A little bit of Bus hunting....

[ken]

Some of you know already, but I picked up another bus project. It was quite well known in the vintage bus circles around here, but was sitting way up in northern Alberta. After some phone calls with the previous owner, he decide to sell...at what I will only say is the most reasonable price I think a guy could ever ask for. The bus is a 54' Kombi, in itself a rare bus, but this one has a little something that puts into a whole different category of extreme rarity. It's a sliding rag, sunroof. So without to much more hoopla... here she is, and the pictures behind going to get her this weekend.


on the road to High prairie Alberta..... a long way North


Me...


My fearless co-pilot Nat.(ok... she's a nurse and works a lot of night shifts, so sleeping during the day is a must)


First sight....








Dragging her out.



One of Pete's (his land) other toys A VW powered Snowcat


Very muddy, raining and about 1,000,000 mosquitoes (maybe more),


There was a truck frame underneath her that helped to haul her out of the woods, but then became a problem to load her up... This is NOT recommended, I'll show you why when you see her in real life.


On the way home




And home at last. A 15+ hour drive all accomplished between Sat afternoon and Sunday night .


Cleaning her out a bit, Very, Very rusty. But fixable "Nothing I can't handle"





Some weird stuff going on with the back seat, Brackets to make it fold out (?) and some aluminum fixtures for something (camper?)





A great wooden divider , and a missing bulkhead.



Some tires (front) that hold air, and 3 hours of cleaning her up. Now... she's going to need a name.

[dpeters81westy]

Wow! A Barndoor is rare enough...but a Sunroof BD is better yet.

I've never seen one in person before...so I'm looking forward to having a close-up look. I'm really surprised about the condition its in.

I've seen a LOT of newer busses in MUCH worse condition. Even if this is quite bad...it's rarity makes it worth the resto.

I won't suggest a name...one will come to you. Maybe dig into the history on this one a little further and it will come to you.

- DP

[rareair]

You truly are crazy Ken, but good to see another early bus will be saved from the crusher.
Don't forget to register that badboy with Barndoor.dk!

[ken]

I don't know if I'm Crazy, or Just VERY optimistic. ;D

Man, I have a ton of projects to finish in the next few years.

[bretto]

holy shit thats cool. i've heard about that bus a few times. cool to see it finally. because you need another bus! ;D

[nichteinboobie]

Hey Ken, did you weave that hat with the hay that was insulating the roof panels?

[bluejay]

Cool.

Glad to hear you had no real problems picking it up Ken.

It actually is in better shape then what I remember it being.

So what are your planes?

Do you have any pictures of the cab area?

Cheers

Jay

[ehos]

Whoa! You saved her!!

Good job! I thought that was Dave Potters BD? He decided to sell? In any case, glad it's not out in the boon docks rusting up!

[riffraff]

Major WOW

Most excellent score. Your MIG will never have a chance to cool down now!!

[rico]

unbelievable. That is very cool, for a very NUTS guy. I can't believe the enormity and the number of projects you have been taking on in the last couple of years. I wish i was there to check these out. Have you ran any of the disc brake set-ups yet? mine is gonna be on soon. just need a narrowed beam........hint, hint

[ken]

Yeah, My project list is getting a little bit out of control.... I'll try to stop soon. Or maybe just slow down a bit....

Yes, It was Potter's bus. He finally decided to sell it to me, I think he realizes that I actually have the ability to get it on the road, and more importantly the drive. Funny deal from him, The asking price (You can ask him if you want) is to be 4 times higher if I'm going to lower it. This is the only thing that Dave and I could never see eye to eye on.... ;D

I'm likely going to start on it next winter, Just do the rust repair, and try to clean up the original paint, if possible (strip off the current bad paint). It will not be a total restoration, for now.

After a bit of Samba chat, it has been determined that this is one of 4 Barndoor sunroof Kombi's left. This is probably one of the most rare pieces of VW history in Canada.

I'm off to Bad Camberg next week for parts hunting, so if anyone has any wish list, feel free to email them to me. (I've got yours Trev )

[bluejay]

ken said:

Cool thanks for the picture Ken.

My favourite part of barndoors are the really basic cab areas.(except for deluxes of course). I can’t imagine how they are to drive with out even any sort of dash in front of you just a pod, the windows, and the front nose.

You will have to take me for a spin when it’s on the road.

Do you know if this bus was originally sold in Canada?

The reason I ask is back in the sixties, a bunch of American hippies who dodged the USA draft all where hiding up in the area where Dave originally bought this bus from. They had a commune up there and apparently most of them drove to Canada in VW buses.

[Mowser]

It looks that way Bluejay. Truly only a birth certificate will tell but from what has been discussed on the Samba about it not only was it sold in Canada but it appears to be an original Alberta Bus.



translated into words we can identify:

ONOWAY ESSO SERVICE
ONOWAY ALBERTA

[bluejay]

“ONOWAY ESSO SERVICE” cool I totally know where that is, and the Esso Service station is still in business today. (I grew up not far from Onoway in Spruce Grove)

I bet it was sold at the Barhead dealership which is not to far from Onoway. I think the Barhead dealership was one of the first in Alberta. In the last few years there have been a few split window bugs found in that area, they where cars from the Barhead dealership.

[wagendragon]

Yah some good VW history in Barrhead! I grew up there, a couple of the the best a/c vw mechanics up there! I know of a few cars around there, including two of my own.