Day 2 started a bit earlier, at 5:45am. Another straight run (Around 7 hours) to Hamilton MT. It was a beautiful drive with incredible scenery! Lots of rain though. Here's a pic after checking out the Thing, in front of the previous owners house-

Hamilton is a beautiful place-

Driving through Montana and Idaho was awesome. Gorgeous scenery all around-

Driving back to the hotel in Salt Lake City was brutal. I got to bed at 3:30am! BTW, that's a LOT of driving in one day!

In front of a rest stop....Utah maybe??-

On my way to visit my sis in Kingman AZ...A pic at Hoover Dam-

Getting closer to home. I'm nearly blown off my feet near the wind power generators by Palm Springs.

2466 miles later back in Idyllwild CA.....Home sweet home-

Close up of what I hauled home-

My Tundra did a super fantastic job on this trip. It kept me cool in the desert heat and happy with the tunes blasting. My butt and legs were not happy towards the end of the drive.....but they're recuperating...

I had a closer look at the Thing this morning and discovered more rust than I originally thought it had....but that's OK. I wanted a mostly original car, and this one seems to be 98.999% original. It runs and drives great, and I'm diggin it so far.

 

[seanz0rz]

congrats on getting your new vw home safely!

www.thesamba.com is a great place for ACVW info. i bought a squareback a few months ago and am trying to get it road worthy. cool to have another expo'er in the area thats into vw's! good luck with your project, ive always had a strange love for the thing!

 

[Ford Prefect]

My Neighbor has a thing, and he seemed fairly impressed that I actually knew what it was when I asked how he "liked that thing".

Anyhow, super nice looking vehicle you have there. The top looks like it is in excellent shape from the photos, and that is a biggie to me.

Anyhow, thanks for sharing!

 

[greg mgm]

congrats on getting your new vw home safely!

www.thesamba.com is a great place for ACVW info. i bought a squareback a few months ago and am trying to get it road worthy. cool to have another expo'er in the area thats into vw's! good luck with your project, ive always had a strange love for the thing!

It really is a strange love for Things. Ya just got to love those ugly little cars! (Or not)

My Neighbor has a thing, and he seemed fairly impressed that I actually knew what it was when I asked how he "liked that thing".

Anyhow, super nice looking vehicle you have there. The top looks like it is in excellent shape from the photos, and that is a biggie to me.

Anyhow, thanks for sharing!

The top is in nearly perfect condition, but the frame is out of whack. It sits too high where the doors close and will need to be adjusted into position. Probably not a big deal....( I hope!)

 

[RocKrawler]

Gotta love those road trips for a vehicle! The last long one we took was a weekend trip from Palm Springs to Medford OR - got up to Redwood CA on a Saturday, did the rest of the way to OR & all the way back on the Sunday - geez was that a long haul in a short time. Looks like you scored a great type 181!

 

[mtnbike28]

Cool Thing and trip!

Congrats on both the Thing and the Trip! My last trip like that ended with U-Haul and new purchase on a trailer!

 

[Errant]

It's beautiful

 

[Woodsman]

Great little Thing you have there. :smiley_drive:

Your home site looks enviable as well. I'd love to live amongst some nice evergreens. :drool:

 

[UnfrozenCaveman]

Great looking Thing, and it's nice to see photos of Idyllwild.

Gees, it has to have been '67 / '68 since I was there last.

Dad knew a guy who became Riverside County Sheriff....Cois Byrd...he had built an A-frame there.

Enjoy the Thing!

 

[ywen]

WOW nevermind the Thing... I love your CA home! All those redwoods!?!

 

[Toyotero]

That's a great looking Kurierwagen

Have fun!

 

[greg mgm]

Thanks for the comments.
Living in the woods is basically....awesome.
Before we lived here my wife and I lived in the historic core in downtown LA, in a 100 year old bank office building. (5'th and Spring) That was quite an experience, but when we moved to Pine Cove/ Idyllwild, I knew we were home! It works out great having off road type vehicles too, since there are dirt roads all around us. I've been slowly exploring the area, but still have lots to discover.

 

[Co-opski]

Kewl type 181. It just needs to shed some stickers and a small adventure trailer w/ a RTT now.

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

My dad had one of those when I was a kid...painted it camo and named it Schultz! Fun car, I've always wanted to get another. Enjoy!

 

[bobDog]

Nice thing! I've seen some of those built up so you could hardly tell what they were. I've heard that they can be quite capable off-road!