'65 Standard Sunroof Sea Blue Build

[rudygetz]

I've owned a handful of air-cooled Volkswagens over the years. I started with a 1973 Baywindow Camper that introduced me to the world of air-cooled and the friendliness of the community. I got the itch from then on and sold my camper for a 1967 Beetle which was later sold in favor of a 1961 Singlecab. Great times were had with all those but eventually all were sold over 10 years ago.

What remained was the memories of hanging with great people surrounded by great cars and the doubt if I'd ever be able to buy my personal holy grail of a split window bus. I saw prices soar and the reality that maybe I missed my opportunity to buy a bus set in.

I'd always browse to see what was out there until a few months ago I found something that caught my eye. A 1965 Standard that the seller claimed was a factory sunroof model. Long story short I jumped on it and well here she is. She needs a lot of work, and she'll be the first air-cooled Volkswagen I ever take the time to try and restore. Bus came with 944 Porsche disc brakes all around, lowered on a 68 beetle long axel with flipped spindles and a 1600 dual port. The bus ran and stopped and that was a cool plus to the excitement of a factory standard sunroof.

I purchased the Birth Certificate to the bus and turns out it was a USA Tourist bus with a country of destination of Germany. I don't have any other information about how it ended up here in the States. The Birth Certificate also confirmed it was a Volkswagen Microbus with sliding canvas sun roof.

The following images are of the bus from the for sale ad. Cool bus with potential. Wasn't a big fan of the yellow scallop paint job, even though plenty of people told me to keep it.

The bus needs a lot of work. Floors were shot, rear wheel wells were cut out for a jersey look at some point in it's history, bulkhead was cut out, rockers were shot, stock interior was all gone, a bench was welded to the floor that was off some other car, sunroof mechanism isn't there and a black vinyl was installed in place of the stock ragtop. Long list of stuff was needed, but there wasn't a substantial amount of rot anywhere just the usual areas that most 60+ year old buses are in need of.

And so I started cutting

Used some nail polish remover to try and remove the yellow without screwing up the blue paint, because even though it's not factory, I wasn't sure when I'd get around to painting anything.

Decided to rattle can the front bumper.

I then realized that although I wanted to try and tackle as much as possible on my own, having two babies at home was going to make that difficult so luckily a buddy of mine who is down the street has been restoring air-cooled Volkswagens for decades and he agreed to squeeze me in to do some of the work that was way over my limited skill level and that's where she's been for the last month or so. Shout out to Jerry.

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1965 Standard Sunroof Bus build
1967 Beetle

[pondoras box]

That thing is sweet, it’s going to be an amazing ride when you get it done. I’m jealous for sure!

But you know what they say? What Rudy wants Rudy Getz.
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Looking for anything from Hal Casey Motors out of Hamburg New York, from license plate surrounds to matchbooks.

1961 23 Window (Bobo)
1965 11 Window (Zelda). https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=563183
1965 13 Window (Lucas)
1957 Oval ragtop
1960 hardtop
1964 hardtop
1965 hardtop
Another 65 hardtop
1973 standard bug
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=804912
1988 Cabriolet VR6 conversion

[EverettB]

Cool Bus.

I agree on the scallops, it looks much better with them removed.

It's going to look instantly better with those wheel wells fixed
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[rudygetz]

More photos of progress. It was discovered that the bus took a hit at some point on the passenger rear quarter panel so that needed replacing as well. Lower cargo doors also needed replacing. Aside from some other metal here and there.

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1965 Standard Sunroof Bus build
1967 Beetle

[Erik G]

sweet! I was back and forth on buying that bus to fix it until you bought it. glad you're making a post about it

[rudygetz]

[Buggeee]

That is satisfying to see all that work done. This is a nice bus.
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Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[ryans65]

I posted that ad somewhere on here, maybe in the good deals thread? Anyways I thought it had lots of potential and despite the hacks it looks solid. Nice buy.

[ronjonlasvegas]

I’m glad to see that bus getting some love and replacement metal. I considered buying it as well just to save it but I already have a 1965 factory sunroof standard bus. I have my heart set on my next bus to be an early 1958 or older pressed bumper sunroof standard. I long that will be a tough one to find.

Thanks for sharing your progress photos with us.
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September 1964 Standard Sunroof walk through SWR/BG original paint.

[rudygetz]

[BarryL]

Can't even tell where the yellow scallops were. Hurray for another Standard Sunroof.

[rudygetz]

Majority of the work the bus was dropped off for is now complete. To recap, both driver side and passenger side rockers were replaced, along with the rear passenger quarter panel. Cargo floors were replaced and the metal on the lower inner and outer cargo doors was repaired as well.

So from the front doors to the rear is all new metal where it was needed. Now to enjoy the bus some while I begin to tackle and treat to rust on the upper half of the bus. Most of it should be able to be treated with a wire wheel and ospho and then some primer to keep everything from getting any worse.

The next major metal work will be to the front half of the bus which would be at the very least the doglegs and the front floors. I’m a little worried around the headlight bucket as there’s some bondo there and I’m not ready to start stabbing in there.
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1965 Standard Sunroof Bus build
1967 Beetle

[ronjonlasvegas]

[rudygetz]

[crofty]

Great job! Looks SOOOOOO much better.
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Your Vanagon sucks, Stop waving at me.

[rudygetz]

Curious if anyone can help with suggestions.

Since my bus is missing the bulkhead what are my options for front seats? The bus currently has newer generic seats that are from some newer car and I'd like to get something more period correct.

Would any other bus seat work? I'd like both the driver and passenger seat to be the same width and size. I don't mind if the seat is off of a beetle or whatever else as long as it has the look of older style seats to match the other bench in the bus.
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1965 Standard Sunroof Bus build
1967 Beetle

[Ragtop]

Awesome save, I eyeballed that standard for awhile.
As far as the bulkhead goes IMO I would replace it or if originality is not a concern then put a section out of a walkthru bus to keep it correct

Great TYPE 225

[Stocknazi]

[pondoras box]

Seats out of either a Porsche 914 or 944 would work well.
_________________
Looking for anything from Hal Casey Motors out of Hamburg New York, from license plate surrounds to matchbooks.

1961 23 Window (Bobo)
1965 11 Window (Zelda). https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=563183
1965 13 Window (Lucas)
1957 Oval ragtop
1960 hardtop
1964 hardtop
1965 hardtop
Another 65 hardtop
1973 standard bug
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=804912
1988 Cabriolet VR6 conversion

[ronjonlasvegas]

If you like the walk through I would also recommend you try to use some original sheet metal to make it look stockish. There is a guy in FL selling the cut out sections from a walk-through bus.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2620423

Once the new metal pieces are welded in place you could fab up some mounts and use a lot of different sets that fit.
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September 1964 Standard Sunroof walk through SWR/BG original paint.