Down On The Street Bonus Edition, 1960s, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, san francisco, transporter, type 2...

21-Window Volkswagen Transporter Braves Downtown San Francisco

After I was caught in a camera-challenged condition when spotting the '70 Fiat 500 near my office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood and was forced to use the 640x480 so-called camera in my cellphone, I resolved to start carrying a real camera at all times. Naturally, I totally spaced on the camera thing when I caught sight of this 21-window Transporter while out for some Bánh mì on my lunch break last week, and once again we all get to look at blurry, wide-angle cellphone shots. These things didn't fare too well around here, because the sun and smog tend to eat up the seals around all those windows, which lets rust gain a toehold it generally never relinquishes. But here's a very original black-plate example that (if the window stickers are to be believed) has been damn near everywhere.

2:00 PM on Mon Apr 7 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,373 views
36 comments

Comments

JSmith53 at 02:10 PM on 04/07/08
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I saw a fully-restored 21-window bus around here last week. Same color as this one, no stickers, though.
Novaload at 02:13 PM on 04/07/08
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OK, I'm pretty sure this thing just fell through a time warp/dimensional worm-hole. How else could it be so intact and completely vintage? Especially if it swam over to Alcatraz.
maxforrest32 at 02:14 PM on 04/07/08
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Is this what they called the Samba? Or did that one have the curved windows on the rear pillars?
akirachan at 02:20 PM on 04/07/08
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I love this thing, it's like the perfect vehicle to have a fun time with bunch of your friends cruising down PCH.

By the way, those little windows at the edge of the roof are being resurrected in one of the new UP! series concepts.
Ash78 at 02:25 PM on 04/07/08
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@akirachan: cruising down PCH

Since I've been coming to this site, that has come to mean "Project Car Hell". So your comment works both ways!
smalleyxb122 at 02:31 PM on 04/07/08
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Long live Haight-Ashbury!

But where's the device to speed up or slow the passage of time?
JSmith53 at 02:34 PM on 04/07/08
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@smalleyxb122: +1 on the Futurama reference.
jeremyc at 02:35 PM on 04/07/08
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vintage stickers + vintage bus = vintage awesome.
smsolo1 at 02:35 PM on 04/07/08
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love it. id love to see a new one that is aerodynamic, water cooled, equipped with power steering and one of these newfangled high output turbo-diesels.
bygeorge at 02:35 PM on 04/07/08
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Love. The. Stickers.

This HAS to be a restoration, especially since there are no flux capacitors visible...
badco/LoJ at 02:36 PM on 04/07/08
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@smalleyxb122: Under the seat!

This thing is worth cubic dollars. Very valuable.
tomi-ii at 02:36 PM on 04/07/08
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These blurry-ish cellphone photos kinda add to the retro-feeling!
poxpopulus at 02:38 PM on 04/07/08
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@badco/LoJ:

They regularly go for over 50 Large at auction.
smoke~ at 03:05 PM on 04/07/08
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Beautiful!
Vintage Racer at 03:09 PM on 04/07/08
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The only other thing this one needs are the Safari Windows - the ones that flip out at the bottom.

Used to work with a guy who had one of these - THE best beach cruiser...
voodoojoo at 03:28 PM on 04/07/08
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The sheer number of windows hold me back from my absolute fantasies with this one. Seeing not four, not six, but 21 windows to keep up conjures up images first of fear, nervousness and maintenance long before those images of perfect cruises even think about arriving. Those images, it must be said, are probably too stoned to remember to show up in my brain anyway. Anywho, I'm off to go drool at that Ford.
JSmith53 at 03:36 PM on 04/07/08
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21 window, but 25 pieces of glass!
PeteJayhawk at 03:40 PM on 04/07/08
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It saddens me to picture Murilee cooped up in an office like us mere mortals. It somehow just seems, well, wrong.

Free Murilee!
Andrewpetty at 04:12 PM on 04/07/08
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When I think of all the dirty smelly hippies that must have been inside that thing during its tenure as a means of transportation, I am filled with rage. Rage or jealousy, maybe.
monkeyboy04 at 05:08 PM on 04/07/08
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The only thing more fun than that would be the 23 window... I love old Busses and I hated selling mine years ago.
bmwloco at 05:31 PM on 04/07/08
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Viva Buses! I love my '85 Westy and '73 Thing, but a 21 Window Bus is da bomb.
squablow at 06:06 PM on 04/07/08
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Those stickers are new. Someone sells those reproduction now. Not enough patina on them to be old anyway.

Neat bus, I'm betting it cost the owner a small fortune. I'd personally rather have an A100 or a Greenbriar Corvan but that's just me I guess.
dolo54 at 06:41 PM on 04/07/08
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I can't help but think the headline should read:
VW Bus Seen in San Francisco, In Other News, Fire is Hot, Water is Wet.
Turbo Driver at 07:34 PM on 04/07/08
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Someone ain't mentioned the slider roof? All those windows, no rust, AND the slider isn't leakin'?

Somthin' ain't right..
morrisseyscoot at 07:46 PM on 04/07/08
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@maxforrest32: rear windows were on 63 and earlier. This is a 1964 - 1967 model.
morrisseyscoot at 07:48 PM on 04/07/08
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My bus is around 5 years newer than this and worth less than the front windows of this bus. The Sambas are the ultimate VW. AWESOME.
pupils at 07:58 PM on 04/07/08
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Wow - throw in some curtains (a lot of curtains) and it's the Second Base Machine.

Best part? There's a 3" crumple zone, for safty.
Murilee Martin at 08:52 PM on 04/07/08
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@dolo54: @dolo54: You don't see many of them in SF anymore; real hippies drive Tercel wagons these days, and nice restored vintage machinery tends to get wrecked real fast by parallel-parking-challenged SUVs.
Murilee Martin at 08:54 PM on 04/07/08
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@PeteJayhawk: I feel the same way. The Man keeps you down!
charles_barrett at 09:52 PM on 04/07/08
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Geez, given the locale and the vehicle, this thing should be a mobile wheatgrass bar. Grow it in the back, vend it from the front. Very SF in my book.

Oh, and I second the vote, "free Murilee...!"
bozoerrebbe at 10:14 PM on 04/07/08
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21 Window, canvas sunroof, split-window Type 2s are pretty cool, but as a former bus owner (a very slow 67 & a 72 with a hi-po Beetle engine), I'd want a crew cab pickup myself. Though the single cab pickups are nifty too.

Busamino?
Kombichero?
bozoerrebbe at 10:22 PM on 04/07/08
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The 21 window buses are cool, no doubt, but as a former owner of but a '67 split-window and a 72 with so hi-po stuff, I'd want a pickup. The crew cabs are right up there with the Jeep FC-170 in terms of oddball cool quotient.
bozoerrebbe at 10:23 PM on 04/07/08
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sorry about the duplicate post
v8corvairpickup at 01:04 AM on 04/08/08
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Two of my favorite vehicles in the above posting! Almost as cool as the '61 Corvair Loadside pickup that I used to own..
kleinlowe at 07:19 AM on 04/08/08
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@bmwloco: @morrisseyscoot: '86 Syncro Weekender here, seconding the 21-window-lust, and increasing tha Bus representation on board. We need a secret handshake that represents the essence of VW Bus ownership.
dolo54 at 12:26 PM on 04/08/08
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@Murilee Martin: ahh, I was just kidding. I was in SF a few months ago and no, I didn't see any.