Customers’ Cars: Kevin Blakely’s ’64 VW 21 Window Ragtop Bus
It was about ten years ago when longtime friend and customer of So. Cal. Imports Kevin (aka Kev-un) bought the ’64 Ragtop Micro Bus out of a barn just outside of St. Louis, MO. Technically, you can call it a “barn find” but, the truth is that the Bus had been taken apart in 1982 and had been stored in that barn for twenty-seven years before Kevin came along to rescue it. So, when Kevin took the Bus from the barn it was a project and certainly not the nicely finished beauty that you’re seeing in these pictures.
Being that Kevin has been into classic air-cooled VWs since he was a kid and with the added bonus of being a professional body & paint man for a living, he went into the ’64 Bus project with the knowledge and skill set to whip his new Samba into shape. Sounds good and looks great on paper but after three years of waiting to get the Bus project started, it turned out that Kevin was too busy running his business to make any real progress restoring the Bus. Ultimately, Kevin decided that if the Bus was ever going to get finished, so he could enjoy driving it, he needed to get the work done in someone else’s shop because he didn’t have the bandwidth in his!
It was a difficult decision but the progress started picking up once Kevin moved his Micro Bus project out of his shop to outsource the restoration work to some reputable local providers. The restoration project took four years to complete and it looks like it was well worth the effort! The ’64 Samba is very well done and makes a fantastic presentation. Great job Kevin for getting it done!
Kevin’s ’64 VW 21 Window Ragtop Micro Bus highlights:
• An 1935cc engine and transmission built by Old Speed
• Interior by West Coast Classics Restoration in Fullerton
• Paint & bodywork by Henry Machita
• Original VW Bus 14″ Wheels
