Original Deluxe RHD Golde Ragtop Beetle, beautifully faded OG Ruby red paint on the outside (to give it that nice Barn find look!
) that was treated with some ankor wax a while back (as a protective measure to preserve the OG paint) but still has nice and shiny OG Ruby red paint on the inside, I know, I cleaned up a little test patch!
One key fits all, electrics all good (even the door/interior light works!), NOS headlights fitted a few years back, gutters are fine and the engine is a 1300cc case, but is pretty nippy so I suspect that it has been fitted with 1500cc or 1600cc pistons and barrels at some point in the past, but never had this confirmed. It will sit at 6070 mph all day long on the motorways without issues! New Bosch HT leads, 009 dizzy and electronic ignition and flamethrower coil fitted.
Is it reliable? It's my daily and I've done 16k in the last 17 months, the last 4 of which had only occasional miles put on, with regular weekly return trips from Surrey to Leicester on the M25/M1 without a problem! I would
and do drive it anywhere and everywhere, come rain, snow or shine!
Currently sits on a sweet set of fully polished JGE Rader wheels (
x5) with pretty new (only done 2,985 miles on 4, spare unused!) tyres (5 x Toyo 330 185x65/R15T)
Some nice little accessories with it such as a nice original (fairly rare?) VDM steering wheel, smokers friend wind deflector on drivers side, period spot light (not connected), badge bar, rear stone guards, and an uncut dash with working period Blaupunkt FM radio
Original headlining (stained, but in a cool way) all intact and in pretty good nick as are all door cards and front/rear seats (although front/rear seats are not a matching set, they look OK together)
As a nice little bonus (but no I'm not adding this to the price, I'm just mentioning it in passing!), it has a pretty valuable registration plate, which has been valued currently at £4,245!!!!
Had all the usual suspect areas sorted earlier this year by Barry @ Kult Klassix (01483 201114) off VZi so if you want an independent opinion, speak to the man! Front inner arch panels, rear quarters, heater channels (not welded to the pan!), rear cross members etc. No corners cut, no botched up areas, proper panels put in place, sealed and then treated to a good dose of waxoil! So
very solid in all the right places!
Also took the opportunity to replace all shocks, had front colour coded inertia front seat belts fitted, new heater cable, speedo cable, rear window rubber etc.
Not so good bits? (which I currently live with) the gearbox does have a very occasional habit of jumping out of 2nd (or is it 3rd, I can't remember now?) when changing down a bit
too hard and the gearbox input shaft (?) makes a rattling noise when idling.
Still has all four proper
solid metal original wings, but these do have a couple of character dings/previous mirror mount holes in them or lip areas that could cosmetically be repaired, if you wanted to at some point in the future (way better than getting cheap nasty repro wings IMHO!). But this is more cosmetic decision rather than anything else.
It was huh, hmmm Volksworld featured
in that if you look on p65 of July 2005 you will see a picture of it from back in the day with Norman Moore!
Its History
From what I've also been told, Norman seems to have been a bit of a tinkerer and improver and made various mods to the car during the 60s and 70s like fitting a period, VDM sports accessory steering wheel (still on the car), a smokers friend wind deflector, fitting the Land Rover wing mirrors (now thankfully removed), fitting a later gear box so the car has long axels and whatever engine tinkering he did! I wonder how many VW's still have their original engine these days?
At some point he then sold the car on to the chap who ran Peppercorn VW show in Kent (which would explain some of the cool stickers on the car). Not sure how much it was used by him, but was certainly mothballed and stuck in a barn for at least 8-9 years.
A few years back he opened up the barn at the show and basically sold everything in there off on a first come first served basis. A friend of the people I got it off (a VW restorer) happened to be there early looking for parts for various clients projects, knew a good solid, original car when he saw it and bought it. He kept it for around a year. He repaired in front of the OS rear wheel, then after they had bought it from him, they got him to replace the rear bumper hangers with parts from Hookys Panels for them. Hes done this very well, you wouldnt know it has been done. I got it from a great couple in Scotland, they got it from a guy off the forum (name escapes me) from their days in Bristol/Bath I think?
That's as much as I know on it's history prior to my having it
VW date the year of manufacture as being
8th November 1960 (so its just had its 47th Birthday!) and the DVLA have the date of first registration as being 7th March 1961
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Electronic ignition, Bosch Ultra Premium HT leads, Pertronix Flame Thrower Coil (Chrome) and a new Bosch 009 Dizzy
£159
Five JGE Fully Polished Rader wheels with five matching Toyo 330 185x65/R15T tyres
£1,125
Welding all the usual suspect areas, VW Heritage panels and brake components etc.
£1,580
Driving around with the ragtop down and listening to the Foo Fighters Priceless
There are some things in life that money can buy, but for everything else theres MasterCar
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So in summary then
its a totally honest, solid original RHD Golde Ragtop, faded
original paint on the outside (not a quick shiny blow over) but still original shiny paint on the inside, its not been too messed around with over the years, uncut dash, heater channels
not welded to the floor, no botched repairs to have to re-do, some nice period/modern goodies etc. included, definitely not a show Queen or a dub that lives in a garage, this one earns it's keep and thus has proven reliability as you can see from the mileage I've used it for recently.
It is by no-means perfect as some might define perfect, but could very easily be made so if someone wanted it to be that way, as for me, I just love it the way it is!
Tax (exempt) till Dec 2008, MOT till Feb 2008
Price?
£4,600 as is with the JGE Raders or £4,200 without
