4-year search is OVER!

[DadAdventure]

Found this one-owner bus five miles from my house. It was advertised on TheSamba last November. I called on the ad within a half-hour of it’s posting, which was lucky, because I am not tech-savvy enough to set up notifications/updates for new ad postings. Instead, I just interrupt my day by checking Samba classifieds every five hours or so. The night before Thanksgiving I just kept having a thought come up to check TheSamba split bus ads, so as I was getting ready to walk out of the house to grab some dinner I fired up the computer and opened the split bus classifieds where I discovered a newly posted ad (25 mins before) for this bus and couldn’t believe it was in the my zip code.

The backstory on the bus is that the original owners - an elderly couple - passed away ten years ago. The bus sat for over forty years wrapped tightly in tarps on their land at the base of a canyon in northern New Mexico. At some point a tree fell on the bus, damaging the roof rack and denting the roof in several places. Their kids live out-of-state and were in no rush to settle the estate. A local vintage car guy, who it turns out I had met briefly last summer at a Saturday morning car club breakfast, worked for quite some time to buy the bus from the estate. Once he was able to get access to the property and the bus he removed the tarps and was astonished to find that it was in overall excellent original condition. He described to me that there were no mouse droppings, rodent nests, or traces of any bugs – not even a spider web inside the bus. Based on the condition of the interior, I believe him. The passenger-side seat material is damaged, so I am guessing at some point there was most likely prolonged sun exposure on that side of the bus – probably in the years prior to it being permanently parked. As you can see from the photos, the mohair headliner and side pieces are shot, as are the weather stripping/gaskets on the side doors. The doors open and close evenly and the latch mechanisms all close securely and release just as they should. The body panels are straight as can be, as are the door and rear hatch gaps. There are a few good-sized chips in the paint here and there, and surface rust on most of the window frames, and light rust on various body seams, but overall the paint is in good shape. The seller applied rubbing compound which brought back a sorta decent shine, and I am hoping an application of paint rejuvenator (I’ve used Malco Paint Rejuvenator on a few old Toyota Land Cruisers before with good results) will bring the paint back nicely.

The owners removed the middle and rear seats, built a wood bed pedestal/stowage cabinet, installed curtain rods, and swapped out the middle side windows for Jalousie windows to set the bus up for camping. The seats were stored in their house. The seller gave me a number of boxes filled with random old items – things like road maps of New England from the late sixties/early, a few NOS parts in the original boxes and random stuff that I’ll go through in the coming weeks. He replaced the fuel pump and spark plugs, but saved them for me. Rebuilding the original fuel pump will be added to the “At Some Point” list.

Before seeing the bus in person my expectation was that the motor would probably be “dead” or would at least need some type of long-sitting motor restart procedure, although I am not exactly sure how to put ATF in the cylinders and new oil over the valves so that cylinder walls and valve guides are lubricated evenly on a boxer-style motor. This would be what I’d do with an old Toyota Land Cruiser motor. The first time I saw the bus I was surprised to learn the motor was running. The bias ply tires had tubes and were holding air, but not surprisingly showed significant checking. One of them went flat while parked in the seller’s driveway. As I was gathering more funds to buy the bus in the following weeks I swapped out an old set of bus wheels/tires that I had in storage so that I could treat the surface rust and prep the original wheel set for a respray in Silver White and then have a new set tires mounted on the newly-repainted original wheels. Once I had the last payment for the bus I was blown away when the seller told me I could drive it home now that it had tires that were road worthy. In 35 degree weather the motor – stone cold – fired up within a few seconds of cranking and idled nice and evenly for ten minutes as the seller and I poked through the boxes of misc. parts. Then I hopped in the driver’s seat, placed my halon fire extinguisher on the passenger seat “just in case,” put it into gear and eased down the long driveway looking left and right for places to “bail” if the brakes completely failed, but the brakes had just enough left in them for the short drive back to my house at no greater than 35mph. The engine ran pretty darn well and pulled strong in first through third. The entire drive home I kept saying to myself, “I cannot believe how well this bus drives!!” followed by “Please, God, clear a way if I need it.” I pulled up to my garage, shut off the motor and said to myself, “THIS BUS ROCKS! THANK YOU!”

I was concerned about the wheel bearings surviving the drive home, as I have read in the Forum that this can be a real issue for buses that have sat for a long long time. There’s a good deal of play in the steering wheel – like maybe 8+ inches.

As I look through the bus and the shop repair manuals it is becoming more apparent that the original owner (a scientist) was meticulous in his care and attention to maintaining his bus. There are numerous carefully handwritten notes to himself in the margins of the shop manuals on his procedures and steps related to specific mechanical items and nothing I have come across looks jerry-rigged or half-arsed.

Researching a roof rack thread the roof rack looks to be a ¾ HWE. Decent-sized bend in it from the tree. No doubt it saved the roof from more severe damage. I am asking around for local metal fabricators to have the bend straightened. I plan on sandblasting the rack and then prime and paint. I will research original rack paint codes/colors, but also may just paint it Silver White when I have the original wheel set painted. I am tempted to get a paint gun setup and paint the wheels and roof rack myself, but that will be months down the road once the weather warms up. Also depends if I have other auto paint projects which could benefit from having the gear. Not thinking I do at this point.

