TheSamba.com :: View topic - Swiss cheese

Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:32 am

Hi

After searching for a few month for my first split bus, finally I found one in the ad's of this site. I was reading this forums for a while now. Here is so much valuable information available and I'd like to post my restoration work here too. Hopefully, someone can grab some useful infos from me or at least it is entertaining to read. I hope, I also can get some useful comments from you experienced people.

My bus is a 1967 SO-42 originally delivered to the Netherlands with the US specs. The last owner lived in Nevada, but as I found out during inspections, the bus did not live there for the hole life. I found a few rust repairs all around and some still to do.

After a longer journey (with a story for itself) the bus is now with me in Switzerland, where I try to bring it back to it's original shine. Please excuse my not so perfect English, but I try my best :).

This is how the bus arrived just a few days before christmas. I had someone in the US sandblasting the lower part of the bus for me. Saltwater and snow/rain have gone through the primer. I wouldn't do that overseas next time.
The interior is mostly complete including the cooling box, but the spice rack was missing.

Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:53 am

Looks nice! How about some more pics,including the interior? Congrats on your purchase.

Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:33 pm

Your English is just fine. Thanks for sharing the pics and story with us. Looking forward to more photos and details.

Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:37 pm

I can understand just fine- would be interesting to see what is hiding underneath that horrible blue respray. Am sure there is some rust but I don't see huge holes or massive rust bubbles so perhaps you might be able to get away with some localized rust repair.

Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:29 pm

I'm Nick by the way :). Let's give a little bit more details about the bus.
This is the M-plate as a starting point:

As you can see it is a Westfalia SO-42 camper delivered to the Netherlands on the 28th July 67. It left the factory on the 21th of June 1967 in Titian Red / Beige grey.

Options are:
- B42 (Westfalia camper with tent and roof rack)
- 025 (security belts)
- 108 (Westfalia camping equipment)
- 430 (US-export package incl. mph speedo, sealed beam headlights, red tail lights, front screen tampered, ram protection and 12V electrics)

I'm always fast with removing things, so no good pictures with all the equipment still in place :(. But I saved the pictures of the ad. Those are not pictures taken by me, but as they were already posted here, I hope it is fine to re-post them.

(missing spice rack - but I was able to get one)

Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:01 pm

Marvelous bus Nick! I have the B42 code on my SO42 as well, though missing everything. Yours appears wonderfully complete, is that the original roof rack?

Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:31 pm

Nice Dutch bus!
I wish I found it, but I'm happy now with my Finnish bus here in The Netherlands. :wink:
Good luck with restoring it!

Mon Jan 08, 2018 10:23 am

Very nice bus!

Seeing the pictures from the Samba ad, I have a question. I looks like it doesn't have any serious rust on the outside skin.
Why did you take the paint off the bottom half by sandblasting?

Mon Jan 08, 2018 11:19 am

Was that original paint?

Mon Jan 08, 2018 11:38 am

Malokin Martin wrote: Was that original paint?
Apparently the current paint job is not 100% original.

Only saying this because the worn away sticker that says TR/BG... and the paint code on the M-code plate (523320).

1963-1967 Westfalia/Commercial Codes/Special Order Paint Code:
The code is preceded by 523 where 5 = export model and 23 = Model Kombi)
320 = Beige grey over Titian red

Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:02 pm

Yes, the bus was original two colored and I want to bring it back to it's original colors. My agent in the US did some closeup pics and there we have seen that paint bubbles are present, an indication for rust under the paint. Also the paint job wasn't good. As it turned out, it was just an overspray and the original paint is still under some layers. Looking back, I would probably strip away the upper layers and try to preserve the original. But now it is sandblasted on the lower half and therefore I will probably do a full professional paint job in the correct colors.

Door inside has still the red coloring.

Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:17 pm

Here we go with the rust issues. My agent did replace the front floor and fixed issues with the doglegs.

Front floor before:

Left dogleg before:

Parcel tray:

Left side (previous owner did a fix, but doesn't look good):

Same location from the inside:

Cargo rocker:

Behind cargo door:

Cargo door locking plate (also C pillar issues):

Cargo door has some fixing too?:

Left B pillar behind wall:

Left corner:

Right corner:

Battery tray (replaced but not nice):

Heating tube needs to be replaced:

Baggage area got some water too:

As you can see, there are a few spots and some previous owner repairs which I want (need) to fix.

Tue Jan 09, 2018 6:23 pm

Dang that sucks...

Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:00 am

ohww, that indeed needs to be addressed if you want to have a clean bus...
On the bright side: it's a complete SO-42 pop-top 8)

So do you know why it made it across the pond?
It must have been a grey import, since to my knowledge it was pretty unusual to say the least to order a VW bus with full US specifications at a VW dealership in the Netherlands unless you would export it straight away.
Maybe it rolled straight from the dealership onto a ship (although I would think that grey import could not beat VW dealership prices in the US), or otherwise a US citizen took it on a vacation trip through Europe first and then shipped it over to the US afterwards, or a dutch person who emigrated to the US bought it new to take it with him/her?
There must be an interesting story there for sure :lol:

Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:04 am

tisius wrote: ohww, that indeed needs to be addressed if you want to have a clean bus...
On the bright side: it's a complete SO-42 pop-top 8)

So do you know why it made it across the pond?
It must have been a grey import, since to my knowledge it was pretty unusual to say the least to order a VW bus with full US specifications at a VW dealership in the Netherlands unless you would export it straight away.
Maybe it rolled straight from the dealership onto a ship (although I would think that grey import could not beat VW dealership prices in the US), or otherwise a US citizen took it on a vacation trip through Europe first and then shipped it over to the US afterwards, or a dutch person who emigrated to the US bought it new to take it with him/her?
There must be an interesting story there for sure :lol:

Indeed, I would love to get more history of my bus. Unfortunately, I didn‘t get any from the previous owner. He ignored my info request :(. I bought the bus from a guy out of Las Vegas, so it might be a casino win :), just kidding.
I tracked the VIN through an online lookup service and it looks like that the bus was registered from December 2010 until I bought it in Nevada. Before it was registered in Montana since October 2009. No more infos were available through the service. I‘d like to get more infos, but don‘t see any chance for it...

Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:22 am

totemwesty wrote: Marvelous bus Nick! I have the B42 code on my SO42 as well, though missing everything. Yours appears wonderfully complete, is that the original roof rack?

Thanks, but I think it is not the original rack. The small bar looks like a different metal than the long bars. Someone can judge it?

Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:02 am

To me, everything about that rack says '62ish and in fine condition. Can you post pictures of the fasteners holding the clamps both machine screw head and nuts and describe what you think the fastener materials/coating are?

Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:51 am

Barry, here is a close shoot of the clamp and the width and length of the wood slats (in metric / centimeters). I can check the rest on Sunday.

Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:08 pm

Looks like a reproduction rack to me. Uprights and corner pieces look like they do not have a casting ridge. Bows are painted the same grey color like on repo racks. Repo clamp hardware.

Cool SK BG/TR colors. Does/did it have the SK code in the headlight bucket?

Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:40 pm

Definitely a repro rack/clamps. Its next to impossible to buy a Westy and not have to find at least a few important bits (your's looks very compete though).