Durban Classic Car auction

[RobCoombe]

Spotted this really neat double cab on auciton. Any idea whose this might have been?





There was also a 69 Beetle, which hardly raised a bid - strange?

[fig]

Neat custom. It looks like a 68, although it says 1979 in the windscreen.

There was also a 69 Beetle, which hardly raised a bid - strange?

It was at least five years too young. Funny, when I started my interest in buses in the early 1990s, I was usually the only person with a bus, bay or split, at VW shows; in those days it was always about Beetles and Karmann Ghias. Buses were worthless and no one was interested in them. Bugger's Bugfest show at Kyalami in 1999 was the first I attended where there was a significant bus presence. But while we were sleeping the scalpers were already hard at work exporting all the R1k buses that no one in SA wanted.

En kyk hoe lyk ons nou ...

[RobCoombe]

Neat custom. It looks like a 68, although it says 1979 in the windscreen.

I challenged the auctioneer, who swore it was a 1979, and there was another guy there who said he had a 1978, also with the low-lights and small oblong back lights? But I don't know how to tell without the plates

[fig]

Neat custom. It looks like a 68, although it says 1979 in the windscreen.

I challenged the auctioneer, who swore it was a 1979, and there was another guy there who said he had a 1978, also with the low-lights and small oblong back lights? But I don't know how to tell without the plates

Low front indicators ended in 1972, along with the rounded bumpers and a whole lot of other stuff. Low front indicators with rectangular taillights would be 1972 (crossover year between early and late baywindow body).

Most people use the year of first reg in the papers as the model year. In my experience this is seldom correct. I often tell people the year model of their ACVW and they argue with me. I explain to them the VIN numbering system and they still disbelieve. At that point I leave them to think whatever they like.

FTR, from August 1964 (ie, beginning of the 65 model year), the third digit of VW VINs represents the year model. That DC's VIN wil start 268 if it's a 68 (2 = Type 2, 6 = pick-up, 8 = 1968). The only thing that suggests it's a 68 in the photo is the rearview mirror, which looks like the one-year-only 68 mirror that has been bent.

[karmakoma]

That particular bus was for sale on the forum more than once if memory serves, and I think a forum member bought it, or knows the owner.
Wonder what happened?

[fig]

Well spotted karma! I didn't recognise it until you pointed that out. Now I look at it again, the old Passat steering wheel jogged my memory.