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Beetlemania
May 2010 - For Sale
This is your once in a lifetime
opportunity to buy probably the last built Volkswagen Super Beetle
Karmann Convertible. To make sure that this isn’t just a fairytale or a
scam, with this historic and unique vehicle you will get an Original
Volkswagen Birth Certificate that confirms and shows 11.01.1980 as a
production date.
Officially, Volkswagen made the last Super Beetle Convertible on 01.10.1980. That car is now in the Karmann’s Museum, more precisely at the Wilhelm Karmann GmbH - Karmannstr. 1- 49084 Osnabrück , Germany. That was officially, just for the show, for taking pictures, media and public. However, something else was happening behind the door.
Well, now Karmann and Volkswagen cannot any longer continue to claim that car as the last built. Why? Simply because now you have a chance to buy a superb Volkswagen Super Beetle Karmann Convertible that was made after that one, that was made on 11.01.1980. How is that possible? Full sedan body, regular super beetles, were delivered from the Volkswagen to the Karmann that would make convertibles and then ship them back to Volkswagen for the final work. This was the “forgotten” one.
Now, you have a chance to be a proud owner of this historic and unique car.
Like all of you, I’ve always thought that 1979 is the final year, the best year and that 1979 was the last year that Volkswagen released convertibles. Well, it is not. The best year, the last year is 1980. I have bought this car without knowing all this, neither the previous owner did know. After I’ve purchased the car I’ve remember I should inspect the door sticker with the VIN number and production year. I just couldn’t believe the production date was 01/1980. I was very intrigued and puzzled with the production date so I have talked to and emailed Volkswagen and they have verified the VIN number and Volkswagen told me that production date is January 11th 1980 and that for 35 euros they will send me an Original Birth Certificate. I was very happy but also said because I’ve realized that this car is not for me. Volkswagen made 19589 Beetle Convertibles in 1979 and in 1980 only 518 and that is for the whole world. Don’t think that all 518 ended in USA, only few did. That shows how insignificant year 1979 is comparing to the year 1980. All 1980 beetle convertibles were sold as a year model 1979.
You are bidding on beautiful 1980 Volkswagen Super Beetle Karmann Convertible in great condition. Only 61000 original miles. No one has ever smoked in this car. Always pampered. Runs excellent, like new. Starts with just a touch of the ignition key, every single time no matter is it cold or hot, day or night, summer or winter.
History
This is an Original California car. It left the factory in Germany to be exported to Los Angeles 22nd January 1980.It was imported to the UK on 27th September 1990 and has had only two registered keepers, including myself. In 1995, I bought this car from when I was residing in London. The car runs excellent, like new. Owner’s Manual, Records and receipts available. 1980 VW Super Beetle Karmann Convertible was meticulously maintained, both cosmetically and mechanically. It is in an excellent running and body condition. It is MOT'ed until 19th June 2009. If you are interested, please just email me.
Major Work
On 9th September 2002 a new engine was fitted to the car removing the problematic Bosch Fuel injection system. Also the Fuel injection system was changed for a carbretter.
On 26th May 2000 the car had a new hood and frame fitted
On 8th May 2004 A major project was undertaken on the car. This involved the strip down of the complete car and carry our various bits of repair work. This includes replacement and worn and rusty parts and a complete repsray and changing of outer skin of converible roof.
Pictures over the lst couple of years, including during the restoration work can be found in the "Photo Layout" section of the website.
October 2009.
Discovered an issue with the car not
starting properly. Decided
to pay a visit to my local beetle speciulist Walgrove Garage.
They got the car in and determined the Statar Motor was on its last legs and it needed to be replaced. This was done and returned to me in a couple of hours. Another job well done by Walgrove and more opportunity to drive the car before the weather becomes colder.
June 2008.
After a fairly long drive around the
highways of the Derbyshire
countryside and parking up back on the drive I discovered a problem.
The seems to be an oil leak and from my experience in the past that
is one of the worst things that can happen to a beetle.
Eight years ago I had to replace the engine as it siezed up due to lack of oil and a faulty oil light. When the AA came out they could not even turn the engine over!! That was not going to happen again. Another visit to Walgrove was organised in double quick time after the oil resovior was filled before the journey.
