Heat, Dust & Flies' 61 23 window Samba

[Longrasser]

This weekend I spent at Bathust with 40 panel vanners for a Van meet. No, not one kombi there, but I recon down the track, the old blue bus will fit in amoungst the HZs and XBs.

Time out his weekend cleaning back alloy trim and little else. ( the grass has to be cut sometime).
Plus I'm getting set for bringing back the original door cards and interior pannels as best I can. I tried flattening the boards by dampening and weighing them on a flat surface, which works for a week and then it is like the card has a memory and it returns to a warped excuse of itself.

Soooo......
I'm working at getting the vinyl as soft as possible with glycerine and lanolin and saddle soap and then peeling it back to adhere to newly cut cards. (it might work.... But you don't know till you try).
The aluminum trim strips for the interior are 50% there, but these are available as Repro, so the rest can be bought. No doubt the beginning of a reasonable pile of receipts. My aim is to have this thing ready for rego under $5K. Dreamin? I'll give it a shot.
Pics due this week.

[brock0505]

and then u can sell it to me
what a winner u are
unbelievable

[splitbus]

This weekend I spent at Bathust with 40 panel vanners for a Van meet. No, not one kombi there, but I recon down the track, the old blue bus will fit in amoungst the HZs and XBs.

Time out his weekend cleaning back alloy trim and little else. ( the grass has to be cut sometime).
Plus I'm getting set for bringing back the original door cards and interior pannels as best I can. I tried flattening the boards by dampening and weighing them on a flat surface, which works for a week and then it is like the card has a memory and it returns to a warped excuse of itself.

Soooo......
I'm working at getting the vinyl as soft as possible with glycerine and lanolin and saddle soap and then peeling it back to adhere to newly cut cards. (it might work.... But you don't know till you try).
The aluminum trim strips for the interior are 50% there, but these are available as Repro, so the rest can be bought. No doubt the beginning of a reasonable pile of receipts. My aim is to have this thing ready for rego under $5K. Dreamin? I'll give it a shot.
Pics due this week.

Try steam on the cards, ie wallpaper steamer, also Rob at Bus&bug could have the original trim pieces your after
You one lucky lucky bastard, looking good

[tinman]

Been absent from the site for a while and came back to a new site and some cool updates on this thread
I've been lacking motivation to get back into the project but reading through the members threads will cure that.
Great progress on the bus.

[Longrasser]

Right, Friday morning and we got the Squareback on the trailer and home. We could have towed it, but there was no steering wheel (made for aligning on the trailer alot of fun)... And there was one of those VW rats hanging out somewhere under the dash.

The type 3 is going to pay its keep with what is left of its soul, ie. gearbox, back-end, bits off the front end and wiring loom. With any luck I will recoup a few hard reddies with some over-wordy eBay ads, but I'm not holding my breath.



The thing about this 1971 Squareback that got me was the seats, or more specifically, whatever magic plastic-poly-molibdium-vinyl that the things are made out of. I pulled the seats out to aid the removal of half a trailer of pine-needles (and to provide a cleaner escape route from the Squareback rat, should I disturb his slumber). This old wagon had all the windows lifted out already and so the seats were three shades of green and black with crud and mould. After a good scrubbing and treatment, they came up really well.... And , er .. Red... Pity they don't fit the Delux. (mmmm, red buckets for the front... not quite the plan I had in mind)..
(who drives a yellow-brown type 3 with bright red interior ?)




Talking of interiors, I'm still wearing my finger prints off, removing the 1970's glue from the door cards which is holding on the foam and black vinyl. I am so glad that the muffin that started blacking out his Samba love-nest, gave the job away and took up roo shooting before smearing too much of that gel-grip about.



The test interior card is softening up pretty well too with lanolin and steam. Still trying to remember to grab some glycerine next time I'm down the shops, but remembering that the covering is coming off the old boards and will need to be stuck down to new cards (oil and glue don't mix well).

Request of the week: anyone have a pic of the backside of a OG door card ? There is no overlap of the front vinyl material around to the back of my cards. I'm trying to reason why anyone would cut any overlap off from the back as there is none on mine.

Note to self.... I still not 100% sure what OG stands for..... and there I've gone and used it like an old-timer.. Appologies if If I have used it in the wrong context.

[martinigreenbus]

OriGinal

Un-altered

Not fucked around with

[Roo]

Original German

[Tonz Magonz]

Old Geezers

Old Guys

Old Girls

Originally Gay

[Longrasser]

I was thinking O.G ; 'Ohh, Gawd' . It seems to be the reaction most restorers have at some stage.

[GottaSplit]

I was thinking O.G ; 'Ohh, Gawd' . It seems to be the reaction most restorers have at some stage.

True.. I was thinking more along the lines.... "Ohhhhh Geeezuuzzzz!"

[Longrasser]

Slippin into summer slowly and surely. The old bus was almost feeling itself as the temperatures in the shed rose out of the teens.
Not much on the project this weekend apart from the purchase of a donk. It came about on Eeebai and so I grabbed it up to gain a dizzy and carb for 1500 that I have been offered. It could turn out to be a box full of barbed wire, but a fella has to learn his lessons through practice. First, get it home.
The interior cards are coming along pretty good too. This thing is never going to be hauling a wedding party about, so the aged, weathered vinyl will do fine for now.
The Type 3 box has had a long clean down and out, and a short interior inspection. Good news is that no swarm of wasps flew out and no piles of cog teeth fell to the floor.
The local split and bug owners are slowly coming out of the woodwork, and the phone number list on the mobile is getting longer. If I get round to talking Kombi with a fellow early Holden enthusiast, it's almost a sure bet that he or a close mate is working on a bus.... Weird..... it's happened 3 times in the last month.
Question for the week; my rear indicators were smashed almost entirely away with only small fragments left. They are oval and appear to have been a chrome rimmed plastic lens. All the repros I have looked at are plain orange/ red plastic. Don't they produce any with the chrome-plastic edge anymore?
PS. I couldnt find a good angle for a pic last week.... will try again this week.

[FrankenCab]

yours might be a 62 if its got the oval tail lights as 61 had twin round , the best lenses are from justkampers or busstop.. hella brand and about $70ea

[splitbus]

http://www.thebusstop.com.au/busstore/p ... 67_german/

I have a pair of OG's complete here somewhere, will dig them out and post up a pic

[Longrasser]

yours might be a 62 if its got the oval tail lights as 61 had twin round ,

Yeah FCab, if figured I was somewhere just on the swap over. Speedo and headlights say August/ September 61, but amoungst all the data and photos, the taillisghts say 62, and the holes look factory. I sorta like those twin rounds of the earliers, but mate, beggars can't be choosers

http://www.thebusstop.com.au/busstore/p ... 67_german/

I have a pair of OG's complete here somewhere, will dig them out and post up a pic

Ahh, they're the ones (re, the busstop ones). I have been looking at ones with separate chrome rings, but I scored one at a swap a few months ago, so I knew they were something else. I'm no spoke-counter when it comes to originality, but at least I can try to get what the bus should have where I can.

Cheers lads for the replies, I just notched up another supplier address. All good info.

[Roo]

Have you looked up the chassis numbers on it yet? Won't they give you a close guide for the month and year?