Alas, after years of trying to buy a particular 56 Single Cab, we were finally able to purchase it and bring it home.
The story begins 12 years ago when we were camping with my wife's family. A gentleman noticed I was wearing a VW t-shirt and asked me if I was into Volkswagens. He went on to tell me he had a "56 transporter" with less than 5000 miles on it. A bit incredulous but very intrigued I listened on.. He told me that he worked for Coppers Int'l - a company that worked with about 86 acres of creosote products. According to him the company was paying $5000 per month in fire insurance so the company inquired and found that if they had an on site fire truck their insurance would be $500 per month (the figures seem unrealistic but this is how it was reported and I get the idea - their insurance was exponentially lower). The company purchased a new 1956 VW single cab, painted it red, and dressed it up as a fire truck with hoops, hoses, and pumps. The SC was never registered and basically sat in wait for emergencies. When the local fire departments changed their trucks from red to green the SC was also painted green. When this gentleman retired from the company in the 80's he purchased the truck from the company with roughly 400 miles on it. The gentleman drove the truck on occasion until 1987 in which time he had brought the miles up to 4887. We would visit this gentleman about once a year and occasionally make an offer but he was never ready to sell it until now.
As we filled out the paperwork today he told an amusing story. The truck has a step rear bumper, and the truck was responding to a fire one day. There were three guys on the bumper and apparently there was only one wheel cyllinder that was actually working at the time. While on route the truck stopped and the one cyllinder grabbed making the truck swerve. The guys on the back went flying off and the truck stalled. They couldn't get the truck going again, and the guys in the field had the fire out by the time they finally showed up. I will post more pics of it when I have time (will probably give it a thread).
One of the nicer surprises was that he had all four mint original tires from the truck stored in his shed and the spare has never been out of it. Everything is quite original and intact. The only items added seem to be a rear view mirror, a Blaupunkt radio, an antenna, the hoops (non OG) and step bumper (still has the original pressed truck bumper around it...it's kinda cool).
Here is a photo with the gentleman we purchased it from.
