Another 1951 Hoffman Standard, Dick Christensen's First Splt

[DSweinhagen]

Hi Friends, First of all, if you know of Dick, this '51 Standard is probably not what you were thinking, but I'll get to that later... I want to start this thread to tell the story of this car I've been dragging around since the '90's and hopefully keep me motivated to get it done.

I've been restoring VWs as a hobby and a business since buying my first beetle in 1988 while in high school. That first beetle I bought was a '64 sunroof, but I almost bought this '51. A good friend in high school, Eric Spitzer's dad had it and it sat out in the back of their property here in Phoenix, or Paradise Valley actually. Eric's dad was into cars, the family drove Audis and he had an older 911 and a model A in a garage out at the back of the property. The bug sat outside next to the garage and was pretty rough. It came out of Pueblo, Colorado and was intended as a father/son project that never really materialized. I was getting interested in VWs, he mentioned he was going to be selling it and I thought about it pretty seriously but realized it was over my head. One day I was over there and he mentioned if I didn't want it he had an old doctor friend that was interested. So off the car went. Eric's dad, Austin, was a doctor. Fast forward a few years... Austin's friend turned out to be Dick Christensen.

I finished that '64 I had by the time I graduated high school and went to NAU in Flagstaff, AZ. That didn't last long though as I wasn't really interested in school anymore and ended up back in Phoenix working on VWs wherever I could. I ended up hanging around Competition Engineering, a VW shop in Tempe, where where Dick was having his work done and often hanging out also. At some point we connected the dots and I realized that's where that '51 went.

Dick had restored a '64 Convertible with his son Hans and while doing that car, they found Dan, owner of Competion Engineering. When that convertible was done Dick got this '51 which was disassembled and sent to the body shop. Then he dove in buying any split available. He bought out collections like Bob Everett's here in Phoenix which included three split convertibles, a '51 deluxe, a '47 and a huge pile of parts. Dick had more exciting projects to finish and this '51 standard stalled out. Some years later Dick needed to thin out a couple projects and mentioned this car as one of them. I thought with my history maybe I should get it this time. Plus it wasn't much more than a primered shell on a rolling pan at this point so it was affordable. I traded him out some labor, maybe a paint job back in the day and that was that. This was probably about 1997?

Dick became a good customer, but more importantly a great friend and like a second father at times. I'll always appreciate the trust he put in me when I was just a college drop out that had no idea what I was going to do.

So sorry for the long winded story but figured it was worth telling. More details of the car in the next post, but here's a few pics when I pulled it out of storage a few years ago...

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David S

[tlambert]

Cool story. It’s always interesting seeing how people get connected over VWs.
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Tim

[wagen19]

[VW_Jimbo]

I love the back stories, when they are told! That, to me, is an integral part of the story and helps how the story flows. Looking forward to your next installment!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[Two Glove Boxes]

I'm stoked to see another 51 Hoffman car getting built. Also looks like a super solid car! I'm curious about the unique cutouts in trunk and the tank. Please let me know if you need anything part-wise as I can help as much as possible. Believe me, my 51 Hoffman was bare bones, so I had to piecemeal parts from all over the world to get it right.
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1950 Deluxe Sedan Build

1951 Split Standard Hoffman Build

1960 Dove Blue Double Cab Patina Build

Two Glove Boxes IG

[52HoffmanSplit]

An amazing story Dave and got to love that Split. Dick is certainly a great collector and such a great person, I'm glad to have met him, through you of course. Definitely looking forward to hearing more about this split and what you do with it. Thanks Man!! David Butterfly
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DB

11/1966 Porsche 912
7/1968 Type 265 Double Cab
4/1955 Type 117 - 3 Fold

[DSweinhagen]

Thanks for the comments on the story!

[DSweinhagen]

So when I got the car it was just a body with the doors and hood on a rolling pan. I actually helped Dick pull the pan out of storage, spent a day straightening out some things and had it powdercoated. Then we just grabbed a front and rear end to make it roll. It was while doing this work to help him sell it that I thought maybe I should buy it. So we made a deal and that's how it sat for a while.

Here's some of the paperwork I got with the car... The birth certificate, an old title and bill of sale. The BC doesn't state the color but it's a Pearl Grey car.

Who knows what the car looked like in '78 when it sold for $500 but I remember it looking pretty rough sitting out at the back property of my friends house. Dick said the fenders were brazed on and it had soup cans for taillights. It's a pretty good body though, not really any rust but it's had clip work done front and rear.

I've started work on the car a couple times but always seems to stall out. Collected up some fenders and grabbed a decklid from Dick at some point. I did some front clip work on it back in the mid 2000's. It had been clipped already. It was cut through the heater channel and A-pillar on the right side, and the right quarter,apron and spare tire well were replaced. The left quarter was original. This replacement clip was bad though and the work was rough. I'm not sure if they put a bad clip on it or it got tapped again? I had found a '58 front clip back to the dash with a bad left quarter, so that was perfect. The doors fit fine so I didn't want to get into the heater channel and A-pillar. I replaced the right quarter, front apron and spare tire panels in one chunk. The original left quarter was still good. I know I still need to finish modifying some of those pieces but at least it's solid and straight now. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any pictures of that work. Below is the only picture I can find that must be of that time. This is my son Mason. He's 22 now and just graduated college.

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David S

[von_hansel]

Subscribed! I really enjoy all your builds.

I learned a lot about Standards when I did research to sell Danny Z's '56 at the end of last year. Very interesting cars. Driving a bug with cable brakes was another story
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[Fast Eddie]

Love the story and history. You need to recreated the picture with Mason, I think he'll still through the window

[52HoffmanSplit]

Whoa.... GOT TO LOVE those old skool Factory birth certificates on the German Onion Skin Paper. Crunchy in a good way. I really love digging into the history of the cars I have owned. My old split, I know every person who owned it and have it all documented. I sold it a few years ago and unfortuntely I have no clue who purchased it. Always wanted to give them the full history of the car and a box of original parts I took off of it, but alas.. no clue where it went.
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DB

11/1966 Porsche 912
7/1968 Type 265 Double Cab
4/1955 Type 117 - 3 Fold

[DSweinhagen]

Thanks Guys!

[Rome]

[DSweinhagen]

[Rome]

Sorry about the Heb confusion, David.

I recently scanned photos of that Solvang event to my computer, but am having problems retrieving any because my PC died and the external hard drive was linked to it...

Seeing all the work you did on your '47 Beetle in your photo gallery and how it turned out, your '51 will be another treat to see "once" its done.

[MasonSweinhagen]

[DSweinhagen]

Starting on some rear clip work. It had been done before but needs to be corrected...

The new apron and quarter panel repair parts from Wolf Parts...

Somebody thought it would be a good idea to remove the decklid hinge carrier to get a better paint finish behind it. But it made it awfully hard to fit a decklid so I temporarily installed it with sheet metal screws...

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David S

[Rome]

[/quote]Here's a pic of the car Dick and Hans sent me. This would have been about 1989 right after they got it. Note the soup can taillights!

[/quote]

Another Split Beetle with "soup can" taillamps was this '46 in northwest Connecticut, seen in 2008 (WM971252 gallery)-

[Two Glove Boxes]

This picture is so amazing as I have a couple of pictures during my build phase with my kids that are now teenagers.

Awesome metal work!

Between Wolf and Mika they do a badass job on those aftermarket parts they almost should be considered NOS because they are that good.
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1950 Deluxe Sedan Build

1951 Split Standard Hoffman Build

1960 Dove Blue Double Cab Patina Build

Two Glove Boxes IG

[50Splitman]

Did you MIG or TIG the rear bumper mount panel in?