TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:52 pm

Is this a from factory 15 window?
barndoor.dk says its an ambulance - Type 27A M81
Ch.number 20-032856.

Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:26 am

Has ambulance air intake on the roof and what looks like a lot of window bars.

Barndoor.dk would not say ambulance without evidence, just email toni.

:D

Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:07 pm

I think the real question is weather or not it started its life as an 15 window, or if the rear side windows and corner windows were added later.

Also being an ambulance, it would not have a rear window, technically making it a 14 window :wink:

Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:44 pm

uberwagen wrote: I think the real question is weather or not it started its life as an 15 window, or if the rear side windows and corner windows were added later.

Also being an ambulance, it would not have a rear window, technically making it a 14 window :wink:

...another picture from Barndoor.dk, showing it was / is?? a 14 window ambulance...
the ONLY 15 window still known to excist, is the one I owned for years, 20-017671, october 1951, before I sold it to the UK... years ago too :) ...and what this Barndoor concerns, I was always told it was an OG Ambulance, and years ago, I think in Camberg '99, could be '95, someone told me the extra side and corner windows were ADDED later on this one... anyone knows more / better...? Tonny?

Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:12 am

I will ask the owner. I know he have had it for years, and know about the story.

We call it a "Sambulance"

-Tonny

Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:36 am

Hi,

I talked with the first private owner of my "Sambulance", last time in 2004 - as he was 83 years old! - and in the mid-eighties he visited me to have a view at his old Bus, he bought 1965 in his hometown Reutlingen (at the Stuttgart area in southern Germany) at a petrol station.

There it was offered after it was taken out of service of the "Kreiskrankenhaus Reutlingen" (Hospital) - unfortunately without the typical interior of an ambulance, but with these additional windows!

And I don´t think, that there was a need for the Hospital to build in these windows?! The "Samba"-windows in the rear corners are made of synthetic glass (Plexi- or acryl-glass) like in the early days; I think the later update-kits from Joch in Hannover or Bremen, you could buy in the late fifties and early sixties, or the original parts of VW were made of real glass?!

Another unusual thing is that this car was complete painted in white (not ivory or cream, like my car from February 1953!) ... the first private owner added a "pale green" below - a very nice two-tone-look at that time ...

Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:55 am

cockchafer wrote:
And I don´t think, that there was a need for the Hospital to build in these windows?! The "Samba"-windows in the rear corners are made of synthetic glass (Plexi- or acryl-glass) like in the early days; I think the later update-kits from Joch in Hannover or Bremen, you could buy in the late fifties and early sixties, or the original parts of VW were made of real glass?! ...

hello! thanks for the info! you wrote the corner windows are plastic ones, if they're original, they should have this logo:
...all early samba's had them, later they had real glass windows... and your's is number 20-032856, so still early! ...so all I can can say for now, is that this (s)ambulance is very strange!! I hope to see it once on the road again?? Gute Fahrt !!

Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:03 pm

Well, thanks - I think so, too!
Next time when I am at my car, I will have a look for that logo and tell you!
Bye!
(If I would know, how it works, I could show additional pictures ...!)

Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:16 pm

Hi Volks,

here are the promised pictures of the rear corner window of my "Sambulance":

From inside, above the "Plexiglas"-logo ...

... better seen from outside.

With best wishes!
- cockchafer -

(Hope, it works - first time to fill in pictures!)

Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:34 pm

i owuld say someone may have turned a ambulance into a 15 but seing that camper kit?... i would think this bus have had some modifieing so that my be why these are plexi glass windows and such

Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:54 am

Love it, thanks for sharing the pics. It's also interesting to note that the filler flap is square, not the stock early ambulance D shape, not sure when that came in, bdr trucks have the square filler flap, so maybe the ambulances had these when the trucks came out? Anyone able to shed some light on it? It's an 8 vent side panel, so should be OG.

Wed Oct 21, 2015 5:32 am

Hi,
nearly 6 years later I will answer your question, I hope not too late?!

No, the filler flap of my "Sambulance" isn´t square, but also in that early ambulance D shape, you know!

I hope it is better visible in this picture with higher resolution:

Unfortunately I only took few pictures in 1981, as I got my car - we were still living in the "analog age".

First I removed that ugly front wheel, sanded the rust from outside the body and primered and painted it (with a brush) in blue, because I didn´t have a garage and must store my bus for some weeks (camouflaged with the license plates of my black Split!) on the street for some weeks.

Blue was my favourite colour and I took my chance to test, how it looks ...

Since 1995 my car collection is stored in my own barn at my own ground, here a shot directly after the relocation:

Unfortunately in the past there was no time for the renovation, I only mounted the 3-pin front badge in the meantime:

But I hope to get my 1952 VW Bus back on the street one day ... but then in original condition with the complete Ambulance interior (I still need the "cupboard" - maybe you can help?) as Ambulance car - the whole body painted in white (!) as original!

The first private owner added a pale green downwards the waistline, the style of the 60ies, not looking bad:

Also a light camping interior was built in.

Wed Oct 21, 2015 6:02 am

Fantastic update! I hope you can find all the parts you need for it

Thu Oct 29, 2015 1:02 pm

Great bus.

Looking at the screws and the thought of a corner window guard. I would think it to be original. The only way to know is to see is behind the panels.