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Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:43 am

Anyone know anything about this US one?
Funky colour scheme. Signwritten?

Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:03 pm

Lowdown Dirty Rat wrote:
Found this in the gallery.

Do we know what happened to this bus?
Is it an Old picture?

Back in the day( with og owners) after a 11,000 miles cruse from New Jersey to chlie.

Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:17 am

those were some interesting mods

Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:31 pm

mandraks wrote: those were some interesting mods

Not necessarily. Looks like sealed beam headlight units. NJ required those in the early 50's. Here is a pic of my 51 rag with similar units installed.

Since that bus was from NJ - stands to reason thats why they were on there.

Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:34 pm

Wiggy wrote: mandraks wrote: those were some interesting mods

Not necessarily. Looks like sealed beam headlight units. NJ required those in the early 50's. Here is a pic of my 51 rag with similar units installed.

Since that bus was from NJ - stands to reason thats why they were on there.

interesting to me as i did not know this. Was also talking about the interesting removable? vents on the driver side.

Wed Jul 23, 2014 5:23 pm

Drivers side engine vent has a hinge on top and a church key lock on bottom.
They used it as a gas door with the tank turned around backwards, maybe the first bus with a gas door. this guy was real handy and owned a really good repair shop.
BTW the bus is a 52 not 53.

Thu Jul 24, 2014 10:21 pm

This bus was at the Transporterfest in 2012.

Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:24 pm

good catch

Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:55 am

Do we mentionned this one above?

Mon Mar 28, 2016 12:53 pm

Yes, p18
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1...;start=340

Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:13 pm

What about this one?

Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:33 pm

Moosehead3333 wrote: What about this one?

Still around and owned by the person who took the photo

Sat Jan 21, 2017 1:28 pm

Wonder why it took 10 years for me to discover this thread. I found this bus in the early 90ies in Gothenburg. I couldn´t finance it myself so I took in my partner in crime Mats Janlöv. We sold it on - very regretfully - to Ritchie in order to raise money for taxes.
It needed "a little tlc" according to Ritchie and then it took all the prizes.
I think it took him 6 months.
It was 100% complete incl. the rarest ever sunvisor. We got 7000 USD which was something of a world record in those days.

Sorry, can´t upload the few pictures if got. Will try again later.

Peter Reichler

Sat Jan 21, 2017 1:39 pm

Here they come

I know just about what he did to the car but why don´t you get the details from him.

Regards

Peter Reichler

Sun Jan 22, 2017 2:37 am

Here comes what I know about the car:
They guy on the left is the first and only owner´s son. His father ran a bakery and bought the bus new in 1954. They used it as a bakery van all week and on some holidays they put in a simple weekend interor. So the first thing they did was taking the middle seat out and never installed it again.
During the first years it was used as a daily driver but rarely after they had bought a new van in the early 60ies. Total milage is relatively low and I believe it still had the original engine when we bought it.
The body was undamaged and the only rust was in the sill under the cargo doors. The interior was almost flawless but the seats needed restitching.
We didn´t do much to the car: we cleaned it, tuned the engine but never got to the brakes.
We invited the local VW club and were proud to present the bus to them. The reaction was more like: What the hell do you want with that shabby bus?
Just about a month or so later Ritchie King turned up as he had bought another 54 Deluxe fron Jonas Uhland. That one was a lot worse than ours and he bought ours as well.
He polished the brown paint, resprayed the sealing wax red after fixing the sill, restitched the seats, fixed a new sunroof cover and changed the engine for an early (Was it Riechert or Okrasa) engine. Then detailed it and kept for about ten years. He also attached a little Westfalia Wolsburg to it. It was in those days probably the most original Barndoor Deluxe.
The rest of its history is not known to me and and it would nice to hear exacly what happened. Brendan told me lately that it still belongs to one of his friends.

I hope I got it all right and if there is someone out the who can clarify the following 14 years it would be great to hear from you.

Peter Reichler

Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:48 am

Hi Peter

Thank you for your memories.

For people who may not realise, Peter is talking about the Richie King rhd 54 dlx (VIN 20-100396). Your memories tie in with the magazine articles on this bus. Lower half repaint (including nose); mint interior retrieved from storage. This bus is mentioned on p5 of this thread.

From memory, Richie sold it to the USA in around 2000 for around £19k. Big money at the time; half the price of a wreck now. John Foley then owned it, perhaps buying it direct from Richie. I believe Drew Ogden currently owns it (still stateside). John & Drew are both on TS, so may chime in. The bus is probably in the 'Top 5' of surviving Barndoor Deluxes.

The other Barndoor Deluxe you refer to above is most likely Rikki James' rhd 54 (20-095904). This bus is mentioned on p4 of this thread.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=26569

Best regards
RS

Sun Jan 22, 2017 9:26 am

That bus was owned by Richard Stewart between John and Drew's ownership. Drew still has the bus. That was the first RHD vehicle that I drove. It was fun figuring out the RHD thing in San Francisco bay area traffic while it was popping out of fourth gear on deceleration (that has since been fixed). Figuring out the gearshift was easy. Looking up and to the right for the rearview mirror was a harder habit to break. The bus is incredibly nice and still fairly low KMs.

Sun Jan 22, 2017 9:31 am

Thanks Lind. Cool anecdote! This bus was the one that set me on the road to wanting one after seeing it up close inside the old Karmann Konnection showroom in Hadleigh around '97.

That lower half wouldnt get repainted today, would it. Well, not by those who know.

Sun Jan 22, 2017 12:58 pm

It's still in Northern California, in good company :)

I would sure like to know where the og motor went, I have a funny feeling that RK might have sold it.

Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:54 pm

Nice to see that!
Couldn´t get much better.