Magnum Mania!

Hi there.

A member here was so kind helping me to upload a photo of the vanagon, thanks for that SAM!

The vanagon was sold through Universal right after the production wrapped and was bought by a Hawaian Balloon company who used it as an advertisement by driving arround on the island. The vanagon and the series have been so popular, that this was still a very attractive kind of advertisement also the show had already wrapped. After the popularity of the show started fading they sold the vanagon to a private person.
There have been several owners, i guess arround 2 or 3, before i bought it, to protect it from scrapping. I own it since several years now and always wanted to restore it, but didn't have the time right now.

BTW the lettering HAWAIIAN BALOON COMPANY is still slightly visible at the rear-window of the car.

Enjoy!

PW

Here is the photo PW...

Wow! I'm suprised at how good it's condition is. I mean it really looks great. This has to be the best example of a MPI collection on the board. By the way, DON"T EVER SELL IT.

Thanks!

Yes, i agree it`s an extraordinary piece. I am based in europe, so you can imagine it was very hard to ship it back to europe. Although it was very expensive, but everything turned out to be great with the shipping company and it arrived savely.

Here, i have better and cheaper possibilities for restoring it, cause the VW car-parts-market is quite large and much more cheaper than in the states (that's what i've heard).

So finally the vanagon came back where it initially came from .

If it's of interrest, i can post some more pics. My vanagon has kind of a shot damage on one side. I always wondered wether it was used for stunt scenes!?

PW

How many miles now ?

paperwar wrote:Thanks!
If it's of interrest, i can post some more pics. My vanagon has kind of a shot damage on one side. I always wondered wether it was used for stunt scenes!?
PW

If? By all means, I'm sure I speak for others when I say I'd love to see as many photos as you care to put up. I read where Sam helped you host pictures. I'd be willing to do the same, just email me any you want me to put up. Maybe if there are a lot Sam and I could split them up. Anyway you need, just let me know.
At times I've looked on Ebay for vehicles to make MPI replicas from, and you have the real thing. I'd be careful about restoration though, it may be more valuable in unrestored condition. I'd have to think long and hard about repainting for example.
Just a note, in season 7, episode "On The Fly" The van did get shot up. I assumed it was special effect type "shot up" but maybe they actually riddled it with bullets.

I don`t know how many miles the engine have run right now: But when i am next time in my storage i'll have a look and let you know. Will also take some additional photos.

Don't worry: I would never repaint or overpaint it in any way. It is like it is!
If i would have liked to have a perfect car with new paint etc, i wouldn't have bought the original vanagon, but would have made a replica by myself.

So nothing will be changed, except that i'll repair it and get it in that condition, that i am allowed to drive with it arround here.

I for one am very interested in as much about the vehicle as you can share. I can't tell you how many GMC Jimmy/Chevy Blazers I've looked at and dreamed of repainting like "Robin 3", or Vanagons, or Dodge Power Wagons I've thought of buying and re doing like Rick Simon's (Simon & Simon).

Wow! Is that an 81 or 82? I've been looking in www.autotrader.com for just the right one to restore.

We have an '80 Vanagon that is now fully restored. Couldn't get the guys to go with a Island Hoppers paint job. The one one saving grace, the twin of our dark blue-light blue bus does show up in a chase scene in season 6 or 7. I need to find it again, and print a screen shot for my son and husband, who have done the restoration.

While it's fun to have the Vanagon around, it's not a all comfortable, compared to new cars. It also tends to get blown about on windy days. That said, we wouldn't get rid of it.

Found these pics today..

paperwar wrote:Hi there.

A member here was so kind helping me to upload a photo of the vanagon, thanks for that SAM!

The vanagon was sold through Universal right after the production wrapped and was bought by a Hawaian Balloon company who used it as an advertisement by driving arround on the island. The vanagon and the series have been so popular, that this was still a very attractive kind of advertisement also the show had already wrapped. After the popularity of the show started fading they sold the vanagon to a private person.
There have been several owners, i guess arround 2 or 3, before i bought it, to protect it from scrapping. I own it since several years now and always wanted to restore it, but didn't have the time right now.

BTW the lettering HAWAIIAN BALOON COMPANY is still slightly visible at the rear-window of the car.

Enjoy!

PW

Wow, that's awesome. Are you going to try to find the correct style of wheels for it to match how it was in the show?

Found another pic..when I copied it,I could only get a half at a time..complete pic here.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... ?p=4067884

Here's the image from Road and Track stuck together.



I wonder if they mention the van in the article. Looks like it's just about the air-cooled flat four in general.

Anybody know if they had more than one vanagon for filming? Wouldn't it be unusual to have only one vehicle on set in case they had problems with one?

They used several vanagons from 1980-1984 and bought 6 new watercooled vanagons in 1984 which have been used till production wrapped.
It is believed that there are only 2 vanagons with original paint still in existence, mine and another from a lady in the states. They used mainly the 5 vanagons(one was touring arround the states for publicity reasons to promote the new watercooled vanagon like described in the article of the automobile magazine pictured above) for several different purposes, like stunt vanagons, close-up driving vanagon(which had holes for the camera in the car door), driving arround outside etc.. The crew people even used the vanagons to drive home after work.


Where did the pics came from Sam?

pw