Hi Everyone, firstly some history of my car ...

'Helga' so named by Eric Sewell, the guy who I bought the car from back in 2003 was manufactured on 14th August 1947 and left the factory the next day destined for the Schultz VW Dealership in Essen. I believe Schultz was the first official VW dealership in Germany and they also put the Hebmuller family in contact with VW.

Much of the history is known, the car was bought back to the UK by a British Serviceman and registered on 5th November 1947 and was then used regularly by a reporter working for the Banbury Advertiser. The car then changed hands a few times in the late 50's and ended up being traded in to Erics VW dealership 'Sewells' of Banbury. Eric fully intended to restore Helga but sadly never got round to it and with ill health sold the car he had owned for so many years.

Interestingly Helga was built just two days and 27 chassis numbers after JLT 420 the famous Colbourne-Baber car.

The rear number plate in a couple of the pictures is not Helgas but from an earlier '47 which was written off in an accident with a lorry, the engine lid is just one of the many spare parts taken from this car.

Eric with Helga on the day I collected her ...


Those that know me will tell you I've been talking about restoring my car for ages but the last 7 years has just flown by and house renovations, a hectic job and family life have all meant that the car hasn't had much of a look in but I hope to put that right. I don't expect progress to be quick but I will try to get on with it and post pics of progress as it happens.

I have more or less finished the engine block rebuild (original engine) and removed the body from the chassis at the weekend to start work on the body ...








Some of the original black paint ...


If anyone has parts I may be interested in please let me know, specifically I am after banana bumpers, wings and 46/47 only nipple hubcaps (non cog pressing) ;-)

https://s386.photobucket.com/albums/oo301/kevmpics/47/ 

Great news Kev, looking forward to following this thread! But next time I don't think you should rest the body on the dog like that - you can get in trouble for that sort of thing..:wink:

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Great stuff Kev. Glad you've finally managed to get 'round to doing some work on it. Is Lavenham 2012 the target??

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Good grief. That looks a lot better than pretty much every Beetle I've ever owned. A lovely basis for a seriously lovely car.

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Really does look rock solid. Original motor too. What a great start.

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Kev,

I was just looking at the date stamp on your engine and thought... hmmmmm, that looks familiar. Guess what the date stamp is on my '47 engine....

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Looks like a great base, far better than my rotted 60's Beetle. 😎

There were some '47 wings for sale on The Samba a few days ago, couldn't finds the ads in a search but might be worth digging about.

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Has the 'L' handle on the bonnet been swapped with a 'T' handle? :lol:

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Well done Kevin, it's going to be so exciting to see the progress on such a good, solid car. 'Can't wait to see the updates!:beer:

Gosh I had no idea your old thing was in such great shape! I am endlessly amazed at how good the early metal was. Certainly compared my pretty much rotfree 79 thats only done 30k but is not as good as my 50 in a few places :roll: :lol:

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Thanks everyone for the nice comments.



she comes in handy sometimes :wink:



Yeah why not :beer:



yep very solid indeed however lots of battle scars and little bits that do need welding, the worst bit is the offside front quarter where the original owner crashed into a lamp post on the way back from the pub one night :roll: I do have a NOS quarter from Owen to fix this but may well try to retain the original metal instead.



wow spooky, is that engine original to your car ?



cheers will have a look, and yes the front handle was a T handle but non VW, I have L handles for it ...both ends :d



Yeah I have had a fair number of rot boxes over the years :roll: The metal is good on the older cars although I think being in storage for 60 years has helped alot :d

Rich - forgot to ask what's your engine number ?

Fantastic Nev. I'm going to enjoy following this one.

Please post up progress and pics as you go along.

Kev,

The date stamp on the side of the case 10.6.47 is (I think) the casting date not the date of build of the engine. The engine manufacture date should be stamped vertically below the generator pedestal.

My birth certificate states that the engine no of my car is 097951. The engine in the car is 097927. The engine was in the car when it was found many many years ago, so either the birth certificate is wrong or the engine was coincidentally replaced with one 24 numbers apart from the original.

Rich.

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ace car, kev!

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Any progress on this beauty?

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I heard his bathroom has come on nicely 😎

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:lol: yeah I am desparately trying to finish the work on the house so I can crack on with the car, I did say it would be slow progress !

My daily driver Golf failed its MOT today on one rear wheel bearing and one rear shock, looks like I will be working on that this weekend :roll: