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Sat Feb 27, 2010 8:55 am

W lid was found laying under another one of the over 100 other vws there

Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:00 am

Technically, the Titanic is restorable.

Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:01 am

It all depends on how much it costs for the car, how much of the work you can do yourself and how much time you have to do the work or how much it will cost to pay someone who knows what they are doing. It also depend what you want the end product to be: a 100% correct restoration or a fun driver. If it is cheap enough, grab it and wait for Gerson and Wolf to make enough panels to put it back together.

That car looks pretty rough but it is hard to really tell based on those two pictures.

Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:19 am

What Splitjunkie said PLUS just how rusty it is.

I see missing sheet metal in the right rear.

You can get sections and put them in.

Can you weld?

Do you WANT to weld? (My case is, I can but do not want to for various reasons.)

From the pictures it looks like it needs to be stripped to bare metal and protected first before you can see just how bad it is. Of course with out seeing the bottom half, I assume a lot of it is still there.

Then there are the missing parts, which other posters already mention. It looks like a longer term restoration (rusteration?)

What year is it?

Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:50 am

Ask Rich's 50 - he restored a '50 Karmann Kab that was completely ruined.

Sat Feb 27, 2010 11:05 am

From this

To this

Sat Feb 27, 2010 11:05 am

David wrote: Ask Rich's 50 - he restored a '50 Karmann Kab that was completely ruined.
When the top goes down, the price goes up.

A coupe in the same condition as a cabriolet may likely not be worth it in the end. Many times it is less costly (time and money and more) to get a better one than to try and salvage the one in question.

Even if the price is very right, it may not be in one's best interests to bring back a particular example back to life.

It is one of those "depends" things. I brought back a car from an empty body just once. It is (still have it) a drop top. I bought it in 1982 only because we specialized in the model AND had the remains of several slaughtered ones. This example was NOT rusty (much) and I basically had to add parts. BUT, it was not on the road again until 2005! I am proud of it and everybody "knows" it is a Frankenstein, they just can't tell it on the end product.

On the other hand, I am currently working on another one with only 50K miles on it and could care less as there is not challenge. It is to be sold and will sell for more than I can get for my Frankenstein. Difference is I am attached to the Frankenstein and not the 50K mile one.

Bringing back a hard top version of the above is not worth it, unless you love it. It makes ZERO money sense. Don't even try to justify it.

The above example may well also end up being a 20+ year project. If you love it and the money does not really matter, go have fun if it is a basis you can handle. If not, either pass, resell, or use a a donor for one you can love.

Honestly, unless you enjoy earning 5 cents an hour, it is NOT worth it to bring back such relics if better examples can be gotten, too. Especially if you have any intentions of ever selling.

I promised that I would only keep one really old car. The rest are all new and we buy new cars every few years. The old ones are toys. Treat the work involved in them as such: FUN. Once it stops being fun, stop, it is REALLY not worth it then.

I hope I have not ranted, but you must look realistically at these things so you do not end up regretting it. It is supposed to be fun. If not, it is, to say again, NOT worth it.

ENJOY!

Sat Feb 27, 2010 1:15 pm

if its cheap bu it and save it...youll always regreat it if you dont. I know theres that split that i always regreat not buying!!!

Sat Feb 27, 2010 2:19 pm

It only depends on the size of your wallet!

Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:06 pm

A lot rougher than the split in the pictures. If the missing parts aren't all boxed up somewhere though, expect to pay an arm and a leg to replace them.

Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:41 pm

I was just trying to get an idea of what is too far gone. I already bought that split back in august. Didn't seem so bad sitting in the barn, till i learned all the fenders were welded and bondoed on. Once getting it down to what was left of the car, only from the windshield to the rear split window of the car was left. Whole front end had been cut up as it was a drag racer in the '70s. Though I do not regret getting it, as it was too big a project for myself, the new owner was happy to get it and has the skills to undergo a full resto on it. I ended up finding a slight modified driver '52 split for myself to keep, but of course always still looking for more.

