Story of my bus...believable?

[teahead]

So...the 15w I picked up a few mo ago, Cecil (the PO) told me the history of this bus.

Apparently the "original" owners (cannot verify) was a church, that carried some of the flock to/from the church.

Then, in 1971, the trans went bad so it was towed to a local repair shop. Apparently, the poor church folks didn't have the funds to fix it, so they sold it to the owner of the repair shop.

There it sat. And it sat. And it sat.

The rear end was taken out long ago in 1971, so it was held up by wood blocks. Over the years, the wood gave way and it fell to the ground, it caused the rockers to get rotten, on part of the rear xmember, and the rear corner(s) dented. See picture of it in its OEM Mouse grey.

The middle seat was thrown out somewhere. So was the upper of the rear seat. When Cecil found it in 1992, the owner used it to store engines/trans/etc. in it.

The shop owner also had a Kombi 1965 for parts, so Cecil bought them both.

Cecil used the 1965 for a parts bus (donated at least its rear bumper to my 63), and slowly restored the bus: cutting out the rockers, redoing the interior (without ANY seats; just a boombox in the back), tons of speakers, non-OEM door panels and carpet, and the GM turquoise and silver.

He also had some local VW mech put in a 71 bug 1600 w/88mm pistons; a la 1679. The bus runs pretty good (starts right up and idles great); only issue is the steering wanders quite a bit.

But then...he let it sit, and sit, and sit. He did all this restoration, but it mainly sat. Even after he restored it. He didn't start it for the past 5 years until he sold it to me.

He let it sit for practically all of 28 years.

Look at the captions for his photos:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=cswenson

Did you see the caption for the last four photos?



Has not been driven since 1971.
2200 original miles


So my question to you guys is, is it possible that this bus ONLY has 2200 original miles given how according to Cecil, sat for most of its life?

Here's Cecil doing a walkaround before I paid him:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KFzMlGqUDL5UWDlfiuOBOsc3JiJSfFlr/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HdGqv_p8azP7yLWGDWVRDzFkmlnHH6mL/view?usp=sharing
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'63 German Walk-Thru Deluxe 15-window - SOLD

[stevo]

This one may have more unoriginal miles than people care to count.

[otahuhu]

Assuming Cecil drove the bus a meager 500 miles in the 20 years he owned it and assuming the Church only drove the bus on Sundays, Christmas, Easter and one other day per year over the 8 year period of their ownership and the average return trip to the Church was 3.863 miles. Then yes, according to the infinite improbability machine it is possible...

[danfromsyr]

I wouldn't geek out on low miles missing those components myself.

I don't see how or why it would much matter since most of the rolling gear is no longer original. the body is what it is and such..

[aa390392]

So there youhave it. Mystery solved. Either way no big deal.
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getting grumpy & less tolerant!


55 ragtop
56 delux sedan
56 Kabriolet

[zozo]

I'd be curious how the trans could've gone out at less than 2,000 miles.

It all seems incredibly unlikely from end to end

[EverettB]

I bet it's 102K.

If it has 2200 miles then I would assume it has everything original up front - shocks, tie rods, drag link, etc. and they should be perfectly tight, like new.

I didn't watch the videos from start to end but why would a 2200 mile Bus have the wrong front door slider glass?

Does he have pictures of the interior when he got it?
I would assume the front seats and all of the interior that was there would be near perfect if the mileage was that low.
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[teahead]

no, no pictures of interior.

Would think it would be near perfect, but then again, could have been trashed by the repair shop owner putting engines in the cab.

I'm thinking probably 102k miles too that maybe the church folks could have wrung out in 8 years.
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'63 German Walk-Thru Deluxe 15-window - SOLD

[Clara]

[tisius]

A transmission gone after 2k miles, highly unlikely.

A repair shop that doesn't repair a practically new car (2k miles although a few years old) and try to make a profit on it themselves? Instead they let it sit for many years and let it sink into the ground? Don't think so.

I don't care about what life an old VW bus has had, but just for fun I call bullshit on the whole story.
Restore a car yourself completely like that with new paint inside and out, shiny wheels and fresh engine, and then you don't drive it at all, not at at all, not even one single mile? What's with that? I call that weird and then I'm being polite Of course you want to drive the result of your hard labor......
You're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy

Congratulations, you have an old VW bus. It really looks awesome today . Enjoy it. End of story.
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you don't have to be crazy to be into VW's, but it sure helps!!
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