Most of the parts are new and unused.

The seats are new.

Never been drilled or fitted.

All thats needed

Is a chassis

To mount this lot on!

One with less holes than the original.

eBay comes up trumps again

I find a 1967 chassis leaning against a wall. Another trailer hired and a trip to Kent

And there's soon another lump of Beetle sitting on my front lawn.

It has a few rust holes but the floorpans and chassis members are pretty good - for something nearly 40 years old.

It came with a spare engine too!

First job is to check out the engines - both had a couple of cracked pistons, sludge for oil, and one had some serious crank endfloat.

Stainless Steel (water jacket) heat exchangers (eBay) and the tubes from an old exhaust meant that this engine woke the dead when revved!!

It fired and ran first time! A couple of pints of petrol later and it's time to remove the engine and start work on the chassis.

The front beam is in good condition - but on closer inspection both top suspension mounts need more welding than the original one.

The gear lever and handbrake need shortening and moving.

The bare floorpan doesn't look too bad.

The drivers side floorpan gets chopped out.

To be replaced.

A new drivers side floorpan (bought on eBay) is welded into place.

I put my welding skills (learned on a CIty & Guilds evening class at Luton Tech) to good use with my Mig welder (bought on eBay).

An angle grinder with wire brush makes short work of the surface rust before a coat of primer. Guess what I did on Boxing Day 2004!

Time to fabricate the floorpan drops.

A sheet of 1.5mm steel is soon turned into the necessary bits.