| Author |
Message |
xavi_242
Samba Member
Joined: May 06, 2005
Posts: 1672
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)
|
 Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:58 am Post subject: |
 |
|
on of the best busses all around, congratulations!!
_________________
1967 Split SO-42 Dormobile |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 10:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
here is a complete family photo including the 23 The bus is now finished and in safe storage in an undisclosed dry mold free garage along with my 56 oval .
I am finished with VW restorations for a wile and am going on a long road trip to the east coast in my 66 westy to hunt insulators... I have closed up my VW garage in Olympia , Wa and am officially declaring my personal address to be where ever My camper is parked for the next wile...
I'd like to send out a special thanks to Chris up in BC for finding me a perfect rear bulk head mat so I could finish the interior . !!!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Damon22
Samba Member
Joined: January 03, 2006
Posts: 238
Location: New Forest, Ingerland.
|
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 11:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Mike did you get front door cards from Lenny? I'd love to see some pics, I need exactly the same, but they are fierce expensive, but then only Lenny is doing them right anywhere in the world as far as I know. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jeremy57ride
Samba Member
Joined: May 23, 2005
Posts: 1340
|
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 8:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
That is a beautiful family you got there...congratulations!
Good luck on you insulator hunt.
Hard to follow a thread like this and not be inspired to get to work!
Thanks.
_________________
"If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do." -Warren Miller |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 12:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Damon22 wrote: |
| Mike did you get front door cards from Lenny? I'd love to see some pics, I need exactly the same, but they are fierce expensive, but then only Lenny is doing them right anywhere in the world as far as I know. |
My entire interior was done by lenny's guys the pannels are close but not exact interms of vinyl so if you have OG pannels for the rest of the bus they will not work
My friend Glen Mc Adam got all my old stuff and a few were usable or could at least be shaved of vinyl and remade .
the door pockets Lenny used were OG ones I provided he got the rivets correct tho
I do not have any up close photos of the doors and the bus is in storage far away from where I am now.
Mike |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
hansend23
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2008
Posts: 46
Location: olympia
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
mike,i found some nos cargo door seals.
yours is the only one i would use them on  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well I guess it is time to resurrect this thread as I finally brought the bus out of storage, 
having barely driven or touched it since the spring of 2009 . I drove it up to Seattle from Oregon and took it to Vintage meet the following weekend .
I really needed to get some details on it finished anyhow and since I am living in the Seattle area I decided it was time to get it out and enjoy it some
Anyhow here it is Friday evening @Burgermaster in Seattle...
and photos taken at Vintage meet in Shoreline, Wa. on Saturday
being a true vintage purest myself , I really like this view...
It was interesting to note how relatively few people at this show really recognized what the bus was or that it was the oldest and one of the most correctly restored buses at the show .
It seems many people up in the PNW have never seen a deluxe this old or even truly recognized what it is.. also it seems people up here people like the more flashy 1960's color scheams as well.. I had a bunch of people ask me if those were actually stock colors etc... 
None the less, it was a fun show! I am going to work on cleaning up and detailing some of the remaining issues over the next few weeks and will post a few new photos as I can
This weekend I spent four hours carefully cleaning and restoring the floor mats which were looking pretty dingy after so many years... there are still some runs in the paint to deal with and whatnot ... last week I finally installed the 3rd coat hook that had a broken pivot pin I made an new one at work and now it's as good as new! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
joe56vw
Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2004
Posts: 3202
Location: Olympia wa
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 7:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
| mike spadafora wrote: |
It was interesting to note how relatively few people at this show really recognized what the bus was or that it was the oldest and one of the most correctly restored buses at the show .
