VintageBus.com, in cooperation with other VW bus groups, has embarked upon a campaign to convince Bentley Publishers to produce a transporter manual for pre-1963 buses. As many of you already know, the Bentley 1963 to 1967 Transporter manual is an indispensable guide to repairing and restoring a bus. This is the complete reference guide for the early bus, a reprint of what the factory offered dealerships, 918 pages with detailed photos, over 1450 illustrations, figures and diagrams. Our efforts are focused on convincing Bentley Publishers to create a similar book for pre-1963 transporters.
As you can imagine, printing such a book is a serious undertaking, both in time and money. In order to justify such a huge expenditure, the publisher has to know that there is a demand for such a book. From discussions with Bentley Publishers representatives, it seems they never felt there was a market for such a book, because they didn't think there were very many pre-63 buses on the road.
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness of the number of pre-63 buses on the road. To do this, we need a "headcount" of sorts. I have 2 ways to accomplish this: a petition, and the VintageBus Registry. I encourage you to participate in both; the petition will satisfy the more immediate need to stand up and be counted; adding your bus to the registry (even if it's not pre-63!) will serve as a sort of census of the bus population. It is almost certain that in the future, we will have to convince another manufacturer to produce something for our buses, and will need to justify it with numbers. Bentley Publishers is aware of the VintageBus Registry, and plans to use that information to help make a publishing decision. When I last counted on January 26th, there were 820 pre-63 buses in the registry; I know there's more out there, but I need you to help me prove it!
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