1966 UK Samba

1966 UK Samba's

	Very proud to be the new owners of a 1966 21 window Samba imported from the states and currently being beautifully restored by Kerry and his team at Volkswagen Evolution
	1966 13 walkthrough Deluxe. Imported from Florida in Nov 2004 by Rick Lynch. Chassis number 256062857. Original export destination was Jacksonville , Florida . The guy was driving it around Florida with no cab floor!!! Has had a lot of work done by myself notedly: New cab floors, lower nose section and front corners, inner and outer sills both sides, 80% of cargo floor, windscreen surrounds. Now completely soilid Mechanically, lowered using narrowed cut and turned beam, will soon have dropped spindles. Set of dirty ercos going on shortly, straight axle and going a lot lower.
	Jonathan Brooks's 1966 lhd deluxe, imported from the USA in 2004. Check out the colour of this bus, you need to see it in the sunlight to get the full effect.
	Phill Smith's 1966 21 window deluxe, running on earlier 15" steel rim. this bus was imported from the USA in 2004. What a cracker!
	Owner John Greene has had the 1966 deluxe since 1998 as a shell, but it was completed in October 2001. The paint and engine resto was done by Volkswagen Evolution. The van, is modified as you could probably guess , however, looking at some wildly modified vans his is probably quite mild!! The last recorded owner in the V5 was from Poole, It was in a mag years ago as it's pre restored gize - fluorescent pink and green!! John Greene's Bought the van from Creative as a shell, and the rest they say is history. Matching bra from the USA is Pretty cool! The bumpers are Briz and are from Canada, they have been unable to ship any over since Sept 11, so they are currently unavailable in this country. They add a hot rod touch to the van. Motalita wood rim wheel, new interior and woodwork, reduction box and new 1600cc dual port engine with twin solex carbs, 009, counterweighted crank etc. etc. pretty standard mild tuning stuff. Basically a new vehicle, and a beauty!
	Dan Buzzo's 66 sliding door deluxe, Look's fast and is! more info to follow.
	David Dean's 1966 (like new) 21 window samba, previously an ultra low mileage ambulance, converted by Dave Palmer at Creative Engineering. I checked out the ambulance when Dave first got it and it was faultless, most of the accessories were missing so it was the ideal donor vehicle to convert, original factory under seal no less! If you look carefully you can just make out the ambulance only divider, that's the section that divides the driver from the load space. The engine is a 1600 unit with an upright Porsche fan conversion, carbon fibre fan shroud and breather box's etc. it looks the biz! As you can see the bus is fantastic, as I said, like new! This samba had it's debut at the Volksworld show 2002, and Dave Dean has assured me that he will be showing and using the van through out this season, make sure you get to check this samba out.
	1966 RHD 13 window deluxe, is this your bus? is it still this colour? I think the photo was taken at Bug Freeze in about 1996?
	1966 double door samba, lowered, balljoint front end, foksy adjuster, 1641cc modified engine, chrome safaris, us spec headlights, polished empi 5`s
	EST 63D 1966 lhd deluxe (European spec) samba, owned by Chris Tasker, Chris bought the bus from Bob Van Heyst (BBT) in 1997 and has just completed the restoration, a long time but it looks like it has been worth it, love the club tax disk holder!
	KWD 385D - 1966 LHD American import deluxe owned by Simon Hitchman Birmingham. This bus is just about spot on as you can see from the photo. I nearly swopped my 1958 porsche 356A for this bus, I wish I had, a couple of month after pulling out of the deal I blew up the porsche engine at Santa Pod!! Simon also has a very cool 55 deluxe Barn door!! a real enthusiast, check out 1955 on the web page. Update 25 JAN 02 from Andrew Flint Just p/x my bus for this Samba (after checking your website). I am really happy with it. It now needs a little TLC - having had a few owners since Simon. I am not good at restoring stuff. I sometimes think I am just too stupid to own old VW's, but I'll do my best to get it back in the condition it should be in. Just thought I would update you as your website asks for info. See you at the shows when it gets warmer. Update 15 FEB 05 from Andy Francis You may remember me from my RHD '67 panel van - Light grey, slammed, westi rack etc. Well I've been around 3 years without a split bus, I've had a sweet early bay during this time and John Abbott's '67 Karmann Beetle - You may recall I did the BBT run to Bad Camberg in it?? Anyway, I'm back with a vengeance and now own a '66 Samba: KWD 385D. as listed on your web page, I bought the bus from fellow Spa Dubs member Andy Flint. The bus is Beige Grey over Titan Red, lowered over polished fuch and running a sweet 1776cc. I thought you may wish to update the site? See you at the shows!!
	1966 LHD 21 window deluxe, owned by Mike at Busbodies, first registered 15/03/66 chassis number 246 112 551. the bus is in reasonably condition however it has had a front end prang at some stage in it's life. The bus has been dry stored for the last 15 years and was imported to the UK in late June 2001
	PFF 811 1966 rhd deluxe, photo taken at Peppercorn 2001. This bus won best of show which is quite a prestigious feet in it's self, the bus is stunning, note the rubber detail around the alloy bumper trim, also this bus has the sliding door option. if you do the shows this season you will be seeing a lot more of this bus.