With the exception of the installation of a disk brake kit up front I have no plans to modify the bus in any other way; I’d like to keep it original, but repair/replace whatever is needed. The roof will get repaired by a body shop and I’ll have the headliner replaced by an interior shop in town that has been around for many many years (the owner repaired a go-kart seat for me 45 years ago! And is still at it!) I will work to address the surface rust and any other problem rust spots. 409 and an abrasive sponge cleaned up the bumpers nicely. I may respray the bumpers Silver White, but maybe not; it’s remarkable the bumpers aren’t dented or dinged. I am slowly researching threads related to split windows and will work through the bus in steps, starting first with the suspension and brakes, then onto the steering box.

In the coming weeks I will continue to post photos. If you wouldn’t mind pointing out non-original items/wonky things about the bus or glaring items that need to be addressed that would be much appreciated. I know very little about VWs, but I have discovered that these old Volkswagens resonate with me in lots of ways and on lots of levels. For many years I have been doing basic mechanical repair and mods on my old Land Cruisers and will take my time to learn and work through this bus. I am really excited to get to know this bus and to connect more with the helpful, humorous, sometimes grouchy, super knowledgeable and friendly folks on The Samba.

[finster]

nice! look at that interior
_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[Split 66']

Short middle-seat, walkthru, with OG interior and strong paint: score! The arm rest pad on that short middle
_________________
"OG = Original German" -- TheSamba.com dictionary

[70bus]

Don't touch that paint! It's your bus, but if it were mine I would leave as-is, maybe even leave the roof dent. Fix mechanicals and outright holes, obviously, but something that gorgeous is a rarity.
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[JanW]

Absolutely beautiful, congratulations.

I like your plans for your Bus and look forward to following along.

Jan.

[Lind]

Awesome find. Great looking original bus.

I would highly recommend not painting the wheels. Just clean them and the bumpers up with some CLR. Shiny wheels on an original paint bus just don't look right to me. If you must have the shiny wheel look, get a spare set of wheels so you can switch back to your original wheels once you change your mind.
_________________
.
Wanted:
Idaho VW license plate frames or other dealership items.
VWoA literature and early dealership or distributor literature/pictures/information
.

[Douglas Denlinger]

Saw this bus on FB marketplace while I was flying in Rio Rancho waiting for my son to complete his 3 week trek at Philmont Scout camp, mid July. The ad was a few days old when I saw it, the seller never responded.
Did you buy it from that seller? I hardly ever see anything that I'd buy these days...this bus would have changed that. Good score!
_________________
Transporter Restorations
Upholstery Haus

Active 23 Window Samba Collector/Restorer,since 1986

[DadAdventure]

[70bus]

I think you will find a substantial fan base for original-paint buses here. So think 'preserve' rather then 'redo.' Repairs that get new paint often really stand out, like Lind mentioned with the wheels; worse, that sometimes leads an owner to think they need to repaint the whole bus now to match. I have seen a few buses where a good painter matched the patina paint fairly well on the repair area, but that's hard to do. At least the roof will be fairly unobtrusive.

As far as preservation, all I know is clean and wax, CLR the bumpers and wheels to remove the rust stains, and then hit them with boiled linseed oil once in a while to keep the rust slowed down from returning.
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[DadAdventure]

[House]

Holy shit, nice find!

[DadAdventure]

[EverettB]

Wow, that is nice!

The interior is insane.

Do you have the rear seat kick panel?

Does it have the original vinyl spare tire cover?
I'd like to see a photo of it please to see if it has beading on it or not.
It would be the same beading as the seats.
_________________
How to Post Photos
Everett Barnes - [email protected] | My wanted ads
"Water is the only drink for a wise man" | "Communication prevents complaints"
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Lind]

[Lind]

I saw the bus when it was up for sale on thesamba, and though that it was a nice example, and worth the asking price. Really nice original buses are so much cheaper than most any project car.

Funny how the seller managed to take the pictures in a way that didn't show any of the damage to the roof. A person would almost think that was on purpose, usually because it always is. The damage can easily be fixed, leaving just some slight reminders of the life the bus lived.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2653168

_________________
.
Wanted:
Idaho VW license plate frames or other dealership items.
VWoA literature and early dealership or distributor literature/pictures/information
.

[earlywesty]

Please do not paint anything on this bus. Please. Just research preservation techniques. Incredible example that needs preservation. You are very lucky to find one that someone hasn't butchered.

[andre b]

wow what a cool time capsule and a walk through with tons of originality. I would agree with everyone else don't touch it..just clean it up a little and enjoy it.
congrats.

[Braukuche]

You couldn’t build that bus for half of the asking price in the ad. Very good price.
_________________
Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[Lind]

[House]

1500cc even?