Vintage Barn of the week #5

This is infact one of the first barndoors that really made an impression on me. It has changed a little bit in style over the years, but always had a cool stance. First time I saw it rollin, it had a set of Porsche pattern torque trust wheels, maybe the coolest ones in my eyes. A true scandinavian classic!

Swedish - UK restored BD

It's amazing to see how many abondoned BD wrecks being brought back to life these days. Another perfect example here, now ready for 50+ more years on the road. Very cool patina as well =)

1950 Barndoor

Here is some pictures of one of the best 1950 BD's on the planet. I saw this in Hessisch this summer, and the finish is mindblowing. I'm going nowhere near this with my project, but find the restoration photos very interresting and helpful. Have a look here in Axels own photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/axelstruwe/BarndoorBus1950#

Vintage Barn of the week #5

Cool patina-ed BD... Like the black roof rack =)

Norwegian survivors

This autumn two barndoors have surfaced almost out of nowhere here in Norway. Both being double door panelvans making them rather special. And to top it all, one of them has a rear hatch option as well. Hopefylly these BD's will fall into the right hands and become excellent projects. We need more BD's on the road in Norway!!

Vintage Barn of the week #4

Maybe one of my favorite BD's ever. So many cool details on this norwegian built panel van. Mr. Rui sure knows his stuff =)

Attention to detail #2

Having a rental contract with Oval 57 on my work shop space, means that I have to suck up to him from time to time. Bringing him coffe and always agree on how important it is to put all your love into the project is some of the trouble I have to go through. As you probably know from reading his restoration blog on the 52 "capitan" split, the other members of Sechs Volt have claimed he has been sleeping with his Kamax bolts, rubber moldings and seat covers on several occations, unfornately without having any evidence for the claim.

So to keep Oval 57 happy (and the rental contract fresh), I have decided to give the original seat covers a try. They have been resting in the forest for decades, so the softnes in the fabric is somewhat gone. But last night I carefully disassembeled the covers on the backrest, and took it inside and gave a good cleaning. And here I found another facinating detail for all the geeks out there... The little red tab shown in the picture, made from the same material as the seat cover but in red color. Sawn in at middle bottom of the backrest. A very important detail to adress if you have to make repro covers =) Here you also see a "before" picture of the seat. The main problem reusing this is a little shrinking of the material, and all the seams have rotted away. The frame is good and solid.We will have to wait for the outcome of this...

Attention to detail #1

I have read a lot of topics on Barndoor details at thesamba.com and other places. Last night I did some work on the passenger door, and found some funny details again. I knew the window frame on the door had a number punched in on top, and that this number somehow relates to the body number of the van. This means the doors were "one-of" from the factory. But what I found last night is that the hinges have the same number punched into them.This number is usually covered with metal, so you would have to remove the hinge to see it. My hinge is broken, so I had to get it out, and some old damage repair has to be redone (it has been welded at some point). The question is; repair the original stamped one, or replace it with another?

If all this numbering of doorparts should make any sense, the door it self should have the same number somewhere? Someone knows?

Vintage Barn of the week #3

This week we have a very cool BD singlecab used as they were intended. A cool parts hauler for sure =)

Someone like magic tricks

Just another unbelievable Barndoor project is started in the UK. As the rest of the RHD Samba Barndoors out there, this also come from the IKEA land of Sweden. Can't help the fact that seeing these pictures, give me motivation for my own project =) Great respect to the people digging into cars like this... Read more at the Split Screen Van Club forum:

http://www.ssvc.org.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=46441

Pre restoration

Here are some more pre restoration pictures. It shows a relatively straight body, exept the roof wich is really damaged. The cargo area and cabin is in fair shape, but needs new panels in every corner. Unfornately the spare roof was needed by the previos owner, but I don't worry about the roof at the moment. That will be fixable, one way or another. But they sure look rough these forest wrecks as you pull them into the garage =)

The Oslo Lysverker Van - a real workhorse?

Oslo Lysverker had a lot to do with developing the infrastructure in Oslo. Part of the development was putting new power cables in the ground. These cables were heavy and the work of putting them in the ground was not a easy task. They could be up to over 500 meters long, and the trick seemed to be not to stop when you got the cable sliding. A known method from ancient times of making people work in the same paste, is song and rythm. At Oslo Lysverker they had their own singer, whos only job was to keep the cable sliding. His singing was supposed to keep the men pull at the rythm of his song. The movie clip is from a norwegian TV program in the seventhies. I wonder if my BD panel van was the vehicle the singer used to carry himself and his speaker kit around? The cargo area of my van is surprisingly straight for being a work horse for over 10 years. As you can hear from the clip, I recon this man in the turtle neck was not the most popular man among the dirty workers in the ditch. Singing his awful song day out and day in with his hands in his pockets. The "Oppsanger" as he was titled, got replaced by a machine who pulled the cables shortly after this interview took place. Wonder why?

If I got the "Oppsanger" van, it must have been the most hated vehicle in Oslo for many years... Now I just have to mount a speaker on the roof and fill the streets with song once again =)

Vintage Barn of the week #2

New week, new barndoor =) Love the patina and lettering on this one...