My 62 Beetle Sedan

[John Miller]

I just picked this up yesterday.

I bought it from Aggro Jo.
It's an all original car and is exactly what I was looking for. I was pleasently surprised when I arrived to pick it up because it was in a lot better condition than he described it. He even gave me a set of OG bumpers for it.

I made the deal with Jo on May 5th and made arrangements to pick it up yesterday (14th). On Saturday May 7th a friend of mine told me about an ad in the local paper " 1962 VW Slide back roof, (classic) with dual port engine, restorable, Make offer". So I called.


On Monday May 9th I bought this also.

A 62 OG ragtop. It has a complete ragtop, nice dash, the hood that I need and PERFECT OG glass. The down side is that it has been sitting in its present location (in the woods) for several years and the lower half of the body is almost gone. As I tried to explain to my wife, the price was so low I just couldn't pass it up. She was not amused.
I will be picking up the ragtop next Saturday.


I had searched for months and came up empty, but by checking The Samba several times a day I was able to find exactly what I wanted. The rag was just dumb luck.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[bk63rag]

Two 62s this is your lucky month.I remember seing the add for the white one if it was,nt so far away i would have jumped on it.
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63 rag under construction for 30 years and counting.

[cannedspam]

Hey Aggro. I did not know you were selling a Bug. With a little bodywork
that thing would be sweet. To bad I missed out on that one, could not have been any closer. Going by your pictures it will not be long until that
big garage is full of VW's.
I just told my wife that I missed out on buying another Volkswagen and she just cursed at me about buying anymore "junky cars". Ha, Ha...Oh well.

[cannedspam]

Did you sell your oval? I thought you were not a Bus guy. J/K

[John Miller]

Look what I just found.

While going through all the paperwork that came with the car I found these, the original window sticker and dealer invoice.
The original owner was a Lt. Col. in the Air Force and evidently did not work on the car at all. He kept records of every single thing he ever had done to the car. I'm just starting to go through them now.

This is so cool!
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[pacobell63]

Truly amazing. I am still blown away when the see the price. Just under $1,800.
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Thank you kindly -PI

[KantDriveFast]

You have the rag shown as a "parts car"??? I'd say its definitely worth saving! Hope you aren't standing over it with the Sawsall just yet???

[VW Baron]

Nice cars!

I have the original invoice for my car as well, but I love the fact that you have the original window sticker too. It is amazing how cheaply these cars were priced. Luckily when I bought mine, the original owner insisted on selling it for the price that he bought it new for in 63, so I got a great deal on a great, (mostly) original car.

[John Miller]

Thanks for the kind words.

The white car that I bought from Aggro Jo is actually for my wife. She use to own a '62 ragtop when she lived in Germany. The original plan was to graft in the ragtop from the "parts car". When I bought the car from Jo I had no idea how original the car really was. I finally got around to going through all the service records that came with the car I found the original window sticker & dealer's invoice and I also have 141 receipts for repairs, totaling just over $11,000. Considering the originality of the car and all the documentation SHE decided that it would be best to keep it all original. Since I'm a purist at heart I couldn't have been happier.

Now the ragtop was purchased as a "parts car" and came with no title. In KY a no title car is just about useless except for parts. While cleaning it out last Saturday I found an old registration, KY license plate from 1990 and an original dealers service coupon book for the car. The car was purchased from John Cooke Motors in Lexington KY and has probably spent most or all of its life in this area. I contacted the DMV on Monday and they informed me that with that documentation I would be able to receive a duplicate title. So now all I have to do is meet with the guy that I bought it from to sign some papers and send it off. So as of Monday it is officially a "future project". BTW, I've claimed it as mine. It's a rusted out POS and is going to need a huge amount of metal repair. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Both cars are currently in storage. I hope to start on the white one sometime next year.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[Matt Miller]

congrats!!! i know exactly the glee you feel. i have been blessed in this way. i picked up two of my 62 bugs in a week.. one being a vert and the other a rag and adding them to my previous 62 vert. they look great next to my '59 walk through panel bus and my '64 13 window bus. the wife declared the rag as her new driver, the 10 year old daughter claimed the the vert, and the 14 year old claimed the 64 bus.

another undeserved blessing is that i have a family of vw lovers. they are nice enough to let me think they are all still mine and we have 5 vw's in our driveway!!!

