1953 Barndoor Deluxe. The bus that started it all!

This is my old Deluxe that I purchased in its former pimp glory back in 1998. Over the next 2 years I worked on it almost every night after my regular day job. This was my first full restoration and I feel the results were very good-- good enough to launch myself into restoring as a career.

The 53 was a typical 80’s bodywork job, cave and pave! To my surprise as I was chipping away on this Bondo castle, the bus was quite dry and solid. Over the course of the restoration, I had to search for basically everything, as the bus was pretty much a shell. Drivable, but not much for interior or parts which were special to the deluxe bus.

It came down to the wire as I neared completion, but I ended up getting pretty much everything I needed. In some cases I may have had to fabricate some of the parts or substitute for the next closest thing.

The bus was finished just before the California Classic/OCTO show. I drove the bus out there to attend the shows and spend some time on the west coast. What a blast to do this in such a rare and unusual bus. After a month or so out west I finally worked a deal on the bus and it went to its new owner who kept in in Montana.

Just recently it finally came out of hiding- where its been for the past 7 years- and now resides back in California. I hope to see this thing in person once again in the near future.