fredag 31 juli 2026
2023
(This is me out on a test drive, and of course having little issues with the carb, poor idling, disc brakes, scraping on something and even gear selection was problematic with it being difficult to find all the gears - oh the joys of being a vw enthusiasts !)
torsdag 30 juli 2026
2018
2018
Before long, Sanna and I had blended our two families together. Her two boys became my bonus sons, and my boys became part of her family too. Overnight, life became busier and fuller. One week we'd have four boys filling the house with noise and chaos, and the next week it would be just the two of us.
On one of those quieter weeks, we decided to see if we could uncover a little more about the history of the Samba.
A Piece of History
I love this old black and white photo below.
We started digging a little deeper into the history of my Samba. Like many old vehicles, the paperwork only tells part of the story, and I wanted to know more about the people who had owned it before me.
After some detective work, we eventually managed to decipher the old handwriting on the original sales bill, this i obtained with the help of the Swedish vw historical club, and once we had this document, we eventually identified the correct name. This opened a door to the past and, incredibly, I was able to contact the daughter of the very first owner of my bus.
She was kind enough to share some photographs of her parents and their buses, giving me a glimpse into the life of my Samba when it was still a family vehicle rather than a restoration project.
When I first saw this photo, I thought:
"Surely this is my bus?"
Everything seemed to fit.
But as I continued researching, I discovered something unexpected...
It wasn't my bus.
It turned out that, after buying my Deluxe Samba, the owner went on to purchase another one a year later. This photograph is actually of that second Samba—a 1956 model.
So although this beautiful bus isn't mine, it is still part of the same family's story and connected to the history I was uncovering.
One day I would love to track this Samba down and find out what happened to it. Hopefully it survived and is still out there somewhere, continuing its journey just like mine.
tisdag 30 maj 2017
2017 Headlining and sunroof, window glass too
Headlining and sunroof is done !
This headlining business is something that has been whirling around in my head for years, ever since I picked up the samba... its a big job that needs to be done right....
Here in Sweden the options to get a professional to install a headlining correctly are low, The VW seen here is mainly diy types which is great, but also means that companies are not specializing or have much experience when it comes to the dreaeded 23 window headliner fitting !
well compared to the UK that is, which is of course what I compare everything with. In the UK you have the best in the business and many companies to choose from who all have installed many headliners and sunroofs on window buses...
So for the last few years I have been checking headlining out on buses in Scandinavia, met owners who have done it them selves and looked at the details and if it worked. Problem is you can always see that it is a diy job... I contemplated doing it myself many times too, read all there was on the net about it but in the end I bit the bullet and decided that it was worth getting a pro job... but at what cost ?
I had thought about asking a talented trimmer to come to the garage to install, maybe from the UK but it does take a lot of time and normally they want to do it at their pace and in their own work shop with their tools, which I can totally understand.
Late in 2016 I started asking around and narrowed it down to 2 places in the Stockholm area who seemed good enough to do the Job, in the end I went for a guy who I knew 1st hand of his work, it was a guy called Pedro who runs an interior business for boats and cars downtown Stockholm. I also knew that he had done a pretty tidy Job on lelles sunroof, so I made contact, sent many pictures and began preparing all the parts. Soon he said he had a window of time and that I could bring the bus over one sunday - so we did that.
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| dropping off |
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| Lewis helping and Travis snapping |
The Sunroof I had been picking apart and had already purchased most of the sunroof parts needed:
New front header bow - vw sunroofs
Outer stay-fast cloth sunroof
new slides and fasteners
I had also sanded and painted the steel bows and polished up the aluminum bows.
Id had the golde sunroof handle re chromes in the UK THANKS to Baz.
and I had purchased a whole new headlining in the correct cream/ beige material.
So at the end of March this year it was time to bundle the lot together and trailer the bus to Stockholm.
Just before I checked all the parts using the vw sunroof website and realized I was missing a few things, so I searched around and found the parts and quickly arranged fast shipping as I didnt want to delay Pedro in his work, they came 10 days later due to it being Easter ! Doh !
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| Niklas giving me a hand collecting and wrapping |
Initially Pedro quoted about 10-15000 SEK....
In the end the bill just for labour was over double that and he calculated that he had spent 60 hours on the whole job. But its done and i´m happy with it, next put the thing back together starting with 23 windows to install
Here I am installing seals adn the glass and the window catches
lördag 29 april 2017
2017
A lot of racing went on at this time, I was feeling quite stressful all of last year, the separation, the racing, taking care of the boys, keeping there little Minimoto race bikes at the top and all that, it was all a lot to deal with and often I felt exhausted and overwhelmed. It is a busy time for a newly single dad, but we got through it, and made a lot of nice memories those years, especially with Travis and Lewis.
I took a trip with Esty to Madrid, met Manuel...c ! and we all had a great time at Marias wedding, dancing the night away, much needed and a bit of a moment, and a realisation that I was getting on with life, it feels very strange being single.