[Pennywise]

[Matt Miller]

it was new to me. who gives a shit if i reply to an old post? sorry to mess up your rhythm!!!

[Pennywise]

Hey, no problem.

No harm no foul.

[John Miller]

I finally got it out of storage. Safely in it's new home, this is how it is as of a few weeks ago:

I ordered a bunch of stuff this weekend to get it started and I also picked up a Lincoln 135 mig welder on E-bay. Ever since I brought it home the wife is all of the sudden really excited about it (I'm fixing it up for her). The plan was to do a complete restoration on it but now she wants it driveable as soon as possible.

Here is a few pics of the damaged areas that have to be addressed immediately:

The front end took a pretty hard hit. It is pushed in approximately 6". I will be putting a new clip on as soon as I can find one. Who knew that finding a '62 clip would be so damn hard. I've been looking for 6 months!

The drivers side rear heater channel will need some work.

And the rear needs a little attention also. I'm hoping I'll be able to pull this out.


The car is surprisingly solid, but will need some small areas cut out over the winter and patched up. I will post updates as I go along.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Time for a little update.
After 13 years (give or take a little), it runs now! There was the usual problems, nasty fuel tank, clogged fuel line, ordering the wrong parts .
The fuel tank has been completely redone using the POR15 kit, fuel line unclogged and all new lines run, fresh oil, complete tune up and new coil.
The first time it started it blew black soot out of the exhaust and covered my riding mower and filled the garage with smoke.

So now that I know the engine is good it was time to start on the body. Here are a few areas that need attention.

Well once I got started on it there was a little more hidden rust. Here is what I found.

I spent all day today with a twisted wire brush on my grinder going over every little rust spot on the car. I found a few more spots that will need some work but overall it was less than I expected. The worst spots are here:
From this

To this

From this

To this

I have enough metal on both sides to make a templete so I should be okay. This will give me a chance to practice ALOT with my new welder.
I found a front clip & front trunk lid for it and it should be here in a few days. I'll update this again once I start cutting.

I almost forgot, ain't it purty.

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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[John Miller]

Well I finished the majority of the cutting out yesterday. It only took a couple of days. The good news is most of it is pretty straight forward and should be pretty easily fixed. The bad news is it's going to need heater channels. I was hoping it wouldn't, but oh well. I was hoping to be on the road by spring but that looks to be unrealistic now. Here are the pics:

It all wasn't bad news. I found two very cool things while I was tearing it down before cutting. A piece of the original interior color placed by the factory for the line workers to know what color was going into it.

And a carpet swatch attached attached to the door.

More pics to follow when I start welding.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle

[clayster89]

Looks great keep the pics coming.

[Matt K.]

Rust sucks............pure and simple. But at least you are going about it the right way............keep up the good work.
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This is my 23rd year in the Auto Body/Paint Game!
*Take a look at some of my custom paint: http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n119/mrpaint_2006/ .( NOTE: these are some older jobs but still neat.)

[wcfvw69]

I looked at your pushed in front clip and think you should pull it out and save it. The apron will probably need to be replaced but the wrinkles on the front clip don't look that bad. I've pulled much worse out. With some good dolly and hammer work while it's being pulled out, it would work out nicely.
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Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

40+ years of VW repair, and VW parts and vehicle restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[John Miller]

Just a little update.
Today was the day of the point of no return.

It took a couple of hours to make that line. I measured no telling how many times and finally decided I was happy with it. So here goes.

Well no turning back now. I had decided to use the front clip off the '62 ragtop that I have. I haven't been able to locate a good clip for it (I bought a clip, but it turned out to be a 64-66 clip) and I was wanting to keep the project moving, so while I had all the tools out

I left myself about an inch fudge factor since I haven't done this in almost 25 years. The clip will need some rust repair but I already have the panels to fix it.

So now I'll be working on the clip and fixing a few dents in the hood getting ready to make the final cuts. I also just ordered all the replacement panels for the rest of the car and they should be here in about 10 days.

I found a design on another car site for a lift that will allow one person to remove the body from the pan and get it high enough to put on sawhorses or a body dolly. I should have a price on the steel the first part of next week. If it is cost effective I'll be making that also.
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The 68 Ghia
The 62 Beetle