1957 - CKD Kiwi Oval - £30,000


SOLD 

Assembled in as many as 19 countries around the world CKD kits were mostly produced to combat import duties as well as to take some pressure off the Wolfsburg plant, which was running flat out manufacturing cars for the home market.
To begin with the main CKD plants were situated in Ireland, South Africa and Brazil. In 1954 plants were opened in Australia, Belgium and New Zealand
VW Motors (New Zealand) was owned by a company called Motor Holdings ltd, which started as a franchise for Jowett Cars, in 1953 they changed over to Volkswagen and started assembling CKD cars at their Otahuhu plant, which were first shipped from Wolfsburg then later from Australia.
As this car was built in New Zealand it does not say Made in Germany on the id plate.
Because so few cars were built at the Otahuhu plant 35 cars a day with 250 staff compared to Wolfsburg who could complete more vehicles in 3 hours than then the New Zealand plant could built in a year, it is said that the build quality of the Otahuhu vehicles was better than the Wolfsburg cars as the staff had more time to spend on getting the detail right. In its advertising Otahuhu claimed Superior to its German counterpart rather than the common spot welds which hold body sub-assemblies together, this Oval has been seam welded throughout! Though the chassis and engine have numbers the body is lacking the normal stamps.
Its claimed 40% of the vehicles parts were made in New Zealand. Including the glass that is armour-plated! Seat upholstery, headlining cloth, carpet and trimming, tyres, wiring and paints.
This Kiwi Type 114 Export limousine CKD would have rolled off the Otahuhu assembly line long after Wolfsburgs dispatch date of 24th May 1957. Its most likely this car left the Otahuhu factory after production of the Oval stopped in Europe. As the kit took at least 6 weeks to reach New Zealand.
The chassis number 15275577 and engine number 1862360 were dated by Wolfsburg as being produced on 22nd May 1957, but the car wasn't!
The car was painted in Beige with dark beige wheel rims, Local colours.
There were two choices of colours for the interior for this year, light beige K171 or red K168, this Oval had the red K168 interior fitted.
The first owner was a Mr T R Marriott from Auckland who lived in the Great North Road area. Registered under the number H93506, Mr Marriott kept the car until at least March 1960 as an Auckland Municipal Motor Test certificate was uncovered beneath the under bonnet sound proofing containing these details.
This Oval Beetle it is claimed was keep in the Auckland motor museum between 1960 and 1990, until the museum closed and all the cars were sold. If this is true it would explain the excellent condition of the car, the low mileage, less than 2000 miles per year and why the odometer has some faded numbers. The car was sold to a Mr Frederick Keith of Green Lane Auckland. .
In July 1990 Mr Keith sold the car to Simon Barnes who lived in the Mount Eden area of Auckland. By this time the 57 had covered 61,985 miles, but within 2 years on the 28th May 1992 Simon sold the car after clocking up 4,315 miles.
On the 25th June 1992 the Oval was shipped to Reading in the UK where unfortunately it was given a rather poor paint job. The 57 ended up in the hands of Michael Harris who lived in Eastbourne, who realised this car was not for him so advertised it for £3950 the add read.
 1957 Beetle, Oval window, beige, red interior, totally original except for respray, no rust whatsoever, same family ownership until 1992, (?) only 66,000 miles, real collectors item, £3950 Ono.
The car was quickly brought by Ivan McCutcheon the editor of Volksworld at the time who recognised the rarity of the car and who said it looked good but the paint was dreadful but on the plus side there was no rust and it was by far the cleanest original underside on a Oval we had seen in a long time
Ivan quickly set about restoring the car which included a respray, engine rebuild with NOS parts and replacing and renovating numerous other bits on the car.
The car was then sold to a friend of Ivan Andrew Carpenter of Caterham, on the 9th of May 1998 who had it until I brought it 7th September 1999 and I have looked after it and cherished it every since.
It always been our only car as we didn't have a modern car but has been used infrequently as I live close to London, have free train travel and used the train and tube to travel to work, it was used for high days and holidays, occasional trips to the shops and taken to VW shows in Europe and the UK having been to Wolfsburg for a special anniversary meeting, to the Hessisch Oldendorf, and Bad Camberg Meetings, its even been to Copenhagen where the 6v battery failed and I was lucky enough to be able to buy a 6v Varta battery from a local garage, which wouldn't happen in the UK, (that battery lasted such a long time!) Daisy (her name) hardly ever broke down just the odd part failing over the nearly 20 years I have had the pleasure of owning her and she was always garaged when at home.
After having so much loyal service from Daisy I decided a few years back it was time to lavish some tender loving care on her and decided to have a restoration carried out so contacted my good friend and excellent mechanic James Wotton who had done some servicing on Daisy at Vee Dub in Welling SE London, [[email protected]][email protected][/email].
