Current restoration work: '54 Beetle Sliding-Ragtop, '59 Beetle Sedan, '60-'59 KG Cabrio, '62 KG Coupe '63 Notchback, '64 Notchback, '65 Beetle Sedan '66 21-Window Bus, '69 KG Cabrio, '70 Bus '71 KG Cabrio, '73 412,
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~ 1954 Sliding Ragtop Beetle ~ revolksrevolksrevolksrevolksrevolksrevolksrevolks |
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Restoration by
reVOLKS will be getting underway soon.
This very early Beetle will be going through the restoration process with the end result being a
very stock finish. While 'Camilla' is used in the daily driver function, end result will be non-trailer-queen
show car.
The owner is so adamant about Camilla 'earning' her keep, he actually drove it to us for the restoration work to take place! Like I said 'no trailer queen'!
The owner wants her returned to her original glory, which entails some minor panel work, removal of some later model safety updates. New paint matching the original color and codes and new interior in keeping with her graceful age and heritage. Functional semiphores will be returned to her B-pillars and some chassis work is also involved. |
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Some views of 'Camilla' as we received her. These pics were taken after the owner drove her to our shop from his home which is over 1.5 hours away in a modern day vehicle traveling on 70MPH highways!!! Camilla runs so well, we didn't hear her cruising into our parking lot. When I first asked the owner to drive her into the shop to put her on the lift, I thought the engine was off and then she purred forward into the bay!
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The more astute enthusiast will notice that Camilla has some "late model" accessories adorning her wings. Yes, those upper tail lights on the rear and signal lights on the front wings were not there when Camilla was first rolled off the line back in the fatherland. They came to be later on in her life as additional safety equipment. Perhaps those additions (which will be removed) were part of the reason Camilla lived so long with no accident damage. Did I mention no accident damage? Well, the owner confesses to having a late night burger & fries hunger pain and apparently due to exhaustion from lack of caloric intake, neglected to check for curb-side guards when pulling up to the order speaker: "Would you like to try one of our frosty shakes with your fender bender Sir?"
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Camilla's engine is all in-tact and running just fine thank-you. Conciencious ownership throughout her life has yeilded a still-running-strong original 30 horse power plant that insists on staying 6 volt and crashing through the gears of her split-case transaxle. Even the axle boots are still original and still intact. Amazing!
The interior is.... well lived in and open up top to the warm weather that frequents these parts of the
Ozark mountains and being so well loved (read: driven) it's showing a wee bit here and there ;)
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What can we say? She's nearly all original and all the original parts are still good/functional! The semiphores will be getting some NOS lenses after the solenoids are restored and a little wiring gets corrected here and there. The glass will benefit from some soft rubber as will most of the body seals. |
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Here we see Camillia's owner happily? scraping someone else's idea of carpet insulation from the original floor pans. For some reason, the PO decided to recarpet Camilla and opted to use house carpet and underlayment?! The first pic shows Bill scraping away at the foam underlayment. All that rusty looking surface is actually the foam-chip underlayment. The next two pics show the floor pan after it had been sufficiently scraped free of the foam-chip underlayment. There was a little rusting, but nothing really to worry about. Bill applied liberal coats of 'Rust-Mort' which is like a muriatic acid-smelling compound that neutralizes the rusting. If you look closely at the first picture you can see the old styled long ebrake handle and just behind that, you can see....??? the old style and location for heater control. Yes. The faucet-style heater knob used to be positioned behind the ebrake handle in the early Vdubs. |
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The first picture here shows the area that is behind/below the rear seat. This surface is referred to as the "luggage floor". It is very typical to see this metal rusted through in many places like swiss cheese perforations. The earlier Beetles seem to be able to hold-up better in this area than the later models. Like their original floor pans which are all just about 50 years since they were installed... Go figure?! The second pic here shows parts of Camilla's interior being boxed and crated up for storage while the body undergoes work. The last pic here shows the body as it gets stripped down. This last pic was the result of many hours of liberal spraying of Liquid Wrench oil on all fasteners around the fenders. The glass was also removed here and the doors had their window lift channels and regulators removed too for restoration. |
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