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notchboy
Samba Member
Joined: April 27, 2002
Posts: 22456
Location: Escondido CA
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 Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 9:26 am Post subject: Finland Special - When aftermarket windows were added |
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Pulled this out of the T34 forum and put it here. With the frequency of cut in windows seen in the vintage pic thread, its nice to see one here with a link to more close pics.
Thanks for the info and pics Kharon8!
| Kharon8 wrote: |
| Mike Fisher wrote: |
Those are big corner windows in your bus!
The Brazilian 15 window buses have smaller corner windows.
2 different size side windows too!
What's the 'story' on that bus? 
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Short explanation: Just for tax reasons as Notchboy said. The actual story? OK, here you go.
Beware OT: This has nothing to with T34s and this is long. Sorry.
Whole thing started in 1957 when government decided that cars are "luxury stuff" and need to be taxed.
Exception of course was cars needed for goods/bulk of people transportation, i.e. vans, lorries and buses.
Then came the problem: What is actually a van? (As an example:) VW bus/van is basically the same thing.
So they defined that no seats or windows in the 'goods section' and maximum of three people. Also certain volume for goods. At the same time transporting people was prohibited if there are no seats or windows for them.
Problem solved.
Panel van fit into that nicely, kombi not at all, so very few kombis were sold as those were taxed as sedans, so people needing personnel carry capability bought buses, or in rare cases kombis as it was a bit cheaper.
After tax it was a bit more and in a poor country even a small amount of money was significant. Same reason meant that luxury bus (samba) is and was basically non-existent. Only airports could afford those as they got their (non-registered) cars tax-free.
That explains also why most of these are grey panel vans (like mine): Grey was the only colour included in the base price and for most buyers it was just a tool, so who cares.
Modifying a used car from no-tax van to ordinary car was of course also taxed, but they used actual current value and not the value when bought, which, for tools like vans, meant that the tax dropped very fast as typical lifetime for vans was about 6 years at that time.
But you could modify a 'used' panel van to van with windows and temporary/removable seats for 'work force' (as they said) and keep the tax-free status. You just paid a fee for altering the vehicle type.
"Used" was of course defined, this time '1 year in active use'.
That's what happened here, so all of the windows and everything in the back is totally locally made. That is: Insulation, interior panels, roof light and seats as panel van from factory has not a thing in the rear, just plain steel walls and floor.
These modifications were made in bulk by several companies (Wiima being the most famous) as VW panel van was very common van here in Finland: VW had a good reputation based on Beetle and for a tool reliability is an important thing: The thing British or French competitors (Ford&Commer/Citroen) really didn't have despite being cheaper.
After an year as windowed van this was re-registered again, as a bus and for 8 people. AFAIK for insurance reasons: Insuring an ordinary car was cheaper than a van. At that point you had to pay the same % of tax but from current value it wasn't much.
I've actual amounts in the registration papers (which I got with the car) but I've forgotten those. Anyway, those are in Finnish marks from early 60s, not too easy to convert to any current currency.
This car is something I inherited from my grandfather, who had it in actual work use from 1961 to 1977, very long time considering the typical life time of cars in that era. Then Police took his driving license claiming he was too old to drive( kind of true) and he just put the van in a shed: 16-year-old vans had literally negative value at that time: You'd have to pay to get it disposed.
Lucky for me and other car hobbyists now: Plenty of 60s and early 70s cars in sheds despite huge amount of those sold to scrap in early 2000 when scrap iron was so expensive it was actively collected from countryside.
So it just sat there until grandmother died 2002 and the estate thought that someone might to want this piece of junk (for them). Also these weren't expensive then so I could buy it from estate. Repairing it took some more years, though.
Grandfather was a blacksmith and wood worker and it shows that this van has tranported so many tons of iron rods for him: So many thumb sized holes in interior panels and paint.
I haven't done anything to interior and outside is repaired only on rusty spots so it won't rust more. Engine rebuild is on-going and gearbox rebuild is done and it's already installed back. Engine is still being assembled.
Full restoration is planned once I get the T34 ready, but it still won't look anything you got from the factory as local changes (windows/interior) will be kept and as much as of its history of it I can.
This car is called Wiima despite it's not really built by Wiima factory as we originally thought it was. The name just stuck.
There's a pictorial of whole thing (from 2002) in
http://kharon.suomiforum.com/www/wiima/index.html
That's my home server so it's not really fast but you'll eventually get the pics. |
_________________
| t3kg wrote: |
OK, this thread is over. You win. |
Jason "notchboy" Weigel
1964 1500 S
1964 T34 S Convertible
1977 Westfalia Camper pop-top |
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srfndoc
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 3275
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 9:44 am Post subject: Re: Finland Special - When aftermarket windows were added |
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Cool story, thanks for sharing.
Sort of in the same vane of why US dealers started buying panels and then sending them to Sundial/EZ Camper/Riviera to convert them to campers since VW was allocating so few Westfalia's to each dealer.
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notchboy
Samba Member
Joined: April 27, 2002
Posts: 22456
Location: Escondido CA
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| Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:51 am Post subject: Re: Finland Special - When aftermarket windows were added |
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| srfndoc wrote: |
Cool story, thanks for sharing.
Sort of in the same vane of why US dealers started buying panels and then sending them to Sundial/EZ Camper/Riviera to convert them to campers since VW was allocating so few Westfalia's to each dealer. |
True true - the chicken tax. Sportsmobile comments on it in the beginning of this vid.
Interestng enough - Sportsmobile is the only one left, thriving very well. Outlasted Westfalia.
Link
_________________
| t3kg wrote: |
OK, this thread is over. You win. |
Jason "notchboy" Weigel
1964 1500 S
1964 T34 S Convertible
1977 Westfalia Camper pop-top |
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EverettB 
Administrator
Joined: April 11, 2000
Posts: 69813
Location: Phoenix Metro
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EeVeeWee
Samba Member
Joined: April 02, 2015
Posts: 836
Location: Amersfoort, Netherlands
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| Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 6:09 am Post subject: Re: Finland Special - When aftermarket windows were added |
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My bus came from Finland and had also cut windows instead of original windows. So flat glas in the curved original metal sheet.
I guess also made by Wiima.
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velvetgreen
Samba Member
Joined: August 17, 2004
Posts: 2745
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 3:03 pm Post subject: Re: Finland Special - When aftermarket windows were added |
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