Welcome to the Arizona Bus Club

Where air-cooled VW enthusiasts share their knowledge, enjoy the outdoors and support local charities!

What's Going On?


Click image to enlarge

ABC Volunteer BBQ

Saturday, June 14, 2025 at 2pm

Sue and Miller deMar (along with ABC) are puttin' on a fun get together/soiree for all the folks that have helped with the Raffle Bus and volunteered for Club events. Basically, as Miller said, "It's a party to show appreciation to all for making the Club successful."
Chicken, hotdogs, carne asada & water bottles will be provided. Everyone is asked to bring an appetizer, a side or dessert and their preferred beverage to the BRBQ as well as a bathing suit.

Don't forget to sign up!

Raffle Bus Update

Thursday, June 5, 2025

John started to put some miles on the new engine to break it in, 40 miles to be exact! Read how his morning went here.
Click the button below to see more pictures.
Thank you, Jeremy's Upholstery for upholstering our Z-Bed and front seat cushions. Also a BIG shout out to Roy Jonas, who helped us with upholstery the past two years or more. Huge thank you to Wolfsburg West and Space Age Auto Paint Store. See some of our other sponsors below. You'll hear more about them soon.

Check out these pictures of Wayne Olssen painting the bus. Looks amazing! Thank you Wayne!

ABC Jamboree 34

Things are coming together for our next Jamboree. Check our Jamboree Page. We've started adding information and will continue to add info as we confirm it.
Check back often!


Next General Meeting

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Join us for our next meeting. We'll be talking about Club business, raffle bus update, and upcoming events. Interested in the Bus Club? Wanna learn more? Here's a great opportunity to get to know us and you don't even need to own a bus! Don't forget to bring your chair! If you can't make it in person, watch it live on our Facebook page.

Forever Young ABC Campout

May 16-18, 2025

Great times were had at the Young, AZ Campout! A huge thank you to Justin & Corina Griffin and Clay and Amy Wills for hosting our campout at the Antler's Cafe & Bar. Justin and Corina offered their vehicles, including Corina's side-by-side to see the sights in Young. 
See all the pictures from the campout below and don't forget to go to the end of the
images for an image from the
Pleasant Valley Fire Dept..

Mike & John Helped the
Playa Ponderosa

Mike Baleda and John Manning volunteered their time Wednesday to help
our friend Alex install this huge engine into a
1971 Ford F100 Pickup Truck.
Click images to enlarge


ABC Member Campout
Williams, AZ

April 25-27, 2025

Nothing beats sitting around a big campfire with friends. If you missed this campout, be sure to check next year's schedule to
join us then.

Pictures coming!

Event Charity: The JoyBus
Visit their website to learn more about this wonderful organization.
joybus.org

Great Day at Buses, Bugs & Brews!

Amilkar and his 1952 Barn Door - Awesome!

Thank you Four Peaks Brewing for hosting our event! We truly appreciate your support!

Jim Simpson, PHD, CPA & Founder

Thank you, Jim!
(ABC Accountant)

Located in Phoenix, AZ, Masters of Coin is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping low income and elderly individuals with income tax preparation. Learn more about Jim and the organization he created.


Meet Some of Our Awesome ABC Jamboree 34 Sponsors

We'd love for you to support these wonderful sponsors. See links below their images. Let's show 'em some love!

2850 Palisades Dr., Corona, CA 92878
(888) 965-3937

707 S. Country Club Dr., Mesa, AZ 85210
(480) 835-0971

PO Box 959, Acton, CA 93510
(661) 268-1341


Phoenix, AZ
See their Facebook page for more details.

4645 N 43rd Ave, Phoenix, 85031
(602) 272-2313

COMPETITION ENGINEERING

3442 E Wood Street, Phoenix, AZ 85040
(602) 454-1555

Jeremy Jackson
Chandler, AZ
(435) 374-9297

Founders: David Pedroza & Keith Bluhm

Vintage Voltswerks
641 E. Alturas St., Tucson, AZ 85705
(520) 333-6229

JBugs
1338 Rocky Point Drive
Oceanside, CA 92056

(800) 231-1784

West Coast Metric
24002 Frampton Ave.
Harbor City, CA 90710
(800) 247-3202


The Bus Blog

June 2025
May 2025

Raffle Bus Update - May 29, 2025

Planned on spending about 2 hours doing the final hose routing/installing on the remote oil filter. The first hose went on easy, 50 minutes? Looking just like I’d hoped. The second hose, not so much. The hose I brought from home was 1-1/2” too short! So had to go to Orielly’s, Ace and NAPA, second trip today for NAPA, before I found hose the right size and strong enough to work.Then discovered the bottom fittings coming out of the oil pump were clocked wrong and the mustache bar modification that was made to allow the bar to fit around the fittings needed work. And that meant the bar had to come down, tools found to allow the bar to be further modified, reclock the fittings, and then reinstalled. Took hours! Had to refill with oil, spin the motor with the coil disconnected to get oil into the new filter and hoses so we wouldn’t starve the bearings of oil, and finally start the engine. So it’s done, looks as good as I hoped, no leaks and hopefully we won’t have to take the mustache bar down ever again. The next step is to start driving the bus. A lot! Need 500 miles of break in before we can declare victory. And it’s now ready to go. Well, it’s still up on the Jack stands I had to put under it today to work on it and was just too tired to remove them when I was done about 3:30 this afternoon. Maybe someone has a spare front driver seat we can temporarily use until our beautiful newly reupholstered seats are ready? Let me know and I’ll meet you at Russell’s and we can get it installed…. Thanks.

