Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi All,

I am hesitant to even ask this, and I will probably regret the answers, but what are the chances of finding a Samba Bus in SA? I know they are rare, but how rare? what kind of numbers are we talking about here? I would love to get hold of a nice project bus like this: http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopi ... =samba+bus , but I have no idea of where to look for one.

Do you guys who find these things just stumble upon them on a farm or what?

sambas are like rocking horse $h!t

sambas are like rocking horse $h!t

Lol! I have no idea what that means... but I must confess I have no experience with horse sh!t so...

A rocking horse doesnt shit,....so finding rocking horse shit is really REALLY rare,....hence the saying,as rare as rocking horse shit.

A rocking horse doesnt shit,....so finding rocking horse shit is really REALLY rare,....hence the saying,as rare as rocking horse shit.

ah, now I got it! I was thinking something completely different...

okay, so then is it safe to assume that they are about as rare as RHD Karmann Ghia Cabrio's in this country then?

Over the past 20 years I have built a list of ALL sambas I have seen or even heard of in SA. The total is 14. At least three of those have been exported. Only six of the 14 I have actually seen with my own eyes.

There must be more out there. Put the word out in your network that you want one, and make sure you keep the cash available for the day one comes up.

My 59 samba had been hidden since the 1980s in a hangar at an air field. It was offered to a used car dealer who is one of mrsfig's clients. We bought it about half an hour after it was parked in the dealer's yard. An hour or so after we clinched the deal, an exporter from Newcastle had already heard about it and called the dealer and was very upset it had already been sold.

Thanks fig, yeah thats pretty much the answer I was fearing (and expecting!) Still, at least there are more of them about than RHD Ghia cab's!

Can you tell me, what are the structural differences between a samba and a normal split microbus? Obviously, the samba has the sunroof and the little windows on the roof, but is there any stucture added to the bus that isnt on the microbus? Like with the Ghia cab, for example, there is a whole support structure in the back to make up for not having a roof, and the body structure from the doors back is very different to the hard-top. Is there anything similar on the samba? I know about the pop-out windows and the sunroof mechanism, but could one (conceivably - just theorising here ) get a split microbus and cut the holes in the roof and add all the samba bits? As far as I have been able to establish, the samba is just a microbus with "deluxe trim". So didnt the factory just take a microbus shell and make it a samba when they were built, or is there more to it than that?

fig,does that figure include the samba that gazzapen had,i can remember there was a discussion whether it was real or not

just search ,theyre still out there[even in the dark]

I'm not sure about gazzapen's samba. If it's the one that was being sold by Justin in Newcastle a couple of years back, it's counted. If not, then it's not on my list.

There are structural differences between a Deluxe Microbus (Samba) and a Standard Microbus. The main difference is the number of windows: Standard Microbuses are built on the same 11-window bodyshell as Kombis, while the Deluxe was either a 15 or 23 window (or 13 and 21 windows post 8/63). All sunroof (and double cargo door) buses, not just Sambas, had additional reinforcing plates under the chassis; these are reproduced and are easily added. The skylight roofs were quite different to normal bus roofs, with internal frames/strengthening panels for the windows. Interestingly, all sunroof buses, whether they had skylights or not, have the inner skylight panel in the roof for strength.

buggyfan wrote:just search ,theyre still out there[even in the dark]

IMAG0021.jpg

lol - where is that pic from buggyfan?

My uncle,s farm in northwest?


















































Just joking,found it in the ,bus hunting thread on thesamba

[/quote]
ive just reread his thread and it turned out to be a converted fleetline that was sold to him, as a samba.so yes to joose,it can be done

buggyfan wrote:

ive just reread his thread and it turned out to be a converted fleetline that was sold to him, as a samba.so yes to joose,it can be done[/quote]

where is the thread? I'd like to read it for interests sake..

joose wrote:

buggyfan wrote:

ive just reread his thread and it turned out to be a converted fleetline that was sold to him, as a samba.so yes to joose,it can be done

where is the thread? I'd like to read it for interests sake..[/quote]
http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopic.php?t=5603