The Buggy House

Business took me to the East Bay, so on the way home I popped in on the Buggy House, one of the last classic VW parts suppliers in the Bay Area.

Air-cooled VW buses and bugs were once plentiful throughout the area. The shops hung on for years, then disappeared as the founding proprietors were overtaken by age.

A flattering portrait of the Buggy House made me want to check it out as a place to rebuild the engine after the painting was done. The store was clean, well-appointed, and a promising candidate to do the work.

VW Fuel Line

When I showed the clerk a difficult-to-find bumper bolt, he was back in one minute with a set of four new matching nuts and bolts. I also picked up three feet of the old fabric-wrapped VW fuel line that one can no longer find in regular auto stores. The online VW suppliers can be cheaper, but often there's no substitute for visually inspecting the wares and avoiding the hassle of a return.

The bumpers have been put back on, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel:

© 2013 Stephen Yuen