TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:11 pm

I just wrote an article about this in my blog - now i decided to post it here too.. might interest some of you #-o

Quite close a year ago i was digging around in my garden. :P

I knew our property has been a car graveyard between 1963 and 1990..
Then last year i remembered about a metal bow that was rising out of the soil in a corner at the very back of our garden.
I believed to recognize this part from several barndoor restoration threads here on thesamba - but i was not sure... maybe thats just what i wanted to see. :-k

So i decided to dig it out! And it really were the remains of a barndoor bus - the chassis missing the parts of the driver cabin. :D
Read the full story here.

Here are some pictures:

Wed Apr 04, 2018 5:36 pm

Wow, that is crazy. Is the ground corrupted at all with oil and gas from years of junkyard usage?

Quote: I showed it to my father and he immediately wanted to travel back in time and kick his own ass.
:D

Wed Apr 04, 2018 6:00 pm

and all these years of growing up and living in different houses and all i ever found was a plastic astronaut and a few plastic military soldiers.

Wed Apr 04, 2018 6:03 pm

Very cool

Wed Apr 04, 2018 6:42 pm

i think you dug it up too early, put it back and wait til it is fully grown :)

Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:02 am

EverettB wrote: Wow, that is crazy. Is the ground corrupted at all with oil and gas from years of junkyard usage?
:D

We spent a long time digging over :D
Up to 50cm deep in tedious work - just with shovels and our hands, disposing all the oil lumps, broken glas, screws and all the other pieces that we found. So i would say it is pretty cleaned now. :wink:

obus wrote: and all these years of growing up and living in different houses and all i ever found was a plastic astronaut and a few plastic military soldiers.
Keep on searching! :P

zuggbug wrote: Very cool
Thanks!

mandraks wrote: i think you dug it up too early, put it back and wait til it is fully grown :)
Haha! Damn it! #-o

Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:14 am

What a crazy find!

Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:28 pm

Too bad it's not here in the US. I would love to use that in one of my projects.

Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:16 am

Let me be the first to say, that sh*t will NOT buff out.

Fri Apr 06, 2018 1:37 pm

Sehr fesch ! :lol:

Great story, and frankly speaking, it doesn't even look that bad ! I am sure the rear hoops can be used, if not all of the main chassis rails and the I beams look nice as well. Somebody with a hacked bus will be really glad to get the rear torsion bar housing and transmission cradle!
most of my barndoors chassis were buried in the soil and still all of them were usable. too bad the VIN got lost. Maybe you find the papers :wink:

Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:03 am

Anchovy wrote: Let me be the first to say, that sh*t will NOT buff out.

You were the second! :D

djfordmanjack wrote: Sehr fesch ! :lol:

Great story, and frankly speaking, it doesn't even look that bad ! I am sure the rear hoops can be used, if not all of the main chassis rails and the I beams look nice as well. Somebody with a hacked bus will be really glad to get the rear torsion bar housing and transmission cradle!
most of my barndoors chassis were buried in the soil and still all of them were usable. too bad the VIN got lost. Maybe you find the papers :wink:

Thanks, yes i do agree - some parts of course can be used again! :wink:
No, everything of the car junkyard is long gone - the papers too. My only hopes are, that i might find other vintage pictures of the bus in old albums some day.

Sat Apr 07, 2018 2:05 pm

That would make the coolest garden trellis on earth!

Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:29 pm

Thanx to Alex and his grandfather and father this og BD chassis is back from the grave and safely in my posession now. It will be used in a 1952 Coachbuild project.

Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:41 pm

50 years in damp soil took its toll on most of the floors and substructure, but then it's amazing how well some parts held up and cut back to the essential doesn't look bad at all. Somebody greased the torsion bars. 50 yrs ago, but I believe it was only yesterday....WTF ???...I am speechless at that... :shock:

Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:44 am

Na Servas! :o

Seems as you already have been busy! I am very glad that you still can use some parts.

--> Here <-- (and also here) are some pictures that i took.

Had a great day - thanks again. :wink:

Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:38 pm

chassis is being worked.

Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:32 pm

djfordmanjack wrote: Thanx to Alex and his grandfather and father this og BD chassis is back from the grave and safely in my possession now. It will be used in a 1952 Coachbuild project.

That little FK Ford Transit is nice too

Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:36 pm

Thanx Uli. What most people don't know is that the Ford and the VW are half-brothers. The barndoor engineer Dr. Alfred Haesner left VW in 1952 to work on the newly anounced 1953 FK1000 (Ford Transit van). The similarity in size and body design are no coincidence (check the beltline). technically compared to a Barndoor, the Ford was faaaaaar ahead in 1953 and sold in huge numbers, but would never reach the T1 sales. it is only right, that today he's collecting his half-brothers bones :wink:

Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:57 pm

not necessarily og, but rigid ! :wink:

Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:39 pm

lump of rust to neat usable brass part.