mırrors
Smoke &
We thought the title was pretty clever, but smoke and windows
is probably more apt. Everything is not quite as it seems...
Words: James Peene Pics: Steve SharpA
few months back we were
at a VW specialists to
watch a new Samba roof
clip being grafted onto
what was a 13-window Microbus.
The talk in the workshop entrusted
with this task was that purists,
and those lucky enough to own
a factory-built 21- or 23-window
would scream blue murder at the
notion any one would have the
audacity to do such a thing. Fake!
It’s not real! This sort of thing
devalues our Buses, is the sort of
stuff we imagined they’d say. Heck,
we even know of one supplier of
these roof kits who would only sell
you one if you owned a genuine
Samba to put it on. No fooling!
And yet, that’s not how we feel
about this sort of thing. If we’re
honest and we had a Bus that
needed a roof swap, well why
wouldn’t you fi t a Samba panel
rather than a regular one? As long
as you’re not trying to pass it offas the genuine article then where’s
the harm in it? Anyone looking to
buy it would only have to check
the VIN number and M-codes to
see if it left the factory with roof
windows originally.
If you feel differently, that’s
perfectly okay. Opinions are like
belly buttons in that everyone has
one and some are more agreeable
than others. So it might come as a
shock for you to learn that the Bus
you’re looking at here didn’t leave
the factory as a full-blown Deluxe,
but a vastly more humble Barndoor
Panel Van. Yes, you read that right.
It couldn’t be any further from
what it is now unless maybe it was
a Type 25 Double Cab...Repeat prescription
The Bus you see here was built
and is owned by Mike Riley. That’s
a name that may ring a few bells
with our long term readers. We
featured his WFIL Radio liveried23-window Samba in our June 2014
and prior to that, his gold Samba
on Porsche Design 90s way, way
back in 2009. So Mike is clearly a
man who enjoys his Split Screen
Buses and getting his hands dirty.
His latest feature Bus has been
done a few years, but hasn’t been
seen as Mike doesn’t do a lot of
VW shows. He says: “I love building
them and after I’d fi nished my
last Split I was desperate for a
Barndoor. You know how it is. You
always want something older. And
I really wanted a Barndoor Deluxe
but there’s no way I could afford
one. They’re crazy money now
days, as much as a house!
“When I sold my last Bus I did a
deal that ended up with me taking
a Barndoor Panel Van and a Bay
Window in part exchange. I sold
the Bay but kept the Panel. It was
absolutely mint, had never been
welded or had any repairs what-so-
ever. It was originally from Portugal