Please let me introduce myself first: I'm from The Netherlands and just over 40 years old Coming from a T25, my wish was owning a Bay Window but alas, my bank account did not agree with me. Until a friend of mine, who is a trucker, found one in a barn in the south of The Netherlands. He did not have the money to buy it but fortunately I did, so it ended up in my garage. While technically a barnfind, it's not a rusty wreck as the name might imply. For some reason or the other, the former owner decided to strip down the bus, did all the required welding work (and as we all know many, if not all, bay windows need welding), sanded it down and painted it with primer, but at that point he simply stopped the project and he never looked back. That was in 2005. Exactly 10 years later it was found again and bought by me. I don't have secrets so I might as well tell you how much I paid for Barney: 3K in UKP. Of course I paid in euros but that was the amount. Not bad I think This is how he was found, photographed by the former owner: Of course, it's hard to see any details on those photos. So I went there myself and took some better pictures: It was a mess inside: It looked quite good:
The underside looks quite good too: Some cleaning required: The bus has an adjustable front axle and as a whole is lowered, as can be seen on this photo: So that's where I'm now. The next step would be a professional paint job. Preferably two-tone.
Wow! Great find. Looks really solid so not to many surprises, hopefully. Good luck with the rebuild and welcome to TLB.
Thanks for the warm welcome! There were some obvious surprises. No steering wheel (I've since managed to get one) and no seats apart from the two person one on the front passenger side. There were also no keys but fortunately we have a very good VW lock specialist in The Netherlands, so no problem with that. This also means I had to disassemble the steering column because it was locked. The 1600cc AS motor also is a big question. It was stuck at some point but I have managed to free it up. Probably just a stuck valve.
Thanks! A few more pictures to show its current condition. The adjustable front axle and the modified shifting rod... Some random photos. Some of the visible welding. This is inside the front right wheel arch.
hallo Ziet eruit als een project voor iedereen droomt van bevinding My family are from the Franeker area
Thanks! And I like your Dutch Matty, although it does not make sense at all (sorry) Franeker is not really close by, but also not very far. Friesland is great!
