TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:36 pm

I first saw this bus (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=458363&highlight=) with my wife about a year and a half ago when we checked out another bus vwboop had for sale. The other bus wasn’t for us (rusty) and we left wishing it had been the 59 that was for sale. Fast forward to last summer when this bus showed up for sale on Samba. At the time I didn’t think there was any way we could swing it, and we just focused on having a good time with what we had- 71 bay, 73 vert and 65 beetle. Then this fall, I found myself aggressively looking for another bus specifically for a westy. By this point the 59 had disappeared off samba and I figured it had sold, and had pushed it out of my mind. We almost bought another bus but the deal collapsed and we were back to square one. The next day the ad for the 59 showed back up and I had this feeling it was a sign and I needed to pursue it.
To make a long story short, we bought the bus. The last few weeks have been a bit of emotional roller coaster as we sold off a bunch of stuff and had to move cars around to make room for her at home. I would like to thank Chris and Gina for working with us to make this happen, and it was the only car deal I've ever done that ended in a group hug! Got it home last week and pulled everything out and sorted through it, it's like a giant puzzle :)

Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:44 pm

you got my attention \:D/

Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:48 pm

very, very cool!

Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:55 pm

Congrats! Nice bus and story. I've recently got my first camper and in Process of getting my education on all the different campers.

Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:02 pm

My intent with this bus is to keep it as original as possible and will be doing my best to do a preservation rather than a restoration. Hope to drive the wheels off this thing once it's all together. This bus is believed to be a Westfalia painted bus, and had one repaint sometime many years ago by a VW dealership in Saskatchewan, Canada so they could resell it on the used car lot.

Had a little extra time during the holidays so started playing with stripping that had already been started. I'm lucky, the wife loves it as much as I do!

I Went to Home Depot and bought a vast array of solvents, scotch bright, gloves and steel wool! Also read the whole og paint thread, but most of the name brand products we don't have here, so settled on the nearest thing. Long story short, but by far the best combo I found was acetone and 0000 steel wool. Softens the repaint but doesn't affect the orig paint. This took about 4hrs and about a gal of acetone, as it flashes off so quick!

After a little more clean up, and a quick hand application of cleaner wax I was amazed by the shine! I think wih lots of time, dent repair and touch up, the orig paint will be saveable. The westy paint is very fragile as compared to factory VW, and is very thin, especially the lighter blue.

More to come

Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:13 pm

First of all, congratulations. You have a very cool and rare Westfalia. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:28 pm

Very cool bus! Lucky, you. I love seeing unique special production vehicles pop up especially in good condition. I don't recall seeing this when it came up for sale.

Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:23 pm

Left hand drive, left hand doors, left side submarine hatch, campingbox with all the fixin's. Whoa, dang, sheesh!

Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:40 pm

Congratulations Mike!

Super jealous.

Would it be better to continue with the thread Chris started?
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=458363

Sat Dec 26, 2015 11:20 pm

My dream bus! Enjoy.

Sat Dec 26, 2015 11:21 pm

campingbox wrote: Congratulations Mike!

Super jealous.

Would it be better to continue with the thread Chris started?
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=458363

Thanks Greg,

Jealous of the condition of your interior in the 15w! Mines gonna take a lot of work to make it look like that!

I thought about it and decided to start new. That was the "find" thread this will be the build thread.

I'll need lots of help with some of the details on putting this back together as I've never taken apart an early westy before :)

Sun Dec 27, 2015 5:03 am

Congratulations! Love that bus. Glad to see someone got it who plans to preserve it! Paint work is looking great :D

Sun Dec 27, 2015 6:10 am

Mike this is a great bus, I crawled all over it with Chris a couple of years ago. You are very lucky to own this very special bus. Please take your time with it and methodically research it's unique history. Chris did a great job of collecting parts for it. He and Gina are awesome folks and always willing to help out.

I too wanted this bus badly and also thought there was no way I could swing it. I am glad it stayed in Canada and local. Feel free to post any questions or comments here as we'll all be happy to help out.

Eric

Sun Dec 27, 2015 7:28 am

Beautiful Bus, the first photo of all the bits and pieces laid out is GREAT. My new screen saver,Thank You :D

Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:26 am

Will be following this thread, glad to see the bus has surfaced and we can follow its progress.

Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:29 am

Nothing better than another Westy saved and on the road! Good luck with the preservation, hopefully you will be driving it soon.

Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:31 am

jjjjack wrote: Congratulations! Love that bus. Glad to see someone got it who plans to preserve it! Paint work is looking great :D

Thanks Jack. I think I've read your build thread 3 times now since buying the bus. What you did with your bus was quite incredible. If the paint stripping hadn't been started on this one already, I'm not sure I would of been brave enough to try it myself.

Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:33 am

Big Bill wrote: Beautiful Bus, the first photo of all the bits and pieces laid out is GREAT. My new screen saver,Thank You :D

Thanks. One of our favourite shots too. I actually went up on the roof of my house to get it just right, lol

Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:38 am

buseric wrote: Mike this is a great bus, I crawled all over it with Chris a couple of years ago. You are very lucky to own this very special bus. Please take your time with it and methodically research it's unique history. Chris did a great job of collecting parts for it. He and Gina are awesome folks and always willing to help out.

I too wanted this bus badly and also thought there was no way I could swing it. I am glad it stayed in Canada and local. Feel free to post any questions or comments here as we'll all be happy to help out.

Eric

Thanks Eric. I'm very happy to own it. It was also very easy as I'm just 30 min down the road from Chris and it's already registered here in BC, so that went a long way.

Thu Dec 31, 2015 12:19 pm

Have a few days off during the holidays so have been working on the bus as much as I can. I'm not very good at taking pictures while I work, gonna have to make a point of that! Did some more stripping on the roof, and have mixed feelings about it, not much paint left. The westy applied paint is super thin! I'm being very gentle and using acetone and 0000 steel wool, this isn't removing any of the og blue under, there was just a lot of areas where it was either sanded or worn down to primer before it was resprayed. It's slow going and I'm working in the garage doors closed as the high today is freezing. From reading the og paint thread I figure lots of people go thru this, wondering what they've got themselves into....