It seems many people up in the PNW have never seen a deluxe this old or even truly recognized what it is.. also it seems people up here people like the more flashy 1960's color scheams as well.. I had a bunch of people ask me if those were actually stock colors etc...
|
i think most of the more knowledgeable people were in the swap area and most of them rarely go up to the show
i think it's funny that most people didn't even realize that the bus with maniquin in it was really a '51 10 window bus
it is nice to see this bus all done up right i still remeber it sitting in your shop half cut up and taken apart
_________________
'60 15 window walkthrough
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=559931&highlight=
why is there no sarcasism button on here? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
it's funny ... back when I was a regular swapper in the 1990's I always made it up to the show as I love nice clean original cars and was always looking for pointers on my own restoration projects
I remember the public parking lot at vintage meet always was a good place to see cars as well ... especially in the 1990's when allot of people were still driving them as there regular cars... this year it was really disappointing ... very few people actually drove air cooled cars to the show unless they were in the show itself... ... A sad sign of the times I guess!
well the work continues again ... today bead blasted cleaned and painted the original jack (it was pretty filthy and a but rusty) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EverettB 
Administrator
Joined: April 11, 2000
Posts: 71912
Location: Phoenix 602
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bonecollector
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2003
Posts: 311
Location: Southeast Idaho
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:41 pm Post subject: Nice bus. |
|
|
I am up in Washington visiting family and catching up with some old friends and I decided to take a drive out to Chehalis to see if by chance I can track down this old 23 window that first planted the Bus Disease in me years ago. I stopped by the old shop that was once owned by Mike only to find it had been sold and Mike had retired. I tracked down Mike and told him about the old 23 Window that was sitting by his shop and asked him if he knew what happened to it. He directed me to it's previous owner who goes by the name of "Bush". I phoned Bush who was out of state today but he told me to check on thesamba for a guy named Mike who had restored the bus. Did a little search on here and found the pics and thread on the resto. Great Job Mike the bus looks great. In case you are interested here is a short video I took of the Bus in 1993. Love to come see the bus someday and meet you Mike. This was the bus that started it all for me. This bus literally changed my life. Thanks for letting me chime in Mike. Cheers Jeremy.
Link
_________________
CHECK US OUT ON YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsaYK9P6m68
WWW.VOLKSWEAR.COM |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:36 pm Post subject: Re: Nice bus. |
|
|
| bonecollector wrote: |
I am up in Washington visiting family and catching up with some old friends and I decided to take a drive out to Chehalis to see if by chance I can track down this old 23 window that first planted the Bus Disease in me years ago. I stopped by the old shop that was once owned by Mike only to find it had been sold and Mike had retired. I tracked down Mike and told him about the old 23 Window that was sitting by his shop and asked him if he knew what happened to it. He directed me to it's previous owner who goes by the name of "Bush". I phoned Bush who was out of state today but he told me to check on thesamba for a guy named Mike who had restored the bus. Did a little search on here and found the pics and thread on the resto. Great Job Mike the bus looks great. In case you are interested here is a short video I took of the Bus in 1993. Love to come see the bus someday and meet you Mike. This was the bus that started it all for me. This bus literally changed my life. Thanks for letting me chime in Mike. Cheers Jeremy.
Link
|
Wow this is amazing! I had no idea a video of the bus was taken two years before I owned it ... and then some ten years before restoration was started... this is like a literal time machine for me as I too remember the bus being parked there ... I often stopped byu to look at it whenever I was down that way from Olympia . This was even before Clara and I met ... a totally different time in my life !! thank you so much for posting and sharing
Somewhere someone has a photo of the bus that was taken in the late 70's before the windows and taillights were vandalized . back then the interior was in fairly good shape but after the windows were broken out the whole bus went to hell |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
CaLiBus
Samba Member
Joined: May 27, 2011
Posts: 1097
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:50 am Post subject: 23 window 56 video |
|
|
Awesome !. I have always wondered where that bus went after seeing this video few months back 
Very cool  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:44 am Post subject: Re: 23 window 56 video |
|
|
| CaLiBus wrote: |
Awesome !. I have always wondered where that bus went after seeing this video few months back
Very cool |
I saw this bus parked where you see it myself in 1992... I fell in love with it and decided I must do whatever it took to get out of the weather and into dry shelter to eventually restore it . It took several years of prodding to get the owner to finally sell it... meanwhile the rain and weather continued to pore in the windows further destroying the body and interior. I finally got it into shelter in late 1995 and slowly began collecting parts to restore it. back then very little good repro metal was available for restoration so I had to locate and cut up other cars in junk yards to restore it ... or use NOS . (the bumpers including there trim were all nos!) I would collect every piece of NOS rubber, chrome or anything else I could find . From 2000-2006 I sporadic would work on repairing the body damage up to the point where the remaining work required a full undercarriage sand blast . In 2006 I began serous restoration putting in hundreds and hundreds of man hours into every aspect of the bus . (God I hated polishing and buffing all the dam belt line trim! ) Now it is done! But sadly I am more in need of a house then the bus and may have to sell it in the near future. I need to win the lotto... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
CaLiBus
Samba Member
Joined: May 27, 2011
Posts: 1097
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:05 am Post subject: Video 55 23 w |
|
|
Incredible journey Mike! Wow! Not many folks know what it actually takes to put a post BD Wolfsburg 23 w together ...
