In the aftermath of the wildfires in California this past January, one particular photo caught people’s attention. It was taken by an Associated Press photographer of a neighborhood in Malibu that had been ravaged by the Palisades fire. In the photo, everything from the houses to the trees were barren and singed from the flames. The sole exception was a little blue 1977 Volkswagen T2 bus parked on the street that looked practically untouched. It didn’t just catch the public’s attention, though, it also caught that of Volkswagen of America. Now, the company is working on getting the little bus back in working order for its owner.
It’s The Epitome Of Southern California Bus
The current owner of the T2 is Megan Krystle Wienraub. She named the car “Azul” after the color, and, according to Associated Press, she bought it from her friend and business associate Preston Martin. Between the two of them, this bus has had the quintessential Southern California van life experience. Martin lived in it for a while when he was fixing it up, and both of them are involved in making surfboards. In fact, Weinraub told Associated Press that she and some friends took it to go surfing a couple of days before the fire.
VW’s Classic Car Team Is Tackling The Restoration
Even though the van looked nearly untouched from that initial photo, it’s clear that it wasn’t unscathed. When the company had Weinraub’s permission to look it over and possibly do repair work, plus the city’s to enter the fire-damaged area, it started finding damage. The bus looked great on one side, but on the other, the paint had lots of cracks and scorching from the heat. We also reached out to a Volkswagen representative, and he noted that there were plenty of other parts damaged from the heat, such as melted wiring and damaged rubber components, among other fire-related damage.
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As such, the repair team at Volkswagen’s Oxnard, California, office will have a fair bit of work on their hands. They should be a capable team, as they take care of Volkswagen’s classic car collection for the US. The VW representative we reached said that the main goal is to make the van “roadworthy and reliable,” but that will obviously include more than just making it a strong driver, as body work is in order. That does raise the question of just how much the van should be restored. Apparently, VW is leaving some of that up to Weinraub, who they say hasn’t yet decided if she wants to retain some of the van’s sun-baked patina it had before the fire, or if she’d like it taken all the way to glossy showroom new. Either way, VW says the project should be finished sometime this year, and Azul will be making trips to the beach for surfing once again.
Source: Volkswagen, Associated Press
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