Reading

This is destination 1 after bedding in the bus

Hoddervik - Norway
Busfest - Norway
Note - need roof racks

Inspiration

Parts from vw Jim arrived : )

These parts came today from Jim Merrin - see vwjim.com in the uk

Below you see the locking lid, nice idea, fits under the front bench seat and turns the hole underneath into a locker - combination code means no lost keys and somewhere to stash your valuables away in the bus.

Also are a pair of his pinch bolt locking front hub nuts.

And the modified and improved throttle pedal linkage.

A lot of doodling going on right now -

Ideas for interior and a list of parts still to source, also that old book is out again.

Recently started to order some of the parts that we need to get it rolling, steering and stopping correctly.

Auto craft UK  = corner window seal (to check we can fit the glass ok on the suspect corner), new church key rear engine valance, small rubber parts for foot controls etc, new piece of rear window glass.

VW Jim = his own fabricated under seat locking locker lid, servo kit for brakes, and some brake parts, new improved throttle linkage and parts, locking front hub nuts.

Type 2 detectives = front disk brakes csp, rear wide 5 brake shoes, long rear axles, lowered straight axle kit with adjustable spring plate, master cylinder for brakes, custom length hand brake cables,

 The gearbox is on its way out, first checking out what to do - solution is to replace the current short axle home brew double notched spring plates with a brand new long axle set up from t2d with brand new rear brakes and adjustable spring plates.

 Peka has been busy fabricating and welding in new seat mounts, they look real good

Old spring plate, hubs, axle tubes etc to be replaced  - on there way out now.

 Test fitting the corner window glass, first time we got close, Peka took it out found the troublesome areas and addressed them with the small grinder, next go we got the window in and it looked very nice  - a bit of detergent, and alot of tapping, pushing, and pulling on the string saw it fit in about 15 minutes.

 The front bench seat stays welded in an looking good.

 below the photo shows the double notch in the cut down spring plate - soon to be replaced

And now the rotisserie is built - just need to remove the front beam and gearbox and get it ready to mount - soon be able to spin it over and get working on the under side.

So I checked in on the bus and was pleasantly suprised, things had been happening - The bus is looking very straight now.

Peka has been busy, he has been fixing away with metal work on many areas,  leading the front window frame and has even sprayed a base coat of high build primer over the shell and doors etc. 

Into the body shop

So Peka in Enkoping will fix the paint!

 this is really good news, and weight of my mind. Finding someone to work on your pride and joy is tricky at best, luckily we know what peka can do as he reprayed kents påba interor crossover bay early last year and did a great job, it won best bay at typ2klubbens busfest.

Thanks to Kent for the loan of the firms bus again!  The local garage had fixed there car trailer and a quick pick up and drop of mission was on the cards, scheduled into a window of good weather, as I was fearing that the bus would get snowed in at ours. Now its just 20 mins away and in good hands. 

So the bus was home, every night over the next few weeks we would go to the garage and spend some time staring at it in disbelief.

The 55 has already been welded by Dick the previous owner , all the rotten had been blasted away and Dick has spent a lot of years welding in all the panels needed, the usual lower areas all around the bus, he also has fitted an adjustable narrow beam, raised the steering box, installed a type 3 gearbox, with short axles and type 3 drums, with the original spring plates, notched, cut and then spacers added to a bracket which connects the drive shaft tubes. No engine and many other parts missing or in bad shape needing resto on there own.

I started noting down what has been done by dick, what parts I had, what needed to be done to get it on the road? what needed to be changed? and what parts needed to be brought? and of course who from? and in what order?

The paint decision is not so tricky:

 It needs paint so it will be painted, for me the original chestnut and sealing wax is the best colour combo so that's settled -

I did contemplate for a few weeks of doing the spray job myself at home in the garage,  ive done a little before and thought that i could pull off a fairly ok job, because one thing is for sure this bus is being built to use. But of course it would never be the same as a pro job and take me for ever.

then Peka came over to take a look and talk about body work and paint and things changed.
 

Is it real ?

There are moments during a restoration that stay with you forever, and this was definitely one of them.

A little while ago I sent off to Hannover to request the birth certificate for my 1955 VW Split Screen Bus. Waiting for the reply felt like waiting for a piece of its history to come home.

When the envelope finally arrived, it was far more exciting than I expected. Inside were all the details that had been lost to time – the exact date my bus left the factory, its original colours, where it was destined to go, and the specifications it carried when it first rolled off the production line over seventy years ago.

Reading through it gave me a real sense of connection with the bus, it had a documented past, a beginning, and an identity that had survived all these years.

It's hard to explain to someone who isn't into classic cars, but discovering these original details is like finding an old family photograph you've never seen before. It brings the vehicle to life in a completely different way and makes you appreciate just how much history you're preserving.

winter scene at vwettesta

it's coming home

Picking up the project

The day had come to go pickup the bus, here you see the swedish weather just before winter - it was raining and cold, but warm and dry in the Daylight bus - automatic Mercedes van pulls a car trailer with ease loaded or not. The car trailer was fixed last minute with the help of Bosse - typ2klubben and http://www.bugnbus.se/om-oss/ of bug n bus after our local garage had a last minute problem with theirs - few stories like this!.

On the way home, checking straps every half an hour, paranoid that something was going to stop me from getting the dream back to the garage ; ) 

But around midnight we were home and after getting the van bogged down just outside the garage, the rain had been pouring and the garden turned to mud. - at this point I just have to get the trailer back then home, and then the van to kent on the monday morning and off to work, it was a good late night.

It was all a dream

After many years and many buses finally we have the keeper :


A VW De luxe Micro bus, Right hand drive.
Made in Wolfsburg Germany between the 13th and 15th April 1955 and sent on to Scania - vabis Södertaelje - Sweden.
extras/options M018 with Hazard light Installation.

This is how we found it, in "Dicks" under ground garage in the middle of Sweden.