Sun Feb 28, 2010 8:19 am

it costs more to be poor than to be rich. a poor man might buy a trashed car for $1,000 because that is all he can afford. he will spend $49,000 in time and effort making it nice. a rich man will buy a nice car for $15,000, and spend $10,000 doing all the finishing touches. in the end, the rich man has a nicer car for half the price of the poor man in half the time.

which can you afford, the nice car for $25,000 or the not as nice car for $50,000? patience and wisdom are the difference by which a poor man can do just as well as the rich man.

I hear people say all the time that they enjoy working on them. for some this is true, but for many others, this is just them justifying buying what they cannot afford because they are impatient. me, I like driving them. I do enjoy working on them a bit, but I tell you what, it is a lot more fun working on a nice car than a pile-o-shit.

Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:13 am

My thoughts exactly, that is soo very true. Most cases people way under estimate what it's gonna cost to restore one. It's all the little things that oyu don't think about to begin with that add up and bite ya.

Which is exactly why I sold that very rough split, saved me up 10k and now a have clean rust free daily driver '52 split.

Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:18 am

David wrote: Ask Rich's 50 - he restored a '50 Karmann Kab that was completely ruined.

Around 20-25k just in metal work :shock:

Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:54 am

I've started a project to rescue a totaly hopeless object, though I will not try to make it a original split with correct parts... I'll graft the split parts on a donor body and I have put later pans on it... It will be a fun project that may take a couple of years to complete, and hopefully make a dayly driver I can use... not a museum piece that many of the all correct splits are... I'll guess it'll cost me 25.000 SEK in the end, which would be less than $4.000... I'm probably up to half of that already... Still missing some parts but not many, but I can make a drivable car of all the parts I have... I go for later interior, later engine, brakes and so on...

But I think the work is fun... If you don't think it's fun to weld, then don't do it...

I think it is all about what you expect... If you don't need all the split details, it does not need to be more expensive than a 60ies bug - but a lot more fun... My plan is to have a "beater" look, so even the paintjob is going to be cheap...

But I totaly agree that it probably would be more expensive to build a split from junk than buying a complete good object... Parts are overpriced and expensive...

I don't know why all pics won't show up, but they can be found here; http://fridaysplit.blogspot.com/

Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:19 pm

You need determination, and one or more of the following:

1. $$

2. Luck.

3. Connections.

4. Incriminating photos/videos.

5. Your ability to handle hand tools.

6. Time.

EG we got our split due to a friend who once he got his dream split project, he decided it was too much work for him.

We had the $$$ to buy it for a good price, and it came with a donor repair panel to fix the passenger side just behind the door.

Needed from rear of seat on back to battery tray area. Found years later a pair of split pans at a swap meet for ten dollars.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:03 am

Am I wrong in thinking that the motor is sure to run hot? :shock:

Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:23 am

scvw wrote:

Am I wrong in thinking that the motor is sure to run hot? :shock:

..and the taillights are a bit too high? :lol:

that car is the donor, it will have split clips on it mounted, as the original split carcass was not ok to restore.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:14 pm

eurodub wrote: scvw wrote:

Am I wrong in thinking that the motor is sure to run hot? :shock:

..and the taillights are a bit too high? :lol:

that car is the donor, it will have split clips on it mounted, as the original split carcass was not ok to restore.

Yep, if it were not already destroyed I would not use an early 53 oval as a "donor" (or base), but as it is callooked (or something) it is the perfect "donor"... got the body for ~$800 or something like that.

Of cource the rear lights and the split rear clip incl louvres will be moved to the oval body... It will look like a split, have a split gearbox, lever dampers, front axle and so on... Everything I can find cheap... What I don't find I will use later beetle parts, and I still will be happy!

My message is that it need not to be a correct split, it can just be a fun car...