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1954 RHD Barndoor Deluxe Price: $240000
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Have a read of the history of this bus to truely understand why its so special. Its fully restored to the highest standard. The price is in USD please.
Jowett Motors were the first importers of VW in New Zealand. They were the official importers of Jowett cars into New Zealand and in 1953 when Jowett stopped producing cars, the Turner Bros of New Zealand who owned Jowett went looking for another car to import and assemble in their assembly plant in Auckland. They secured importation rights for VW on a trip to Germany and then imported several cars for trial. These were imported fully assembled from Germany, so this Deluxe and one other (111 Chasis No.s apart and still in a secret location in New Zealand) was on the first shipment that arrived in mid ’54 as a fully built German assembled Bus. Every vechile after this shipment was assembled using Completely Knocked Down kits. You might notice every piece of glass on the bus has the large Sekurit logo German made original glass which is correct for this bus.
Originally sold to Edwards Motors Tour Bus Company in Auckland, to be used as a tour bus in the NZ Scenic Tours fleet. The bus did various tour bus runs around the top of the North Island before being decommissioned in around 1960. It was then purchased
by John Dumble who is well known in NZ for starting Skyline in Queenstown. John was an interesting character and he used this bus to take people to the top of Bobs Peak in Queenstwon for tours to look over Queenstown. As the demand grew he went
on to build the Skyline Gondola in the very spot where he use to park the Bus and play loud music from the top of the hill all over Queenstown. The bus would most likely still feature in many of its customers old tourist photos from the day.
Once the Skyline Gondola was commissioned in 1968 the bus became obsolete and went through a myriad of owners and was eventually found in a barn in Arrowtown NZ in the early eighties. It was then purchased by Henry Van Asch who later went on to set up the AJ Hackett Bungy empire, another local Queenstown celebrity.
The Bus was then transported to the family farm to be put in another Barn with the idea of getting it back on the road. There
it sat for years until Tony Hutchinson of NZ found out about it. Tony is famous on the VW scene worldwide and one of the most knowlegeable people when it comes to Barndoor Deluxe’s in the world. He first viewed the Bus in 1988 and then spent the next sixteen years trying to buy it. Regularly keeping in touch, in 2004 the owners finally gave in and he continued the parts hunt for
the vechile trying to find every NOS parts he could. Tony actually started looking in 1988 for NOS parts believing he would one
day own the bus ensuring that when the restoration was ready to start it would already have most of the “heavy lifting” done! It was missing a few very important parts, like, the original engine, the clock that came in from Sweden, trim rings from Germany, rear glass reflectors from Japan and many many packages use to arrive almost on a weekly basis with some NOS part often starting with the famous “K”. Tony spent literally hundreds of hours researching and chasing as many parts possible right up until he sold it and even since. Without him this bus could not be what you see today.
There are only twelve of these RHD Barndoor Deluxes known in the world, going or other wise and this is the second oldest, the oldest is in Thailand....Being on the road, this is the oldest RHD Deluxe Microbus on the road in the world!
Restored by Steve and Rhonda Hopkins from Mullaway. Steve and Rhonda have restored no less than 6 of the best of the best 21 and 23 window VW buses in Australia. Their restorations are nothing short of World Class. His buses have been awarded every trophy at the VW Nationals in their class.
This Barndoor Deluxe was one with a difference, Steve spent countless hours researching to ensure this bus is restored to exacting original specifications
and I am sure you will agree its his finest work to date. Talk to Steve about how unique and different these buses are from your traditional Split Window.
Just to give you an idea how exhaustive the parts search was on the Deluxe.... Tony Hutchinson and followed up every lead he could no matter where it was and Michael Ryan did the same once he took ownership in December 2011.
The 20- engine case was purchased from a VW collectors auction, the late Francis Baptist. Tony was alerted that there was a 20- engine case in lot #498..... the auction was in Auckland so h flew up there to see what else may have been of interest. When he went to check out lot 498 and the 20- case... he could not believe his eyes, 20-7550225 was only two numbers away from the original 20- 7550223.....Unbelievable! So it was a long wait through the auction, six hours later and an hour to go before his return flight home, he was bidding against a scrap metal dealer who was buyng all the original gearboxes and engines for scrap (would be worth a small fortune now!).....there was no way the scrap metal guy was buying this lot 498!....Bidding started at $1.00 and surpassed the $10.00 that the scrap metal dealer had been paying for everything else. Most people had gone home after six or so hours.....he drove the price up but Tony was happy to pay the $60.00 for the three dead 36hp engines just to get the 20- case....He quickly packed it up and it came home as carry on baggage, he nearly missed his return flight.......The Block has now been painstakingly restored by Frank Knapp
in Melbourne to original Barndoor 36HP specifications you might notice the BD specific Carburettor, the rare manifold, regulator and distributor as well as the Air Filter.
Another classic find was one of the chrome luggage rails in the rear luggage area (currently at the chrome platers) ...while attend ing OCTO in 2005 on a parts hunting trip Tony was staying with a friend in LA. ....He was feeding his pet Guinea Pigs one morning and shifted their cage to fresh grass.....Tony noticed that a brace holding the cage together looked like a Barndoor Deluxe luggage rail (these are unique to BD Deluxe as they are chrome tripple plated .....rather crusty looking though possibly due to Guinea Pig urine???......He told his friend what he thought it was and he laughed...yeah thats off an old Bus I had years ago his friend said.... what you need that piece of crusty crap??...Either way it was packed in his bag and taken home.
The middle seat was another ‘lucky find’...a RHD Barndoor middle seat is unique to this year as they have six legs on the base...almost unobtanium!!!!!....In general conversation with a friend about what Tony was looking for he said he would keep an eye out!!!.A day later his friend calls and asks for more details on the seat, very
specific questions that only relate to these RHD Middle Seats. The following week, he turned up at a local VW event in NZ with a middle seat. As it turns out he had it in his parts stash and did not even realise it!.....He was holding the unobtanium in his arms and Tony could not believe his eyes....$250.00 later he had a part for the Bus he thought he would never find.
The original key for the Bus was never used. Blanks were cut and the originals stored at Edwards Motors. Every year the bus drivers would have a reunion Tony went along and met one of the drivers who used to take the tourists in the bus. After chatting about the parts search it came to light that the driver still has in his posession the original key that we now have and had never been used with the bus until now!
I have 100's of photos of the history and restoration available on request to serious buyers only.
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