Hi Dubbers.

I have been in two minds as to progress this project given i have too many things to do and not much time but the family has convinced me to soldier on and get it done even though i've been tempted to let it go.

Before i start, any Oval purists may look at this as a crime to slice up a 55 beetle but let me say it was in pretty bad state of repair when i got it. Once i decided to go forward it was sent to Minus Paint here in Adelaide where Frank the business owner spent a lot of time getting the rust neutralised as well as some serious paint stripping and rust prevention, after all that it has come out looking reasonable.

The floor pan was in good condition so it is still a numbers matching car.

The car needs a lot of work, it needs, both heater channels, the front spare tyre section, both rear 1/4, both rear bumper hangers, rear apron, both lower inner door sections, bonnet and W deck lid all need extensive repairs.

The choice to put a split window int oit was made after the car was considered scrap but moving forward we think it will end up looking sweet, after all i dont think any VW person would mind seeing a split on the road, even at the cost of an oval.

Here are some photos so far, im trying to get the photos of the car from Minus Paint as the car passed through the paint stripping and rust proofing process. I will ad those as soon as they arrive in my in-box.

The floor pan has been stripped and powder coated in Satin black as well as the front beam, axle tubes, trailing arms and pretty much everything that bolts onto the pan.

My aim is to reproduce the look of the 38/06 prototype recently resurected by the Grundmann Brothers with an all BLACK look..

Body shell

Finished window

How it presented to the Adelaide Auto Expo and Volksfest here in Adelaide a few weeks ago.

Here is a Jig i made to work on the body, hopefull in the next few months i'll get some welding done. Stay posted for updates on the metal repairs.

That is a crime......... there should be a stroker motor in there.

Very nice metal work.

Very nice

I would now hit it in a crazy colour just to hear the comments...
"OMG how can you paint a zwitter in Candy Lime Green with a Gold Pearl!?!?!"
"Its custom"
"Oh thats ok then"

Nice work by the way... wish i knew how to do this kind of crazy stuff.

Can't figure out what you have used for the split graft.Looks like there are 2 halves of the frame. You have done an excellent job with that. Never worry if what you are doing might piss somebody off. The ones that make the most noise have sheds with Fxxk all in them.If it ended up with a big motor and 20 inch wheels - it would still be awesome.I like your work .

A pair of Hookey's in the UK, "A" Pillar repair sections, theses are the best ive seen for fittment, they fit perfect and are of correct thickness metal.

A pair of Classic fab period correct heater channels, these are also the great parts.

If your doing some A pillar and heater chennel repairs there are the bee's knees, yes they are $1000 a pair shipped to your door but you cant get better parts unless you magically find NOS ones. Thats never going to happen!

A guy in Finland makes inner/lower repair sections for ribbed doors, they are amazing as well, so well made and a reasonable price for what you get.

In the next week or so i may get stuck into the car with the grinder and start making some progress on the repairs.

I'll keep you posted as i go. thanks for the comments so far.

Love it! Looks great mate, the matt black looks good too!

Still cant figure out what you used for the split graft. Is it an original cut? I thought about doing a split conversion on an Oval one day.

A few years ago I spoke to Barry Lord about a mould he had to do a glass dash for a spliity . He's dissappeared -

I asked Ian Poynter at the VW show and hes sure Barry still has the mould. Wish I had caught up with you at the show about your car.

Thanx for sharing.... Always nice things coming out of your garage, certainly have the nack of producing sweet rides

looks great

that's the ducks guts Paul
great work on that

Yeh guys it is the Kafer-Nostalgie conversion panels. Its a 2 piece bit of kit, the pressings are pretty good and its not a difficult job. Happy to help anyone one out who is thinking about doing it. Took me about 6 hours, give or take.

As you can see the car has a lot of surface rust when i first got it, the whole interior was rusted, under the roof, rear parcel shelf was totally rusted as well as the roof and most of the car and panels.

looks like there is little rust hey??? Wrong! pin hole city!

The whole lower 6" of the car has to be replaced.

Nice project following!

Sweet as paul. Looking forward to seeing this progress. Does need a big stroker though.
T54

Minus paints is the way to go. I had my Oval done there as well. At least right from the start you know what metal you have and were all the rust is. Money well spent. You are doing a great job, had a bit of a crawl over it at the Volksfest the other week. Cheers

Nice. Is the split fitting custom made, a kit from somewhere, a cut (gasp, choke) from a split or is it made up from other window sections by you.

Very nice work.

Any updates on this?

been a bit slow on this build as I've had soooo much on with other cars. I'll take a few tonight and put them up tomorrow.

Looking good !

So the body came back from Minus paint but like most VW's it had its fair share of rust.

I have replaced both heater channels, both A pillars, both front inner wheel wells, left rear lower 1/4, both rear bumper brackets and the whole rear Apron.

Some small repairs and hopefully it will be ready to ship off to the paint shop by the end of the month.

*Having trouble getting pics to load!

SWEET build up!

The new rear apron has arrived from Das Resto, cheers Steve. I have prepped the back side with weld through zinc primer to prevent any further rust.