TheSamba.com :: View topic - Sometimes they come back: My super original Ruby red 1961 Beetle

Mon Jul 14, 2025 6:34 pm

About 10 years ago I purchased this car from a member here that lived in the Santa Maria, California area. I believe he purchased it from a guy in Washington, who is also a member here. According to the documents I have, it was purchased new at Morse Motors in Medford, Oregon. It’s 100% original paint, has all 5 original paint wheels with the spare having an original Firestone wide white wall bias ply tire, almost all original interior with the exception of the front seat covers and main portion of the headliner. (Headliner B pillars are still the original ones. The funny thing about this car is that it’s the second Ruby red car that I’ve owned that came to me with polished American Eagle 5 spokes and 145 front tires, but not lowered. I didn’t keep the car for too long before selling it to a friend of a friend who is now a good friend. He added the era correct California license plates, and the 2” narrowed CB Performance adjustable front beam and drop spindles. Then around 2020-2021, I was met by a local police officer who used to drive by my house a lot because he was always seeing Vw’s at my house. He figured I’d know someone selling a Vw, and decided to stop by one day. I told him about this Ruby red 61 I used to own that a friend was considering selling. So I put them in touch, and they struck a deal. During his ownership, him and i became good friends, and I did all of the work and maintenance on the car for him. The car came to me with a hideous looking 1300, but the transmission was still original. He didn’t care for the engine, and the transmission was starting to grind when downshifting into 2nd. So the engine and transmission overhaul began. My buddy that I sold it to was wanting to start a period correct 40hp build, so prior to him selling it, I tracked him down a very closely dated 40hp engine case, and a fully balanced stock short block with a slightly lightened flywheel was built. The local cop who purchased the car went back to my buddy and purchased the fully balanced short block to begin the engine build. He decided he wanted a vintage speed type of 40hp, so we added big bore pistons, and NOS 1300 cylinder heads due to the lack of 40hp vintage speed parts. We kept everything on the engine as period correct as we could with what I had, and what we could find. We then added new Spanish 34mm Weber ICT’s. With the engine complete, we decided on a 4.12 transmission for a little better gearing. Everything went in without a hitch, and I was quite surprised with the performance of this little thing. He then added some wider rear 5.5” wheels with 205/65 tires. Fast forward from 2021 to now, 8 months ago my local cop friend was offered a super original one owner 63 Turkis walkthrough panel bus. It took him about 8 months or so to land it, but once he did, my old car was offered back to me. Of course I had to pull the trigger, who wouldn’t want a super original, zero rust, zero accident, and non undercoated car that you basically built? Of course, I’ve been making changes that I tried talking him into originally. The car came with the original numbers matching front beam too, so that may end up back in the car. I’ll post some as found pictures, stolen from here because I didn’t save any from when I first owned it, and how it currently looks from when I bought it a month or two ago.

Tue Jul 15, 2025 7:26 am

That's a nice survivor car!!

Tue Jul 15, 2025 7:27 am

ryans65 wrote: That's a nice survivor car!!

Thank you! I’ll be posting some more pictures of the interior and paperwork that came with the car.

Tue Jul 15, 2025 10:17 am

I absolutely love it! Just the right amount of performance spice.

Wed Jul 16, 2025 10:57 am

pilottangocharlie wrote: I absolutely love it! Just the right amount of performance spice.

Thank you! Here’s a few more pictures of the originality of the car. I just got the numbers matching front beam back from my buddy this morning, so I’ll start restoring that while it’s out. I’ll post pictures as I make changes.

Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:55 am

Did either of the previous owners have forum threads here on the car? It would be neat to tie their parts of the story into yours, if so.

Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:08 pm

“Numbers matching front beam” what a nerd!

I love it!!
:D
Looks good!

Sun Aug 10, 2025 7:55 pm

Pure sex!!!!!!! 8)

Sun Aug 10, 2025 7:57 pm

Hotrodvw wrote: Pure sex!!!!!!! 8)

Not quite as good, but kind of close lol.

Tue Aug 12, 2025 3:03 am

Nice car!
Please buy it a non toothed fan belt...
will you change the leatherette headliner to mohair one?

Tue Aug 12, 2025 9:38 am

pastellgreen wrote: Nice car!
Please buy it a non toothed fan belt...
will you change the leatherette headliner to mohair one?

I’m going to keep the B pillar portions of the headliner in there because they’re almost perfect originals, but I will be replacing the vinyl with cloth. If you zoom in on the pictures of the car with the 5 spoke wheels, you can see the original cloth headliner was pretty worn. I wish they had replaced it with cloth, but I do interior, so a headliner replacement is a piece of cake for me.