www.dsk.com.au

Hi guys.

This is my 54 Barndoor I picked up last week.
I’ve dreamt a long time of buying a 54 bus to join my 54 bug, considering how rare they are in Australia I never expected to actually find one.

I found it near Goondiwindi in January last year and it took nearly 12 months to get a deal done on it.

I’m still uncertain of what direction I will take it, currently I’m liking the idea of keeping og paint, fixing rust, 1600 dp engine, later gearbox, front disc brakes and keep it stock height on 16” wheels

It needs a lot of work, but I think it will be well worth the effort.

This is it's resting place of the past 3 or 4 decades. According to the farmer, it was already there when he bought the property in 1994.

In January of 2023 I was talking Volkswagens with a visiting farmer friend from Goondiwindi, I mentioned I was looking for a split kombi, specifically i'd always wanted a barndoor. He told me one of his neighbours had a split bus. He showed me one photo, I expected to see a 60’s or later bus, Instead I was surprised to see it was actually a barndoor, I told him it was exactly the van I’d dreamt of owning. He told me he could get more pictures, and would work to introduce me to the farmer who owned the bus.

It was 7 months later, in August, 2 days before my wife gave birth to premature twins, that I received photos and a message saying the owner of the bus was not exactly interested in selling it, but he was more than happy for me come look at it. Once the babies were discharged from hospital and settled at home in late September, I was able to travel 4 hours to look at the bus near Goondiwindi.

It was more complete then it appeared in the photos I was sent. It still has a front beam, spring plates and lever shocks. It also has the fuel tank plus all its tags and numbers. From what I understand the bus was already on the property in much the same state you see, when the property was bought in 1994. I told the owner I would love the opportunity to get it on the road again, I asked him if he’d consider selling it. He said he didn’t really want to sell it, but would consider a sensible offer. I made an offer I thought fair, to which he asked for time to think about it, he assured me I would have first refusal when he’d made up his mind.

In mid December I received a call from the farmer saying he would be happy to see me buy the van. I arranged to collect it between Christmas and New Years, It was our first overnight trip away from home as a family to go pick up the Barndoor.

We loaded it using RHS, slings and forks to suspend it in the air to back the trailer under it.

Great looking bus, and very complete, going to love watching this build, well done on getting it

Very cool bus. Good job on the chase, nice to see a lead come good.

Great bus
Great story on the find
Thanks for sharing it with us and welcome back to dsk
Nice to have another cool bus project to look at
I think we all have dreamed of finding a BD on a outback farm somewhere
Congrats

Some more photos.

I've had it up on a hoist and have been able to put a list together of sheet metal this bus will need.
Overall it is better then i expected, although there is still quite a list. At minimum it will need

- lower nose section
- inner & outer valance
- cab floor
- doglegs
- lower cargo barrier section
- full cargo floor
- Front and rear crossmembers
- I beams
- outriggers
- Jack points
- L & R sills
- lower rear corners
- battery trays
- engine lid hinge carrier
- lower sections for all doors

To get the van mobile and off the hoist, i've welded together a bolt in 3 piece dolley. I removed the beam and spring plates & rear torsion bars to install this.

I'm very pleased with how the dolley turned out, especially considering i put it together without having the bus to reference. It sits level and i can push the bus easily on my own.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Good luck

So good. Doesn't get much better than this if your a diehard Aussie bus guy! Finding parts will be expensive and difficult no doubt, all the best with it!

Yeah that’s a great find for sure, keen to see this build thread progress

Very cool

It's a ripper, lots of tinkering ahead

Lovely patina.

Is your plan to work steadily on it or do some only in months beginning with August?

Thanks guys. I’ll try keep things updated as I go, life’s pretty busy atm.

Currently the plan is to rub the paint back to its original dove blue and assess whether it will be patina’d or not.
I would like to keep patina but if it looks crap it will be resprayed.

I have a bit of a list of Barndoor specific parts I’ll be needing, so it will take time to source the required parts to put it back together. I already have some bits on the way, which I’ll post about when they arrive.

To give an idea, these are the barndoor specific pieces I’ll need. Fortunately some are available new.

-16” wheels
- Front spindle assemblies
- lower trailing arms x2
- Front Emblem
- Headlights
- Taillights
- Brake light
- rear reflectors
- Spare wheel tray
- possibly a steering wheel
- speedometer
- Bakelite speedometer pod
- Bumpers
- rear apron
- 3 rows of seats
- accelerator pedal
- glass
- Door window frames