Rustybus?

This site is dedicated to the famous rustybus, a 1961 Ragtop Standard. It goes by many names: Garcia, Air Bus, Rust Bucket, the 61, Hole-y Bus, Deathtrap, the Bullet Hole Bus, etc. It has a beautiful black canvas ragtop that I sewed and installed in it myself, a powder coated gas tank, and lots of original VW parts that were chromed by various people, but for the most part is a rusty, painted, stickered, molested bus with remnants of its past life full of carpet, paneling, and a fur headliner. I wish I could hear some of the stories this bus could tell. It was probably professionally customized in about 1970 in California (I'm guessing from clues I have found) with a copper metallic paint job, professionally flared wheel wells, and the biggest, sturdiest, scalloped fiberglass scoops I have ever seen. It then ended up in the middle of nowhere in Wink, Texas. A young Hispanic guy by the name of Miguel Garcia owned it and is probably the one that Bondo'd all the rust holes in the rain gutter caused by the shag carpet glued to the roof. The Bondo'd areas were painted red primer, the engine tin was welded together, and the bus had short, superwide tires with white spoke rims, Baja style. I have put around 100,000 miles on it since I bought it for $125. I have had it up to 100 miles per hour, have taken it off road all over the place, carried 3500 lbs. of rocks at one time in it and over 20 tons of rock total, nearly lost it to the Pacific Ocean while driving on the beach, and have been to 9 states in it. Most recently it carried a 200 pound antique claw foot bathtub home while towing a 21 window behind it... all the way from Kansas to Arizona! It is not being restored but is always getting new bits and having one thing or another done. It is an ever-changing canvas.

Welcome to the new Rustybus web page. The previous page was hacked, and was also 10 years out of date. This is the beginning of the rebirth of the Rustybus page.

While the page is under construction, feel free to check out the Rustybus' latest escapades on Facebook by searching for Rustybus.

The Rustybus

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