Pictures found in the bottom of my vault...

[Tony Z]

Maybe the owner of these can chime in with a bit of history???

bug jpeg.JPG

Bus3[1] jpeg.JPG

new edition jpeg.JPG

[Dutch_Diver]

Love the oval at the end.....when I've finished the bus, that's my next purchase.....If the misses allows that is

[Retro Custom]

WOW!

What a blast from the past!!

Not seen those photos in a LONG time!

The yellow bug in the top pic was my first ever car - its a SA 1600 '74 bug which someone imported to the UK in 1985. I bought it in 1992 and I still have it tucked away in storage! To us in the UK, these cars a re a weird beast - a 70's bug with king and link front end, wide 5, etc. you know the score, but to us here it gets people scratching their heads! I used to have a nightmare getting parts for it as the chassis number I provided motor parts centres with indicated a 74 bug, but the parts I was sent were always wrong! The picture was taken in 1996 at Beetle Bash, at Avon Park in the UK. The purple beetle next to it was also mine and it got sold a few years ago - its still around though! The yellow bug has been off the road since around 1998 when I found holes in the heater channels, and haven't got round to welding it up yet! I've got a lot of the panels I need to sort it as there is an awful lot of filler and fibreglass in it - its quite low down in the project queue, but will see the light of day again one day!

The bus is my '62 Devon which I bought off an old guy locally back in 1993. I still have the bus and its been on the road continuously! its gonna undergo a full restoration soon - slammed, narrowed and straight axled! It still has the original factory interior but has a replacement 1200 motor and now is lowered on EMPI 5's.

The Oval.. that car was my first dream car. Its an April 1953 RHD UK Oval - one of the very first RHD ovals ever built! The picture above was taken when I had just bought the car in August 2001 - it was pretty rusty and I rebuilt the whole car in just 6 months flat. It was debuted at Volksworld Show in March 2002 and looked like this...







Sadly, just 6 weeks after it was debuted at the Volksworld show, someone decided they wanted the car more than I did, and stole it at a VW show - Run To The Sun in May 2002.
I've looked for it ever since, but its not surfaced yet. I'm still looking and it will turn up at some point. The theft of this car was the highest profile theft of an aircooled VW in the UK - details of the theft was featured in no less than 12 UK car magazines, with the Hot Rod fraternity taking it personally and saying in their magazine that they would personally hunt the thieves down!

The theft was also taken personally by the aircooled and watercooled VW scene with over 200 people searching the area in their aircooled VW's, within half an hour of the theft news of the car being stolen was heard on the radio as far away as Newcastle which is in the North East of England. The car got stolen from right a the bottom of the UK in Cornwall. My mum heard about it on the radio too over 350 miles away, but didn't realise it was my car! The police roadblocked all the roads out of Cornwall and put patrol cars on the motorway bridges looking out for it, but it was never found. I was told that even 2 weeks after the theft police in Cornwall were still questioning members of the public about the theft..!

But as I said, sadly its not been found. People do occasionally post on VW forums asking if the car was ever found, and I still get tip offs about early RHD black ovals for sale which I always follow up. The last one was only a month ago.

Thanks for posting those pics Tony - its been a trip down memory lane!

[Tony Z]

glad to have done it....

I still remember you telling me about the theft and giving me a Volksworld that had the article in it. Still got the magazine.
I still check the windows of every balck oval pic I see online but also have not seen anything...

[Chris]

You realy do awesome work.

[Dutch_Diver]

Sorry to hear about the theft....The extra pictures are amazing....do you fancy building another just like it for a customer? Would look really nice next to my bus in the garage!