Help identifying bus

[brucet]

Hi,

A friend of mine has just purchased a (very rough condition) low light baywindow which he is hoping to restore. It appears the front of the bus was replaced at some stage which is making it harder to identify.
The rear has the smaller lights and valence that is removable and the air intakes are a differnt shape and appear smaller to my 78 bay. The roof also appears to have had a big "sunroof" in the center of it above the middle row seats. The fuel cap is behind a square flap. Dash is slightly different to my 78 bay. The center window on the drivers side is the louvered type.

It has the following plate on it



Can anyone tell me what it is. Sorry I should have taken pics of the bus but forgot to as i was in a rush. Will take some later but be warned its rough.

[fig]

I can't see the photo of the VIN plate; please transcribe all the numbers. The sunroof suggest it's a deluxe microbus. What is the VIN?

[brucet]

hi fig.

vin number is 2312161131

Thank you

[Pine]

My guess is '71 Westfalia, not Deluxe. Does it have front disk brakes?

[brucet]

According to the reg papers it was first registered on the 01 01 1971. So possibly a 1970 model?

[fig]

Good call Pine. I forgot about the louvred window.

Bruce, when the registration records were moved over to computerised systems, all registration dates defaulted to 01/01, so you can't read anything into that. The VIN says it's a 1971 model, so it's a 1971, regardless of what the papers or anyone else says. The VW 1971 model year ran from 1/8/1970 to 31/7/1971, so you can have a 1971 bus built and registered in 1970. In SA the new model year started in November, rather than August.

[fig]

My earlier post didn't publish; I've been having time-out issues. I had said that the VIN says it's a 1971 kombi, which means most likely a Westfalia, as Pine said, not a deluxe microbus (VIN would start 24).

[brucet]

Thank you pine and fig. Fig your post is there. thank you
Just found this and this looks exactly like it although its missing the pop up roof it does have holes where the bracket in the roof above the drivers seat was.
http://www.curiouscars.com/car_pages/19 ... camper.htm

[eben]

My earlier post didn't publish; I've been having time-out issues. I had said that the VIN says it's a 1971 kombi, which means most likely a Westfalia, as Pine said, not a deluxe microbus (VIN would start 24).

My bad I've been playing around on the server too much.

[Pine]

My bad I've been playing around on the server too much