The text says 'the body, he reckoned, was beyond economical repair and we'd be better off using another. So the search was on for a suitable body...' Clearly another body was used as you wouldn't cut the body you're trying to restore into bits. Also, using only parts from the donor body to repair the original would make the statement 'beyond economical repair' incorrect, so it had to be largely donor body. So I guess it comes down to the definition of 'new shell'? It probably wasn't a case of swapping the new body in for the old with a rear window swap, probably more likely to have been a real frankenstein body.

Interesting to see what else had been replaced in the cars history... the engine, the gearbox, the chassis, the interior, the front suspension :lol: It sounds like Tony was very happy with what was done though, bringing his black beetle back to life when he thought he'd never drive it again - regardless of what was replaced.

Was it the same car after the repairs? I kind of think it was, because the car was a workhorse, when something wore out or broke it was replaced, why should the body be any different?

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Yes!:wink:

It lost its original chassis spine long ago, but I would have called it the same car! Now it has had a new body, I would call it by the same car!:wink:

Even though as Tony apparently used to say that the only original part was the gear knob and no metal work is from the original car!:lol:

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Well, partly new body. But I think we're all more or less in agreement.

Regardless however, the whole Rattletrap history is really something.

I agree – in a way its really just the same car rolling along – fantastic :d

The smash was a good thing for Rattletrap it would seem. All the rotten metal gone, with what would have been a real expensive professional rebuild done. Yet another interesting chapter in its history.

Definitely worth more than it was advertised at, just for the legend alone.

The spirit of Rattletrap lives on :beer:

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and still no one knows whos bought it!...

I doubt we will see the new owner on here .He was a friend of Tonys.

yeh i no lol, thats why i missed out on it :cry:

So it was a new body after all. I thought so. Wonder what bits they did keep?

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none lol, except the chassis tunnel minus the floorpan halfs

Drivers side door and rear quarter panel, back section up thru the rear window and up into the roof to the point of damage. All this stuff was cut from the wrecked shell and welded into the donor (probably oval) shell. Obvious as Tony wanted to keep as much of the original body as he could.

This was not a straight body shell swap :evil:

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Is Rattletrap going to become the 'highest mileage' topic on this forum :?:

Its certainly 'clocked-up' a lot of views and posts:wink:

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I found a 1978 copy of vw motoring and it had a list of cars that had done over 100,000 .Rattletraps original chassis no(the floor in the pics above was not the original according to the article) was listed with its milelage at the time .There were also many other familiar cars (MRT 308 )and lots of ovals.Maybe a topic for another thread is to see how many of them are still around Especially for 55kab who is doing a register.Having the nunber plates, you could easily find out if they have survived.

Still cant believe Standard split is in denial about the body:roll:

I am wondering if they used an Oval body though? Would have been a lot easier to to find one.
Looks like a really solid car now at any rate. I think any of us would be happy to knock about in a car like that, regardless of its long and severely checkered history.



Me either!Still, he´s entitled to his opinion.

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