1954 VW Beetle Oval - The labour of madness!

[PASHN8]

Hi guys,

So after umming and aaaahing whilst collecting parts for my '59 rag over the last 6 months I found that I was lacking in some focus and drive.
I've owned over 35 cars in the 14 years i've had my licence, had cars in magazines, shows etc etc so when I get into a project, I get through it quick and there's no messing about, so I couldn't understand why I couldn't get really into my rag this year.

After much forum surving, 'The Day Of VW' last year and meeting up with a few of the Luft boys over the last few months I worked out that i've really been lusting over an early oval.

About 2 months ago I started doing some research and settled on a '54 model year and commenced my passive search. Finally I came across one with the right credentials on ebay, right location and 3 days of negotiating resulted in a trip to Geelong on Monday just past.

The vendors starting bid of $6500 was more than I wanted to spend but after he relisted it 3 times over 2 months without much luck and a few sale fall throughs I came along and nailed the seller to the boards with careful negotiating and I picked her up for a steal (with an old flat screen LCD TV that we no longer needed used as a bargaining chip) and sealed the deal around midday Monday.

Armed with a mates turbo diesel Navara we set off to pick her up before someone could bid from under me, because as you all know, no matter what is said verbally, it ain't yours till the keys are in your hand!

The pics below tell the story!
Saddled up and ready to head home:









Last registered in 1979 with remains of the old tag on the window:



Finally home, drove it from the street down the driveway to its new berth next to Berg the Rag '59:





Chillin'





My 3 krauts!



The 59 rag has been spoken for as of last night, and the new owner should be picking him up on Thursday.
As soon as I return from overseas in May, I will get straight into the oval with gusto!

The car itself is extremely solid and I get more and more impressed the closer we look and is a Sept '54 build with matching month/year engine and body with working semaphores etc!

[carcrazy]

Nice score, I've always loved the Ovals.

Cant wait to see your build.

[Chase Rockwell]

Congrats, I love old VW's.

[Cal]

Nice one mate.

[Dansedgli]

Niceone!! Whats a semaphore?

[Chase Rockwell]

Semaphore is a built in laser for shooting pedestrians. It was Hitlers idea.

[tremolo]

Sieg heil! Nice one.

[The Pupat]

The 59 rag has been spoken for as of last night, and the new owner should be picking him up on Thursday.

Fucker. For some unknown reason I always like beetles.

/edit: Nice buy, looking forward to build up pics.

[big_pete]

Awesome stuff, I love these things!

<subscribes>

[Smashed S15 Bloke]

Explain to me why the blue clagger is better than the slammed, perfect colour scheme, kick ass one on the left, besides having a smaller rear window?

/end uninformed remark from VW n00b.

[SHEEL]

oval window is the most obvious one... I'm not very educated on dubs either but I know the ovals are highly sought after. I think because they are older, and also because the oval window has a bit more rodder appeal.

[PASHN8]

Thanks for the kind words guys

Brad, yes they are more sought after from a long term collectors/investment perspective (which can vary depending on who you speak to) they are also the earliest Beetles sold in Australia. A '54 Oval is the oldest Aussie beetle you can obtain if you exclude split windows, I like rarity and uniqueness over the more common stuff.

I also figure if i'm going to put in the hard yards anyway on thed red '59, I might as well do it to something more collectible long term.

Plans will be a full shell respray and any rust/dents fixed. Colour is undecided as yet but I am very partial to VW strato silver.
The colour can look quite different depending on the light as you can see below.





It will also be getting my newly delivered 4.5" narrowed DUB beam fitted along with some CB spindles and CB front discs.
Wheels will be 17" Escra Radars with Toyo Proxes 4 fitted.

I'm thinking an original themed TMI interior, headliner and carpet and exterior will remain factory in appearance with the original hearts fitted.

Motor wise, I want to get the original donk running smoothly for now and just enjoy it for a year or so after its painted before I go chasing any more power, low and slow I say.

Rear pop-outs if the budget stretches and I'd LOVE to fit a rag, but i'm not sure I could bring myself to chop the original roof!

[rolin7]

Nice basis for a project! My old man had a 56, completely original and all parts there.

Sold it for $1500 bucks about 10 years ago

[ITS60S]

very nice mate, cancel your holiday and start it now, I'm keen to see progress!

[SHEEL]

Dino...

Not sure if you are aware of JV Automotive in Croydon. John Vercoulen is the Grandfather of VW in Vic...

his workshop number : 03 9723 4968

he knows all there is to know about VW cars.

