Down under candy cab

[BUGBOY1976]

I've been a member here on the samba for a while now and mainly hung out in the pre 53 forum as I own a late 48 beetle. But I've always had oval beetles from the age of 17 when I got my first which was a 56 model.
I've driven them daily for 25 years so I know them inside out really.

Owning a black 54 was always as good as you could get for me till a few months ago.
After a friend told me about an advert on gumtree I was on the phone.

A deal was done and money changed hands and I was off to the big smoke to meet a boat.

Here in Australia we have a ferry service that travels back and forth to Tasmania. As the car was a driver it was able to be driven onto the boat which made pickup really easy.

[BUGBOY1976]

After getting the ok to drive in and collect the keys I was able to load up the car.

Now as I understand Volkswagen never sold cabrios here in Australia I think till 61 when they sent over 20. So this car would have been a private import from England. So that makes it a very hard to find car here and also its right hand drive.

[BUGBOY1976]

So as you see it's far from perfect but the fact its a 56 oval cab and I can jump in it and drive it that's great. It appears to have been painted in the 80's maybe with a dark purple on the sides. It makes me dizzy just looking at it.

The seats are still all original but door panels etc have been replaced.

[BUGBOY1976]

Having time to really check this thing over so much is just so different and they are really well built. Also not having seen many at all it's all so very new and I have heaps of questions about things. I've noticed I'm missing some stuff but that's why I thought I'd share with you all and hope to learn as we go sort of thing.

This as you can see is the original colour.

I hope to one day do a full resto on the car and return it to the original colour.

[BUGBOY1976]

Now the motor was very noisy as the bearings in the generator where shot.
Also the motor was very dirty and the exhaust was paper thin and had a few holes.

So time to pull the engine out

Sadly its not the correct engine number for the car.

You can see how the paint has been cooked on the rear apron and here is how that happened.

[BUGBOY1976]

While the engine was out I replaced the gear box mounts and cleaned the motor and fitted a new exhaust and seals to the motor. It was at this point when replacing the oil cooler seals I noticed the cooler was blown up like a balloon. So I replaced the cooler with another I had.

note the top of the cooler , turned it into a 25 hp look a like and you can't even see light coming though.

New cooler fitted

[BUGBOY1976]

Bolting on the new exhaust. This should stop the paint being cooked.
I also replaced one of the heater boxes with J pipe as it had nearly had the best of it life and was very thin in spots.

[zimblewinder]

Wow Nathan!! Exceptional find. Now all we need is some sunshine and 20 something degrees so you don't freeze to death for a cruise. Looking forward to seeing your magic on this one.

cheers
Dale
_________________
58Euro 23 343208 The Ultimate Zimblewinder Machine.
59 mango standard
Wanted- splash pan supports, og pressed bumper coach bolts, ivory blaupunkt knobs (early), armrest alloy strips, NOS door mechanism

[BUGBOY1976]

Thanks Dale I'm looking forward to summer.

The car is now on the road and as you can see no fun unless the roof is down .

As you can see someone has fitted indicators to the guards and then removed them. They left some holes and also its like the rubber has burnt into the paint. I've tried to cut and polish this but they look like they are here to stay.

Living near the coast we have a great road that follows the coast line with some amazing views. Now it looks sunny which it is but we are in winter here so about midday its was not so bad for a blast around the coast road.
It did get a bit cold later on.

[BUGBOY1976]

Now bringing us up to date.
With it being so cold and wet and not really the time of year here for driving around in the car I thought it was time to do some work on the cab.

With the use of a friends workshop that's next to a panel shop I pulled heaps of bits off the car and sanded the sides down with 400 paper.

Keep in mind I want to restore this car at some point but having other projects in bits I want to keep this a running car to enjoy as it is. But with out the purple!

So it was a quick job just to make it look better.
We only painted the sides up to the trim including the guards as this helped cover up the holes and marks from the old indicators. Also the rear apron as it had been burnt from the exhaust.

The car was made up of a few different whites so we made another

[BUGBOY1976]

So here is the result.

Just starting to put the bits back on.

[BUGBOY1976]

Just about done with putting on all the bits.
With some hub caps on I'm hoping its going to look back in the 50's again being all white. Did I mention I was not a big fan of the purple?

[Fishynos72]

Congrats on the car Nathan. Nice job with the paint, purple really wasn't it's color
_________________
Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[RichOakley]

Great work Nathan.
_________________
1947 Beetle
1956 RHD Karmann Cabrio
1956 RHD Beetle
1957 RHD Pitt-Moto Type 2 Camper
1959 RHD Beetle
1966 RHD Type 3 Fastback
1976 RHD Sun Beetle

[henry roberts]

WOW, a rare beast here indeed.

the white is a 500% improvement already. glad to see it's in good hands.

[0nebadbug]

Very nice!
_________________
::: Slowoval ::: LaDawri Sebring ::: '61 Creampuff ::: Dust Storm '66 :::

[BUGBOY1976]

At some stage the semaphores had been removed. They have been replaced with these units. I removed them when painting and plan to replace them with semaphores. I'll put a picture up of the units and I'm thinking they have a flashing function built in.

[BUGBOY1976]

Having a look inside the hole where the semaphores goes one is a straight forward fit.

The other the threaded hole has a broken screw in it. Sadly it looks like someone has tried to grab it with pliers to remove it. All they have done really is crush it.

I'm thinking maybe try drill it out and then recut the thread?

[BUGBOY1976]

This switch under the dash is it for the interior light. As you can see its broken. Should it be the same as what's on a Barndoor bus but an ivory knob?

It has three wires as seen here from under the bonnet.

[BUGBOY1976]

Tried drilling out the snapped off screw that holds the semaphore but didn't have much luck. After a bit of stuffing around we have one semaphore in and working.