First off an aircooled VW might seem an odd choice but with my zero mechanical knowledge simple is best and Ben knows VW’s inside and out so it was the obvious choice in the end. We did consider Volvo 740’s, Escorts and old Audis etc. but where’s the fun in that? No doubt we’ll find out to our cost but we’re going to stick to it!

So we started the strip down of the car to see what we had bearing in mind neither of us had seen it having just whacked a bid on eBay. It was immediately obvious that the chassis needed some work so the body had to come off. Only 16 bolts hold he body to the chassis on a Beetle!!!

I remember thinking “body off restos” were something amazing when I was part of the scene back in ‘87/’88 etc. Pah - it’s just a big Meccano kit when you’ve a nice air tool to hand - oh and a big tractor.

Having seen the extent of the work involved we thought and thought and thought. A straight forward resto would be fairly simple but Beetles just don’t do it for either of us. Ghias, Type 3s, Splits, Bays yes but maybe because since 1988 the Beetle scene doesn’t appeared to have moved on. It’s STILL Cal-look or resto-Cals……

Anyway a cup of tea beckoned….

We’ve managed to source a tax exempt VW Beetle for under £100!

Didn’t think it was going to be possible but this one is a shed and would need the entire floorpan rebuilding and the shell though ok on first inspection its actually pretty poor the more you look. If we’re honest it’s a wreck but…

There is one small hurdle we need to clear first though. I have zero mechanical knowledge - in fact I’ve never even changed the oil on a car I’ve owned. Ben on the other hand rebuilds old VW’s from the ground up and is a fully qualified welder. Time for a bit of learning!