TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:35 pm

cdennisg wrote: whit wrote: i know its not for sale but what do you reckon it would be worth in todays market?

$65K. US dollars, not that Canadian stuff. :D

You got it for $65K Corey....I'll gladly accept paypal :)

Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:20 pm

Awesome find! Dont sell it..

Fri Apr 29, 2011 4:34 pm

Amazing find! :D

Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:21 pm

cdennisg wrote: whit wrote: i know its not for sale but what do you reckon it would be worth in todays market?

$65K. US dollars, not that Canadian stuff. :D

Hmmmm so that would be like $60K CDN now...How is that economy doing down there anyway... :wink:

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:00 pm

wow that panel has my name all over it..

Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:07 pm

Joe Caraway wrote: wow that panel has my name all over it..

:lol:

Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:28 pm

slurp =P~

Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:59 pm

ok, so the engine number is 1476059.

Looks to me like the engine is out of a '56 bus. damnit! oh well I guess.

here's the official story. now listen up! :)

So, my buddy (future brother in law) and I were heading up to Fosston, MN to pick up a '64 parts deluxe parts bus that I had found out about over the winter. A member of the local club, Red River VW Club, had called me and asked if I had a dual port intake I could sell him. I said I would rather trade with a club member then do a money deal. So, we figured out something and I stopped by and made the exchange. He needed end castings also, so when we were up picking up that parts bus, I found a set of intake manifolds for him and the dude said I could have them. We stopped back at the guy's house so I could drop them off and he asked if I was into buses at all. I said, yeah, I think they're pretty cool.

My FBIL and I both have buses ourselves. He has a '65 standard walkthough and I have a '60 DD panel. So the guy proceeds to tell us that he knows where there is a bus sitting out in the country. He said he'd be driving by there tomorrow and that he could go take some pictures for me.

Well, I get the pictures in my email the next day and after I woke up from fainting, I absolutely had to get after this thing. He gave me the name of the guy and everything and said go get it man! Well, The guy who had it was SUPER hard to get a hold of. He is a seasonal worker for a local Concrete company in town, so his summers are packed. I called him off and on for a year.

I talked to his wife most times and left my number. I merely said that I was calling on a bus that he had and that I would like to go check it out sometime. Well, after a year, I knew that I had to get ahold of him before he went back to work for the summer. My buddy Fred and I just got in the truck this past Monday and headed out to his place. The dude was home. AMAZING! So after a little chit chat, I said, hey, could we go check out that bus maybe? Sure, he says. So we climbed in to my truck and away we went. We pull up to this place and it's literally the first thing you see!

It's amazing that nobody had seen it or whatever in the amount of time it had been there. And by the looks of it, it had been there for quite some time. I took a look at it and asked if we could empty out the cargo area. There was a bunch of stuff in there that his brother had in there. Once we got that cleaned out, I noticed how rust free the floor was. It's crazy how nice it is! So then I said, well, it'd be nice to see what the under side looks like. I then started digging it out.

Once I dug down a foot, I found the front driver's spindle. I dug down about another 8" to get my jack and some wood under the jack below the spindle. I started to resurrect this thing. It came out of the muck so nicely....We worked on it for about 5 hours that day. I gave him an offer and he initially said yes, but then said he'd have to check with his brother as they were co-owners I guess. He was going to call me in the morning with the results.

Well, I waited around till like noon the next day and no call. So, I headed back out to his place and knocked on his door. He was home and I sat and talked with him and his wife for maybe an hour or so. Very nice couple. Very welcoming. I said I'd like to go back and do a little work on it to get it more trailer ready if that was ok. I asked once again if the offer was still ok, and he said that he hadn't talked with his brother yet. He gave me the go-ahead to go back out, so I did. I cleaned up the front spindle so I could get bearings and a hub on it eventually and I proceeded to get all the rims off and made sure all hubs moved ok. Suprisingly enough, they all moved wonderful! I couldn't believe it!

I woke up the next morning at 7am to the sound of my phone ringing. My wife, Jill, who at this point is 1 week away from giving birth to our 2nd child says it's the guy with the bus.....so I haul ass downstairs and answer the phone. We talked for maybe an hour about it. He and his brother decided they were putting it on Ebay to see what they could get out of it. I couldn't let that happen. So for the next 3 hours, we talked for a bit...he researched for a bit....we talked some more, the price went up, he researched more, the price went up, he found the samba, the price went up even more, and then we decided on the price and closed the deal. Come and get it he says. I think I'm still in disbelief of what I have.

It is truely amazing what a guy can find by keeping his ears tuned in and aimed in the right direction. I really appreciate what was done for me and I am truely blessed. A guy really doesn't need anything more then this you know? How can it get any better then this?

Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:29 pm

Very nice. Love the story.

Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:58 am

pretty awesme, congrats, was it under or over 10K if I may ask?

Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:05 am

Under

Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:19 am

great, considering the seller visited Samba and possibly saw some of the opportunistic asking prices
JoelH wrote: Under

Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:21 am

yeah, that was probably the most scared I've ever been in my whole life...... scarier then when my wife said she was pregneant the first time :shock:

Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:33 am

Great story! I think Everett needs to have an emergency hotline, where we can request to have the website blocked to certain parts of the country while negotiating the purchase of new finds :wink:

Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:36 am

uberwagen wrote: Great story! I think Everett needs to have an emergency hotline, where we can request to have the website blocked to certain parts of the country while negotiating the purchase of new finds :wink:

X2 Everett.......LOCK DOWN SECTOR 7

Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:12 am

JoelH wrote: uberwagen wrote: Great story! I think Everett needs to have an emergency hotline, where we can request to have the website blocked to certain parts of the country while negotiating the purchase of new finds :wink:

X2 Everett.......LOCK DOWN SECTOR 7

I hate it when I ask people what they want for something and they say, "well, on the Samba it sells for..."

Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:53 am

sorry i couldnt be there to help dig that thing out of the mud. it gave me chills when i looked at it last night. trust me guys. the pics do not do this thing justice!!

Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:55 am

JoelH wrote: There....it's a little better. I agree, it was a hard read.....anyways...enjoy

Thanks. I read it anyway, and you didn't have to change it, but for some reason I like to give you a hard time. :wink:

That bus is really nice. I'm sure all here would agree that it would be well worth the time to start removing paint to uncover the logos. But, with your wife's impending childbirth on the horizon, it may take awhile.

Promise to keep us posted, and post any pics you can that show details and condition.

Sat Apr 30, 2011 9:44 am

I have to ask but in the first picture in the first page is that a 23 window on the top of the pic ??? are you going to get that one also :?:

Sat Apr 30, 2011 9:45 am

Braukuche wrote: JoelH wrote: uberwagen wrote: Great story! I think Everett needs to have an emergency hotline, where we can request to have the website blocked to certain parts of the country while negotiating the purchase of new finds :wink:

X2 Everett.......LOCK DOWN SECTOR 7

I hate it when I ask people what they want for something and they say, "well, on the Samba it sells for..."

whatever I guess. He got what he thought was fair in the end, and I'm broke temporarily, so it's all good. :)