This full restored 1959 Volkswagen Campervan that is for sale in the United Kingdom is a right-hand-drive vehicle originally from South Africa.
Not just an ordinary T1, this is the top-of-the-range Samba version and this example is one of the early versions that came out with 23 windows, later on this was reduced to 21 windows.
Classic Car Auctions (CCA) says the Microbus now “appears just as it did when it rolled out of the German factory in 1959 following a painstakingly detailed restoration.”
The current owner – who bought the vehicle from its first South African owner – spent three years restoring it and wanted to keep the combi as original as possible. The T1 was stripped down to the bare metal and every nut and bolt was removed before it was painstakingly rebuilt using original parts.
The only part that’s not entirely original is the 1600 twin port engine, which Birmingham-based Bear VW Services tinkered with so that the Microbus can now “cruise comfortably at 104 kph.” These engineers also rebuilt the manual gearbox.
This clasic T1 still sports the original paintwork from almost 60 years ago, the two-tone Beige White and Sealing Wax Red. The current owner from U.K. installed a Devon cabin — only available that year — that he acquired before actually buying the T1.
Having covered 3 800 kilometers after being restored, the Samba Campervan will be going on auction on 10 June at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre and Classic Car Auctions estimate that the special T1 will fetch between £45,000 to £55,000 (about R770 000 to R940 000).