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My '59 Beetle is back!
stavel59 - September 29th, 2009 at 12:37 PM

Hi folks, I'm fairly new to Aussieveedubbers but I've had a few beetles and a bus over the years. I'd like to share some pics of my '59 that was a proverbial "barn find". Back in 1998 (ish) an elderly local bloke saw my '72 superbug and told me he had an old Vw in his shed. It belonged to his brother who had died and had sat in the shed under some tarps for over 18 years. I went round to have a look, lifted a tarp, saw it had semaphore indicators and handed over the $400 required make it mine. The first pic is the day it arrived home. The '59 was in excellent condition and didn't take much to get going. I tinkered with it for a couple of years then regrettably lost interest in all things VW and sold it to a bloke called Jack. Jack did all the hard work in restoring the '59 (see pic of shiny beetle with accessories) then sold it on. Two owners later and the '59 belonged to Johnny. Johnny preferred the cal look (see cal-look pic). He moved interstate recently and the '59 was back on the market. Enter Eddie (Local VW guru) who gave me the heads up and after 8 years the '59 is mine again. I've since been undoing the cal mods with the intention of restoring it to original (with period accessories). I'll post new pics soon.

beetleboy88 - September 29th, 2009 at 04:32 PM

awesome story:)

Scarab - September 29th, 2009 at 07:27 PM

nice one...there are a few cars I've had in the past that would be nice to re-buy!! :D

colonel mustard - September 29th, 2009 at 10:09 PM

good stuff :)

Goitsy - September 30th, 2009 at 07:55 AM

How good is that.:tu:

Jvan - October 1st, 2009 at 01:21 PM

Awesome Stuff Steve.
I notice you didn't include current photos of it with my 14" Van rims on.
Ha har!
Cheers, J

stavel59 - October 1st, 2009 at 07:23 PM

I'll take a pic this weekend! Looks like a Baja at the moment with the 14" rims on inside out! (o ! /o)

ragtopp - October 7th, 2009 at 08:27 PM

Nice story mate, not sure about the guru comment but.
How come you missed the part about fitting those wrong offset 14 inch rims and me needing to spin them around on the side of the road and snap off the hubcap clips just to get home?? Ha Ha it looks so tough with the rears reversed

stavel59 - October 12th, 2009 at 10:08 PM

Ha Ha! I left that bit out for obvious, embarrasing reasons! Got standard 15" on now, looks a bit more authentic. No pics yet, haven't finished mounting the new indicators. Stay tuned.

Golde60 - October 13th, 2009 at 12:18 AM

I bought my ragtop off of eddie about 2-3 years later.
All finished now.

He certainly had a few cars in that shed back then.

Rural Baja - October 14th, 2009 at 04:27 PM

Top yarn! Good to see she went to a good home.

Saw this on ebay, was very close to buying i too. Looks oddly like my mag wheels too...