25.10.2011 - New Project, 23 window samba



This -57 samba bus was originally sold to Santa Cruz, California, USA
And in California this car has been ever since.
First owned by hippes of santa cruz on it's early days and then later sold to upper California.

However now in 2011 it is sold and shipped to here Europe, Finland (Wihoo!).
So... this makes me now the third happy owner of this funky ride.

Anyway, enough of the bla bla... just see the images for more.

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21.10.2011 - narrow adjustable beam



Because the plan is to make the samba a bit lower from stock - i need narrow adjustable beam.
I am using 90-degree (YES, 90-degree!) avis adjusters from DOODAH.

This beam was saved from -60 panel which story recently ended sadly.
Anyway, the shock towers of the beam were cut off so it's almost like new once again!

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01.11.2011 - Cargo Floor



The cargo floor needed few more parts to complete.

Outtriggers, crossmembers, Jacking points and rocker inner strengthener...
Lower sections of B- and C-Pillars also required some attention and so did the lower section of cabin separation panel.

And ofcourse the actual cargo floor panels were welded in.


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14.11.2011 - Rockers



After the cargo floor was complete and inner rockers were in place.
It was quite straight forward job to install the rockers.

The spot welder was great help with this task!

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17.11.2011 - Doors




Front and cargo doors needed some atenttion also.
So here we go...

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17.11.2011 - Parts extraction



Extracting parts off from the samba for some overhauling, sandblasting and repainting.

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21.11.2011 - The Dolly



I built a dolly for the bus.
This hopefully makes the work underneath of the bus a lot easier and more comfortable.

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23.11.2011 - Doglegs



Samba had doglegs from later model so those had to be replaced with correct ones.
I used autocraft doglegs which fits really nicely!

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25.11.2011 - Steering box



Steering box was raised, because we do not want to be dragging that everywhere...

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26.11.2011 - Belly pans



Installing the belly pans and painting the chassis.

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07.12.2011 - Cleansing the parts



Removing all the mud, dirt and old paint from the parts.
Those parts also need some new paint!

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15.12.2011 - Safari windows



Installing safari windows for those hot summer days!

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16.12.2011 - Pop out windows



Replacing side windows with these pop outs, yes all 8 windows WILL pop!

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17.12.2011 - Service hatch



I did cut off the engine service hatch from t-25 vw and am now installing it into this samba.

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21.12.2011 - Semaphores



European models had semaphores installed in -57
and since U.S. models did NOT have those funky thingies after -55.

Obiously we needed pair of those!

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16.01.2012 - Bumpers



Little sheet metal delivery from Colombia!

Bumpers, brackets and engine lid + 3rd brake light.

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16.01.2012 - Front Floor



The front floor was not decent so i had to do something!


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22.01.2012 - Tie rod clearance



Because this ride is a bit low tie rods needed some extra clearance...


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24.01.2012 - Engine lid hinges



Engine lid hinges had no place to screw into so this old beam had to go.


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27.01.2012 - Back seat / Bed



The back seats were all missing so i deciced to fabricate something here behind the cargo doors


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31.01.2012 - Tubbing



Now when i let the adjusters on their right position there was no room for tires to move freely so...
Tubbing it required!


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15.02.2012 - Front Seat



I had some plans for the front seat so the old bus seat had to go also...
Yes, now we have front seat that can be "flipped" and used as rear seat :D

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27.02.2012 - Cabin separation panel removal



Okay, time to do few more changes...
Removing the cabin separation panel to allow my front seat to be "flipped"...


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05.03.2012 - Paint removal



The guys at paint shop wants the car metal shiny so...
Thanx to Valdo's people for helping me out with this task!

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13.03.2012 - Samba trim fitting



Because there is a bit of trilling and measuring to do while fitting the samba trims i deciced to pre-fit these before the painting.

These bastards are SHINY!!! :D

...and then... CE sent me incorrect rear corner trim... DOH!
However i got this shorted out with them really easily!

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15.03.2012 - Bumper trims



And next... i fitted the bumper trims also.

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24.03.2012 - Headlights



New headlights for samba. MAybe with these i can se atleast the road :)


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15.04.2012 - Upholstering



Upholstering the seats and interior panels


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22.04.2012 - Ragtop



Disassembling and cleaning the ragtop mechanism


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25.04.2012 - Engine overhaul



Cleaning and painting the engine tins
Also basic overhaul to engine itself was done!


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27.04.2012 - Getting some color...



Yes, finally it is time to get some colors on it!


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27.05.2012 - Wheels...



Fixing the wheels to fit in!


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08.06.2012 - Lets complete the puzzle...



Finally its time to put all together again...


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15.01.2013 - T25 aircooled CT engine...



Stock 1600cc isn't just too much of power...


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22.01.2013 - Sounds of silence



Now because the engine is off, its good time to add some soundproof panels...


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26.01.2013 - Interior trim



Final touches to interior.


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03.02.2013 - Steering Box



Steering box had some clearance issues which must be fixed.


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28.02.2013 - Air beam



After last summer i noticed, that we NEED some ground clearance!
And this is what i came up with!

Here is a little video of my airbeam in action.

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21.01.2013 - Fuchs



I got couple of Early Fuchs on my hands...

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26.03.2013 - Ragtop Re-visited



There was some difficulties with opening/closing the ragtop so i decided to re-built the whole thing.
All the old (wooden) sliding parts were changed to new (nylon) ones and also few other parts were changed.

The ragtop slides now really easily - like a new!


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10.03.2016 - Disk Brakes



The original drum brakes are not so awesome when you drive a lot.
So now there will be BRAKES on this car!

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15.03.2016 - Steering Rack



The steering box of the split busses has always been the one of the weakest links.
Now i am fixing this issue with parts from some newer cars.
The result being "gapless" steering!

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07.04.2016 - Late model spindles



The samba is about to get new brakes, steering and suspension.
And because of this, we need to change early spindles to late model ones.
Spindles are also flippes also ofcourse.

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07.04.2016 - Parts inventory



The parts inventory of the samba brake, steering and suspension overhauling.

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12.04.2016 - Airbeam



The frontend with air shocks did not work as expected so i decided to fix that.

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