My 1956 Aussie Oval Resto

[Dave Becker]

Thought I would share some photos and the story of my current resto project. It is the white car next to the red Cal Looker in the photo below.

This car is an Australian CKD assembled 1956 Model, built late '55.

I bought this car in 1983 for spare parts for another Oval I was restoring and modifying into a typical 80's Cal Looker at the time.

I needed a pair of semaphores, I spotted this car sitting beside a house in central west NSW, I knocked on the door and asked the owned if he wanted to sell some parts off the car, he said no but I could buy the whole car for $150.00. I thought great I might need some other parts so the deal was done.
I went home to get the money and headed back to his house, I was surprised to see the car sitting in his driveway with the engine running and all cleaned out, I gave him the cash and drove it home with a big smile.

After giving it a good look over I decided it was too good to part out so stored it away in my Dad's hay shed on the farm where it stayed for 15 years with the idea of restoring it to stock one day when I am old.

In 1998 Dad sold the farm so I had to have a clean out, the Oval was moved down to my place on the NSW South Coast.

The car had been slightly damaged on its roof turret some time in its life.
I had a '61 Beetle with a factory ragtop that was very rusty so I decided to cut the roof off the '61 and fit it to the Oval to fix the damage, I did the graft job about 10 years ago and then pushed the car back into the shed as I had other projects to do.

Earlier this year I decided to start the resto, I had accumulated most of the parts over the last 30 years to do the job, including some nice accessories and now had the time to do the job.

The resto plan was always to keep it as original as possible, the car had been sprayed sometime with some horrible white paint, the inside was still original green and was in quiet good condition.

I stripped off all the white paint and the nasty grey undercoat, back to the original green duco and red oxide primer, I wanted to leave the factory paint on the dash, so for the outside repaint I needed to match the original green perfectly, I sent away one of the bonnet hinges to the guys at Protec to have it colour matched, 3 days later 4 litres of Acrylic Lacquer turned up, it was a perfect colour match.

The car was totally rust free except for the engine lid, I had to separate the inner and outer panel to repair the rust, I used a nice rust free '60's inner panel and repaired the bottom of the original W lid and spot welded them back together.

I used some red oxide colour as a base coat to replicate the original primer colour used on CKD Aussie Cars.

The paint on the dash is original, the paint on the inside of the doors is new, as you can see the match is nice.

After what seemed like months and months of rubbing back the car was in paint, now the fun part, putting it back together, using all the parts I have had boxed up in my shed for years.

Took me a week to do all the mechanicals, original gearbox was just detailed and refitted, the engine was also just detailed as it was reconditioned years ago and ran very well, the oil in it was still like new.

I replaced the king and link pins in the front end, replaced all the brake hoses, brake linings wheel cylinders and master cylinder.

I had to cheat a bit with the ragtop to make it look correct for the year of the car, being an late '55 build it should have round corners in the front and square at the back, I ordered a '56 rag top from TMI with the square rear corners, not knowing if I could make it fit and look correct.
I measured it all up and found if I just turned around the rear header bow so the the round corners were on the inside it fitted perfectly and looked correct.

All of the parts I have had stashed away for so long turned out to be fine for the car except for the exhaust, which I only bought 6 months ago, it is meant to be a good quality replacement, the exhaust outlets are way too low, making the pea shooters sit below the rear panel, not in the exhaust cutouts, it looks like the engine is hanging down too low now, but it is not.

This is how the car looks now, just waiting for a couple of parts for the outside that I didn't have in stock to arrive, then inside to fit the interior.

I am using the original door cards and seats for the moment and just fitting a new headliner and carpet, all the original rubber mats will also go back in.

Hope I haven't bored you to death with my rambling, I'll post up some more photos as work progresses in the next few weeks.
_________________
FAHRVERGNUGEN;
Description of a pleasurable sensation,
Experienced when a car and it's driver are in mutual harmony, A unique driving experience, Pleasure, Satisfaction,
A feeling experienced by Volkswagen Drivers.

[henry roberts]

nice car dave. looking forward to the progress.

I actually looked at the og carpet in the pics and thought how nice it was. I can think of a few people that would put their hand up for it.

do you still have the turbo oval? it was pretty inspiring back in the day.

[motofly196]

Great build on your oval!! I have a few questions for you on the rear header bow of your rag top. I am needing to do the same thing to my car. Did the studs line up when you turned it around, or did you have to move the locations?
Also, did all CKD cars come in Red Oxide Primer/ Sealer? That's really interesting...I have never heard of that. Was it a corrosion preventative measure?

[tisius]

the car looks very good again after 30 years!
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drive it like you just robbed the bank
you don't have to be crazy to be into VW's, but it sure helps!!
.... if it ain't dutch, it ain't much!

[Dave Becker]

[Dave Becker]

[motofly196]

[Dave Becker]

Took the Oval for a test drive today to bed in the new brakes and fill the tank for the first time in over 30 years, it drove fine.
_________________
FAHRVERGNUGEN;
Description of a pleasurable sensation,
Experienced when a car and it's driver are in mutual harmony, A unique driving experience, Pleasure, Satisfaction,
A feeling experienced by Volkswagen Drivers.

[Dave Becker]

Took the Oval for a good drive today, top day for it.

_________________
FAHRVERGNUGEN;
Description of a pleasurable sensation,
Experienced when a car and it's driver are in mutual harmony, A unique driving experience, Pleasure, Satisfaction,
A feeling experienced by Volkswagen Drivers.

[joey1320]

Gorgeous car mate 😃
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**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[62ItalianRagtop]

[Dave Becker]

Rims are 15 x 6, rears have a little more out off set than the fronts, tires are 195 65 x 15 front and 205 65 x 15 rears.
_________________
FAHRVERGNUGEN;
Description of a pleasurable sensation,
Experienced when a car and it's driver are in mutual harmony, A unique driving experience, Pleasure, Satisfaction,
A feeling experienced by Volkswagen Drivers.

[30RAT]

hi dave from ronnie palm beach gold coast qld. ..nice car if up this way some time call by .....i shipped in a US barn find early 55 3 fold oval ragtop .....car is now finished ....2442 IDA weber equipped motor ,,,rancho pro street trans....centerline wheels ....car was stored for 40 years in northern ca. .....orig LHD euro 3 fold ragtop with semaphores........ronnie