TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:56 pm

Hello all VW people,

Everett has posted last year vintage photo of an old barndoor bus with "unusuall" roof ventilation openings.

Recently I have discovered barndoor kombi chassis No. 20-013070 produced in may 1951 with the same roof vent openings.

I have no clue about where those could be produced and which company was installing them.

I would appretiate any info on this.

Thank you in advance,
Ratomir

Everetts posted picture

my bus

Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:41 am

your 51 is sweet, do you have any pics of it now?
Those roof vents look like something that was available back then. not factory id guess. if yours actually funtion, i guess you could keep em for coolness. but if i were you theyd be gone in a minute if they werent factory.
later

Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:48 am

I don't think I've ever seen vents like that. I wouldn't be so quick to toss them, they might be factory.

Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:43 pm

ya always best to hold onto anything that came with a bus.
I found out the hard way,tosed out a 55 spring frame westfaia camper bed thinking it was'nt factory.

Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:26 am

2Mightymouse

Thank you, yes it is sweet, no progress at all it was found 2 months ago and I am thinking if to restore it or not. I have no single part on it. Would have to buy everything, including tons of repair panels from Gerson.Anyway it is in my garage among other VW's that I have...

2Campingbox

Have asked already a lot of people about it and almost everyone said that these vents could not be factory installed, no chance...

2jmp@ncounty.net

That is the problem, nothing came with the bus :oops:

Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:34 am

Thank you all for your opinion and support, it is very hard when something is on the car and you have no idea where it came from...and you see it is no joke installation but only professional could do it...

On the other side these pics are the only similiar vents that I have found on barndoor.dk site and more interesting is that the barndoor bus that has these vents is very close to my chassis number...just 334 cars after mine

Chassis No. 20-013404

Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:12 am

becasd77 wrote: Thank you all for your opinion and support, it is very hard when something is on the car and you have no idea where it came from...and you see it is no joke installation but only professional could do it...

On the other side these pics are the only similiar vents that I have found on barndoor.dk site and more interesting is that the barndoor bus that has these vents is very close to my chassis number...just 334 cars after mine

Chassis No. 20-013404

hello Becasd77, about this other 51, n° 20-013404, it's an Ambulance, yours wasn't, right?? look at this january 1951 Miesen Ambulance, I believe it also has a roof-vent, but it's NOT the same as yours, as far as I know... early ambulances, made by Miesen, had these, the younger ones ('52-53) had different roof-vents, and 54-55 ambulances had the Behr air-scoop... but vents like on your bus, no, never saw them before, after 18 years of early Bus hobby!! ...and, good luck with the restoration man!!!

this picture came from 49barndoor 's gallery

Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:57 am

becasd77

could you post pics of the inside and outside?
15 year ago some didnt think VW made a walk thru BD
and probably just welded a new partition....

Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:32 pm

I'd keep them even if they're not factory

Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:06 pm

I found both 8851 and 13404 in centre Portugal
some years ago.
Both had roof vents but on the 8851 they were
put backwards. I have some photos of 8851 with
those. Unfortunatly they were gone when I went
to pick it.
Jorge R

Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:18 pm

The openings in the roof look very cemetrical. There is even a slight lip around the oval shaped hole. Has anybody seen this before? The knob looks vw and the threaded parts look the same as the semaphore thread that holds it in place. The bus is a 53 and does not have the ambulance hatch.

Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:00 pm

Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:31 pm

look at all of that NOS metal

Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:05 pm

nothing NOS about that metal.... :lol: I suppose it would be called NS? I was just about to go looking for that photo out of the assembly line thread but you beat me to it.