Volkswagen Beetle 1300 1968

I am a professional classic car restorer with 40 years experience in restoring classic cars. I am an expert at sheet metal and welding, and have run my own business for more than 30 years. I am now semi retired and work on select clients cars. When I am not working on clients cars I fill in a few hours here and there on my own projects. I carry out any work that needs to be done to bring the car right back up to a very high standard of repair and condition. This 1968 vw Beetle is the project that I have been working on over the last two and a half years. I originally purchased the car thinking it would only need minor work. After putting it on the lift and examining it, it became obvious that the car had been owned previously by complete bodger's. In every area I was looking at poor quality repairs from electrics to metalwork and welding paintwork and even the way that the engine had been recently put together. A lot of cheap tacky after market parts had been fitted, and there was also a lot of parts that were missing or just didn't work. Even the interior had been painted bright red, in situ. The N/ S heater channel was rotten and badly patched. That was where I started the work. The doors were removed the interior was removed and the N/ S heater channel was cut out along with the lower body and lower inner arches. All replaced with new panels purchased and fabricated parts. All metalwork repairs were left looking as a factory finish. as original before any paint was added. The side of the car was prepped and painted. Rear heater vents were repaired. Problems with electrical cables were rectified. The interior was completely refurbished and upgraded to the slightly earlier design seat covers. These are a better quality vinyl cover with the stitched flutes and the airtex centres, rather than the hot pressed plastic covers fitted to the later 1968 model. The carpets were brand new but badly fitted. I cleaned the carpets and fitted them back in the car with the refurbished seats. A new head lining was fitted new door cards and rear cards were fitted. All new window winders were fitted and rear seat catches and handle were fitted as they were missing. I went right through the electrics removing any wiring that shouldn't have been there or that was dangerously repaired. The car had previously had a full re spray in black. It looked fairly recent. I could see that the paint was thick and had orange peel texture. I flatted back the paint and machine polished it to a high gloss shine. It now looks superb with a mirror finish. The whole of the braking system was leaking. The car had new wheel cylinders new shoes and new master cylinder. It also had new flexi hoses and copper brake lines. Any loose flaky underseal was removed and the whole of the underside and under the arches was re coated in rubberised stonegaurd. A top quality product made by Wurth. The engine was leaking badly from 4-5 different places. It was removed and stripped down. I could see that it had brand new barrels and pistons fitted that had barely been run. Everything was washed and new big end bearings were fitted along with all new oil seals and gaskets. The rocker shafts were polished and had no wear. valves were lapped back in. tin ware was made to fit nicely and all parts re painted before being fitted back to the car. New rear lights and bezels were fitted. New front light bezels fitted and new indicators. It had 2x new horns also. The clutch looked brand new No signs of wear at all so it was re fitted. I also fitted new pushrod tubes, as some were bent and replaced the pushrods. It's got 5x brand new wheels and tyres fitted. Along with new st/ st hub caps. It has had many other parts replaced to bring it up to an extremely high standard. Total parts bill was £2396. 44 Total materials bill was £573. 21 The bill for the 762 hours labour on the car at £35p/ h would be £26670. The full cost of this work carried out on this car would be £29639. 65 If it had been a clients car having the work done. All the work carried out has been done to the highest standards. This is all backed up by a comprehensive picture file of around 400 pictures. This will be put on to a memory stick for the new owner. The detailed pictures of the work show, Some before some after some during specific operations. The car has already got lots of previous bills and receipts for work done over the years. It also has lots of previous MOTs showing mileage. These also show that the car has had periods of time off the road. The car has covered 77559 miles that I would say is genuine looking at the MOTs. I have put together a full report of all the work carried out along with all parts and materials. This can be added to the cars history file. I have put in a few pictures showing the extent of the corrosion. Other pictures showing the top quality repairs carried out to make the car what it is today. If you would like to come and view the car call Andy on the number supplied.