Aircooled VW South Africa

I have my dad's 1964 beetle that he bought new and drove till 3 years ago. The paint is fading and cracking. The bonnet and 3 of the fenders have been resprayed years ago by a neighbour after my sister scraped it on the garage doors a couple of times. The respray was a poor job with darker paint. The interior upholstery and rooflining is also not good anymore. Mechanically and engine is fine but brakes will need attention.
I do not know what to do. Complete restoration down to bolts and nuts or fix necessary and keep it as is?
Please give me some advice. Is there maybe someone in Jhb westrand whi can look at it and give me some good advice.
Thank you very much.








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Hi and welcome, You may be fine with a full restoration, but then you will loose the one thing that you could never get back, and that is originality.

Yes you sister bumped it, but that is good solid provenance, can not buy that in a can.

Maybe try to get the next door neighbors green paint off, it looks to be incompatible with the original, so could come off easy.

Then take it to an upholsterer and get him to "Repair" not replace the upholstery.

When done, look at it, drive it, and if you can not live with it, then do a complete restoration.

The rusty panels can be striped down, and treated, and re coated to match the original , this is normal on a 50 year old car to have some body work done.

enjoy

Herman

keep all the patina, use it, enjoy it as is

agreed , use it and repair as you go along . sadly many "good" cars get stripped with good intentions and never see the road again.

OK thanks for the advice so far. I have decided not to respray and to only fix the interior. I do still need a panel beater to fix the one door where the car was reversed into the garage door. Also to fix some paintwork. Can anyone suggest a panel beater in Roodepoort area that can di this work.
Then I also will have to attend to the brakes and clutch as both these pedals goes down to the floor without any resistance.

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Mantovani wrote:OK thanks for the advice so far. I have decided not to respray and to only fix the interior. I do still need a panel beater to fix the one door where the car was reversed into the garage door. Also to fix some paintwork. Can anyone suggest a panel beater in Roodepoort area that can di this work.
Then I also will have to attend to the brakes and clutch as both these pedals goes down to the floor without any resistance.

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You could send it across town on your trailer to Bugger, I believe he will do you good - will see to upholstery, body and mechanics. His details are on the forum.

If you decide to get rid of the bug, I'm on the market for a project similar to yours - something running that requires some TLC and elbow grease.

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Spent R15000. Kept everything original.

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That really looks great.

Think that was R15k well spent

Thanks for showing us.

Herman

Enjoy driving her, the driving experience in modern cars is so sterile compared to older cars

Very well spent money. Enjoy.

Wise move looks great and it still has its history and memories. Nice job.So who done the paint and interior.

Terry Phillips wrote:Wise move looks great and it still has its history and memories. Nice job.So who done the paint and interior.

Thanks. I did the interior. Only minor stuff. Exterior only the wheel arches and bonnet and engine cover was resprayed.

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Good decision. It looks like a nice solid car, that you'll be able to enjoy for many years. Enjoy every mile!

Thanks everyone. I realy enjoyed it. More so because it was my dad's first car and because he loved caring for it. Did a short drive thus afternoon and it felt great.

I will have to get the brakes better end engine seems to be running a bit too hot.

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Very very nice looking beetle