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Friday 28 February 2014

Meet the Team - Parker

Meet Parker! He arrived passed out on a back of a truck in some fashion! Proceeding to block the whole road up while trying to wheel him in.


Poor Parker jumped onto the scene in December 2013 and is the first project for this year. After a heavy life near Brighton for several years, Parker has been inducted into the family rehabilitation unit to restore him back to his glory days of the 1970's and 1980's. Born in 1975, Parker has been nothing short of a wild animal living through the 1980's, the high amount of abuse has more than taken his toll on him, leading to his engine to blow up which was arguably Parker's rock bottom moment before his induction to rehab.

Parker is currently inducted into the 12-step programme and we will be documenting his progress next month. Parker luckily won't have to be talking about his troubles in schools as we had already done that as part of a college presentation which you can view here.
Also, Parker is a car and can't speak English (sorry kids). At the moment, Parker has since been given a brand new 1200cc engine which Parker originally had when he left the showroom in 1975. The 1200 model is the most basic of the Beetle range, with the 1500/1600 models completing the top end of the market. The rehabilitation programme has been more extensive than we had hoped, but all in all, Parker has taken to the 12-steps better than we expected with the aforementioned new engine, treating and filling in the rust holes with filler and also new metal which has been welded in by our team and also a fantastic respray, bringing the aesthetics back to life for Parker.


Next time, I will introduce you to our final team member, who is still lacking a name but is dubbed currently as 'The Silver Hornet'. This one, is less ravaged and is something more of a hidden gem with a fantastic history who will be travelling up to Stanford Hall this year for one of the biggest classic Volkswagen shows in the UK, along with McCartney or Doris. That battle however, has yet to be decided.








Sunday 23 February 2014

Meet the Team - Doris

Meet Doris, arguably the biggest diva of the group.This one is less powerful than McCartney, weighing in at 1300cc's which means a whopping 30 horsepower! Born in 1970, it has since seen a renaissance period as the pre-1972 era are now heavily sought after. Thus we felt the need to have a good attempt at restoring her as we bought Doris cheap at the time. Starting out as the 'ugly duckling' when we bought her, Doris quickly blossomed as it required very little work and therefore more time and effort could be spent on the aesthetics on the car, which included respraying the front of the body, a focus on overhauling the interior, especially the seats. The seats may look conventional, but these are super rare and were only made for one year, 1968. Marry the two up and you can deduce that these were nicked out of my car without me knowing by my dad... Terrific.

I have since procured some myself and I will show you the transformation later on in the month so we are now back on talking terms. 

Doris, when we first bought her in July 2013.
Looking mighty fine now!

Luckily though, the Doris rarely sees sunlight and doesn't move more than 50 feet each time and always lives in the garage, due to it being a summer car. This is something that I seriously do not agree with as cars should be used all year round, not just polished. Currently, Doris is lacking an MOT to use it on the road currently, despite being good to go. This means I can sleep easy and still take the plaudits for having a usable car. Plus, its engine is sounding something of a hybrid between a Ford Transit and a Peel P50 which does mean that work will need to be done on the engine before she is good to go for the fast approaching show season. Beside that though, it does look awesome with rare Cibie spotlights and other original period accessories.


Rare and original accessories really bring this project into its own.

Next time I will introduce you to Parker, our current running project that would love a new home when completed. 


A completely revamped interior to match the colour of the car.



Tuesday 18 February 2014

Meet the Team - McCartney



Eastcourt House, East Grinstead, September 2013


This here, is my first car McCartney. A 1968, 1500cc VW Beetle and it's awesome! This is the first of 4 Beetles that we own and I will introduce over the coming days and just exactly what we plan to do with them. My family are currently in a prosperous time and our plan is to buy cars in need of TLC and sell these machines when they are all refreshed and restored to their former glory for someone to enjoy. We are aiming to go to shows and display our work much later in the year and from my perspective, be on location (if it makes it there in one piece) for new photo's and campaigning to place our cars in the national VW magazines. 

We bought McCartney in June 2013, all the way from Devon and needed a little bit of work before it was good to go. This meant a small amount of welding and general maintenance to the engine which happened to break down 3 times in an hour when we finally conceded defeat when it was first bought. It has too undergone a full, in-house respray with brand new and locally sourced paint. The interior, which I will show at a later date, has also been revamped from originally black to now a cream and red interior as well as a thumping loud Alpine sound system, which we had inherited when we had bought it.

I will be posting more soon, but I hope you like it and most importantly, spread the word!

Sunday 2 February 2014

Breaking (Down) Bad


Stop press, its official, I've caught the VW bug. Bad...

It started originally around in the late 1970's from my parents, catching the first wave of the expensive disease, rather than an isolated incident, the whole family were diagnosed with this problem which was both financially and mentally damaging, not to mention incredibly stressful. Luckily, we went into remission for a decade and we thought we were cured. But, it's back and with a vengeance. I have it, but if there's anyway of saving myself, I need to share with you, my fellow sufferers, my trials and tribulations on the road to recovery.

I am sure if you're reading this, almost certainly you have the disease and you're a sufferer.

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