In the first days of the world shutting down for Covid-19, I went to pick up a take-out order from a local restaurant (trying to keep them in business, while taking precautions to stay safe myself). The entire process was weird, everybody standing 6+ feet away from each other, each of us wearing masks, the whole process was done on a table outside the restaurant. It felt like I was exchanging packages with the mob. The restauranteur emphasized that the pen I used to sign the credit card slip was sanitized with every use. As I was waiting for the food to come out, I noticed this Type 2 down the street and went to take a look.
Just then the food came out and I went back to the restaurant somewhat sheepishly, and the restauranteur told me “yes, that’s pretty cool”. He said it had been driven from Brazil by the father of two young women who lived down the street. It is supposed to stay in Berkeley for the remainder of its life. I went down and took a few pictures, and the young women happened to see me taking pictures.
They said it is a 1994, with an air-cooled boxer engine in the back. Their father drove it all the way from Brazil (I didn’t ask how he got around the Darien Gap). They were very nice and proud of their father and his bus. His journey took 4 months. They said it would stay with them in Berkeley. There is a local company which specializes in VW Buses, Buslab and they said the Buslab guys were already all over it, and would be taking good care of it for them. They were already planning some camping trips. Looks like it is pretty well set up for that, as long as you don’t mind taking your time. Lots of room for luggage!
All in all, it was fun to talk to them, but they didn’t really know very much about the bus. Everything was made a lot more awkward by Covid-19, since everybody stood far away from each other and shouted. I thought I got a shot of the interior, but it appears I did not. It had standard black vinyl seats, and the cargo compartment was blocked off by a curtain. Very utilitarian. I am sure in Brazil they aren’t so worried about not having a very good heater!
Quite the find. Two things stand out:
These Brazilian Type 2s are really a T1.5, as the front cab section is from a T2 but the whole rear of the bus from the cab back is from the T1. Note the side doors, and the vents in the rear and the narrow door/hatch in the back.
That seems like a lot of weight to ad to a rear engine VW bus back there, depending on what they carry on it. If it’s a couple of bicycles, that wouldn’t be too bad, although that seems lie a rather large carrier for that. If it’s a couple of small motorcycles, that would be a different story.
Is that a rear carrier rack, or in fact an energy absorbing bumper or “social distancing” device for urban parking? (serious question – I did not assume it was a rack)
Odd amalgam of the first two generations – later T1s used the same wide rear liftgate as the T2 had, yet this one still has the narrow door from earlier T1s (the reeealy old ones from the early ’50s didn’t have a rear access door at all, something I just learned). Conversely, this van has the big modern taillights that even T2s didn’t have until the fifth year of production.
What a great find indeed and thank you for sharing this cool looking Kombie. Did someone illegally tag Victoria on the front luggage rack?
So, this vehicle is old enough to be legally imported into the United States since it is over 25 years old. However, I don’t know how easy it will be to register this Kombie in California since 1994 model year vehicles require a smog test.
There are quite a few of these Brazillian Kombis in NZ, yeah they are different to the German US and especially the Aussie versions but had superior 1600 twinport engine casings to the German versions, THe parts supply for old VW vans world wide never fails to amaze me in just what you can get which in the world of split screen vans is everything but a VIN an entire 23 window Samba can be delivered to your door in kit form right down to the last detail so those huge money restorations people are selling, is it really original or is it repop and you have the correct number stamp dies?
Isn’t that the Finding Nemo font/logo?
Yup Sam!
There are still a fair number of these Brazilian built vans chugging around Lima, Peru, working for a living. They are just starting to achieve collector car status down there.
It’s pretty much all years at once. I see some pre-59 pieces, some early 60s pieces, and the post-68 front.
Oooh! I saw this a couple of weeks ago but didn’t have my phone. Glad you got the story! It blew my mind to see it.
I wonder if the rack was used to carry extra gas? I’m sure there would be spots on that trek where your next gas station may have also been in the next country!
All of this free time alone at home got me to research buying a Bus in Brazil. I found this configuration program from a Brazilian VW Bus exporter, they also do refurbishments. I’ve been playing with it for the past several hours coming up with all sorts of campers I’d like to have.
https://app.combikombi.com
A rolling collection of bus parts from every era. I’m always fascinated looking at Brazilian Buses, actually any vintage VW from there.
Great find, must be a scary drive in crosswinds, that thing is built to be driven slowly and carefully! At least it has IRS, hopefully front disc brakes.
Not being much of a VW Bus fan, I would probably have overlooked this one. I’m glad you didn’t — amazing story, and I can’t imagine what it must have been like to drive 9,000 or 10,000 miles from Brazil to California. I’d love to know more about his experiences.
And just thinking that this is really a 1994-model vehicle brings a smile to my face.
They really are the Jabberwocky of Volksie vans, these Brazilians, with the head of one thing and the bodily parts of others.
The whole is oddly unsatisfying, bereft of the T1’s little train charm, and without the fairly timeless unique whole of the T2.
It flows front to back like an odd but sensible-enough sentence that ends in a non-sequitur, the mice.
Lovely bus, and a very good choice to travel the Americas since its reliable and if there is anything you can’t fix yourself any small village has a person that has worked on VW air-cooled engines.
In the beggining of 2016 my ex-girlfriend’s father did the opposite trip. He was living in Florida and came back to Argentina because of the sub-prime crisis in 2012 but left behind a motorhome with a friend. He is quite a character so he decided he would retrieve it along with his son. They flew over there and put some gas in the motorhome and they went south.
What I can recall from that trip is that they had a very bad time travelling through central America (southern Mexico up to Costa Rica). In El Salvador they even had to pay for protection one night: a band of armed men stood around the vehicle in case anything happened.
Anyway, they boarded a ferry in Panama and reached the Colombian coast. That is how you go around the Darien jungle.
They were not in a touristic plan so they drove 12 hours a day. The journey took them two weeks.
The last thing I knew was that the motor home was in a warehouse because he did not want to pay for the taxes to nationalise it and register it in Argentina.
Never saw it but he told me it was a Ford F350 with a V8. He used to rent ot for film shootings.