Aircooled VW South Africa

@ Barry. I might take you up on the offer one of these good days Armand. I know there is a company in USA that can build you one with a 4 cam engine for $ 300 000 to $ 400 000. The engine alone costs more than a million rand these days. If you ask me, it's well worth it. I would love to go live at Barry's for a year and be part of such a project

Wernher

vw59beetle wrote:..... I would love to go live at Barry's for a year and be part of such a project .....

I may be hiring soon Wernher..........

Hi Wernher I saw their clip on U tube amazing cars. You are one up on us having a few original 550 bits you lucky fish.
Barry I would also like to take a gap year and just do metal shaping but kids, wife, university, mortgages, car payments, Job.................. Ag damn! will not allow me to do so. Wish you were closer though
Armand

Hey Armand - I hear you. I can't make a living from doing only this either....

Hi any news on this project ?

62vwbeetle put me in touch with someone in JHB who wants to sell (looks like an early Beck spyder) a chassis and LHD body
still in negotiation stage, pics attached

Barry wrote:Very cool - anyone with the $$$ to commission a metal bodied one? I'm up for it

Barry I know someone with $$$ that is looking for an aluminium 550 body, is this something you could do?
if so, I will get him to contact you directly. He has a 4 cam motor that he does not want to put near fibreglass.

I certainly can do it John - even though the alloys that are available in SA are not ideal.
The more important question might be when as I probably have 2 years work in the queue (though it isn't totally unflexible).
Some of that will depend on whether I am able to find someone decent to take Richard's (Junior on here) place when he goes to study next year...

The biggest issue for me would be ensuring that I have the correct shape information - how good are the 'glass bodies in terms of accuracy?
What many also don't realise is how much work there is in even getting to the point where you can begin to make outer body panels.
I would have to thumbsuck a price at R150K, probably not much less but it could go more depending on quite a few things....

These are the go to people Barry
http://type550.com/
the fiberglass ones are way of correct for practicality reasons and also the fact that no 2 Spyders were completely alike
Armand

Barry. R 150 000 is a steal. That is fibreglass prices, not a hand built aluminum body . To do it right will cost more in the region of R 4 million plus. I guess it all depends on how accurate you want your 550, but if the owner wants to put a 4 cam in I assume he is serious. The engine alone is worth R 1.5 mill.
Like Armand said, Andrew at Type 550 is the guy to speak to.

Wernher

Best John's guy comes and talks to me then.....

will get him to contact you

Great site Impi!

Thanks John. If he is serious about doing it right it would be a great project to be involved in!

Cheers Wernher - the costs in making a body from scratch can get crazy as it all comes down to hours, but a lot of those go into smaller, highly detailed areas. Something like a Spyder will always be a little simpler than a coupe or sedan - full doors, window surrounds, rain gutters etc add a lot of time....

Barry wrote:
Thanks John. If he is serious about doing it right it would be a great project to be involved in!

Barry. If it does materialize, I would be interested in one as well. I would love to be part of such a project and will definitely help where I can. We can talk more about it over a beer at Speedweek

Sure Werhner, though if John's guy is commissioning the work - a lot of which goes into creating bucks, patterns etc before I touch a single piece of sheetmetal - it will need to be discussed and ok'd by him.

Look forward to that beer, but I'll bring some real ones with 'cause I don't touch that commercial piss they sell there .....LOL