One of the more practical variants of the classic VW Bus platform is this pickup. This late T1 version needs a lot, but there are some solid bones here. It’s located in Corona, California and is being offered for sale here on eBay, with bidding starting at only $1,000 and there’s not a reserve!
I remember seeing one of these up close once, and I was amazed how both the sides and back folded down for loading. Yes, the load floor is pretty high as a result of the engine location, but look at how high the bottom of the bed is on most modern pickups!
The seller tells us that this was in a field for many years, and that there is some rust on the cab floor and underside as well as the front wheel wells. The ad also states that the rocker panels are rusty and that someone has screwed some sheet metal over them at some point. You can also see that there’s a dent in the front panel by the passenger side headlamp.
Here you can not only see the corrosion in the bed, you can see the “free” engine that’s included in the auction. It’s an 1968 engine that “ran well and is not seized.” Can one of our VW enthusiasts tell if this engine will work to power the truck?
Here’s what the corrosion looks like from the underside. I think you may have enough metal here to keep, but after blasting or dipping I’m not sure. Then again, you may choose to keep it just as it is.
On the inside, we see original seats that need to be completely rebuilt, zero glass in place (and none is included) and no interior panels to speak of. While I know some of you like to leave cosmetics as is, I’m thinking everyone would want to do something with the seats. There are a bunch of seat upholstery kit suppliers out there for VW’s, I liked this one in particular though. What would you do with this project in waiting?
I’m getting the feeling, there aren’t many vintage VW freaks among us. These are extremely rare. Fact is, I don’t ever remember seeing one in Milwaukee, ever. This will go for big bucks, it’s mostly complete. Mike Wolf from “American Pickers” ( one of my favorite shows) has one as his daily driver. These can go for up to $50g’s, or more when restored, but you’ll probably have at least that in restoring this. If I was to do this, I’d get it running, and legal, and leave it as is. Cool find.
Apparently this is some sort of rare “crew cab” version, if we believe the ~30 folks that have commented on Facebook…
Nope, here’s the crew cab. http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/VW-T2-Binz-double-cab.jpg
Check this beauty out ! http://www.ebay.com/itm/162155803155
Not sure where they are getting that idea. They aren’t terribly rare either.
I trust you folks more :-) Thanks, Bob!
I made a movie with one of those and we owned it – wish I kept it!
You can see it :48 seconds in:
http://robertsdavid.com/film_extreme.html
It appears to be a 67 from the cooling vents on the side of the body. Yes that engine will do the trick. They are very rare . I’ll be bidding on it. I have one in worse shape and I’ll never get rid of it. Good bidding.
Let us know if you get it! We’d love to see some pictures of your other one, too :-)
It’s called a single cab.
Even rarer were the Double Cab Pickup version as it was called of which I have a very fond memory indeed. VW used to deliver a full shipload of vehicles to the east and another to the west coast of NA once or twice a year with vehicles on each ship that had been special ordered by dealers on the respective sides of the continent. In the late 60’s two double cab pickups destined for a contractor in New Brunswick on Canada’s east coast where loaded onto the west coast ship in error and subsequently off loaded in Vancouver British Columbia, about as far away from their prospective owner as possible and still be in Canada with no other ships due to sail to the east coast that year. To deliver the vehicles they were first transported over the Rockies to Calgary (you don’t have someone who is not the owner drive a VW through the mountains and expect to receive a longlasting vehicle afterwards) and the New Brunswick plates attached.
Normally a “Drive-Away” or delivery service charges both the shipper and the driver to drive a vehicle from A to B (think to and from Florida or Arizona in the Fall and Spring) but in early summer nobody is going from west to east. As an early 20 something returning to Toronto from a wedding out west the “DriveAway” service was ecstatic when I called to see if anything was available and promptly offered me a vehicle I didn’t know existed–a brand new VW Double Cab Pickup with all gas paid and $100 for meals and accommodation, an unheard of benefit and a sure sign of how desperate they were for a driver.
