Solo Hobbit's '63 deluxe walkthough "Smial Poni"

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The Story
In the fall of 1997, I decided that I wanted to finally get my dream bus for an extended solo traveling around the contiguous United States and maybe the rest of North America and parts south. This was a bus that I was going to keep for the rest of my life. I had 3 busses up to that point, and I knew that my only remaining bus, Else, was not going to be my dream bus. After all, Else was a hardtop and it was in pretty rough shape. So I bought my '67 Westfalia Campmobile, full expecting that it would fit the bill. But I soon found that the Westfalia camper setup was just not what I needed functionally. Sure, a Westfalia, is good for a family of four on a weekend picnic, but not for extreme long term traveling. In my opinion, the cabinets are too awkward and not very efficient. Things like having the ice box right behind the active leaf cargo door or the wardrobe closet door being blocked by the spice rack illustrate that, although the interior is pretty, it is not thought out well functionally. What I needed was more like the a space capsule or boat interior where anthroprmorphic motion minded layout is the rule. Obviously what I needed was a custom interior. I had three choices: 1) modify the original Westfalia cabinets, 2) put the Westfalia cabinets in storage and make my own interior, or 3) get another bus. Option 1 was sacrilegious, option 2 is silly, so I was faced with option 3.

The Plan
So I quite my job, got divorced, sold my house, and the cat ran away. NOW, I says to myself, is the time in life to let my compulsive obsession for splitties run wild. If I am going to put my heart, soul, and a LOT of sweat into a project, why not get what I really want. I know this sound so damn stuck up, but my heart was telling me that my dream bus had to have in order of importance:

glory of all glories 23 windows deluxe samba sondermodel (I have always wanted one)
walk through (this was a tough choice, but practical for solo traveling)
fried egg signal without the yokes (I just don't like the bullets)
outward crimped engine vent (for the added texture)
1500 cc original engine (so it would still be stock and have some power)

This narrowed it down to a bus made between January, 1963 (when the 1500 became an option) and March 7 1963 (when the engine vents were turned in). Realizing the happy coincidence that my birthday on January 30, 1963 fell into this range gave me a sign that I was on the right track. As it tuned out, I came pretty close, and had to give up only on the 1500 cc engine option, and found a bus born on November 22, 1963.

I also wanted a bus that had the interior already chewed up so I would not feel bad about doing my own custom interior. As you can see that was no problem with this bus. My design intent for this bus is to do a restoration on the exterior so it appears stock, but to do my own custom interior.

The Name
Finally a word on how my dream bus got its name. All of my busses had ended in a "ee" sound (Ozzy, Alfi(e), Else(e), and Westy), and I saw no reason to end the tradition. I also had always loved Tolkein's fiction, and had "Solo Hobbit" as my CB handle and later my Internet VW pseudonym. This bus was going to be my home on wheels. A hobbit's home is called a "smial" and hobbits ride on ponies. Hence Smial Pony was the name I wanted, but "pony" was already taken as a vanity plate in Vermont, and the four character limit for antique plates limited me to "poni". So my dream bus is called Smial Poni or just Poni (sounds like ponie) for short.

Previous Owner with Poni in Mississippi

This is not me

Trailering back to Vermont

Initial condition of the exterior

Initial condition of the interior

A few initial details
one of only
two interior panels
that came with it.

windshield washers on a '63?
Is this a dealer installed option?

The M plate is:
22 11 2
378 027 081
UO 241 MGR PW 1032858
(November 22, 1962)
(unkown, unknown, deluxe walkthrough)
(New Orleans, LHD 9 seater deluxe, Mouse Gray under Pearl White, Chassis 1032858)

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