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1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba
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banana split
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 2:08 pm    Post subject: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

Update: There is a web site for this Bus: http://samba.vewib.de

Just thought I'd share this:

http://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/samba-bus-eifel-100.html

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


From google translate :

Samba bus of the world found in the Eifel

A very special oldtimer was found some days ago in the Eifel. The "Samba-Bus" was one of the first to get off the track at VW. He came as an exhibition and promotion vehicle to a large Cologne VW dealership. Even if it only looks after a miserable heap rust, the vehicle is to be rebuilt.

Oldtimer stood for decades in a meadow

A meadow somewhere in the Eifel: totally faded with dense, tall grass, scrub and trees. Then someone buys this meadow, clears up and finds there the miserable remains of a car. The vehicle is devoured by the rust, full of moss and even out of the vehicle, trees are already growing out.

The "scrap" is to be disposed of, wishes the new meadows owner and turns rather by chance to a customer of Florian Kalff from Bonn. Kalff deals with VW spare parts and has many contacts in the oldtimer scene. After his customer from the Eifel got the remains of the car from the meadow, he has now also found the chassis number and passes this to Kalff.

The Blue Mauritius for VW fans

Through the help of the Wolfsburg VW archive is soon clear: This is not any old bus. It is one of the first 100 Samba buses, built in 1951. Kalff is enthusiastic and buys the bus for a low four-digit amount. Even if it is difficult to describe the remains as a bus. Some might rather see a bunch of scrap, rust and moss.

Kalff laughed heartily and said he could do well if this was completely irrelevant for every outsider: "But for a VW fan, this is like the blue Mauritius, which is something special and therefore the car is rebuilt, of course. "

Because the bus is at least the second oldest still existing and original Samba bus in the world, explains Kalff. There was supposed to be an older one, but unfortunately there was not much to know about it - not even whether it actually still exists.

Samba bus was a Cologne demonstration car

66 years ago this Samba bus was delivered as one of the first to the large Cologne dealer Fleischhauer and as a demonstration car, tells Kalff. The luxury bus with a folding roof, the additional roof windows, for the conditions of luxurious interiors and the two-color varnishing was something like a top model from VW. With its opulent equipment, for example, it was often delivered to grand hotels or expensive tour operators.

"It cost a whole 1500 marks more, than a normal window bus, which was a small fortune in the 50s," the oldtimer fan from Bonn adds. All the more unusual that the bus was not even on the road for a long time. Stefan Commertz is an oldtimer specialist and advisor to buyers of old vehicles and the original license plates on the Eifeler find give him a safe hint. The car had never had a TÜV plaque. This means that the car had been shut down before 1961.

British car journalists are coming to Bonn

In this respect, the bus has probably not even a lot of kilometers on the hump. Julian Hunt and his colleague Claire are also enthusiastic about the discovery. Both report for British vintage magazines. When they heard about the discovery, they came to Bonn for the presentation of the bus. It is great that this car was found with the early chassis number and is now to be rebuilt, Hunt enthuses. This is really something special.

Construction of the car costs a lot of time and money

For Kalff it is now about to assemble the big puzzle: engine, front axle and some body parts can be worked up again. The rest is to be produced by a British bodybuilder. Then the original parts are fitted. One would have to imagine this as in the Dresden Frauenkirche, explained Kalff. Afterwards you have an object where you can see exactly what is old and what is reconstructed.

This is now quite common with oldtimer reconstructions. He does not want to bring a perfect Samba bus to the road, which looks like new. The bus should rather tell a story. Until this story can be seen on the street, it will take some time. Ten to 15 years and a good six-digit amount will cost it, estimates the new Bonner owner. Then the Samba bus, 1951 was not to be recognized again.
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 4:14 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

i bet somebody in the area knows where the roof and accessories went. There are some big collectors in that area.
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banana split
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 4:50 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

mandraks wrote:
i bet somebody in the area knows where the roof and accessories went. There are some big collectors in that area.


If you play the video in the link :
http://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/samba-bus-eifel-100.html
You can see what's left of some of the skylight section and aluminum sunroof rails.
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 7:04 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

i believe i saw nipple front turnsignals. i would think it would have semaphores.???
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2017 8:14 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

there are covers over the semaphores, and there are definitely blinkers on it. very common "upgrade".
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PostPosted: Fri May 19, 2017 2:46 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

What a massive job.
I really hope there's a build thread done on this and not just a Facebook update on progress.
I can't fathom the time/hours/money that will take to bring this back to a running car.
Will it be a restoration/resurrection or rebirth?

Look forward to the end result!
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 4:52 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

" Afterwards you have an object where you can see exactly what is old and what is reconstructed."

