Cartel Cruiser – ’53 Barndoor Bus

Having progressed up through the Split Bus ranks with a double-door Panel Van, a Pick-up and a 21-Window Samba, Ian Terry had set his sights on a Barndoor 23-Window Deluxe
Ian has been into VWs for longer than he cares to mention. Having owned pretty much every VW possible, from Variants, to Ovals, to Split-Window Bugs and even a turbo-charged Fridolin, Ian hankered long and hard after his dream Bus, a pre-April 1955 Samba. To those in the loop, a March 1955 or earlier Bus spells out a magic word that gets every Type 2 perv hot under the collar: Barndoor! Now, Volkswagen made comparatively few Buses prior to that fabled date and early Buses are very much cherished today - especially the ‘range-topping' Deluxe model, which accounted for less than five per cent of production figures.
So how did Ian come across such a lucky find? Well, it's down to the internet really and one site in particular: www.thesamba.com. Buying cars was once upon a time a fairly local affair, but with the advent of the World Wide Web, the marketplace for VWs has become global and imports into the UK have reached an all time high. But before you go running off to your laptop to chase that obscure VW located just shy of Kathmandu, a few words of warning. Buying from abroad has its pitfalls and here at VolksWorld Towers we have heard many tales of Bus purchase woe - be it sellers magically disappearing off the face of the planet once the funds have been received, to stolen VWs turning up at Customs only to be shipped back to the rightful owner once the paperwork had been checked.

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the December 2009 issue of VolksWorld

SUBSCRIBE
Treat a loved-one or even yourself this Christmas with a subscription to VolksWorld magazine!

VW WALLPAPER
You can download a wallpaper from this feature for your computers desktop in our VW Wallpaper section.