Gustav, 1963 VW Double Cab Truck
Thomas & Dustin
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
2012- March 2013
Don Heuer had the truck serviced regularly at OJ's VW Service in town. The head mechanic was Jay Grim who had decades of experience with air-cooled VWs. Jay's son Dustin had seen the truck in the shop and loved it.
When Don couldn't get the truck to start on the farm, he asked Dustin out to see what was wrong. They took photos of the truck on 18 January 2012, covered in dust during its 15 year storage. The accelerator cable had broken so they replaced it and got the truck running, making a video of their success (below).
They got it running well enough to drive to Illinois for the FunFest 2012. Jay drove and they piled some friends in the bed for the FunFest cruise. Jay shared that the brakes went-out during the cruise but he continued to drive it using the low-gearing of the reduction boxes with no problems.
Jay Grim visiting in 2016 to see the truck.
From Thomas discussion 08 Sep 2020:
Don's son had pulled the engine to replace the clutch. Dustin was called to finish the job and get it running again. I drove Dustin to the ranch and while he worked on it I spoke with Don. He planned to sell it so I agreed to buy it ... $1200 with monthly payments. We pulled the truck around Don's field for about three minutes then realized after it finally turned over and started that it was spraying fuel from the top of the fuel pump. So we took the top part off the fuel pump, slathered it in Indian head gasket maker and sealed it up. Then we drove it about ten miles home on the steel-cleat snow-studded tires. The looks from spectators were priceless! Don was in disbelief and we didn’t even clean the windows trying to get it home. Don used this truck on his farm almost its whole life. Hay, wood, agricultural equipment, you name it it’s hauled it. I have lost a lot of pants to that truck, I’m a tall big guy and would rip them getting into the truck every other time Dustin would crack up every time I would get into it just waiting. We used to put her in first gear then get out and walk around it as it was chugging along, just to admire the low reduction boxes. We had a lot of fun in that truck! And of all the VWs I've owned it's the one I most-regret selling.
