THE PANCHOVAN: A VW RESTORATION STORY
Pete Selby wasn’t looking for a Vanagon. The Vanagon found Pete.
Pete had always liked the idea of owning a camper van. When he was a kid in the early 70s, Pete went to the VW showroom. His dad was purchasing a VW Bug, but 8-year-old Pete thought the lineup of camper vans was the bee’s knees. He unsuccessfully tried to persuade his dad to purchase one that day.
About 45 years later, it was Pete’s dog, Pancho Toast, who had him thinking about camper vans again.
Pancho Toast, a creamy white, fluff ball likely mixed with lab, spaniel, and pit, was swooped up from the side of I-5 by state patrol, weighing in at a meager 16 pounds.
Pete adopted Pancho and he immediately became an important member of the Selby family—there for the adventures on the good days and for the snuggles on the bad days, too.
“Pancho Toast is my best friend, some say my only friend,” Pete jokes. “He’s now 13. He’s doing fine, but he’s getting old. My wife and I, with our two kids, used to take trips together where we’d fly somewhere for a week. But I realized I don’t want to do trips anymore without Pancho Toast. I don’t want to leave him. I don’t know how long we’ll have him and I don’t want to miss out on time with him.”
Pancho Toast is part of the pack, so Pete needed to find a creative way to bring him along on excursions.
“I thought, maybe we should buy a camper van and we can always have Pancho Toast with us wherever we go,” Pete says. “He can have this nice home-base with the van.”
Decades after first laying eyes on a VW camper van, they were always in the back of Pete’s mind, but he wasn’t actively searching for one. He certainly didn’t have plans to actually purchase one.
One day Pete got a wild hair to go to a yoga class, something he admits he would never usually do. A firefighter in King County, Pete shares that he got some laughs from his colleagues for it. But that class introduced Pete to the Vanagon—Pancho Toast’s Vanagon.
Pete met Richie at this yoga class, who had a lifted, rust white Vanagon with powder coated black wheels. It certainly caught Pete’s eye, and he mentioned to Richie that if he ever wanted to sell the van, to talk to him first.
And several months later, Richie did just that. Richie and his family were outgrowing the Vanagon and wanted something larger, so he offered to sell it to Pete.
“He said one of the things you get, if you have the van, is that you get to go to Peace Vans. Those folks are amazing and that’s a treat in itself, just going there and hanging out. He said it’s literally a perk of having a Vanagon, getting to go to Peace Vans.”
Pete thought he’d get our opinion on whether or not it was a good decision to buy the van. After all, we were quite familiar with the vehicle having done work on it with Richie.
Pete came into the shop. He had already driven the Vanagon around town to get acquainted with it.
“Harley said to me, ‘When you drove the van, did it make you smile? And I told him ‘Yeah, it definitely did,’ and he said, ‘That’s the best tell.’ And, it really was.”
Pete purchased the van and a few months later he embarked on his first road trip.
Of course, Pancho Toast came along.
The family headed to Southern California for his daughter’s spring break. On this maiden voyage, Pete got to know the Vanagon on a deeper level, and it wasn’t perfect—No 36-year-old car is.
It had the original 1.9 liter engine. Driving over the pass on I-5, Pete was flooring it while the speedometer struggled to reach 40 MPH.
“I get that that’s supposed to be part of the charm, these vans are slow, but I didn’t want it to be part of the charm,” Pete laughs. “So I started thinking about it. The van is awesome, but it could be way more awesome with a new powerful engine.”
Pete began working with us to restore his Vanagon in phases. He wanted something as close to a modern vehicle as possible, but with all the charm of a vintage camper van. Safe, comfortable, and reliable but full of spunk—still a Vanagon at heart.
One of the first things we did was a complete Subaru engine swap.
“I’d go check in on the van sometimes, because it was in the shop for a while doing the engine swap,” Pete shares. “Jason, the head technician, he’d see me and say come check this out. They were genuinely excited and proud about the work they were doing and they wanted to show it off. There was a real person there. It wasn’t some mechanic I would never meet in the back room working on the van.”
