Thought it was about time I got some pictures on here of my own little project.
I got my 58 beetle last year, a 58 delux model 38k in first paint all original.
It was a little grubby having been spent the last 15 years in a garage, It also had done battle with a previous owners gate posts due to failing eye sight resulting in a couple of minor dings to the wings.

The plan. Strip it down repair the dents and repaint in original colour then rebuild with new rubbers / felts, a bit of re chroming. Keeping as much as original as possible.

When I say the car is original...... I think you will agree there can't be many around these days that look like this after you clean of the under seal 😃

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All the inner wings and seals look the same, protected for 50 years by the 'Zibart' (think thats how it's spent)  14716.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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😃  14717.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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😃  14718.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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Yes you are right you dont see og paint and inner wings like that very often at all :shock:
I removed nasty thick underseal from Owens brown split and it was shiny under there (not nearly as perfect as yours though!) but the only problem is that once you have done it and marveled for ages at how lovely it is :wink: you then get left with the decision whether to wax under there every now and then........forever :lol: or enjoy it for a few years and then maybe waxoyl? I am thinking of doing that after a year or 2 more?
I must admit I have been looking at your avatar for a while wondering.. capri, fjord?? But you look metallic? its a nice colour, what is it? Are you taking it to Stanford Hall?

And you have got a Harlequin polo!!! I always wanted one of those! 😃

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The colour is L334 Glacier blue metalic (in German it apears a Firn Blu)
mine has actualy got darker and gone rather flat with age. The car is fully stripped now and the true colour is evident on the dash board, under the chrome and number plate etc.
My friend who is doing the paint for me has managed to get the correct formulatd paint from his supplier. It took them a while but the paint is a super match to the dash that will remain original.
Early metalics are a strange finish, lok a bit lke a very fine 'hamerite' finish, no where near as sparkly as modern paint. That was our main concern when originaly ordering.

My plan was to have the car done for Stanford hall but I'm behind schedule :cry: so my absolute must is to be ready for Lavenham. 😃

The Harlequin 😃 😃 😃 , is my wifes car, it was originaly the VW press car. We got it nearly 5 years ago with just 6 1/2k on the clock.
It featured with my MK2 GTI in VW motoring a few years back.
With the arrival of the Bug displacing my golf from its garage, I'm going to have to draft the golf into daily use (it can't stay in my mates garage for ever 😞 ). Owning a Passat as well somethings got to give.
So yep the Harlequin is up for grabs, I've been planning to prep it ready to advertise this spring at the shows etc.
I digress, but as you mentioned it.

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(In a Poirot voice) "AHA, so it IS one of those very unusual '58 only colours just as I suspected!"
:lol:
i dont think I have seen a beetle in that colour before :D
I always think it is nice to see the new paint on the outside but original dash, even if there is a difference in shade, its part of the cars life story.


Top quote
:lol:

Dont even tempt me with that Polo!*! my own old polo(derby shape) is being collected this week as a reluctant sale 😞 but I know I am never going to get round to using it again. (Well thats what my partner keeps telling me? hmm... although he has still got his equally unused Audi Quattro :? I think he has got one over on me?! :lol: ) But my Bini is just too good as a daily to lose it.

But Hey if we start gossiping about 80's water power Rob will reach out from our screens ('The Ring' style) and chop our fingers off! :lol:
.
.
.
(Not really Rob :beer: 😃 )
(Ok, maybe just my fingers then, but I know I usually deserve it :lol: )

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A couple of people have said that now, thats pretty cool 🙂
Its always nice to have somthing a litle unusual.

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That's a beauty. How, where and when did you find it? Do you have any pictures before you started stripping it down?

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Ignore my questions- just bee reading your other posts. I was so tempted to bid on that car!!

I also used to own an August '57 Glacier Blue, low mileage car. It was a Swedish import with 50k KMs on the clock.

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Wow! I'm always blown away when a car this nice turns up in the UK. Just when you start to think all the nice ones are long gone... 😎

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Speacial car - the condition of the inner wings is incredible.

Thanks Guys,
I'll sort out some more photo's soon, I'm in the process of rubbing down the body at the mo. It realy is in incredable condition.
The wings have all been blasted and the minor dents removed, which is great as they are the originals.
Also in the process of putting the engine back together after a strip down for a clean up and to replace all the gaskets.
(did not split the case or remove the heads0 the most intrusive job probably being replacing the rear crank seal. I'll fit a new clutch as well.

I'm getting Pete at 'Cogbox to referb the gearbox, as reverse had a tendancy to jump out and first was a bit noisy. He also does a small mod to stop the normal split box oil drip.


(the little clusters of welding on the wings are where retro fitted indicators were once located, I will not be re fitting them so had the screw holes gas welded)
 14809.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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you're mad to repaint that car!
or replace some of the og bits!
step away from the bodywork! & sell it to me!

i had a similar car in 1989, a 1961
English car, RHD, og paint (Ruby Red), og bumpers, og interior, og running boards, og window trim, og wheel paint....
the inner wings had a protective black coat on them, with shiny ruby red underneath...
wings were the only bodywork dented, just like yours









Oh, & I repainted her! Cos she had a couple of chips on the door edges/on the bonnet, & she wasn't shiny (enough)! :roll:

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Well i thought it and somebody else said it,totally agree Rock Stock.
There is no substitute for original.
100 point resto cars are beautiful,but that original car with 50 years of patina,will always be the best.

😮 :oops: :? :shock:
I agree, I would love to have left it as I found it, I'm not after a super shiny concours car. The dents I could have lived with. Unfortunantly early metalic paint does not have the same longtivity as the solid colours.
The laquer goes very flat (that I can live with, gives that lovely old patina)
but it also goes porous. Mine had done just that, when it got wet the paint got a lot darker as the moisture actualy soaked in to it, and would take seveal hours to dry out again 😞
Not realy visible on the photos, but there was a lot of 'speckling' on the doors, rear quaters and on the sides of the roof.
On rubbing down the car the tiny specs turned into little 'rust worms' under the primer coat.
If I had done nothing my car would have slowly but surly deteriated.
I could not let this happen.
So I decided to repaint it, all the interior will remain original, headlining, carpet, seats, dash paint etc etc.
All the original exterior trim will go back on along with the running board etc.
I want to use my car regularly so a new durable coat of carefuly matched paint seemed like the right thing to do.
I would not realy call it a restoration (hense the title of this post) but if left it would have eventualy needed one.

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Yes, 2108
MAD

You're on the road to taking it from a car I'd look at at a show, to one I probably wouldn't
You'll be eradicating most of its best feature

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preservation not restoration

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Well, having removed all of my car's best feature, the under paint rusting :?
Here's how it looked this afternoon. Ready for priming that should if all went well have been done shortly after I left it.
After sanding and playing with my new grit blasting toy (great thing 😃 I got it from 'Machine Mart along with a 7.5Kg bucket of 80 grade grit for the grand old sum of £32. worth that alone just to get into the rear air grill) I treated the entire shell with 'por - metal ready'. If your not familiar it neutralises/disolves any iron oxide and etches the surface and leaves a coating of zinc sulphate.
All going well I will be flatting of over the next couple of days ready for top coat early next week 🙂  14986.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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rust free  14987.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.

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