Aircooled VW South Africa

Back home again with my new bus, 2 days and 1450km later. Problems encountered were brake failure of the trailer on route whilst in Lainsburg, and trying to get the bus out of her spot under the tree where she had "waited" for many years was also
a mission. One front wheel had no bearings and the other had no nut to keep wheel drum on, the drivers side rear wheel drum was siezed (still battling to get the drum off).
It is a 1956 (Sept/Oct) RHD Ambulance as confirmed by Fig and Erus Meyer. Sadly there are no ambulance bits and bobs left on the bus. It was used as a shepards accomodation for many years, being towed from one grazing camp to the next on a Karoo farm. It needs plenty of work but is a very nice and solid project bus. Thanks Sean for the company and the use of the 1975 Merc which towed amazingly well.
And here are a few pics ...............................

(I've had to edit this thread (8 Dec 2016) as imageshack decided to delete all my pics wtf - some pics might be missing, in the wrong place, etc, etc


Sean and bus at the dawn of a new Karoo day - long day ahead !

After unceremoniously being pulled out from under the tree

preparing for the long drive home

Farewell to the town and probably previous employer, could'nt resist this pic down the main road .............

my new "ride"

Sean's 1975 280 A Merc - never missed a beat, old faithfull !

That looks like a nice project!!



Good luck.

The bus looks "good for you"
I might know where to get a back door for the bus and the sliding windows in the middle.

Congrats, what are the plans for it?

Thanks John, Bienie, Chris ............. Bienie, will post some interior pics at some stage. There are 2 panes of the interior glass, I assume there must be 3, the 3rd one would be the sliding one? Must check up. I'm also wondering if they are the same dimensions as the side pop-out windows, ja, will check. I may be interested in the rear door. This bus did come with one, but a window was hacked into it, not an "ugly" job, but, nevertheless
Restoring it back to original ambulance spec might be the ultimate goal, in fact I will start collecting the bits as time goes on, but in the short term, I just want to get it mobile and "complete".
But for right now, she needs to go under a roof and wait her turn, busy with 2 other projects at the moment, it will give me time to start putting bits together and hunting for parts, etc.

Yes there must be 3, 2fixed and one sliding. Ill see if I can get you sum pic's on the weekend off the door and glass

Cool, thanks man

Well done...we will have plenty to chat about in the near future....i bought a '57 ambulance..lots more rust than yours...but def. worth restoring !! mine has lots of parts missing so we'll hunt together !!
my interior in the back is still nice....
will only put pic's once i have collected..it is done and paid for at least ! very exiting to see a fellow meat-wagon owner !!

congratulations....what a find...

We had a Merc like that when i was in highschool...

Its an awesome car to drive with tremendous torque...

Hope you have fun hunting and restoring it...

splitbusahollic wrote:Well done...we will have plenty to chat about in the near future....i bought a '57 ambulance..lots more rust than yours...but def. worth restoring !! mine has lots of parts missing so we'll hunt together !!
my interior in the back is still nice....
will only put pic's once i have collected..it is done and paid for at least ! very exiting to see a fellow meat-wagon owner !!

you need to show pics otherwise we dont believe you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats and ENJOY.

Hi Paul, you got some nice photo's there. That picture in front of the Spar actually looks pretty good considering we were in such a hurry to get out the way.

Worked out the merc's fuel consumption, got 6.7km/l on the way up and 5.5 km/l with the load on the way down. I am quite impressed as I get no better just driving it to work and back with out any load.

Hey Sean, ja for a car thats almost 40years old, not bad going, whens the next trip ?

BadAssBob, watch out for a new thread dude, it will be about a '57 ambulance, he's got the pics - unbelievable, 2 early split ambulances popping out of the blue !

bienie wrote:The bus looks "good for you"
I might know where to get a back door for the bus and the sliding windows in the middle.

Nice one Bienie, took me a while to catch that one

Lovely bus....let me know if you need parts searching in the UK to get her back....when you are ready of cause!