Now Pete had the power he wanted with his new engine. He set out on another big trip, “The Moose Trip.”
Pete’s daughter took last year off from school, not wanting to start college during the height of the pandemic. It allowed them to spend some extra time connecting and to enjoy a few more trips together with Pancho Toast.
Last September, the three ventured to Montana to see if they could find a moose. She had never seen one in the wild before and fall presented the perfect opportunity to hit the road with Pancho Toast in tow.
They were cruising along with the new engine, but when the wind picked up the van was getting pushed around. The previous work that was done to lift the vehicle, while great for the backcountry, created a wobbly, unstable feeling at higher speeds on the highway. When Pete returned from the trip, he brought the van in for a new suspension, shocks, and springs, and had it lowered.
This made a big difference. Pete has the peace of mind that the van is safe and Pancho Toast is happy riding shotgun.
It was time to upgrade the camping systems.
Pete’s wife is a 4th generation apple farmer with orchards near Yakima. She works long days. For her, the camper van is the promise of vacation, fun and escape. They wanted to enjoy their time camping inside the Vanagon just as much as they enjoyed the journey to their destination.
So, our team upgraded some features to improve their camping experience—we added LED lights, a lithium battery, new fridge, USB ports, and a new heater. The camper van was really starting to feel like a great home away from home, but Pete wanted to make it more comfortable for Pancho Toast.
“I wanted to fix the AC for him,” Pete says. “He gets hot. It’s not good for him to get too hot. Now I can cool it down with the AC. It’s still Vanagon AC, but it works. There were some trips last summer that Pancho Toast and I were able to do together because of that air conditioning—he wouldn’t have been my co-pilot otherwise.”
When Pete gets home from a 24-hour shift at the fire station, he sees the Vanagon in the driveway and it still makes him smile. It enables him to share experiences and create memories with Pancho Toast, his wife, and his kids.
“I probably spent $40,000 on the Vanagon, after I purchased it,” Pete laughs. “I could’ve gotten a new Mercedes Metris almost, but I didn’t want that.”
For Pete, it’s the nostalgia of the vintage VW. It’s having something that doesn’t necessarily look pretty on the outside—it’s got a few dents and it’s a bit worn, but it runs beautifully. It has character. And that’s what he loves.
What’s Pete’s advice for anyone interested in restoring their VW camper van?
“What will make you happy and relaxed, the portal to the experience you want? Because that’s what it is—it’s a dream machine, a portal to an experience.”
“Go to Peace Vans,” Pete recommends. “Tell them about your van, your hopes, what you want your life with your van to be. Do the inspection and let them give you some straight talk. I now have this van I always wanted. I pull out of the driveway and it feels great—I love it. It’s just what Pancho Toast and I need.”
Peace Vans Restoration Work on Pete’s Vanagon:
Redid entire cooling system, all new coolant lines, radiator, etc.
Installed GoWesty bumpers and swing away spare tire holder
Restored and painted pop top
New pop top tent
LED interior lighting
South African grill
Installed Vanagon Life center console and ignition kill switch
New windshield and seals
Upgraded front “big brake”
Front suspension, anti-sway bar
New propane tank and hoses
New Truck Fridge
Installed Propex heater
Updated Aux battery system to LiFePO4 and installed USB charge ports
Installed truck mirrors
Replaced/repaired heater, heater core, fans, etc.
Complete Subaru engine swap
Repaired air conditioning
Rebuilt transmission and installed limited slip differential
Replaced springs and shocks all around (Koni shocks, Schwenk springs)
Interested in Restoring Your VW Camper Van?
Whether or not you’ve got a four-legged companion on your adventures—we’d love to talk through your ideas for your vintage camper van! Restoring your VW camper van is a rewarding experience and we’d love to connect to see what restoration work will best fit your needs. Contact our team to get started.