1954 RHD Kombi

[bathtub57]

I've read threads like these for years and finally it is my turn to start one. Sadly my skills are nowhere near good enough to take on any of the work but luckily I've been around long enough to have made a fair few friends on the scene.

The story of this particular bus starts on 20th September 1954 when it was built, leaving the factory on 4th October 1954 headed for Volkswagen dealer Kemsley, London, England.

I know nothing of what happened to it then until I visited the Valla VW event on the Gold Coast Australia in 2014. My good friend Al Agyik now owned the '54 which by this time had been crushed when loaded onto a trailer with a swing arm (the arm was used to hold the bus onto the trailer I believe). How it ended up crushed on the Gold Coast is a mystery, perhaps some day a story will emerge. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time as I knew he had grand plans (involving turbo charging etc) and it was not even in my mind to think of taking on a Barndoor project as involved as this.

Fast forward 3 years and Al contacted me to see if I was interested in taking on the kombi as a project. I guess he caught me at the right time and we struck a deal for him to get the body together and get it shipped to the UK. Al had previously built my '64 Notch (which I still have) and a lovely '59 Bug which I sold to put funds into this project.

This was about a week into it

_________________
Aircooled since 1988

[bathtub57]

Here are some more pictures of the reconstruction using original parts, Gerson panels and hard graft. The roof came from an early non-Barndoor but the peak is from an original Barndoor.

_________________
Aircooled since 1988

[bathtub57]

Having got the battered shell back to having a fighting chance of becoming a functioning Barndoor once again Al wrapped her up and sent her back to me here in the UK.

I have to say a huge thank you to Al and his guys who have done amazing work on the 'Barny'. He's a top bloke, a good friend and a great craftsman - we are looking forward to him and the family coming to see the finished article in the UK one day.

Kingstown Shipping handled the transport in case anyone needs an international shipper - they were excellent.
_________________
Aircooled since 1988

[bathtub57]

Now it's back in the UK I managed to find someone to take on the project who is about as far from me as you can get without leaving England. Irv is well known to most and he'll be handling things from here on in.

I drove up to Barrow-in-Furness on Wednesday, the M6 has to be the dullest road to spend a morning on but the drive through the Lake District with snow capped hills was stunning, no pictures I'm afraid so I guess it didn't happen.

Well, anyway, this was what I had been waiting to see, my beautiful baby Barndoor!

It still needs a lot of work but I just love it, the rear hatch and the roof line are just the best in my opinion.

It has an amazing front bench seat

The middle seat is there and in good condition but will go to Bromsgrove for trimming. Being right hand drive it is a relief that the seat is there as the tilting section is on the left and hard to find.

Dash pod

Some dodgy number plate light housing

A lot of work will need to be done on the A pillar sections to get the gaps closer

I just love it though

_________________
Aircooled since 1988

[busben]

Awesome! I remember seeing photos of this poor thing "post grabber incident" and your friend did a good job straightening things out.

Thanks for posting. Good luck with it

[bathtub57]

[busben]

Yeh, Irv'll get it nailed for sure. I look forward to seeing more progress on here

Are these doors original to the bus? Is that old signwriting? What's it say?

[bathtub57]

[Dasdubber]

Hey mark, glad to see it arrived relatively safe and sound!

I have a heap of photos I’ll get to you including a few of it on the scrap metal truck where it was originally saved by Steve Muller in Sydney (an Australian VW guru), it then changed hands to Mikki and finally ended up in my possession.

The rear cargo door is the original and after some digging found it read “Rudolf Steiner School” so could quite possibly have been used as some sort of school transport back in the day (a number of Steiner schools in Sydney it may have been tied into assuming it didn’t come from a different part of Australia)...I never chased this up.

Looking forward to seeing it progress.

Cheers
Al

[bathtub57]

[byronbus]

Stephen and his brother live in north west Sydney. Have done for years. Both live on acreage and have yards full of VWs, especially split buses. Both known in the VW scene but also locally. Anyone around would have known they were into old buses.

Stephen was going down to the local cafe for his “daily” bacon and egg roll when out of the corner of his eye he saw a splitty on the back of a scrap metal truck. He chased it down and obviously discovered it was a barndoor. Took a bit of convincing and some cash to get the guy to give it up. And as they say the rest is history.

Sadly this thing was on another property only meters from his own. I think they had heard of a barndoor somewhere but until it surfaced they didn’t know.

[byronbus]

The other ironic thing is, Stephen was very into Rudolph Steiner education.

He owns Volksmuller in Sydney, might be worth a chat.

Don’t get him started on Steiner philosophy, will bore you to tears...

[bathtub57]

[TRS63]

Now that is an awesome resurrection, congrats!

Antoine

[bathtub57]

After a year of hard work by Irv and his team, with assistance from countless others including Bromsgrove, Airteriors, Stateside Tuning, Dogback beams, John Walklett, German Junkies and more, this bus will debut at Volksworld. There have been some teaser shots on Instagram and FB and when the dust settles I'll post up the whole story, for now everyone is flat out getting the final pieces finished so it will be ready for the show.

It won't be for everyone. It's been a pretty special project and ended up taking a very different direction to the original intention but I am more than happy with the result.
_________________
Aircooled since 1988

[bathtub57]

_________________
Aircooled since 1988

[rxBusboy]

Thats super cool to see a wrecked bus come back to life.
These threads have motivated me to take on crazy projects too. Congrats on getting a Barndoor back on the road !!
_________________
I'd rather drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.
The Original Slow Ride Garage
IG: SlowRideGarge

[bathtub57]

[schnidlee]

Hi mate, I was the one who "found" the middle seat in your bus. I was in the middle of an 800km drive home from an interstate VW show here in Australia and we all stopped at a petrol station. We were in a convoy of 4 or five buses (all bays) My SC was slammed and I was a little sore so took longer than everyone else to gas up and get rolling. All the guys had taken off and i was just climbing in to follow and an old fella came over and started talking VW. I always indulge these guys because you never know what leads they will give you. He was a buggy guy and bought lots of buses for the gearboxes/stub axles and was trying to sell me a "rare air conditioner". He was a nice guy so I took his number and said i'd ask around and see if anyone I knew was interested. As expected no one wanted the aircon but I gave him a ring to be polite to let him know. short conversation and about to say goodbye and he asks "do you know anyone who would be interested in a splitty middle seat?" He had had the seat under the house since late 50's early 60's. His dad pulled it out of a bus after owning it from new for a few years. Apparently he had the plates/clamps somewhere but couldn't find them. As it turns out I was chasing one for my own bus and immediately said i'd take it. I figured regardless of year at least i'd have something to trade for what I needed. He knew they were valuable so we worked out a deal we were both happy with sight unseen, he assure me it was solid but would need to be trimmed. He sent me the pics a couple of days later and it was a bloody 6 legger! He lived about 600km from me and I couldn't get there for a few weeks, I called in some favors and had a mate closer go and grab it the next day.

I had a bunch of big $$ offers but I was more interested in finding a nice OG and correct seat for my bus, it just so happened that AL who owned your bus at the time had one he was going to put in the barny. We worked out a trade that helped us both and the rest is history.

Sorry for the long winded story about a seat, it was one of my best finds ever and all happened just because my bus was too low and I was being soft . Great to see this bus saved.

[bathtub57]

Awesome story! I was really impressed that it came with the RHD middle seat. For now it won’t be used but it is safely stored ready to go in once we finish the show pony rounds. I managed to find a rear seat too after a long hunt.

Thanks for sharing and glad to learn some more about the poor old bus!

Gratuitous picture...

_________________
Aircooled since 1988