Miscellaneous Camper Buses
compiled by Ron Van Ness
Here's a unique '69-'70 vintage bus:
Eric Archer spotted the picture here and provided the following information:
"It is actually a camper conversion called the 'Desert Rat Conversion' done by Volkswagen dealerships in a attempt to pick up sales out here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I currently have a 1973 bus that has the same top but due to the dust and dry climate out here, the canvas pop-tops did not fair very well for more than 5 years... so it was decided to add a high roof pop top to it. The GT model was supposed to be a high performance model that was supposed "to pull its own weight among other mini-RVs of its class (i.e ASI, Dormobile, etc., etc.). The chrome trim was available for an extra amount with the extra resistant paint as found on Wolfsburg editions. The dome light is apart of the conversion, and well...the top does not work at all--it could just be considered as a high roof and that's that! They are not really known in the VW camper world and that's a shame... they only made about 50 or so of them from 1967 to 1979 so i think that more people should take more notice of them."
The fiberglass top has crank out side windows, a ventilation portal in the top, and a luggage rack in the rear. The interior is stock Westfalia, but the poptop hole was enlarged for more access to utilize the high top.
Here are some photos from an Australian camper brochure from the '70s, courtesy of Guy Harding:
