As some of you may know my 1953 Oval was in the stages of a full on resto. A few bits of welding needed doing then it was going for blasting to get rid of years of crap and paint to start afresh! Tuesday was the day.....of it went in a Luton van to be blasted.....I called the bodyshop that evening and the prognosis wasnt good 😞

We, rather nervously, set off on Wednesday eve to go and have a look and decide what was to be done. When we got there the shell was a mess to say the least........someone in the past had cut up a 1953 standard oval and grafted (incredibly badly i might add) the "details" into a mish mash of bits of beetle shells from various years and done some very poor repairs (which are now dangerous) then sculpted the rest with filler 😞 ..............needless to say the money it would take to repair the repairs let alone re sculpting bits in filler would far out weigh the value of the finished item which would always be a fake! So it will be no more 😞

Just a few pics.......

what was once this....



now looks like this.....



1953 door pillar pressings welded in...



rear quarter, passenger side with blob of filler left on to show how thick it was...



drivers side of dash...



inside front wheel arch...



rear bumper mount....the other side was worse



rear inner wheel arch...



even gone to the effort of cutting out the old body number and welding it into the "new" shell.....



theres loads more but you get the idea! No one, even the the more knowlegeable vw enthusiasts that saw it at shows suspected anything was wrong with it just a bit of tatty paint in places and a bit of rust in the front wheel arch! Goes to show you cant trust anyone even in VW'ers :evil:




On the plus side, even though its a very small plus side, at least it was blasted cos that showed what a state it was before any major work was done!

I spent the evening last night with a friend looking over the shell and have found even more evidence of non factory "grafting"

I feel for you! That is everyones worse nightmare! :shock: :evil:

I can lend you a blunt knife if you want to go and pay the previous owners a visit!

I had a good look around this at a show (cant think which) and it was a car that I would have just bought there and then, no messing! Well, if I had the cash!


So what year roughly was the shell? Late 50s or did they go to the trouble of fitting a complete front end to a 60s bug? :shock: :roll:

What a shame! I really liked this car and it is worrying to think that when I and indeed everyone else saw it it just looked like a nice clean original early oval standard!:cry: :twisted:


Is the chassis a "cut n shut" as well or is that the original 53 cable braked one?

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Oh no!!
That's terrible news. :cry:
So there'll be one less RHD standard around now.

If the work had all been done well it would be a whole different matter.

Malc

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Like I said on the phone... Gutted for you. 😞

I really thought you had a lovely looking Bug :cry:

Did you get anywhere with the Ausy Shell?

Can't believe how bad it looks..

Speak soon about the parts?

Julian

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WOW! :shock:

Really feel for you, that is unbelievable. Not sure who you had look at it but I for one can tell straight away that the under tank bulkhead panel is not pre Aug-55. Not that it would lead you to believe the car is a fake but you would perhaps do some more digging had you known.

PM you contact's as I may know someone that can make use of the shell (or more as is).

bloody hell!! is this the car that was on ebay for 6k? 7k?, whys the whole rear window section been grafted in? is this even an oval? or just a collection of bits?, do you have pics of the car before blasting?

:wink:


It was a lovely car! I have looked around it a good many of times and have never thought it was anything other than a origial standard 53!:cry: :evil:

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All you can see in this picture before the striping is that there is a bit of a dodgy patch on the inner RHS wing! :shock: You would have never have known!:roll: 😳 :?

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i meant bigger colour pics of the whole car, ive never seen the car in the flesh, but i remember ringing the guy when it was for sale on ebay, i think it had a 7k reserve!, it certainly shows how good it is to buy a car in original paint! as no nasty surprises!

Edit

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effing hell! those inner rear wings are a patchwork quilt, no offence but i wouldnt of bought this car after seeing that, its an oval windscreen aperture, not later

But if the original car was from oval ear why did they let in the 53s dash etc? :?: :wink:

Im guessing that the shell was anything from 58 - 63!:roll:

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it looks like the dash has been repaired not replaced

thats a bit naughty someone having done this and passed it off as a age correct stock bug, its been done from the start to decieve, if it were a slammed bug ratty or resto cal you could be led to believe it was done to achieve oval looks by someone who could not afford or locate an oval, but passing it off as a standard 53 in stock form is disgracefull and probably illegal by swapping the id number over,is the chassis a 53 with the correct id (not a welded number put in)and the engine/box correct for the year? does nobdy know the past history of this cars reg number and who owned it in the past? if you paid proper money for this car i feel very sorry for you as you have been clearly cheated.

That's shocking! I had a good look around this car at the Sussex show last year and although it wasn't perfect, I certainly would have never dreamed it would be this bad!!

Didn't the guy you bought it from in Essex do the 'restoration' work before you bought it (fairly recently)?

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H'mmm, interesting as inserting an Oval windscreen frame would be the most difficult thing to do and it does look correct.

Perhaps the answer on the dash is that it was once LHD? Doesn't explain the fitting of an entire rear window section unless perhaps this had been heavily damaged in the past.

Is the registration KFF 194 a DVLA non-age related reissue? If it is, then it would be worth writing to the DVLA in order to track its history. As stated above, is the chassis number correct for year?

i think you should be chasing up who ever did the resto on this car & pop a cap in their ass :shock:

:shock: That is a sad story !
Is that car restored in Holland??
Because I have seen other cars repaired the same way!

Guido

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Hi guys thanks for most of the comments.....

Yes it was the "ebay" car but i paid no where near the reserve,

When i bought it i knew it wasnt perfect and had had some obvious "repairs" hence the resto to get it as correct as possible.

Im sure everyone that has owned classic VW's has had their fair share of "nasty surprises" but as you can see this one is/was a particulary nasty one that no-one suspected!

Stu- the dash has definately been replaced what makes you think it has been repaired?

Yep its definately been done to decieve, why else would they have bothered welding in the door pillar pressings!

As far as i was told it was "restored" in 1994-1995 near London and as for contacting the DVLA...im not sure i want to know :?

what are your plans for it now?, are you trying to get your money back?