I truly love odd and unusual vehicles, especially ones that you can actually afford to own and drive. The biggest problem with any oddball is finding parts, as most were never built in any significant numbers. If you can find an oddball that was built by a large company, restoring and keeping it on the road might be a bit cheaper and easier, plus when you tell people your odd looking vehicle wasn’t built by a small one-off company, but by a brand like Mercedes it tends to blow people’s minds. This 1960 Mercedes-Benz 0319D Panorama Bus is about as odd as they come, but is going to need lots of work. If you’re up for this challenge, you can find this oddball bus here on eBay in Portland, Oregon. Special thanks to Robert J for this tip!

After VW introduced their Bus in the ’50s, it didn’t take other manufacturers long to copy the general shape and design. If you removed the three pointed star from the grille, most people would write this off as a regular VW Bus. Of course once they started to take a closer look they would realize this is definitely not a Samba. While Mercedes is best known for building luxury cars, they have always been a major player in the work truck and van markets.

Finding parts for this bus will be hit and miss, as some parts are rare and hard to come by, while others can be sourced from any number of ’60s era Mercedes cars. One of the major pieces this bus is missing is its drivetrain, but thankfully these parts can be taken directly from a late ’50s or early ’60s 120 series sedan. This one would have been powered by the 180D 4-cylinder diesel, but you could have also gotten it with a 190 gas engine. I haven’t been able to find the exact model of transmission that these used, but I know it would have had a 2-speed. Someone started installing a Chevy drivetrain, but only got as far as mounting the rear end, driveshaft, and transmission. I’m not sure if there is room in the engine bay for a small block V8, but if you could squeeze one in this would be quite the exciting bus. Using the Chevy parts could save you considerable money and make for an interesting story.

Getting this bus back on the road will be an expensive endeavor (if you full restore it that is), but at least you will be able to find most of the necessary parts to do the job. My biggest concern would be finding any missing trim and deciding what to do with the powertrain. Making the Chevy components work is going to be tricky, but if you pull it off you could save yourself money and have a highly dependable machine with plenty of power. Whichever route the next owner takes, I’m sure it will be quite the conversation piece that will leave most modern day Mercedes owners in disbelief that it was built by the same company as their car. At the end of the day though, all that would really matter to me is the joy I’d get from pulling off the center roof section, loading up the family, and going for a nice drive up into the mountains for some sightseeing and fresh air!