How Much Cooler Can It Get?

How Much Cooler Can It Get?

This 1958 Mercedes Benz 319 is the roof window 鈥淔ensterbus鈥?model of the 319 style truck. This one has been restored and is a RHD example that was originally shipped to Australia. It was imported to Germany in February 2011 and would be an amazing Vehicle to tour through Europe. Special thanks to BaT reader Keith W. for this submission! We have never seen another of these as a RHD model, as most were for the home market. The interior needs a major logo purge, but the factory wheel and speedometer are very cool. The column shifter is on the left, and a vintage Becker or Blaupunkt stereo could be swapped in with a stealth iPod connector for better sound options and looks. There are plenty of windows in the body already, but the additional roof windows make it look like everything above the high belt-line is glass. The red stripe does a good job of breaking up the white monotony, and the roof rack works well.

The interior is a little too street-rod looking, so we鈥檇 kill all the logos and source some red MB-Tex for the seats and benches. Notice the sliding fabric covers for the roof windows and the green driver sun shade. This is a cool looking rig that would garner more attention going down the road that almost any other van. With the aesthetic details sorted, it would come time to see if the gasoline 4-cylinder was really enough to make it useful. If not, we suspect that a creative modern diesel swap would make it a very interesting vehicle to drive. Please observe Bring a Trailer's commenting rules. Even back then Mercedes put their badge everywhere! With all of that glass retrofitting an A/C system seems advisable. What鈥檚 German for, 鈥淒uuuuuuuddddde鈥?鈥? Stating the obvious, maybe, but fenster means window in German. Charles - In other words 319 windows. Wow, puts those VWs to shame.

Since the VW Samba buses started production in 1951 I would say they are this bus鈥檚 daddy. I can鈥檛 even begin to imagine driving this RHD in Europe on narrow mountain roads. I would like to see a camper version though! Wow, my all time favorite a Mercedes Mini Bus. This model here distinguishes itself from the 鈥渟erial鈥?version in that respect that it has a weird window arrangement not usually seen. It is not as pretty though, too many small windows. AND NO it does not have 319 windows (from the german title). It is mini, because at 16 feet they really don鈥檛 take up more space (Parking spot) than regular Mercedes Sedan from that era. Also Mercedes built (to this day) FULL size buses for public transportation or for long distance travel. They are incredible agile and have a turn circle most compact cars could just dream of (30 ! feet). How do I know ? My brother and I had one in the early 80 ies and drove it from Germany to Northern Italy to play on the Tennis satellite tour.

It was converted into a camper. Most guys there had VW buses and we had this huge Mercedes Bus with twice the room and double the gas mileage(35 ! miles per gallon of diesel) . I cannot believe we never took any photos. It was the coolest thing. We ended up selling it and to this day I regret that. It still had some of the original seating with the fold down emergency seats. Production numbers are not too clear, but it鈥檚 estimated about 10,000 buses were built and a very small percentage was actually the 鈥淧anorama Bus鈥?version. 319 refers to the model (officially O319(D)) originally equipped with the 1.9 liter gasoline or diesel motors (your choice). The O standing for Omnibus (loose translation: all passenger bus). I could go on and on. Well, if interested please log into my blog that I am starting and comment briefly with your e-mail address. Anybody who has, or even had one, or photos of them (!) or any 319 truck, van or Bus: I would love to hear from you !