They found the problem as a corroded pipe and replace some of the pipe work and some gasket that resolved that problem. I will not be buying another engine this week.
October 2007.
Things are looking up. The car, now a
little more roadworthy than before, is getting regularly turned out for
work at
least once a week. So at least the engine and the exterior are in good
nick.
My attention now turns to the cockpit and the driving environment that has never been really looked at. After trawling through the latest copy of Volksworld magazine, found a couple of places based in the north. So, sent an e-mail to a company called trimmingtonic.co.uk outlining the basic requirements for reupholstering and re-padding of seats. Hopefully they will come back with a reasoable quote!
19th October - they have come back with a very reasoanble quote for the work, and a time-scale that seems impossible. Two weeks to turnaround the front and rear seats and they are booking for December. It's a bit soon as I don't have all the money but it does seem like a bargin..!
September 2007.
Back to Walgrove Garage. Saved up
enough
money to get the car
in and for them to resolve the ongoing issues with the lack
of performance. After taking out of long term (six months) storage,
drove it back to the house and it was worse than ever. No idling and
constantly stalling its not a nice feeling and quite embarassing...
The real beetle experts get to work and have sorted out the problem as suspected the carbretter was shot and German and Swedish supplied twin port carb sorted the problem. Walgrove recommeneded that I needed to change the accelorator cable, probably because of thumping my foot down on it so many times to keep it running. That's the next job for next time...
Drove it home with a big smile on my face. Happy that after so long the car drives like it should do.
June 2007.
Another Day, another issue. It is
that
time of year when the Beetle is due for it's yearly MOT. After six
months in Storage and it only taken out for irregular run arounds it
was time for the legal stuff!. After receiving the car back from
Beetlelink there where several outstanding
issues that would be highlighted.
The car failed the MOT with an electrical fault affecting the indicators. Also, the horn bought new last year was not working and the windscreen washer was also faulty. As part of the MOT failure I found out that a new piece of legislation that should not have affected my vehicle was applied. This was due to the manufacture date on the Log book, currently December 1980, which should be January 1980. The new legislation applied to vehicles manufactured after 1st April 1980...!
After the MOT failure and the extra requirements I made the decision to get most of it sorted out. Booked into Walgrove garage for some proper TLC...
April 2007.
After a winter
spent out of the cold, stored in a garage, it is time to make
some hard choices about the direction I need to take the car.
As always the decision about whether or not to keep the car looms it's ugly head. After a discussion with the wife whose only prerequisite is that rear seat belts be fitted my choice was made - To keep the car! First step is to decide what needs doing next and where and when it will be done.
Before the next big job which I think will be the interior, there is just the job of once again sorting out what Beetlelink has done to my car. I need to get some parts and get the Beetle down to Walgrove Garage in Chesterfield. A great bunch on mechanics that always to a great job.
Firstly I need a carburetter. Since the new engine block and various other engine work it seems to be basically failing. Walgroe Garage have done there best and have made it run well under the circumstances. If I can't get it from a forum or Ebay I will probably get it from VW Heritage.
Circumstances dictate that because of an impending family holiday and having other short term financial commitments any work is gonna have to wait until July time. Ah well roll on July!
December 2006.
As part of my on going mission to maintain my car, I went through the arduous process of collecting my car from Beetlelink 200 miles north of my present location.
Contacting the vendor I arranged to pick up the car on the Friday afternoon a week before Christmas. This involved a train journey from Chesterfield to St Pancraes, an underground journey from King's Cross to Waterloo, another train journey from Waterloo to Farnham and a cab journey from the station to the workshop. All in all a four and a half hour journey door to door.
Once I arrived I was warmly greeted by the owner Grant who was, as usual, ambiguous about what work had or had not been done. It seemed that the wings had been resprayed but probably not replaced. Other items like the faulty door handle had been glued back on. The rear view demister and interior light still didn't work. The list seemed to go on and on. So in the semi darkness I started the long journey back to London as a stopover before heading back up north. That's when I discovered the other problems.....!
