Dear VW friends,
in the last weeks I did not share with you the real progress we made, because we wanted to bring a real huge surprise to the big Barndoor Gathering in Amersfoort this weekend and I didn´t want to spoil the surprise.
When Mark delivered the chassis and the dashboard April 9th we had the plan to complete the chassis with the front axle and the gearbox to bring a rolling chassis to Amersfoort. We were quite fast with the front axle as we had all parts in the shelf or we already restored what was necessary and Marcel Tode was also fast in rebuilding the gearbox, so this goal was reached already end of April.
It´s always good to reach for the higher aim, not resting at the point you already stand regardless how good it might be. So I invited Mark to come over again to construct a little frame on the chassis to put the big surviving panels on, so the whole unit looks a little more as a bus again. As you know Mark, he also delivered a work much better than expected. Just see the pictures below.
When Mark was finished, we stand in front of the Samba both of us had the same thought: “Wouldn´t it be cool to have that baby driving in Amersfoort?”
But we just had three weeks left! So I promised Mark that I will do my very best to complete the Samba so far that it would be able to drive. The race begun…..
What you see in the little movie above is the result.
Have some fun with the following pictures, showing some stages of this process. I will update you after Amersfoort with a lot more of details, but now I am in a hurry! The Samba is on the trailer, it´s Friday and we are ready to hit the Autobahn towards Amersfoort.
Have a nice weekend!
Florian
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7 thoughts on “Amersfoort”
I’ve seen the Bulli in real life. (at the Barndoor Gathering in Amersfoort) I think it’s an awesome job and I couldn’t believe the state it was already in. Drive-able!!! Awesome.
Is it possible to visit your shop and see the ongoing progress??
greetings from the Netherlands.
Hello Marcel,
you are welcome to visit us here in Bonn, but I will bring the bus back to Mark Spicer in England soon. He will continue the body work, there is still a lot of to do. When the body work is done, the Samba will return back home and we will complete it here.
best regards
Florian
Awesome job! Especially driving it in the video. I understand you are not going to paint it but how much bodywork do you plan to do to it?
Wow! That’s incredible Florian! Great job, and what a fantastic way to bring the Samba to the show, under its own power.
Nice work on the bus. Especially you driving it under its own power on all four wheels! How much more bodywork are you planning on doing?
Hello Kenneth,
we will continue the bodywork in the very same way Mark finished the decklid and the chassis: saving as much as possible of the original material by fitting this into new or good used panels. So, in the end there will be a complete Samba, but will be still able to see exactly what is “new” and what is still the old stuff that was burried in the field. I guess people will be surprised how much of the original material we will use again.
In the next days I will give some examples of this philosophy again: the hand brake handle (of which the lower 20% were totally rotten of) and the gaspedal (even worse) we restored with a big effort, although it would have been much easier just to buy good used ones and fit them in.
best regards
Florian
Thanks Jim! It was a lot of work to bring the baby to Amersfoort driveable, but it was a lot of fun too!