[Euroboost]

Don't cut it! Enough ovals and splits have been hacked up over the years.

[thedude]

You should try and track down a set of the prototype spinning swastika hubcaps, that would look awesome!

[Monk]

Looks in pretty good nick. Nice.

[tut]

You should try and track down a set of the prototype spinning swastika hubcaps, that would look awesome!

and put a giant pin shaped antenna in the middle of the roof

[RotaUte]

Inch Pincher 1!

[Jim]

Cut the shit out of it. The cunts that bitch about losing an original car are the same ones that are only willing to pay $5 for them.
Love old VW's. Fucking hate the majority of AVD members.

[Tils]

Cut the shit out of it. The cunts that bitch about losing an original car are the same ones that are only willing to pay $5 for them.
Love old VW's. Fucking hate the majority of AVD members.

I had a rust free split wind shield kombi we (the wrecking yard) sat on for over 10 years. No interest from anyone over that whole time they were getting 10,000 pounds for a shell. We crushed it to make space, and now all I hear is "Oh, you should have called!!" I would have sold it for under $200 just to keep it around, and I said this. It seems Euro cunts are wankers.

[towie]

I was "watching" that on eBay... Very cool... Needs a bottom end though, doesn't it???

[Cal]

I had a rust free split wind shield kombi we (the wrecking yard) sat on for over 10 years. No interest from anyone over that whole time they were getting 10,000 pounds for a shell. We crushed it to make space, and now all I hear is "Oh, you should have called!!" I would have sold it for under $200 just to keep it around, and I said this. It seems Euro cunts are wankers.

Your loss, dickheads in the UK are paying 100000 pounds for top early splits and 21 window buses.

[Nitephyre]

That's hot... I know it's strange but I to have feelings for early People's Cars.

[bigmuz]

A customer of ours restores these.

I reckon he is a bullshit artist but he says the full house resto on an early 50s split window kombi is over a hundred grand..

[9triton]

Cut the shit out of it. The cunts that bitch about losing an original car are the same ones that are only willing to pay $5 for them.
Love old VW's. Fucking hate the majority of AVD members.

nice project
but DONT do this to it :



suposedly a 150mph bonneville dub

http://www.volksrods.com/forum/showt...t=19537&page=9

[Euroboost]

Bugselecta
You would probably already know this site.

[PASHN8]

Thanks again boys, i'm wrapt to have it at home and am counting the days till i'm back from overseas to get stuck into it

very nice mate, cancel your holiday and start it now, I'm keen to see progress!

You're telling me! If it wasn't for my mrs taking me off to China for 3 weeks, I would have had it at the panel shop already!

Looks in pretty good nick. Nice.

It is amazingly solid and complete and i'm stoked about it

Cut the shit out of it. The cunts that bitch about losing an original car are the same ones that are only willing to pay $5 for them.
Love old VW's. Fucking hate the majority of AVD members.

I hear you Jim, a lot of the old timers on AVD are frustratingly behind the times, they won't like the 17" Escra Radars i'll be fitting to it that is for sure!

I was "watching" that on eBay... Very cool... Needs a bottom end though, doesn't it???

Not at all? Curious as to where you were led to believe that? It actually starts and runs sensationally, idles perfect with no movement from the motor at all and what sounds like great compression. The previous owner feels that it has a rear main leak and i'll check that when we drop the motor to paint the shell



After a bit of detective work we noted from the old 1979 Vic rego sticker still on the window that it's original plates were HCH.444 which you can see if you zoom in under the 'reg' column.

I jumped on the Vicroads website to try my pure luck and I tell you what we've had some good omens with this car so far, as I can re-order the original black and white HCH.444 plates again, and did so last night! The car will once again have the same plates it had on it from first registration, from '59

The plates were put on the car first in Victoria around 1959 and the blue plaque in the engine bay indicates the car was originally sold by VW Motors in Newstead, Brisbane new in 1954.

Slowly getting its history back together is great, and i'll be paying my contact in registrations at Vicroads a visit next week armed with the original rego, VIN and engine numbers (and a bottle of Beam!) and getting him to dig back through the Vicroads records to find out ANY info at all on the car that we can find, looking forward to it

[towie]

Not at all? Curious as to where you were led to believe that? It actually starts and runs sensationally, idles perfect with no movement from the motor at all and what sounds like great compression. The previous owner feels that it has a rear main leak

I was going to bid on it & ran what he wrote about the leak in the listing to a mate of mine that runs a VW shop... He told me it will usually result in a bottom end build...