Putting one together myself and ohh boy how difficult it is to find these one year only parts !
One amazing accomplishment ! Congrats man!
BTW .. That video reminds me of back in day in the early eighties when you could find these jems laying around in yards and driveways haha.. Oh well  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mastorna
Samba Member
Joined: May 26, 2008
Posts: 199
Location: Seattle
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:57 am Post subject: Re: 23 window 56 video |
|
|
| mike spadafora wrote: |
| Now it is done! But sadly I am more in need of a house then the bus and may have to sell it in the near future. I need to win the lotto... |
Great story. Any chance of getting this bus out to the Vintage Meet or Burgermaster Meetup on the 19th? Hopefully can see it on Friday. If you've got an issue to sell, give me a call (i'm in the neighborhood).
_________________
1959 Type II Mango SO-23
1962 Type II Kombi Light Gray
1963 Type II Standard Sunroof SWR\BG
1963 Type II Deluxe MG\PW |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
xavi_242
Samba Member
Joined: May 06, 2005
Posts: 1672
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:18 pm Post subject: Re: 23 window 56 video |
|
|
| mike spadafora wrote: |
| But sadly I am more in need of a house then the bus and may have to sell it in the near future. I need to win the lotto... |
hope you keep it!
_________________
1967 Split SO-42 Dormobile |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:23 pm Post subject: Re: Video 55 23 w |
|
|
| CaLiBus wrote: |
Incredible journey Mike! Wow! Not many folks know what it actually takes to put a post BD Wolfsburg 23 w together ...
Putting one together myself and ohh boy how difficult it is to find these one year only parts !
One amazing accomplishment ! Congrats man!
BTW .. That video reminds me of back in day in the early eighties when you could find these jems laying around in yards and driveways haha.. Oh well |
ya you wouldn't believe how many classy busses I found in the woods around Olympia , Wa in the early 1990's ... three 21 windows three 15 windows, two flip seat westys trucks, you name it... and then there was all the stuff I passed up or parted out that today would be gold.... Makes me sad... but in all that time I only put my hands on two early bumper samba's.. they have always been scarce. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 4:09 pm Post subject: prerestoration photo |
|
|
A pre-restoration photo from 1992-93 of the bus parked in Chahalis,Wa. the back windows were broken out in the early 80's and the bus was left for years out in the rain with no windows later on kids also smashed one taillight both reflectors , the brake light, the side mirror, and stole the front emblem The owner sold it to me soon after that around 1996
The bus still had both rear correct seats when I got it .
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Rain's Westy
Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2004
Posts: 498
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 2:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I drove up to Crater Lake. OR last week and found the perfect backdrop for bus photo op ... I did a little colour tweaking and it looks like a 1950's German postcard...
It was a really fun trip. I met some retired German tourists who fondly remembered these buses as kids in Germany wile I was there ... I bet I also pissed some people off though as I crawled up the steep climb to the park at 25mph in second gear (the bus has a 36hp motor)
In a weird way I wish these cars had not become so uber-valuble as it makes me nervous even taking it out on a joy cruse it is hard to enjoy driving something that is worth more then some peoples houses . It certainly was not like that back when I first got it in the mid 1990's
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
