Restoration of a former '65 firetruck (21F)

[mdege]

I started recently to restore my first VW bus. I am now on 6th bus (T1, T2, 2x T3, T5, T3)

I am starting this thread to document what I am doing to it. But, I will start out with a brief history of the van.

It started out as a Firetruck (VW-Feuerlöschfahrzeug TSF-T or 21F) on September 10th, 1964. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from when it was still in service.

The date on the M-plate is 27.8. The original registration papers were stamped 1.9.1964 and first date of registration was 10.9.1964.

The van was stationed in Niederstöcken which is a small Village 30km north of the VW factory in Hannover-Stöcken. Officially it had two owners before I got it. But, in reality it was only the Village volunteer fire department. the village was incorporated with Neustadt am Rübenberge in September 1979. The original Registration was NRÜ-J 551 and at this point in time it changed to H-H 63.

I was told, that it had only been to two emergencies in the 24 years of service. The only other use it got was for the yearly festivities in the village and the mandatory 50km per month drive (Bewegungsfahrt) to keep everything moving.

I bought the van in December 1988 with 14500km on the odometer.

The following pictures were taken the day I bought it.

On March 6th, 1989 I registered it to myself, after doing some rust repair and the conversion to a very simple camper. I removed what was left of the fire departments fixture to hold their equipment. And added a bed and a cupboard, the bare minimum to get a registration as a camper at the time. The insurance premium was much lower for campers at the time.

To be continued ...
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

This will be the last post on the history of my van before I start on the restoration, I promise.

One more picture from the original state:

I drove the van as my daily driver for 9 years, all trough my alternate (civilian) service and studies. Germany still had mandatory military/civilian service for the male population. I served with one of the German scout organizations and got heavily involved in scouting. Of course my van got involved too.

Getting ready for a hike:

Small scout camp in Leun just leaders and young adults:

In 1994 I went on a three week camping trip to Sweden:

Unfortunately there was no more gas sold at this station:

During the course of time I converted the van to 12V, rebuilt the front axle, replace the 42hp 1500ccm motor with a 50hp 1600ccm. In '91 and '93 I spent my summers working in San Jose, CA and I used the occasion to do parts hunting. One year I cut the lower rear corners from two different buses in a Sacramento wrecking yard and the other year I found some cargo doors with windows in a Pick&Pull yard in San Jose. I managed to take all of the parts back as normal luggage. I miss those days when you were entitled to pieces of luggage 32kg each.

When I got my first job I had to move to Düsseldorf and I ended up with no place to work on my van anymore. And it was getting to a state where it would not pass the bi-yearly inspections anymore. I decided to keep it until I have a place where I can work on it.

In the meantime we bought an old house which needed a lot of work, got married, had kids and the van had to wait.

I was able to borrow this VW dump truck for some of my work on the house:

But, now more than twenty years later the time has come. Last winter I started to make some tools which I would use for the disassembly:

Then end of may I built the frame which I mounted the chassis on:

And a friend came to help me disassemble the van:

To be continued ...
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[Skim]

Wow. Such a cool story thanks for sharing it. I enjoyed the part you told about when you cut off the corners from a bus in a Sacramento junkyard. Or that bus at the San Jose Pick n Pull you snagged the cargo doors from. I remember that era well. A bus wouldn’t last 10 minutes at a P n P yard nowadays.
Look forward to the progress.
_________________
GFK
Samba since before the towers collapsed. Still here.
1953 Kabriolet
1954 Sunroof
1959 Lowlight Ghia vert
1960 Lt Grey Double Cab SMZ LEGIT
1963 Deluxe Turkis Walk Thru 15 Window OG Paint

[mdege]

Next I continued to remove the cargo floor and the sub-frame members underneath. First I drilled out all of the spot-welds I could get at

Left side is out:

Both sides gone:

sub-frame members removed

scrap:

[removed the right rocker:

I also made some new parts.
Lower sections of the rear wheel arches and the lower section of the left hand side pillars:

Lower section of the left B-pillar:

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

I finally pulled the steering box from the car and cleaned it up.

It hat virtually no wear, therefore I just cleaned it and repainted the part which is under the car. I haven't decided whether I will repaint all of it.

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

I continued the work on the sheet metal too.

Her I pulled the car out from the garage, because I had to raise it up to pull out the steering box.

Lower sections of the wheelwells are done:

And also the lower parts here:

Next up is the left B-pillar:

Made some spare parts:

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

I removed the rear part of the inner dogleg and patched it up with some new metal:

Then I started rebuilding the B-pillar:

Checking that it fits:

Putting thing back together:

Learned the painful way, that you don't want to paint parts before you weld them, this needs to be cleaned up.

Checking that the inner sill fits:

Still need to close this hole:

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

Yesterdays progress, made a repair section for the bulkhead. The part which attaches to the left B-pillar.

Comparing new and old, not perfect but as close as I'll get. and much better than the flat stuff which is sold as repair panel:

In the process of welding it in:

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[easy e]

Your bus coming along great!... nice work!... and tool making.
Thanks for sharing the history too.
e
_________________
aka: Evan
Spreadsheet for Bus RPM, based on gearing & tire size (Excel format)
Searchable, click-navigable 1958 Bus Parts List
“They are about as worthless as the tits on the boars that live in the woods behind their junk yard.” -Weatherly

[mdege]

Thank you for your encouraging words. I have set myself a goal. I would like to be on the road for the next "Splits at the Lake" in one year. http://www.spijlbustreffen.nl
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[wcfvw69]

_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

40+ years of VW repair, and VW parts and vehicle restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
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**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[Jaybus]

This thread reminds me of visiting a guys house who is an amazing guitar player. And you just quit playing out of shame.

NICE WORK!!!!

[Manfred58sc]

Ganz Fliesig!
_________________
Fat chick owner/operator

[Jimb0w]

just doing the same work on my 65 panel but you've already posted on it
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8877568#8877568

Keep going !

[mdege]

Same procedure with the right side B-pillar:

I have to start painting stuff before it starts to rust again:

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[Jimb0w]

nice to see that flanges instead of the common flat panel repair... You use a press and a template to shape it ?

[mdege]

Yea, I made a stamp to shape the two steps as you can see here:

I then shaped the rest by hand:

_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mandraks]

[mdege]

Yep, south east Asian safety shoes
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

I need to get back to documenting. Here's what I have done the last couple of weeks.

I welded in the lower edge of the bulkhead. I did have some warppage at the end.

Grinding the welds down is the worst part of the job. I hope my neighbors aren't going to hate me

I was able to get rid of the warppage by hammering the welded area after I finished grinding the welds.

Most of the work isn't very spectacular. Just cleaning/sanding the main frame rails and the tubes. I painted them with Ovatrol, which is an oil which seeps into the left over rust. It keeps the rust from continuing it's destructive work. I also primed the new cross members.

And sometimes you need to take a break. There was a small VW meeting in Haan and I went with a friend and his family. I got to drive their "new" bug. It is freshly imported from Sweden. No turn signals yet, just semaphores

It is kind of scary to drive because nobody expects cars to have semaphores these days. But then again many people don't use turn signals over here.
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car