You may have come across someone who doesn't know much about VW beetles but really wants to own a restored beetle, who is not hesitant to spend, has all the right intentions yet he (or she) is conned by the less than honest people in the field. After spending substantial funds they find the sorry looking figure in their driveway a far cry from what they had expected to own...
This is the story of my friend who just wanted to restore a car that was in the family and was willing to spend to get it right. Unfortunately his knowledge about VW beetles was limited but he had heard of the 'frame off' restoration concept. Some more misfortune for the gentleman as he was introduced to a weasel of a person who believes in 'what you can't see won't hurt you' and I have to admit, he is good at hiding the rust, rot , dents and dings before passing the car on to the painter who would use liberal amounts of filler and pass you a shiny-for-a few-days finished product. He does not believe in straight lines or even gaps ...as long as it shuts its good! who cares if you can insert your hand thru the gap...besides its an air cooled VW..isn't it?
This panel beater demanded (and got paid) Rs. 40,000 to do the frame off restoration. The car was worked on and passed to the painter who got busy with a bucket of filler and a spatula in hand. The car was painted and sent back to the owner with just some of the glass fitted.
The car stayed at that spot for about 4 years!
My friend had requested me to bring some parts for his project when I was in Canada and I did. However when i saw the car I refused to hand over the parts as they would have been wasted on the car in its condition. I kept getting requests to take on the project but I just didn't have the time and to be honest, i was not excited to fix someone else's muck-up.
The owner gave up and the car remained parked at his house in its unfinished state. At some point his mother decided enuff was enuff so the car was pushed out of the covered car porch and into the open to make room for one of their daily drivers. At this point I felt that something needed to be done or we'd lose the car to a scrap buyer.
Arshad, who does all the panel beating on my projects is busy with other projects and I discussed with him the possibility of taking on another project. Of course there are only that many hours in a day and he works on all my projects himself so we would have to put one of the other cars on the back burner...my Oval Rag-top!
The car was shifted from my friends house to the workshop on a flat bed tow truck as I was not interested in wasting time attempting to get it started. The engine was reportedly worked on and just the compression rings were changed. The fuel pump does not work so an electric fuel pump is in place, the brakes....well lets not jump topics and I will share with you (with pictures) various challenges that lie ahead.