Virginal

What a better way to pop your Type 2 cherry than on

something as hot as this 1959 23-Window Samba. Peter

Bennett didn’t even go for second base with a Bay Window,

he went  for it - straight in, no kissin’! This is the result...

When I first saw this good as new Bus, I thought what you may have thought when you saw it, something along the lines of ‘that’s tasty’ and ‘the owner must’ve worked his way through some serious piles of rolling scrap before graduating to this beauty.’ But then Peter Bennett told me this was his first Bus. I asked him if he meant his first Split Bus, thinking he had a Bay or a T25 maybe, but no, this is actually his first ever Bus.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that someone can start where most of us only dream of ending up but I am. Or is it jealousy I’m feeling? Yes, definitely jealousy. It’s pretty funny too though, to see someone go out there and buy their dream VW without having to go through all the years of rust and breakdowns that most of us suffer. That’s not to say that this Bus was a minter when it arrived on Peter’s driveway, but even as a pile of rust in several pieces, a 23-Window Samba is still on most VW perverts’ wish list! And as we mention breakdowns, that was the major hurdle in Peter’s ownership of this Bus. Well, when I say breakdowns, I mean the potential of breakdowns. You see, Peter’s wife Anna grew up surrounded by old VW Buses and has horrific memories of them always breaking down, especially in front of her school mates. So when Peter bounced into the living room one day, jazz hands a go-go and announced that he had to have a Splittie in his life, she really hoped that he would change his tune and have an affair or spend hours in web chat rooms, but no, he broke her heart and went out and bought a Split Bus.

In October 2009 Peter finally found this Bus, a 1959 23-Window Samba, on t’internet. It was quite good as Buses go and could have easily been left as is and driven, but that’s not what Peter wanted. He wasn’t going to be happy until the Bus was as good as his budget would allow, and besides that, its blue and white paint from a previous restoration didn’t float his boat. Funnily enough, the Bus had been a cover car in VolksWorld Camper&Bus magazine and although it was finished to a very good standard, as you would expect, like any new owner Peter wanted to put his own mark on the Bus to make it ‘his’. With that in mind, a trip to Paul Medhurst at T2D saw the plan go from a quick repaint of the top and a service, to what you see here.

In his innocence however, Peter had hoped to have his Bus restored and back on the road by Christmas that year – yes, within two months! Realising that wasn’t going to happen, he had hoped it would be hitting the asphalt in time for his birthday at the end of March, but that day came and went. Thankfully, he did manage to get it back by the end of August, and what Peter learned is that, in the VW restoration world things move at VW time and not regular time! 

When Paul and the T2D team got their mitts on the Bus they could see that since its last paintjob it had been letting some water in around the top windows, which meant the dreaded rust was making its way through. This necessitated the cutting and rewelding of small areas around the gutters and windows. 

Next came the colour choice, and unlike its previous guise of blue and white, Peter wanted to have something that looked like it could have been an original VW colour scheme, so after providing Paul with some colour swatches, Steven Cato laid on some Sand Green below the beltline and an early Golf shade of green on top. Mix in the Deluxe trim, Safari windows up front and at the rear and a splash of sunshine, and these two colours really work. On paper they shouldn’t work but when you see it in the flesh they come alive.

Next was the mechanicals and Paul and Peter Day sorted out a new servo in anticipation for the new 2007cc motor, which was to replace the 1641cc that sat in the engine bay. The new engine is based around a new AS41 case, which Peter machined in-house before fitting some niceties like Mahle 90.5 pistons, a Fram filter, 044 Magnum heads, 40IDF carbs and a lightened, forged and eight-dowelled flywheel before fitting the T2D Tuckaway as the icing on the cake. All of this jiggery-pokery means Peter now has nearly 150bhp at 5500rpm on tap, which should keep the flies speeding through the open Safari windscreen!

The interior is rather luxurious and certainly lives up to the Deluxe title the belt trim denotes as it is bathed in coffee leather and German square-weave carpet. The seating and bedding set-up is made from a combination of a rock ’n’ roll bed and some custom seating by Dunc at Van Motion. The Flat Four Banjo steering wheel adds some more high-end vintage bling, while Uplands Car Stereo in Bristol were called in to bring some modern oomph to the interior so that the young ’uns, Alana and Reuben, can listen to their tunes when they are out and about in the Bus.