well hello to all, well im a newbe to your site and i would like to show you my car and it rebirth!!!
it all started back in may of last year, i had my eye on a 60 rhd rag top for some 10yrs trying to buy it but to no avail.
then last year on my birthday may the 3rd i went along to see my friend andy, some of you might know of him he lived in the woods at gunhill east sussex??? know as vw auto revival?? well to cut a long story short!! he finaly sold it to me on my b/day i paid the grand sum of £1000 pound which i thought was a good price???? what does everyone else think??.
the car stayed in his yard till november 7th then i had the sad news andy was very ill so i aranged to collect the car and see how he was, sadley andy passed away on the 11th r.i.p andy. so now i have made it my goal to rebuild my car in andy memories.

well thats enough of the dit, right here we go (sorry to the purst on here) the car started its life as a rhd rag top then some were in its life (before me) it inherited a steel split rear section i was going to remove it but it's been done so well i have decided to leave it there.
it was origanly turkis with the interior matching ie: green steering wheel hand brake lever and grab handle, ive been told (how correct) im not sure but these were a ltd run of cars???.
the car is now home and i have stripped it down to a bare shell as it need so much work all the bottom 6" front and rear valences bonnet engine lid etc. i have brought nos doors bonnet and deck lid so on with the resto, i built myself this frame/rotissorie to work on the car.
i am building a couple more that i will be selling if anyone is intrested???????.
thats enough tping there will be plenty more to follow.,


this is how i found my rag



on her way home to start resto as you can see she has the wrong engine lid cover and reg.
then got her stripped to this



now sitting on my spit!!!


thank you for looking please feel free to let me know what you think any tips or advice greatfully recived

Welcome to pre67. Great little project you got there. However I would have to say that you should remove the split rear window section as a RHD small window ragtop bug is a pretty rare thing these days and unless you're not keeping it stock it just won't look right.

Considering the amount of work you've done and by the looks of it are going to do it should be relatively easy to remove! :wink:

well i have toyed with the idea, but it's trying to find the missing window section.....
are these early rhd rag tops rare??? not sure on the numbers???

Welcome to the forum...

I'd leave the split window in, it's not original obviously - but it's now part of the cars history (and looks kinda kool). :beer:

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well thank you i feel welcomed and i thinkit does give my car the one off factor,
its like a split personality???

Welcome to pre67vw!

I only live a few miles away from you and drove past your car a few times when it was parked on the main road at Cooksbridge. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a genuine Split so had to stop and take a closer look!

My personal opinion is that the large rear window should be re-instated if you can get your hands on one.

Good luck with the project.

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thats the one rich, im still not decided on the window?? if your ever passing more than welcome to popin and have a look and a chat the kettle is allways on regards rick

You could sell that split window section to recoup your cost if you choose to go back to stock, maybe even some profit.I personally think it would make some nice wall art8) . Keep up the good work theres plenty of support on here:d

Pleas don´t weld on the entire lower rear quarter panel repair section! Cut it down and use as little as possible and save as much of that good quality original VW steel as you can.

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thanks for all you replys i will be thinking hard over the next few weeks about the rear screen,
as for cutting the rear 1/4 thats as far as its being cut the german metal is far stronger than the repair panels, i will be posting all my works on the forum (hope i don't boar you all) as for the advice the more the merry i belive you can't ever have enough advise???

now the biggest choice i want to paint the (not personaly) i have two choice's in colours i prefer coral red L351 just love this colour or put it back to turkis???? please help give me your thought's.
regards rick:beer:

I reckon back to Turkis. I think it would be great to see such an unusual car returned back to how it left the factory.

You actually have a '61 model there (ie: manufactured after July 1960). The '61 Turkis Beetles were unique as they had a lot of 'one year only' colour-coded parts (steering wheel, gear stick, handbrake, rubber mats, passenger grab straps, dashboard grab handle, rear kick-boards, sunroof cover, running board covers and one-year-only 6-wire indicator stalk).

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i would say keep it turkis also but saying this coral red is nice
as i just got my australian 59 coral red back yesterday, so back to this as my daily ride now
so i may sell that 52 rich as im after a 51 now

well i agree with you again rich i have the gear stick handbrake lever and stering wheel, grab handle etc in a green sort of colour i will take a pic see what you think??
are they rare then these cars?????????? was it a factory option or a ltd edition ?? does anyone know......

Look forward to the pics.

All Turkis '61s came with these coloured parts. There are not many original RHD Turkis '61s left now.

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Looking good!

I've dropped you an email :wink:

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i wonder if there is anyway of finding out just how many original rhd turkis rags there were, and how many there are still on the road.
as i say rich if you are ever passing you are more than welcome to pop in

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of one RHD '61 Turkis ragtop and there will be no records surviving to show how many were built/imported.

Likewise, if you're ever passing thru B.Hill, you're more than welcome to pop in.

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well you now know of one lol mine......... its going togo back to factory spec me thinks???
do you go to the heritage meet on the last thursday of the month??? im going to the next one only found out about it couple of weeks ago?? going to try and sort my t4 out so i have a ride to go in don't think the astra CUTS it he he

Yep, I'll be there- it's about 2 mins drive from my house.

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ok for some hay what dateand time is the next one????
so could i be the only rhd 60/61 turkis goldie rag top in the uk/maybe the world that would be so cool and make my bug unique worth a lot of pennys???????????????????????? i can only dream