	512VAE - 1966 deluxe, owned by Spencer, full 3 year bare metal resto, everything either new, or re-conditioned or N.O.S. no crap used. All fixings in stainless, all new interior, including headlining, seat covers, and panels, all to original spec. Outside of bus is the original colours blue white over velvet green. The whole bus is totally immaculate and needs absolutely nothing. Nothing missing and with many rare accessories. This is the only fully restored double door samba in the country and came to a cost of over £20,000 to restore, big money but to restore a bus properly that's the kind of cash you are looking at, especially if the bus is a pig to start with. Update 07 NOV 01 This bus has been sold and now belongs to Ronnie (Oxfordshire) awaiting IRS, middle seat and removable camping interior + other detailing. Update 16 JUL 05 Got me bus back on the road. A little faster than last time though. Now running 944 disks / IRS. Cog box box and a 2276 motor. Also Gas Burners, and no they're not fake.
	YFF539 - 1966 13 window deluxe, American import, I don't know the owner or anything about the van, any info gratefully received.
	KLC550D - This machine was at the first Volksworld Show at Sandown Race Course, it caught my eye on a club stand. this bus has some subtle customization tricks on it and it looked excellent. The 13 window deluxe dash was far from the norm, the top part of the rear hatch (i.e. the window section) opened out and up while the bottom section of the rear hatch (i.e. from the swage line down) opened out and down! all the windows were pop out's, including the rear, but I cant understand why it didn't have safaris to finish it off, possibly cos they leek!!!! I thought this bus rocked, haven't seen it around for a long time.
	I first got hold of 'JAXI' by swapping it for a peppermint blue cal-look '58 beetle back in '85. It was then owned by John Isaacs, bone stock and pretty much rust free bar a few bubbles in the floor. The poor thing was just about being pushed along by a wheezy 1300 at the time which we replaced with a 1641 and stinger. We bolted up some powder-coated 15" barn door rims from a panel van we were breaking (if only we'd known!!!) wearing 135/185 tyres, added 356 dome caps and XJ6 chrome trim rings, lowered it a touch, put in a quickshift and some smaller pressed steel JAXI reg plates then drove it like that until the following summer. We did a lot of miles in it that year always 8 up with the ragtop rolled back and full to the brim with Sapparo and Pabst cans mostly after nights out at Mud club or the Wag in SoHo or Electric Ballroom in Camden. It also served it's time as camera car and tea bus on numerous photo sessions when I was working at Smash Hits and No1 and at one time had all of Transmission Vamp in it (remember them? No, me neither). Not to mention Sigue Sigue Sputnik and other really bloody awful mid 80's bands. It was the best parts chaser though being able to get a whole squareback roof section thru the ragtop. I then got the need for a single cab with Fuchs and JAXI had to go. After peeling off the nice accessories it went down the A23 to a bloke called Dave (I think) and I drove back in the rustiest grey single cab I'd ever seen but with the widest grin... well, you live and learn. I'd buy it back tomorrow.
	FSG 797D - 1966 RHD 13 window deluxe, absolutely gorgeous bus this, If I remember correctly the guy was from Wales and him and his brother had restored it! Nice one guy's! Going by that front wheel I think it must have a ball joint front beam from a bay window bus, and check out the American speck bumper. Picture taken a B.V.F. 1998.
	FHJ 195D - 1966 21 window airport bus, owned by Ben Lawrence, this bus has to be one of the most famous buses in the UK, it has been to every show for the past 5 or 6 years, this photo was taken at the KK swap meet 97, back in the days when at least 20 buses would turn up!! The bus is now sporting sprint star wheels and has been lowered some what. Got any more info on this one Ben? You might have seen Ben at Venlo a few years ago, you couldn't miss him really,he was the guy riding a monkey bike around the camp site, till he ran out of petrol and he had to push it back to his bus, the funny part is that he was completely naked at the time!!
	ONK 369D - 1966 15 window deluxe at the time of this photo it was owned by a guy called James Tyrol, the photo was taken at the last Beetle Bash to be held at Avon Raceway, Stratford. This bus was once a Kombi! When I was restoring my 58 I got some panels and parts from a 1961 deluxe that had been involved in a serious accident at the front end, I sold various part of the van, including the roof, doors, etc. at this point James saw it and wanted the back end to put on his bus, that's why this bus is a little bit odd, i.e. 66 with corner windows! All the interior panels match the exterior colour, the interior is a Devon, the bus has been IRS'ed and lowered slightly with a balanced twin webber carb'ed 1600 cc motor, the wheels are centrelines and the colour is an old Mercedes gold.
	1966 LHD deluxe owned by Craig .............. picture taken at Run To The Sun, Newquay 1999. This bus is a multi show winner, it has also been featured in Volksworld. All the pop out's, safari's, roof rack ,bumpers and over riders are are chrome, the read is IRS'ed and the pain work is phenomenal. It has a sculptured custom interior and Craig has done most of the work him self!
	1966 RHD 13 window deluxe reg MUV 691D, this photo was taken at the Run To The Sun 1998. Interesting colour scheme, can't tell you what it is but I think it works. The van is still doing the show seen.
	1966 RHD deluxe reg KLC 481D, photo taken at Detling Spring festival, Kent 2000. This bus has been around for a while and gets better every time I see it! Check out the colour coded BRM's It belongs to a guy called Tom Forwdy and was at most of the shows last season. I have two preferences for samba's, firstly, completely stock (the way it left the VW Factory) with an awesome paint finish or secondly, on the deck looking gnarly, IRS'ed and a hot motor, this bus defiantly fits the later description of the two. Tom, you have yourself one very cool bus dude!