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My girlfriend was still upset about having to sell her old 1956 bug. She had traveled all over Europe in it & had a lot of fun. I had been on the look out for another one, but they are hard to come by in good condition & at the right price. It is true that good things come to those who wait!

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This is how it looked in the first photo I was sent of the car. After a chance conversation with Jon the Auto Surgeon at Stonor Park VW show in June 2007. I mentioned that my girlfriend was thinking about getting another Oval window bug. He said he had a 1954 RHD UK he needed to sell...
We traveled down to Bournmouth to see the car. It looked good in the photo's so we were hoping it was all going to be OK. After a good look round, it was clear that it had had a minor resto, but to a very high standard. Who ever had this car before must have found a very good example to start with. It still has it's original heater channels & floor pans. There has been some welding to under the wheel arches, but all in all its a very solid car for it's age. It had not been on the road since 1993. & I think it was stored for something like 30 years before that. It could explain why it has survived so well.
I collected it with a friend of mine the following weekend, 7th of July. We left here at 6.00amon Saturday to get an early start. He has use of a very cool recovery truck. The Bug had no engine so we had to push it! This truck just made life so easy & safe. If you would like this service then click here! for a quote.
We got back home at around 11.30am & dropped the car off in the drive. After a spot of breakfast me & Nicola pulled the 6v gearbox of out. We had a 1600 AO box already waiting, but we needed to swap the axle shafts over. I would have to order some brake parts for the rear, but by 6.00pm it was back on it's wheels rolling.
I had kept my old Porsche wheels from my blue bug when I sold it. I think they are the perfect wheel for a black Oval. I pulled them from my stock & dusted them off. I had a set of wheel adapters laying around too. I would still need to order the parts I needed for the rear brakes, But I bolted them all on loosely. I had lowered the rear end while the gearbox was out too & thought everything would be spot on.
We set about the engine on the Sunday morning, we had stayed out the night before & returned home around 10.00am, all work & no play makes jack a dull boy!. The 1641cc motor was still in the camper as a running unit. We both pulled it out & fitted it in the bug. Most of it was done in about two and a half hours. Time for a rest!
Here's a bit of an arty shot. The T3 is looking a bit neglected. That rear end is looking a bit low for my liking. But those wheels are the right choice. 205/70x15 rear tyres fill the arches nicely. We changed the rear windows too as they were scratched to death! If anyone has a good windscreen & door glass, we need to change those too.
With the engine fitted, the rear end looked a bit low. I thought it would come up a bit once we had lowered the front. All of the body trim was removed to polish the car to a good standard. The car had been painted in 1992 or 1993 and had now gained some micro blisters.
I wanted the front end lowered quite quickly. Barry at Kult Klassix had a spare king & link pin beam laying around, so he narrowed it 50mm for me & fitted a pair of Sway-A-Way adjusters. With the wheel adapters I had, they were 25mm thick so the wheels ended up back to square one! Tyres were 175/65x15 as fitted to the new style mini. I fitted new track rod ends & steering damper on the beam & cut down the original leaves. I used later steering arms as they are a bit shorter to start with.
With the front end now lowered it was clear the the stance was just not right. I would have to bring it up a spline or so. This is a fairly easy job as it had all been apart before.
After trying a couple of polishes I wasn't really getting anywhere. Don't get me wrong, the paint & body looked good from day one. But I wanted it to really shine. I wasn't happy with the micro blisters either. There were one or two very minor runs I wanted to get rid of too. I flatted the whole car off with 1500 grade wet sand paper. This isn't for the faint hearted having just spent £3500 on a car!
It took a while using 2 grades of polish on the electric polishing mop, I then went over by hand with a normal wax. I have since been over the whole car a few times with the McGuires tech wax. It really is good stuff. You can see the shine. It is nice & deep now. & the water beads off it nicely.
The wiring in the car was none too clever. I had to rewire pretty much all of it. There were cut & taped up wires that didn't seam to do anything. There is not much to the wiring on such an early car, so I couldn't see what the problem was. Even Mrs. Moon the cat made a hasty retreat!
Not the neatest wiring I have ever done, but we were in a bit of a rush. It still took about 7 hours to get it all done & dusted. I rewired the whole front end to the headlights, horn, brake switch etc. I fitted modern fuse boxes to make it more reliable. Everything now works & hasn't stopped yet. No more dirty fuse problems you can get through lack of use.