He said he would do all the mechanics and welding and advised me to have a sympathetic restoration done as the car was so original and still in very good condition with all the original panels. He suggested his good friend Perry at Perry Auto Paintwork for the bodywork as he had painted many show winning cars and as his workshop was just round the corner from James workshop and it would make life so much easier. I totally trust James and went on his recommendation for Perry.
For the interior I had to do some digging and came up with Cass Bros in Bromley Kent which were came highly recommended by the local VW club, Paint Scrapers, I contacted Gary at Cass Bros and arranged to look at some of his work and could see why they had recommended him, it was excellent and his attention to detail was second to non, I explained to him I wanted to keep the interior as original as possible and he agreed and would only repair what needed to be done. Unfortunately the carpets were moth eaten and these had to be replaced, I managed to source some German square weave carpet from MadMatz that matched the originals, Gary used the original carpets as templates to make the new set, he also re-stuffed and recovered the front seats and did minor repairs to the rear door card and headliner. I was very pleased with his work.
Its too much to mention here the work James and Perry carried out on the car but I will give a little detail, the original wings, bonnet doors and engine lid where removed and repaired by James, the body was also checked and repaired where necessary, the engine was removed, checked, cleaned and parts fitted where required, the brakes were checked and cylinders replaced or repaired as required. All others mechanical parts were inspection and renewed as necessary.
The engine lid was repaired as the bottom by the handle has rusted through, by Steve at Hookys Panel Shop http://www.hookyspanelshop.comrecommended by our own Rod Sleigh a member of the HVC who also supplied me with an NOS inner panel for the lid. I had the lid couriered up to Steve, as I live in Bromley Kent and Steves workshop is in Colne Lancashire, but it was well worth it, as the job Steve did was out of this world! You couldn't tell any repair had been carried out it looked like an NOS lid!
When all the mechanicals were completed
It was off to Perrys bodyshop for Perry to work his magic, nothing was left to chance with Perry his work is top notch, he involved me every step of the way, sending me numerous pictures. The paint was sent away for a match as it was a New Zealand colour not the normal VW colour. He even found on the market some sort of rust inhibitor like a gritty paint he advised me to use in the crevices of the wings and panels to stop rust and water ingress. The original engine tinware was striped and painted, a new engine fire wall was fitted and the underside was painted and oil was sprayed into areas which couldn't be painted.
I did as much work as possible to cut down on cost, stripping the car down and rebuilding it. Most of the chrome (I had some NOS handles) including the bumpers which are original and stamped with the VW logo, were striped and triple chromed by Mark at MellowsEton Ltd http://mellowseatonltd.com who gold plated the 2012 Olympic torches! New Flat4 wing mirrors were fitted
My friend Chris at http://www.volkswagenemporium.co.uk supplied many of the NOS parts
I fitted some Brazilian original pop-out rear windows I'd brought about 20 years ago, an original restored Blaupunkt radio was sourced from Mike at https://www.chromelondon.com/ and fitted along with a NOS HIRSCHMANN VW Beetle Red Tip Aerial 2150 I brought from KK many years ago. I also brought a new set of VW Classic hubcaps that are made on the original presses but they claim the chrome is better.
Seb at [/url][url=http://www.thegermanjunkies.com/]http://www.thegermanjunkies.com helped me no end with NOS parts including rear lights and lenses, original VW NOS beauty rings in their box! speedo chrome ring, brake reservoir and ignition switch. He also recommended a pair of Hayburners fender shirts/spats which I've always liked. http://hayburner.co.uk . He repaired and painted my original running boards, I wanted him to repair my steering wheel but he didn't have the time as he Is restoring a barn door as well as running his business, so I repaired it and got Perry to paint it.
I've also fitted a 1963 Westfalia tow-bar with electrics, Hella flashing indicators, NOS badge bar. A Lincoln period 6v battery, a set of NOS semaphores.
Andy at Alabama Tyres fitted a Set of 5 165SR15 Michelin XZX(15590) recommended for the Oval, Andy can also balance the old style wheels and is excellent for Modern or classic cars in you live around the South London area.
The restoration cost me around £17,000, I added up all the receipts I could find, but that doesn't include the many months I spent working on Daisy, but sadly after all that work we have decided to move house and there's no room for Daisy at our new place it wasn't my intention when I set on on the restoration to sell Daisy its just the way things have worked out. So if your in the market for a Kiwi CKD Oval that has all matching parts and panels, that has had loads of TLC lavished on it you know who to contact. [[email protected]][email protected][/email]
And I nearly forgot the mileage is 97918, so I've clocked up about 30,000 miles in 19 years. Not bad!
Price £30,000 ono

 

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