As I started to drive away and signaled to turn out of the workshop the indicator relay seemed to go haywire. While with beetlelink a fault within the electrical system seems to have developed. This meant that when I indicated left there was no outward sign that it was my intention to go left! Not a problem when the headlights were off but a safety risk when the headlights were turned on. Very strange.
An ongoing problem with the car has been the carburetter. This had been addressed by some good local talent in Chesterfield at Walgrove Garage. While with beetlelink some alternate problem had occurred. This meant that as you accelerated there was a loss of power. This limited the speed of the car to between 40-50 miles per hour. This was gonna cause a problem for motorway driving.!
At this stage I had a decision to make. Either to bring the car back or leave and having nothing to do with a bunch of Beetle specialist who now on two occasions have had me over and made promises they haven't kept. In the end the decision made itself and I started the journey home.
October 2006.
More or less a blog devoted to my long time love hate relationship with my 1979 VW beetle. Currently, a major piece of work being undertaken by Beetlelink in Bagshot Lea, Farnham. There job is to rectify some outstanding issues. The expected return date will be late October to early November!
Bought originally as a project, given no time and no funds a times it has been more of a burden than boon! Nice in the summer, fridge in the winter, I can definitely say that owning and running a convertible beetle is an acquired taste.
Rebuild 2004
After months of planning and several e-mails and visits to various beetle specialist it was finally time to sort out the beetle. Due to lots of unforeseen circumstances money set aside for work on the car always got spent on fixing problems. New engine, New roof, damage after a break and alike...
The vendor of choice was beetlelink. After a visit and a reassuring talk to the manager it seemed ideal for what I wanted. Good quality work on a budget. The time, date and budget were set and as it loomed closer the prospect of getting my windy rust trap fixed seemed better and better.
The
day came and it was my brothers job to follow me to
Farnham
so that once I dropped it off he could drop me back. As part
of the
plan I was scheduled to come backdown half way through the process
to see the current state of affairs, which I did. Optimistic words and
a car in pieces seemed to give me the warm feeling
that reassured me that everything seemed okay. The time constraints
were being achieved and the budgetary constraints seemed to be
in check as well.
As
the pick time got closer and I needed a better indication
of exactly what I was paying for the alarm bells started to ring..!
As I pressed the owner on what the price was going to be and how long
it was going to take everything seemed to go out the
window. Extra pieces of worked were required. Unexpected jobs needed
to be done included.
When the time came to pick the car it was a month late and several thousand pounds over budget. I will give to them the car did look fantastic, the best it had looked for a number of years...but at a extra cost that in the end I had to pay. Once again it was my brother who had given me a lift to Farnham and I discussed the possibly of just walking away and leaving the problem with them. I decided not to..!
I blame myself for the mistakes I made and would recommend that if there is anybody in my situation be careful who you choose to do any work on any object you own. Personal recommendations are always best but no guarantee...In the future any major work I plan to undertake myself which has two main advantages. One, it's cheaper and two, you have the satisfaction and knowledge that you will do the best job that you can.
Volksworld
The premier Volkswagen publication and the premier Volkswagen show on the circuit. A must have for the budding enthusiast or the trained hack.
Show 2004
The last of various trips to Sandown Park racecourse to the annual pilgrimage for VW and VW accessories.
The last of many visits to various VW shows. This time it was without my car as that was in the process of being rebuilt by trained VW specialists. Like most times it was an opportunity to rekindle the feeling that made me want to buy the car in the first place. It also boosts the ego by making it seem possible, given enough time and energy make a rust heap into a show winning masterpiece.
This year as with other years I had to pick a theme. A reason for checking out specific cars for a specific reason. I decided that this year was the year of the wheel. My aim then was to make plans that probably would come to nothing for finding suitable wheels for my soon-to-be rejuvenated classic.
The theme involves searching stands and show cars, inside and outside the venue taking photos and decided the best wheel tyre combo. Most of the rest of the time is spent looking through the auto jumble for and golden nuggets, checking out some of the sweet rides and getting all enthusiastic about have a classic car that needs a lot of TLC.
I make the same promise to myself that I make every year that this year will be different and I will attempt to spend more time working on the car....