We refitted some of the trim back on to get things looking like a car again. I had a few odd bits laying around so we made up a decent set. We fitted a chrome bonnet handle & T handle too, as the originals had been painted black. I was working on some new headlights too. The ride height is spot on now.
The engine was more or less ready to go bit the wiring was still a bit of a mess out back. I remade the wiring loom, what little there is of it, to the engine & rear lights. It only took an hour or so to get it sorted. All I would need is the petrol tank to get a test drive.
The only other issue to sort out was a sticky semaphore indicator. The left side was fine but the right one just didn't want to play. I had fitted a voltage dropper to the circuit for the wipers & semaphores, but it just wouldn't work right. After close inspection I could see that paint was in the hinge pin. I cleaned this out & the problem was solved. We fitted new wing beading about now too as the ones on there were a bit chunky.
The last job before MOT was to get the headlights sorted. I wanted reliable bright lights but she wanted stock. A good compromise was struck after a chance finding on Ebay. I found some crystal clear 7" Halogen H4 lamps for a land rover. I used some US spec headlight parts with the original glass to give the illusion of a stock unit. Not many have noticed the modern unit hiding inside. The result is a nice bright clear light.
Here it is at the MOT station 20th Aug., just 8 weeks from when we bought it home. It was good to get a good look around it underneath. It really was as good as we had thought. It passed first time with no real problem.
So, With most of the hard work done I set about getting the little details just right. I wanted a narrower front end so a Deluxe Motorwerks -3.5" beam found its way under the front. This meant I had to cut all of the torsion leaves & steering arms down for a second time. I cut the required length of the right handed thread side, then tapped the thread as deep as I needed. A left hand tap is expensive! I swapped the front tyres to the classic 145x15's too.
Here it is ready to go. All this hard work was to get it ready for VW Action on 1st Sept. It would be at Santa Pod this year for the first time. We were both looking forward to it. We took the Oval & the red T3. we had the best of both worlds! It was a great show & despite a bit of an oil leak it did the 200 mile round trip without any fuss. It was looking good now & should keep the stance police at bay.
Sittin' pretty at VW Action in the mid day sun. All the hard work was worth it. We had put in over 60 hours labour in about 8 weeks to get it here. It was a good feeling cruzing around Santa Pod in a freshly polished car. We got a lot of attention.
This is on the way to Santa Pod on the motorway. It look fantastic on the move. We will do a few more bits n bobs over the winter. We have a set of disc brake dropped spindles to go on the front. This will help it slow down from speed. The engine will be pulled out & new pushrod tubes fitted. I will fit all new gaskets to the engine ready for the new season.
Here is the lady herself. She should be very proud of herself as she has worked so hard to get this car. She is not scared to get her hands dirty either. I know she misses her old '56 but hopefully she will have as much fun in this. It really caused a stir at VW Action & I am sure it will get a few looks next year... It is now tucked away in a garage for the winter months, but will venture out before the show season.
It's been a while since we have had any time to work on the oval. I have been collecting parts for a while now to make some upgrades. Although the brakes worked ok, we wanted discs up front. We have gone for dropped spindles too to get the nose down a bit more.
You may have noticed a dramatic drop in ride height! we lowered the rear end 1 inner spline to match the new front end. The discs I bought from Ebay have been drilled wrong. I can only get 3 nuts on! I am having another set drilled now. I still need to fit a new master cylinder & bleed the system.
Nicola has been collecting parts fora few years now. One such item is this VDO clock & grille. It really looks the part, unfortunately the clock doesn't work, so we will need to get it repaired. It's a shame as it look very nice.
A neet little trick we liked is the tail light eyebrows. They were a bit of a game to fit but were a fairly cheap trick. We have fitted stainless steel bumpers with over riders too. we also fitted rubber bump stops on the over riders. I really like these and they serve a purpose.

This is how it sits now. I tweeked the front end some more, hopefully it won't be too low. we fitted a set of Albert mirrors so we have half a clue what is going on behind.

I will try to get it finished for Bug-Jam, so you might see it there...
The car is now registered at long last. It now has a new number, 216 XUP. so the WPK 56 is officially dead. we pulled the engine out recently & sorted the oil leaks from years gone past. It runs & drives really nice now. It went to Bug-Jam & VW action with no problems & we plan to take it to Vanfest next week. I think the way it looks now is just about perfect.
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