April 1963 Mouse Grey \ Pearl White Walk Thru Deluxe Build

[mastorna]

Today, fifty years ago on April 8th, my bus was born and rolled out of Hannover. This year marks the start of a long process to return to full factory condition. This thread hopefully will document that journey.

Birthday Photo!

251 - Deluxe Microbus, 7-Seater, Cargo Doors Right, LHD
378 - North American equipment includes 6 popouts
081 - separate front seats for Samba bus
082 - separate front seats for panel or kombi
139 - sealed beam headlamps, red tail light lenses - export model

Currently

I've had this bus for 16 years after having given up on a 21 window build that was too far gone to save. I vowed to do this one up right. It'd been owned previously by an older man who last registered it in 1979 and had the bus painted day-glo orange, top to bottom. At some point, some poor metal work had been done and it had a spray of etching on it over the orange and original paint. I'm dabbling with calling it 'orange sunshine' but its originally mouse grey\pearl white. The wheel wells and engine compartment are all that remain of the OG paint. I'm hoping many of the samba folks can help me out with the odds and ends parts that might be needed along the way or just to give some general encouragement cause my girlfriend thinks i'm absolutely crazy but she'll come around. With that, onto the photos that illustrate how it looks in December as I pulled it out of mothballs...

The spare wheel well was cut out unfortunately but i've got a clip. No bumps. Same with the dash, which you can see what cut but I've got a good clip for that. Since these pics have been taken in December, I've got most of the bus torn down and did some DA on the panels to see what work had been done on it in the past.

Front nose nicely hiding a poor mud job.

PNW "floors" and cut dash

There but surface rust

OG paint in them wells

I'm a bit of a purest. The plan is to do it bone stock, factory fresh. With that said, I'm looking for a long list of items:

Original 2\3 Cargo Floor Mat (ex condition)
Original Front Floor Mat (ex condition)
Original Jailbars (got most of them but could use another set)
Repro or Good condition trim (lower)
nice deluxe horn button (the original is thrash)
Original Coat Hook.
Original Safari set (good condition - debating this as it wasn't factory)

Big thanks to DD and Lind and everyone on the huge amount of info posted in the past! Here we go...
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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

[dawerks]

Very nice colour! Many have tried to replicate the original factory colour, and very few have succeeded, I wish you luck!
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"There is only one sin; disconnection from self."

[G-wood Todd]

Cool bus and looks to be a nice start. Walkthru is sweet too. Only a small handfull of MG/PW deluxes out there. I look forward to seeing the progress pics.

[mastorna]

So it's been quite a while since an update on this build thread. Slow progress but progress is being made.

A quick backstory on this. Having been into busses since the early 1990's, I've always wanted a 23 window having had previous had a 64 21. I got the good fortune of finding a bus on the internet in 1997 that was in the same area. I quickly went out to meet the owner and he too was a very young kid that was also into VW's. We struck a deal and I put the bus in storage awaiting for the time to get it properly repaired. Fast forward to 2013 and I finally have the means to make this bus return to its old glory. I get a few recommendations for a shop in a nearby town who does great metal work and boy does this bus need it having survived years in the rough PNW. I call up volksfab and am introduced to @camerod who swings by to take a look at it. Instantly, he looks familiar. He's looking at the bus and its dawning on him too - we both realize - I bought this bus off him in 1997. Here we are 16 years later. I'm excited to have such a talent as cameron bringing this this bus' metal back to shape.

Now the bus is at his shop getting new metal put on back to factory condition.

Old pic of the bus prior to me picking it up. It had one time been bright orange before getting a coat of primer atop.

The nose was stuffy and had some warp for a it to the pillar.

No floors survived the passage of time in the PNW.

Amazingly clean.

Getting rust free

Clean

Rough

Work continues on. Hope to post more photos soon. If anyone has a good lead on a Deluxe Rear Hatch, let me know.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1785479

Hope to see you all at Burgermaster and Shoreline show.
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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

[mastorna]

Slowly but surely this bus is getting put together properly.

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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

[Clara]

[GTV]

Very nice work so far!
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EMPI Power Rules!

[mastorna]

[Erik G]

That's awesome. Cameron is a good dude and excellent at his craft
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Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[sled]

hey Lincoln, hows this bus coming? I saw some photos after Ryan was done painting it!
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drive your split.

[1970PAKombi]

Wow nice work - keep it coming man, this thing looks tight!