Annas 1950 beetle restoration

Back in 2002 on a whim I bought this 1950 beetle.

The original plans for the car changed, so the scruffy fully stripped bare beetle shell just sat in my garage quietly waiting. But then after a few years reading a lot of books, doing a lot of research and collecting parts, I decided to embark on it and work began each evening. Well most evenings actually!

Fortunately being from far northern Sweden the car was exceptionally solid for its age so I decided not to have any of the body blasted. But it was painted in thick old bright green very hard paint absolutely everywhere! Although I tried everything to recover the original green paint, on the exterior of the car it had long since been removed so there was virtually none to be found under the pea green paint that had obviously protected it so well all these years. Repairs required typical of good Swedish cars, only : rear corners/heater channel rear ends, heater channel bottoms thin and holey, lower front bulkhead corners only, 1/2 battery tray and a few small spots, but on the whole very little for a '50!

Due to the short shock towers on the 1950 beam I flipped the pan and re-attached the beam upside down to enable me to be able to roll the pan in & out so I could zipwheel both sides of the floorpan.

The really clever welding work was done by a very talented friend named David : )

I ground the old channel bottom plates until they glowed red hot and peeled away, however hard you try, some of that molten lava will find its way down the neck of your overalls!

Almost impossible to find these days, I found a set of split wings to replace the dented later ones that came on the car. The split wings needed a little repairing. I had the original 50 bumpers, 16" wheels and all old 50 parts professionally aluminium oxide blasted & zinc primed.

Rear mounts removed blasted repaired and inner wings repaired and new plates made up. Lots of small metal filled areas but all 4 quarters/inner wings are original and rustfree! which is a great feeling : )

New heater channel bottom plates being trial fitted.

So now faced with a rock solid but dented body especially the snow dented roof I decided that I didnt want a perfect new looking restored car full of filler or any more metal work on the car than absolutely necessary, so choose to go without filler, keeping all the dents and stay with the swedish army paintscheme instead.

At this point I chose to give up work to concentrate fully on the car 7days a week & nights for the next 5 months with Bad Camberg as my goal.

Some time at this point I wore all my fingerprints away with weeks worth of hand sanding.

As you can see the body metal is in great original shape, and its original doors are so solid we did not even have to remove them or repair them so they close well

With the Nato green on I fitted the car up fully as it was essential that the camo pattern be painted on as if the army were doing it, the pattern flowing across panels etc.

At this point I seriously considered leaving the car plain green as the cellulose finish had far exceeded my expectations!

I zipwheeled/handsanded/rust treated all the body underside & repainted. You can see here we 'stitched together' the original valence to get the strength back.

My favorite parts of the car are the dented roof and these dented areas that show the cars life story!

So why the splinter camouflage?

Being a Swedish car I decided to stay with Swedish Army so did a lot of research into Swedish M90 Camouflage pattern. This pattern has stayed the same for more than 30+years and is mostly found on Swedish Tanks & fighter aircraft. However I was surprised when we found a genuine ex-Swedish army Bay crewcab painted in correct Nato green/ M90. I have some of the body panels from this van but the van itself was unfortunately destroyed before we could collect it.

Finding any M90 vehicles in the UK is not easy at all and I thought I would have to resort to a trip over to the Swedish tank Museum but then by luck a pair of tanks were gifted to Bovington Tank Museum during 2006 which led to a research trip museum visit 2 days after Christmas 2006!

So the paint was matched up exactly to the Centurion Tank. Base coats in correct Nato green eggshell (cellulose) The colours were mixed up especially for me and I masked the car up and painted the car by hand which took a good 2 weeks of solid days & nights.

1 week to go before Camberg and in goes the NOS industrial ex-Swedish Army engine! and NOS split exhaust.

Our old 1954 Volvo Sugga armoured car

The cloth covered wiring loom is the original from the pod down to each of the front & rear fuseboxes. I made up new wiring armoured and cloth covered from the fuseboxes down. Using original wiring, but being a woman and certainly no auto electrician! meant that of course the car didnt work!

But then a knight in shining armour appeared by the name of Simon and he made it all work! and soon we were driving in circles around the VW garden! : )

A set of brand new Wesa Gelande tyres were fitted.

The car passed its first MOT with flying colours! and performed faultlessly during its christening 1000mile round trip to Bad Camberg and back last June 2007! : )

The speedo pod is too early mid/late 40's but the only standard pod I could find at the time, I now have a correct speedo to fit.

The full interior seats, panels and glovebox liners are all its original ribbed cotton unrestored complete with old mouse nests inside the seats! The '55 Huls recliner was already fitted to the '50 drivers seat and the cover is an original vw dealer fitted item. The headliner that I removed from another 1950 shell is original and even still fluffy! I had to carefully repair it before re-fitting. Rudolph the Reindeer on the rear seat was picked up in Sweden. I have'nt fitted carpet because I enjoy the painted interior and the fact that I have no ugly welding to hide anywhere on the car! (Thanks to Dave!)

I painted my deluxe steering wheel black because It was the only part that came in the car when I bought it and I dont want to swap it for a 3 spoke simply because I like it : )

The convoy lights and glass reflectors are are genuine old Swedish army.

A true luxury has been the ability to use only genuine old original 1950 and NOS parts, with the exception of great quality brand new window rubbers and only 1 or 2 small items I managed to use no repro parts at all!

Most of all though I really enjoy driving with the crash gearbox!

The music of love indeed!

Take Care

Mrs VWgarden x

We also have this very original 1950 sunroof medium brown beetle that we will be putting back onto the road this year after very minimal stock restoration.