Read more »

Raffle Bus Update - May 9-10, 2025 (Friday & Saturday)

Friday was a day long exercise in frustration while working on the brakes. Russell and I got the new master cylinder, upper fluid reservoir and found the new lower fluid reservoir and the connecting tube were for a different year master cylinder. So I had to modify the tube and clean up the old lower reservoir, both of which took hours to get right. Got everything assembled and started bleeding the brakes. That seemed to be going ok, just taking forever when the master cylinder started making strange gurgling noises and wouldn’t pull fluid from the upper reservoir after pumping new fluid into the calipers. Finally decided that our new master cylinder was at fault. Luckily, when I called Mike and asked for his advice, he said he had another new one in his stash and he brought it to Russell’s Saturday morning. Life saver. It was a real struggle to get the bad new master cylinder out, transfer over the lower reservoir to the good new one and then install the new assembly under the bus. Really messy work with brake fluid dripping everywhere. But we got it in, got the system bled, and now have really good pedal pressure/feel. I don’t know what we’d do without Mike.Bill Ross came by after he got off work to work his magic on a very hard closing sliding door. It took a lot of head scratching but he was able to figure out what was wrong and make the adjustments needed to get the door closing as it should. Russell can put the door panel on now. He’s very happy…. Thank you Bill…Joe brought the new radio and dropped it off. It’ll look good in the dash. He wanted to install it but Mike and I were under the bus doing brake things and the bus on jack stands is too dangerous to have anyone working inside. Joe will maybe come by later in the week and get it in. Thanks Joe. But the big news is Reuben went and picked up the newly upholstered bench seat. It looks terrific. I think Russell posted a picture of it and I really like the material/color choice. It’ll be going in next. It was a long drive and a lot of trouble for Reuben to pick it up. Thank you, Reuben. I’ll start putting the dash/cover/padded trim back in place tomorrow. I’d been looking for a driver door switch for the front dome light and they are NLA. I’ve got an easy work around that I don’t need dash access for. So the windshield will go in next week and we can start test drives just as soon as the newly upholstered front seats show up. I think they’re being worked on now. I hope.

Read more »
April 2025

Raffle Bus Not-a-Work-Party - Saturday, April 19, 2025

For not having an official work party today, we sure got a lot done!Greg, Kitty, Ray, Laura, Russell, Bill R., David C., and Greta were all there today.Kitty came by and finished installing the curtains. The sliding door gave her fits, but everyone chipped in and figured it out.Greg and Russell worked on cabinets all morning and most of the afternoon.Russell got the windshield wiper assembly in and helped troubleshoot the washer system. The new switch works great, the motor works and the squirters spray as they should. There is some kind of air leak somewhere that still has to be found but the fluid itself doesn’t leak. Russell also helped me finish putting in the bolts at the CV/axles. Mike and Wayne had gotten the axles in earlier this week but 5 of the bolts were in such bad shape that they could not be torqued. I brought some from home so we were able to get the five new ones in and torqued down.The really hard job went to Bill Ross. He volunteered to get the front door latches installed. The passenger side went in without a lot of drama and the latch and interior opening handle went in with some modification of the lever arm rod. But the driver side was a real bear. Bill and I fought it for a looong time with little success. So I called David Cissna to see if he could help. He came by and after seemingly forever he and Bill figured it out successfully. David had to remove the window felt channel among other things to gain access to make things work. Then the outer handles went on and both doors now close and lock. It was a long, tough, frustrating job that they just wouldn’t give up on and were finally able to get done. Very, very impressive effort! Took a lot of grit. Thank You.And Greta was there with an amazing lunch for everyone. What a nice, nice job she does for everyone. Makes our whole day! Thank you Greta!

Read more »
March 2025

Raffle Bus 34 Work Party - Saturday, March 29, 2025

Well, we somehow got a fair amount done on Saturday March 29 build. The weather was perfect but we took two steps forwards and one backwards without our fearless leader (John Manning), who was visiting his son and grandsons in LA.  David C. worked tirelessly on the drivers and passengers front windows. The rubbers and aftermarket pieces did not fit perfectly, and he had to modify the parts so that everything fit perfectly. David C. also worked on installing the rear latch and things onto the engine lid. Well, the latter was again an exercise in frustration, in that the seal for the rear latch we ordered said it was for a '71, but it did not fit our latch.

Read more »

Frequently Asked Questions

Can non-members attend the monthly meetings?

Sure! But we hope you'll consider becoming a member to help the club grow. As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, we work hard to support local charities and your membership dollars contribute to that.

What events does the club host other than the Jamboree?

  • Forever Young, AZ - free for current (paid) members - May 16-18, 2025
  • Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary Tour - free for current (paid) members and their guests - 2025 date TBD
  • Buses Bugs & Brews - Four Peaks Brewing Co. (Wilson Street) - 2026 TBD
  • APS Light Parade (Central Phoenix) - Dec. 2025 TBD
  • Christmas Party Campout- free for current (paid) members only - Dec. 2025 TBD - East Side

Do you have to own a bus to become a member?

Nope, it's a great way to learn more about vintage air-cooled buses before investing in one. Especially if you're willing to help out at our Raffle Bus Work Parties. Not only will you get your hands dirty, but you'll get to know some members and get a free lunch to boot!

What Charities do you Support?

The list is long over the years, however, here are some charities we've recently supported. Jerome Volunteer Fire Dept., Walter Hive, 4 Wheels 4 Good, Liberty Wildlife, The Ryan House, Dogs 4 Vets, Hospice of Arizona, and Sleep in Heavenly Peace.