This is a very unique car found on an online auction. Incidentall I didn't win it, and neither did it sell online. I called the guy in Plaistow in West Sussex, to go and have a goggle at it.
I rocked up in the rain, and it was sat under a poorly fitting tarpaulin surrounded by p loughs and mud and rubbish about 20 meters in the field behind his house.
She sat with a 1979 T reg number plate inside the tub, and a whole load of bit outside the car. The guy Ian was not very interested in it, and could offer no real history of it. It had been his sons buggy, and he had no time to restore it. He said it had been in the field for at least 15 years. amazingly we blew the tyres up and dragged it out the field with his Rangie, and the tyres stayed inflated. I knocked him down for £500 to £350 and it was mine.
I took my Brother in law a Beetle adict to tow it back to Hayling Island on a straight bar. He was the most hung-over brother in law in history when I picked him up.. There is a twist that was totally unexpected in this story. I have a knack at finding really rare cars on online auction - at this was no exception. I had Robin from the DVLA local area office in Portsmouth come an do a check on it. I wanted a date specific registration to reflect it's historic status on log book. He came by and being a VW Beetle expert - started to scratch his head with wonderment.
He asked where found it and how much I paid and all the other questions relating to what I knew about it? He said it was a very rare Long Wheel Base Bugle. He knew about these in the seventies, but the molds had got destroyed for this type of buggy in a fire, and the Short Wheel Base model molds were sold to a business in Essex. There was only 2 of these he knew about. The second strange thing was the chassis was very old, v v old. I checked his literature with him and it stated that chassis was 1956 not 1972 for it's exempt status but 1956 and it had all the right bits on the body of the chassis to back this up. I had the holy grail of buggies. She has a really beautiful roll-cage, that has taken someone a lot of time and thought to do.
I have gone off this buggy a bit as I have several projects on the way so it languishes in the garage at present just waiting for me to spend more money into this bottomless pit. any updates I will get more info
This is the morning it was towed into my driveway - notice the old jag seat the guy thru in to sit in to tow it. this was 2007
This is how she was this summer
It might look like nothing has really happened - but there were major issues with the fllor plans. There were like Swiss cheese. It was made 1,000,000 times harder to replace due to the factory fitted roll-cage, which was integral to the chassis. This roll-cage, was built for off road use and was very heavy duty. all suspension was changed or replaced for new, wheels etc and new 1700 engine all adds up to a really expensive hobby.
She is back inside to the next winter now - while I finish off my Alfasud. See other projects
I rocked up in the rain, and it was sat under a poorly fitting tarpaulin surrounded by p loughs and mud and rubbish about 20 meters in the field behind his house.
She sat with a 1979 T reg number plate inside the tub, and a whole load of bit outside the car. The guy Ian was not very interested in it, and could offer no real history of it. It had been his sons buggy, and he had no time to restore it. He said it had been in the field for at least 15 years. amazingly we blew the tyres up and dragged it out the field with his Rangie, and the tyres stayed inflated. I knocked him down for £500 to £350 and it was mine.
I took my Brother in law a Beetle adict to tow it back to Hayling Island on a straight bar. He was the most hung-over brother in law in history when I picked him up.. There is a twist that was totally unexpected in this story. I have a knack at finding really rare cars on online auction - at this was no exception. I had Robin from the DVLA local area office in Portsmouth come an do a check on it. I wanted a date specific registration to reflect it's historic status on log book. He came by and being a VW Beetle expert - started to scratch his head with wonderment.
He asked where found it and how much I paid and all the other questions relating to what I knew about it? He said it was a very rare Long Wheel Base Bugle. He knew about these in the seventies, but the molds had got destroyed for this type of buggy in a fire, and the Short Wheel Base model molds were sold to a business in Essex. There was only 2 of these he knew about. The second strange thing was the chassis was very old, v v old. I checked his literature with him and it stated that chassis was 1956 not 1972 for it's exempt status but 1956 and it had all the right bits on the body of the chassis to back this up. I had the holy grail of buggies. She has a really beautiful roll-cage, that has taken someone a lot of time and thought to do.
I have gone off this buggy a bit as I have several projects on the way so it languishes in the garage at present just waiting for me to spend more money into this bottomless pit. any updates I will get more info
This is the morning it was towed into my driveway - notice the old jag seat the guy thru in to sit in to tow it. this was 2007
This is how she was this summer
It might look like nothing has really happened - but there were major issues with the fllor plans. There were like Swiss cheese. It was made 1,000,000 times harder to replace due to the factory fitted roll-cage, which was integral to the chassis. This roll-cage, was built for off road use and was very heavy duty. all suspension was changed or replaced for new, wheels etc and new 1700 engine all adds up to a really expensive hobby.
She is back inside to the next winter now - while I finish off my Alfasud. See other projects
