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Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:51 pm

Hey all,

I am a long time owner of a 1961 23 window bus, had the thing for nearly 30 years (i bought it when they were super cheap -sorry). It was orig beige grey over sealing wax red, but the orig paint is long gone.

My question is the correct color for interior, ie cab and dash. Pretty sure it was orig the beige grey, but in many pics of '61's that I have seen in my exterior color combo, they have red dash, not the white.

What would be correct? Or was the interior color optional, and would the build tag on my bus contain that info?

Sorry if this has been covered before.

Rich

ps this is my first post on TheSamba!

Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:45 pm

Welcome, Rich! I'm a big fan of the extra windowed wagen's.

The way I remember it, 1961 was the year where the dash matched the lower body exterior color, so Sealing Wax Red is what I think your dash was. That's a rare and desirable feature, IMO.

More on paint and interior schemes here:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/colorstype2.php

If you have trouble posting pics here, imgur.com is good for high-res free storage. Looking forward to some pics!

Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:16 pm

Would depend if you have a 1961 model bus or a bus made after JULY1961 that would be a 1962 model bus.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=559929&highlight=dash

Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:54 pm

I don't know the production date, but it's a low hinge, glass tail light bus, so definitely a '61, not early '62.

Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:18 pm

Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:19 pm

A couple pics of the bus.

I know, the tires are flat and she looks a little sad, but she always had a nice rear end!

Wed Nov 20, 2019 9:36 pm

Yes, a '61 would have a red dash and interior. '61 is the last year for this paint scheme.

Is it a walk-thru too?

Nice to see there are still "unknown" Buses out there in very good shape

Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:06 pm

Thanks for the confirmation on the color scheme, I guess the '61's are kinda unique in more ways than I thought. My bus is not a walk thru, just a std front seat.

It's been years since I drove it, but I think I am going to finally get back to it and show it some it love again. I drove this thing everywhere when I was younger, so it has a lot of memories and adventures in it.

The original interior, and engine were gone before I bought it, but to the best of my knowledge it still has the original doors and the lower body was never rusty other than a few blisters at the bottom of the nose, and it's never had any real body damage, other than the normal lumps and bumps an old bus would have. The upper section did have a little rust around one or two of the roof windows, but was not really that bad. I painted it myself in my garage back in early 90's and it's still wearing that same paint today. It's really dirty in the pics, and will look a lot better after some new tires and good wash/wax.

I will post some pics again as it comes back out of hibernation.