Sounds like it will look like an unfinished project. Just with the intention of showcasing the work involved and the amount of original metal that was used to assemble it. But, in the 10 or 15 years he's saying it will take to finish it, I will probably be suffering from Alzheimer's and won't give a shit.
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 12:40 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

I think they should just display the way it is
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PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2017 10:43 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

Brian_Mccue wrote:
I think they should just display the way it is


I agree, it is an amazing find, such a shame it wasn't found indoors. It isn't restorable and I believe it should just be kept as it is.
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PostPosted: Thu May 25, 2017 12:35 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

This bus needs busben
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PostPosted: Fri May 26, 2017 2:09 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

Would be awesome if they display it at the Hessisch Oldendorf Treffen??
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:40 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

Hemmings ran a story on this project today: LINK
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:32 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered Reply with quote

Web site:
tigerdyr wrote:
http://samba.vewib.de

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 1:52 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Built Samba Reply with quote

Just to clarify ...... if this is "one of the first 100 sambas built", then is the title of this thread a little misleading. I think that it's believed to be the second oldest survivor and I guess this got lost in translation a little? We've seen it before with early buses suddenly becoming "prototype sambas" and such like. Once in print it kind of becomes "fact". In all the press for this bus I see it being described as the second samba built, when to the best of my knowledge this is way off the truth? Not hating, it's a wicked find, just not the second oldest samba built as far as I know...... and this is supported by info from the owner.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 9:16 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

I updated the title here but yes, I think that was a translation issue.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 10:59 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

Wow! That samba is one of the oldest. Thought it looked pretty beat up and rusted, it will be restored anytime soon. I wonder how many percent of the original metal sheets could be salvaged?
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:27 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

Did anyone catch the vin on this?

I keep seeing on different sites that it's the second oldest Samba but I have still yet to see anyone quote the vin
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:38 pm    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

I have not seen a VIN # mentioned.

From the Hemmings article
Quote:
Reportedly, the Volkswagen archives only list one earlier chassis number for a Samba, which has since gone missing.

This may be why people are saying it's the 2nd oldest.

This may sounds negative but here goes:
I would be skeptical that someone actually looked through the archives and got this information - it seems like the VW Birth Certificate people are always overwhelmed with requests and often say a particular archive was unreadable or too fragile or damaged.
Now they are digging through it to find this information? This seems risky.
I would prefer someone (the owner?) to verify this fact.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:02 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

EverettB wrote:
I have not seen a VIN # mentioned.

From the Hemmings article
Quote:
Reportedly, the Volkswagen archives only list one earlier chassis number for a Samba, which has since gone missing.

This may be why people are saying it's the 2nd oldest.

This may sounds negative but here goes:
I would be skeptical that someone actually looked through the archives and got this information - it seems like the VW Birth Certificate people are always overwhelmed with requests and often say a particular archive was unreadable or too fragile or damaged.
Now they are digging through it to find this information? This seems risky.
I would prefer someone (the owner?) to verify this fact.


I wouldn't say that was negative Everett. I would say that was a good question. When I was initially contacted about this bus I was told it was the second oldest surviving samba which can be checked, at least to some degree of certainty, on Tonnys site, (not that any of us have the VIN but I assume that the owner does). Now some sources are quoting an apparent archive search, which may be true? and also that it's one of the first hundred sambas built. Other sources put it as the second oldest built which I don't believe to be true?? Rikki (James) and I were discussing this the other day. It's like the Greek '51 that Rob found being called a prototype, Si Hitchmans deluxe being auctioned in Europe with mega low mileage (when Si sold it he was clear in the ad that it was a new NOS speedo, hence the low reading), or the recent hype that all early 15 windows had white roofs. Say it enough and it becomes accepted as fact. A few years ago Rikki got contacted by the BBC to do an interview because someone had written that his was the oldest bus in the world. Its easy for these myths, mis-truths and poor translations to become accepted, and with a bus as special as this it's actually nice to learn the facts. Again, no hating here, just an interesting bus and nice to know more.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:09 am    Post subject: Re: 1951 Deluxe Micro Bus discovered - Second Oldest Samba Reply with quote

From the "translation" at the top of this thread:

Through the help of the Wolfsburg VW archive is soon clear: This is not any old bus. It is one of the first 100 Samba buses, built in 1951. Kalff is enthusiastic and buys the bus for a low four-digit amount. Even if it is difficult to describe the remains as a bus. Some might rather see a bunch of scrap, rust and moss.

Kalff laughed heartily and said he could do well if this was completely irrelevant for every outsider: "But for a VW fan, this is like the blue Mauritius, which is something special and therefore the car is rebuilt, of course. "

Because the bus is at least the second oldest still existing and original Samba bus in the world
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