There is no more thorough way to see and smell the breadth and vastness of the country than at 61 miles per hour in a VW with the “air conditioning” windows wide open. That summer thousands of young people were hitchhiking back and forth across the country from hostel to hostel and starting about 4 each afternoon I would commence picking them up, first filling the cab and then the box, to drop the load off at the hostel in the next city. I’ve crossed Canada 3 times by train and twice by car but the Double Cab Pickup remains my favourite trip.
Now that’s the type of story that warms my hear!
A little par 3 golf course I worked and played at when I was a kid had one we used for a “plow” to pick up all the driving range balls. It was pink and they had welded in metal mesh in place of glass windows. Always wondered what happened to it.
I owned a 67 single cab for several years. I traded it to someone about a year after the neighbor’s teenage daughter backed out of their driveway and right into the left front corner of my truck damaging the door jamb. I didn’t find out about the damage for almost 6 months as I was deployed to the gulf at the time. That was back when you could still buy driver VW buses and Westfalias for $500 to $1000. I wish I still had it now.
Here is me getting my 1960 running- its a 67 1500 motor.
https://youtu.be/WYZikYhbfF0
hey
Wow i finally got a photo to post. Found this one in AZ. Dont know what to offer the guy, but i heard these are worth pretty good money.
You can have it, but watch out for the lions and tigers. ( and bears, oh my)
That’s a pre-1961 pick up, if you can get it for a good price I’d strongly advise doing so!
@Shayne-If native to AZ or that part of the country, it’s probably about as solid as you could ever hope to find.
One of my first jobs was a parts delivery/counter man for the V.W. dealer in West Nyack N.Y. , Foreign Cars of Rockland. A customer had traded one of these in (same color blue) and we were “given” it for a delivery vehicle, during a clean up of the parts dept. we discovered a brand new still in the sealed box a heavy duty canvas top for a single cab pick-up. We installed it on our truck immediately changing its appearance to one of a Conestoga wagon/prairie schooner . It was a pisser to drive that to the warehouse to pick up our parts and hear the comments from other drivers and warehouse guys, as well as our wholesale parts customers.
I see it has a factory gas gauge. Anybody know year they became standard on type 2? Ever an option?
Good question, ’55 maybe?
The ” VW Type 2 Changes through the years” site, sez, 1962 for the gas gauge standard. It doesn’t say if you could have got one earlier.
Type 1 received the gas gauge in 62 as well. Interesting
I lived in Central Europe for a couple of years in the mid 1970s. These were very common all over Europe. I would say that probably 60% of contractors & governments used these, they were cheap, reliable and the side drop panels made accessing materials much easier. Seems they were either this light blue, or white.
Unlike North America where there is plenty of room to load or unload a truck, or find a decent parking space, in Europe space is always a premium. In the built up areas of Europe, 95% of parking is Parallel. Being able to parallel park on the street and only have a drop tailgate meant you often had a problem. With the VW you could drop 1, 2, or 3 sides as needed. So even if you had to park on the left side of a one-way street, you could still drop the left side. There is also a rather large storage bin under the bed for tools & small items that needed to be secured. The only American built vehicle that comes close is the Corvair Rampside pickup.
I was in the middle east back in the 1980s, and once saw a similar Type 1 VW pickup, it’s 3 sides dropped down, carrying a huge flat bottomed barge. It was at least 5 meters wide and 10 meters long, tied to the truck with plenty of twine! Near the truck’s cab were at least 6 men sitting on the barge as a counterweight to the back end of the barge, sticking far out the rear! Every time it would go around a turn, I expected to see the whole thing overturn! I told my driver to follow it for a while, but we lost it in heavy traffic, so I never knew if they made it to their destination.
An upholstery guy in SF drives one of these daily. Oddly his seat is just bare springs. I asked him why (given his profession) and he said that’s the part that would get stolen if it were nice.
With the story of the guys rescueing a Vwbus from a lake- here is a similar situation (minus the lake) with a vw pick up. It has been on you-tube for awhile now….very fun to watch this.
https://youtu.be/xsaYK9P6m68
And that was just the beginning of the work ahead!
These VW single cabs were the target of the so called chicken tax. So rare in the USA after about 1964 due to the import duties on them.
That’s why Chevy and Ford imported their luv and courier with the bed detached, and why Subaru stuffed jump seats in the brat.