VOLKSWAGEN scrapbook

This is the overflow and fun page,some of the projects are our own that arent customers projects. Other pics and stories are just here because they dont fit on the other pages theme.

Pictured above is the 56 singlecab (our shop mule) on the oregon coast. I

took a trip down to a OCTO show to swap parts,it was a long trip,at night I

slept on one of the reproduction 6leg middleseats i made. The truck of course

 made the trip with no problems......my back? well i'll be rethinking a trip like

 this next time,fun stuff

The bus above is the "oremaster" a october of 1955 built bus. This is a bus built in the "wolfsburg" factory as opposed to most the 1956 and later "hannover" built buses. The buses built in the post march 1955 into early 1956 have lots of neat leftover or unique parts/construction that make them different than both the pre march 1955 (some call them barndoor buses) and the later hannover buses.

DAS WIENER WAGON 

"DAS WIENER WAGON" is a 1965 standard microbus that was in a junkyard 2 miles from our shop. I originally wanted nothing to do with saving this bus,it was spraypainted and trapped in the yard with no rearend at all. The yard owner had pipedreams of cutting the frame out and building a dragbus......I knew this wasnt gonna happen,yrs past and finally I got tired of seeing it there so I pulled it free from the yard for a nominal fee. The picture above is where it had been sitting for many yrs.

Heres the old beast after its short journey home,at this point I was only looking at the prospect of selling it as is.......I took for granted how unmotivated most folks are,to me it looked like an easy project,apparently it looked too hopeless for anyone to step up to.

   Heres where it sat for awhile,I thought it was funny that I had saved another very similiar standard bus maybe a month or so before. They both had original paint hiding under rattlecan paintjobs and neither had the usual hacks that most buses dont escape. The 1966 standard next to "das wiener wagon" never did sell so i cut off the front clip and made some modifications to make it into our mobile chicken coop or "chicken tractor" as they are called on the farms.

Fast forward a couple months and we have "DAS WINER WAGON". It all started by stripping the rattlecan spraypaint off then dreaming up some tongue and cheek "faux" logos,adding a new 4 inch narrowed beam/dropped spindles and stepped springplates. Completing the look is the wide five centerline like wheels. The pic above shows the bus after it was logo'd (hand painted not stenciled) but before the logos were "distressed".

Heres a pic of the logos after some "distressing" to make them look more original,I understand that this "hollywood" type of faux isnt appreciated by everyone but I suppose difference is what makes the world a more fun place. Dents,dings and even some rust was left to make it all appear more authentic.

The name and the business are faux,made up or not real,but they do look convincing. The bus was built with the "rat" theme.

The interior was made fairly spartan,I had thoughts of building a barbeque and cooler to store meat and maybe sell brauts out of it at local events.

The front seats were nicely recovered.

At the same time I was building my 59 356 coupe,another "ratty" car.

The bus was sold and heres the new happy owner.

And her friends,this pic was sent to me after I sold it,they were celebrating halloween.

A little glamour shot before it was sold. I was happy we could give this bus a new identity and new life as it would have surely been cut up for parts if I hadnt gotten drunk and dreamed up the scheme. Long live "DAS WIENER WAGON".

1957 double door panelvan "Bill"

This bus was just a few miles from the shop,its an early 1957 double dr panelvan. It had cut wheel wells and cut tailight holes. The paint was some sort of poor quality primer that was shot over the heavily sanded logos.

It sat in a shop and collected parts for the next couple of yrs.

Pictured above are the various buses I was storing until the other storage shop was built.

Ok lets fast forward about 2 yrs. Unfortunately there arent many pictures of its build,it was supposed to just get a motor installed but one thing led to another and it ended up consuming the next few weeks of my life......completely.

    I brought it down to the shop and installed a nice running 40 horse motor and it had new brakes just not hooked up all the way so I finished and serviced the brakes,we now had a running driving bus! Since it was down at the shop I thought I would blow a day away by fixing the tailight holes and the wheel wells...Ok so now we have a bus that is "rehacked" into its original form. I blew another couple hrs at stripping the blue primer,under it I found only traces of old logo and lots of sanded paint.....

    I decided to call my good friend and artist/badass Bud Poe,I threw out the idea of recreating the old logo and paintwork to what the bus might look like had it never been sanded or hacked on. He loved the idea and came on board helping with the logoing and some assembly work.

   First we retraced what we could from what was left of the old logos then I took over and handled the very modest (I left all the minor dings and dents intact) bodywork. The body wears all its dents and dings which are very minor but do add to the authentic look were trying to achieve.  The body was first painted the proper paintmatched primer,then painted dove blue single stage. The paint was wetsanded and burns thru to primer on high spots. We then relogo'd it using the techniques that were used in the 50s,the logos are handpainted not stenciled. They were then "distressed" to match the age. Next was bumpers,worked and painted/distressed to match the bus exterior.

     We also fabbed a full length roofrack with ideas from several different era racks,we used old technique and painted and then properly surface rusted on the high spots.

A pic from the old bus back at work after many yrs,this day it was package delivery in downtown portland oregon.

Pictured above is a 57 kombi upsidedown in a gully. I was at a wrecking yard and a fella said he new where there was a bus like mine (I was driving the 56 singlecab). I dont know why I believed him but he wasnt lying.....it was however at the bottom of a gully (40 feet or more down) and 200 miles away. I made the trip solo which got scary out in the desert in the bottom of a gully with no people for many miles in all directions.

       I took what I could without any tools and found a middleseat (presumably this buses) in a junk pile maybe 100 yards from the bus,getting the seat up the gully was a story in and of itself.

This is an old pic of my "wings" logo'd 56 singlecab and an old buddies 55 singlecab,I thought it was neat to see 2 trucks of this vintage in unrestored condition. They have both obviously had hard and full lives,mine is still in action.

DEAD! Pictured above: this was a 1953 beetle. Sadly I didnt have the space to store it (had too many good porsche projects at the time) I had I believe every correct part for it.  It had a few rust issues, but had never been wrecked.  When I owned this I still lived in the city and just had no place to keep it.  I offered it in it's complete form (actually it had tons of correct 53 accessorys too) for $3000 on thesamba.com and even dropped the price in half, but no takers.  I also put it up for sale on ebay (it got a whopping bid of $156) I sadly was forced to cut it up,all the body panels were sold to save other split/zwitters,and I've sold alot of the wierd 53 only parts, but I always get new/old stuff, so dont hesitate to ask if I've got what you need.

This is a pic taken of my 56 truck towing the 56 samba to my new house.  I finally got a place in the country, something I always wanted, the truck is actually a very correct albeit beat up single cab.  This truck has been bought and sold between friends and I for years.  Every time I sold it I regretted it soon after.  It's the one car I vow to keep.  I think im the only one who could really appreciate it for what it is and not get caught up trying to restore it or modify it, after all it is just an old truck. I think restoring it would take too much of its character and I use the hell out of it.  Some of you have probably seen it packed much higher than the roof with parts at swapmeets, and still pullin parts out of the belly after thats been unloaded.  Hopefully it will be showing up at swapmeets for years to come.  

my email address:  hugheseum@earthlink.net