I thought bikes were an expensive hobby, then I bought a VW Beetle. It has managed to suck money out of my pocket faster than any woman I have know. But I think the result is worth it –

As I bought it, looks like a decent solid car at this point.

Unfortunately the tin worm had been busy eating away inside the shell. I ended up having pretty much the bottom 6 inches of the body replaced. Someone had “repaired” panels with silicon sealer instead of metal 😯

So after many hours of cutting and welding the body went to paint. All of the manky bits that had been covered in black underseal are now Pearl White again.

The finished article. New triple chrome bumpers, no nasty cheap Brazilian rubbish along with new headlamps and running boards. All I need now is a sunny summer to enjoy driving it 8)

Looking good 🙂

Just decided to pass my 1961 Volvo Amazon on as I can’t bear to sink more money than I have into getting it sorted out 🙁

Looks very nice – I learnt to drive in one just like that (same colour!)
I’m currently restoring a mk1 golf gti & feel your pain re. rust. The rear chassis legs looked pretty good until shot blasting revealed filler repairs on a structural part – beggars belief doesn’t it!

Did you spend so much on the bodywork repairs that you ran out of money to fix the collapsed suspension? 😉

In the first picture.. you should of left it running on LPG.

Nice, does it actually run though? 😉

I prefer the original wheels…

Looks nice though, if that’s your sort of thing.

I owned one,bought it for 850… I sunk 7.5k into it over the 11 years I had it.Better a rotten untouched one than one that had been in the hands of a home restorer. However on a sunny day,when you are not in a hurry 😀 😀 😀

looks lovely Mark, as you know I still prefer the classic mini, ours fresh from restoration about 6 months ago.

Pearl white is such a great colour for VW Beetles and for classic Mini’s for that matter.

I read somewhere that hot air is plumbed through sill vents of VW Beetles?

Is that true and if so, how do they stop that causing rot?

Nice, I hate threads like this as they always get me hankering for another air-cooled VW (the only sort to have!).

But then I recall the expense. And the performance. And the “heater”. The handling. Misting-up. et c. et c. et c.

Did you think about one-piece windows, and do people still even do that?

APF

I read somewhere that hot air is plumbed through sill vents of VW Beetles?

Is that true and if so, how do they stop that causing rot?

From what I have seen, they don’t! Heater channels are always the bits that rot first.

Nice ride.. this is my (very) ongoing project:

Fingers crossed may get it finished this year!