TheSamba.com :: View topic - 1971 Deluxe

Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:00 pm

I bought this bus a few weeks ago. It is a 9 passenger with original paint. Overall it's in nice shape. This bus was sold through a dealership in Beverly Hills and made its way to Washington state. I brought it back down to my home near San Diego, CA. Plans include getting it mechanically sound and cleaned up for summer fun.

So far I have; blasted and painted the rims, mounted new Continental tires, removed all the interior panels for cleaning, replaced a bad decklid hinge, bumped out a few dents, scrubbed the rubber mats, replaced the pedestal mats, beat out the dents in the front bumper and guards, blasted them and painted with pastel white, started buffing out the paint and fixing chips and scratches, cleaned and lubed the sliding door mechanism and rails (smooth as silk now), blasted the fresh air grill and repainted with a rattle can of Sierra yellow, mounted NOS exterior mirrors, painted the wiper arms silver, etc.

Here are couple shots from the previous owner, the day I got it home and the new tires mounted.

Next steps, recover the seats, reinstall the interior and get the bumpers mounted.

More photos to follow as progress is made.

Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:34 pm

Congrats, that's a good find. I love deluxes !! And I love '71's: best year to me : much left of the old (front turn signals, rear tailights, bumpers,...but with power disc brakes !) Nice tires.

Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:11 am

I love the look of the narrow whitewall tires, but I can't find any that have the correct 6 or 8 ply construction our buses need. Are your tires 6 or 8 ply, and if so, where did you get them???

Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:29 am

Besides the fact that it's a '71 yours looks identical to my '72 Deluxe. Though i painted my wheels white.

Very nice ride man 8)

Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:46 am

Blu67Bug wrote: I love the look of the narrow whitewall tires, but I can't find any that have the correct 6 or 8 ply construction our buses need. Are your tires 6 or 8 ply, and if so, where did you get them???

Full tire details are in the Tire sticky thread.

I got them at onlinetires.com, they are Continental Vanco-8's. It is like driving with power steering now as compared to the old passenger car tires. I agree that the narrow WW looks cool but I too could only find black walls.

Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:44 pm

My bus rides on Cooper SRM II's that I put on right away. My bus had really nice, fairly new tires on it when I drove it home, but they were Passenger Car rated, so they had to go!
Most of the VW Brochures from '71 show the bus with whitewalls on it, and it looks really cool, but so far I too have only been able to find blackwall tires with the proper 6 to 8 plys. Maybe one day Coker Tires will make some whitewalls for us. :D

Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:07 pm

I replaced the rear panels with new. The carpet is new indoor/outdoor on fresh panel board. The side panels are water-proof door panel material covered in black vinyl. I was lucky to still have the original black caps and hardware for the side panel mounting screws.

Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:36 am

I run a set of Michelins "symmetry" with wite walls. They are about worn out now and will replace with the same. Good workable tire for a bus. Be prepared to pay 125 per tire. I saw them at Sprawl-Mart in Colo. for 79 dollars. The real trouble is the 14 inch rims.

Fri Mar 28, 2008 8:58 am

ned wrote: I run a set of Michelins "symmetry" with wite walls. They are about worn out now and will replace with the same. Good workable tire for a bus. Be prepared to pay 125 per tire. I saw them at Sprawl-Mart in Colo. for 79 dollars. The real trouble is the 14 inch rims.

What size are you running?

It doesn't look like they offer the correct load rating or size in that tire. The closest one I see is a 185/70R14.

Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:34 am

Anchovy wrote: The side panels are water-proof door panel material covered in black vinyl.

Nice bus! Where did you get that material? Is it just bulk vinyl from TMI? I need to do this to the wife's '70. Your's turned out great!

Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:38 am

dtrumbo wrote: Anchovy wrote: The side panels are water-proof door panel material covered in black vinyl.

Nice bus! Where did you get that material? Is it just bulk vinyl from TMI? I need to do this to the wife's '70. Your's turned out great!

Thanks,

I got the panel and vinyl material at a local upholstery shop called UFO. http://www.ufofabrics.com/UFOPages/ufo_upholstery.html The vinyl is the thinnest they had but much thicker than the original material which is more like contact paper. The pattern in the vinyl is an exact match .

I cut the replacement panels about 1/8" smaller than the originals to allow for the vinyl to wrap around the edges. I used the industrial strength spray on contact cement from UFO, let it get tacky and then pressed the vinyl on using a rolling pin. I left it over night and installed them the next day.

I plan to use the same materials to replace the front kick panels and the rear hatch panel.

Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:22 pm

They Are 205 r70/14 I have had them on for 5 or six years. They are only a 4 ply but they are quality and they are a nice ride. The 7/8 sway aways are really key. If I had 8 ply the ride would suck. The 14 hweel size is the biggest restriction.

Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:22 pm

I got all the correct metric hardware for the bumpers, guards and splash pans. Painted the carriage bolts. A friend showed me a neat technique for painting the heads of the hardware:

Poke holes in a piece of cardboard and press the bolts part way through. This way the threads don't get painted and you can get the edges of the heads...without spending a lot of time masking each bolt. This also allows you to hold the bolts up while you spray them, then lay them down so the paint does not run.

I found a nice set of rear bumper splash pans at a local salvage yard. I straightened them out, sand blasted them and painted them chassis black.

Question: For the front bumpers, should the accessory bumper guards be on the inner bolt or the outer? I have seen just about an equal amount of buses with them in one of the two positions.

Mon May 12, 2008 10:26 am

I installed an NOS Z-bed converter this weekend. The install was easy with the original instructions, however I did catch my finger in the hinge mechanism once for a nice blood blister. The seat works great and folds smoothly, but with the back rest hooks in place the seat now sits about 3 inches off of the rear deck. Is this gap normal?

Mon May 12, 2008 11:06 am

I prefer/believe to be correct/ the guards on the outer bolts.

Those look like splitty splash pans? I could be mistaken

If so, they wont fit the bumper bracket perfectly, but they'll keep your bumper ends from flopping in the breeze

Mon May 12, 2008 11:44 am

mine has a gap....just about that much.

Mon May 12, 2008 11:54 am

Thanks goat!

Thu May 15, 2008 9:11 pm

I have been plugging away on the bus. I sand blasted the under windshield rust and treated the area with por15 and it is looking good now that I have sanded it to shape and have it in primer. Here is a progress shot.

I also painted the kick area of the front seat partition with undercoat while I look for a good rubber piece for it (if they exist). Also painted the metal part of the dash and ordered a new windshield through a local supplier. $88 for a PPG tinted windshield.

They tell me the glass only comes in tinted (very light green) and "shaded" which has the dark band across the top. Clear is no longer available. I opted for the tinted.

Mon May 19, 2008 10:06 pm

More progress shots. I painted the dash gray/black and put the "under coat" of sierra yellow on the windshield frame. Next step to put on the pastel white.

Wed May 21, 2008 8:42 am

Middle seat storage. TMI seat covers, painted threshold. TMI covers were such a bad fit that I had them reworked at a local upholstery shop. At least TMI agreed to put the heat seams the right way.