1960 Volkswagen Bus – East Coaster of the Day
You may remember Dale Clow’s 1972 Volkswagen 411, featured here last month. Well the Clow family has another gem of a Volkswagen up their sleeve. A 1960 Volkswagen Bus is our East Coaster of the Day. And what a story it has.
The split-window bus was born in 1960 and purchased by a company called Dent’s English Bacon, for use as a delivery vehicle.
In 1965, it was T-boned on the driver’s side. Deemed too expensive to fix, the company told the tow truck driver to take it away. He took the bus home, parked it in the field behind his house and forgot about it.
The tow truck driver’s cousin is a friend of the Clow family. Fifty-three years after ‘Porky’ was left in a field, Dale Clow heard about the van from his friend and, as he says, “I had to have it.”
This was the home of the 1960 VW Bus for over 50 years!
Well, the van was in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Road Trip!!
Dale and a couple of friends jumped into a car and headed west. That’s a 3,500-kilometre drive. Anything for Porky.
The van had sat for over 50 years. It had sunk into the ground right up to the wheel wells.
The rescue team gets busy digging out the 1960 VW Bus from where it had sunk after 53 years.
The driver’s side was folded in from the crash and it needed a new floor.
But the bones were good. The rescue team dug the van out and got it onto a trailer for the long journey home to the East Coast.
Porky, unearthed and ready for the long drive home from Manitoba to the East Coast.
See how pushed in the drivers side is from when it was t-boned in 1965.
The dash really just needed a good cleaning. The original seat was refurbished. All the original glass was intact.
That was a couple of years ago. The restoration was completed in April of this year. And it looks great!
The 1960 VW Bus is pictured here at the Brackley Drive-in Hot Rod and Street Machine Show back in early September.
Dale has treated the outside with linseed oil and kept the exterior markings, decals and logos intact.
*Click here for another VW Bus East Coaster of the Day, this one is a 1974 version 😎
*Thank you to Dale and Allan Clow for providing the photos of the rescue!
The original seat, refurbished and reskinned.
Original wheels, all polished up!
Restored engine, all bright and shiny.
