TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue May 06, 2025 2:22 pm

So this is a happy ending sort of a story. A Very Long Time Ago I bought a 1953 Canadian custom that originally had been L19 Atlantic green. It will now be back on the road.

OK Sherman let's get into the way back machine...

In 1979 my best friend Russ bought a 1959 Canadian custom in L14 mignonette green which started a tire fire in my head for old beetles that is still burning today. in 1980 a friend spotted an old beetle sitting in the bush behind someones house and told me and Russ about it. We went and checked it out, a 1953 Canadian custom! We were both in university at the time living with our parents so purchase was out of the question. Somehow in 1983 or so I got the $250 together to buy the car and drag it home. Dad was not impressed.

But I was the proud owner of a very early Canadian beetle.

Well life came and went and I had big plans for the car but being in the financial position I was with school etc the plans were to remain plans for a while yet.

In 1986 my dad having left and my mother deciding to move to Vancouver and get her BN left me temporarily homeless. I crashed at my dad's house for September and October 1986 and dragged the car with me. Again dad was not impressed. In November 1986 with a down payment lent to me by my mother and my dad co-signing I got a mortgage and bought a shack just down the street from my dad. Very convenient. $37,000 for a home. Try to imagine that.

Time to move the car to my new home

It was just down the street after all.

Took it to a car show at one point. This would have been July of 1986, mom had just bought her truck but hadn't left for Vancouver yet.

I started dismantling it but life once again got in the way. Someone gave me a 1958 Canadian custom that had the back half cut off and a Datsun truck box installed. It was fantastically ugly. Words can't do it justice. I wish I had a picture. A neighbour complained to the city and I was ordered to get rid of it and the '53 as well. I was out of options so I sold the car to my buddy Dave who promised up and down that he would restore it. Dave is a good guy, I mean no disrespect but life got in his way too. He sold the car to buseric in 2004 and we have been kinda watching from the sidelines. He messaged me yesterday to say he is putting it on the road!

From this

to this

in only 21 years! Thrilled to see it again

And to think this was only 42 years ago

Don

Tue May 06, 2025 3:51 pm

The day I sold the 1953 Canadian Custom. November 2004. Saying goodbye after owning it from 1990 to 2004.

Tue May 06, 2025 3:53 pm

The reason I sold the 1953 Canadian Custom…to buy this og 1949 Belgian standard split, matching numbers.

Wed May 07, 2025 4:50 am

Thanks for getting this thread started gentlemen. I’ve uploaded pics to the gallery and will try and report on the last 21 years soon. The car is alive and running like a top!

Here is me moving the car around 8 years ago from one storage to another. The car was always with me but took a back seat to a lot of split buses over the 21 year period.

Wed May 07, 2025 4:53 am

volksair wrote: The day I sold the 1953 Canadian Custom. November 2004. Saying goodbye after owning it from 1990 to 2004.

Towing the beetle home several thousand kilometres with a tow bar behind my Vanagon syncro was an adventure. This was just after I met my (now ex) wife and this was our first roadtrip together. Before I had kids, some of whom are now adults! What an adventure!

Wed May 07, 2025 8:59 pm

Did you know that flat towing an uninsured vehicle is completely illegal?

Don

Thu May 08, 2025 10:55 am

Thanks for posting the story, good stuff!

Insurance:
If he had just bought it, it was probably automatically insured for 30 days by his regular car insurance company.
Probably good to confirm this though - I have done so with my agent in the past.

Thu May 08, 2025 4:35 pm

Quote: If he had just bought it, it was probably automatically insured for 30 days by his regular car insurance company.

No, it had never been insured at this point by either Dave or myself. The only kind of insurance possible on such a car is lay-up and it is only protected against theft fire and vandalism. So ya, totally illegal to flat tow it. If he had rented a dolly from Uhaul with tail lights it would have been OK.

Don

Thu May 08, 2025 5:46 pm

Guys…
It was in 2004, over 20 years ago.
Water under the bridge…

Let us instead focus on the now, and how far the car has come to be where it is after all his hard work.

Sun May 11, 2025 6:32 am

Quote: Guys…
It was in 2004, over 20 years ago.
Water under the bridge…

No. I want to argue about something that happened 21 years ago and is totally irrelevant to todays discussion.

So there.

Don

Sun May 11, 2025 5:15 pm

Ah yes, this is one of the things I remember about the car; the badly crumpled front end. At some time in its past it had hit something Very Hard.

Also someone had "modified" it with a hammer to fit a later gas tank. They removed the glove box door and the ashtray and screwed a piece of thick aluminum over the dash to mount the gas gauge. Eric has done a good job putting the dash back together

It looks like the pan was a lot better than the one from my '54 which was nice not to have to deal with what I did

A real nice score

Piecing her together

Don