I have to say, I absolutely love Ivan's '67. It's about time I built a nice cal-look car. Do you know the history of this car Ivan? I would guess it originally came from the Allan Green dealership in Penrhyndeudraeth, but I could be wrong.
Rich Oakley wrote:
I've never checked to be honest - I've got a load of old paperwork with the car and it was 100% from Wales, so my guess is it was from that dealer. It was registered very late, after the the '68s were out I think. The original owner was in his 60's when he bought it and kept until his death - at 92 years of age. I bought it in '97 with something like 24,000miles on it. I bought it from the son of the original owner. It had been in the garage in Wales for abut a year and he was just interested in selling it off. Didn't mean it was cheap. I paid £4500 back then.
The carb was in a bad way - it needed a rebuilt and the brakes were all over the place - every time you braked it went left then hard right - not the best drive home!
I spent a lot of time cleaning it up and detailing it. I also swapped a lot of part over that were better than those on my beige '67. Things like sunvisors, grab handles, bonnet liner, rear kick panels - anything that was in slightly better condition really.
I didn't have the capacity to keep it financially, so when a friend of mine, Chris said he wanted it and was happy to give me a tidy profit - it went to him. I'd had it about two months but never put it in my name, so he was listed as the second owner.
The car was totally stock, and easily one of the best.
The fact I took Chris out in my beige '67 changed his feelings about stock... He decided to upgrade it. He wanted it to look stock, but perform and handle a lot better. He spend about £10,000 with John Maher having a complete 2007cc 150bhp engine built, suspension upgrades and so on. He spent more money fitting Kerscher rear disc brakes, Koni shocks and so on.
Anyway, he hardly ever used it - he did about 3 or 4000 miles and then just left it sitting in the garage.
He called me to say it was up for sale. I put the word around and some people showed interest. As he was getting divorced he became a lot keener for it to be sold. I thought to myself at £12,500 it was amazing value, even though it'd need work. (as it turns out, I under-estimated just how much work!) so, I went for it.
The car had four bolt Sprint Star wheels and I wasn't a fan. I had the brake rotors changed front and rear for Porsche pattern and fitted the original Mahle 'Gas Burner' wheels. The engine had to be stripped and rebuilt - this was about £1200 plus parts I hadn't planned spending.
When I go the car all the stock parts came with it - and I thought rather than keep them, I'd give them to people who would use them - so Robb Evans got some and a guy in the club I'm in got the rest. Mike Silvester - the man behind Tatton Park had the complete original 1500 for his Ragtop. (should have kept that in hindsight...).
The end result is a truly great VW to drive, the interior is the best original interior I could wish for. I've done something like 5000 miles in it over the last year - driven it to Germany and Belgium and have loved every minute.
It might not be 'stock', but it's a lovely car to own and it's a privilege to be able to say I do.
Edited by user
12 years ago
|
Reason: Not specified