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1956 rhd deluxe, owned by Mark Glynn.This
bus left the factory in September 56, destined for Sweden. It was restored
in the early seventies and the last tax disc is from 1978! It has also
been a camper at some point, and was also owned by the Swedish department
for explosives!! A second restoration is under way now so I will keep you
up to date with it's progress. If you look carefully you may notice this
bus has later wheel arches all round, a typical mistake from vehicles
restored in the 70's/80's. |
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1956 lhd Austria import deluxe, this bus
has never had a full on restoration, obviously the top half of the bus has
been repainted in beige grey at some point in it life (which was quite a
common practice in the sixties, to make them look more modern). The
interior of this bus is completely original, and one of the nicest I have
ever seen! If you look closely you can just make out the sign writing on
the front doors, it advertises the name of the Hotel and the original
owner! (how cool is that!) Also at some stage some fish eyed lenses
indicators have been added. This photo was taken at BVF 2002, which I
believe was it's first outing with new owner Neil Barker. Neil will be
adding info and history here soon. |
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1956 LHD samba, owned by Neil Barker,
this samba started life in Austria, working at a hotel, the name in still
just visible on the front doors. The van was made on the 8th of May, the
chassis number is 179611 and the original engine number (which it still
has!) is 1397259. Neil reckons that the bus has only covered 74000 miles
in it's life and has not been on the road since 1970!
A guy called Thomas Gahl bought the vehicle from the hotel in 1982, put it
in to storage while he collected all the bits that he needed for a full
restoration. Unfortunately he never got round to restoring it and
eventually sold the bus to Neil. Lots of NOS stuff came with the van, and
going by the looks of the bus its not going to be to hard to get looking
good.
Have you noticed how many early (sealing wax red / chestnut brown) sambas
re-painted in the 60's / early 70's have had the top half painter in beige
grey to make them look younger, ironic how times have changed, the trend
now is to do the exact opposite!
In may 2003 Neil
unfortunately had to sell his 56 to a guy called Grant Dawling. Grant
had been after an early deluxe for quite some time and was more than
pleased with his find, being only half an hour
away was even better. For the rest of 2003 Grant drove the deluxe
enjoying it whilst also working on the electrics getting the semaphores
and the clock working again. The indicators are now US spec front and
back also added are some westy racks and side step. Jan
2004 saw the interior stripped out ready for the nos parts to be fitted.
Around the opening cargo doors and sill area is where
the work is happening at present. Hopefully end of Feb Grant will get
his bus back ready for the show season and summer. The top half is going
back to chesnut brown, when is a different matter...
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1956 RHD deluxe, how cool is this baby!!
I think it had just been imported in to the UK when I took this photo.
Location is at the KK Swap meet down at Runnamead Hall, Southend. I
believe it was for sale at the time, not sure how much, photo taken in 97.
Anybody know who has this bus now? |
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Damon Green's 1956 RHD samba in the
process of being restored |
