1956 Oval

I really got into Beetles in a big way back in 1985 after reading about a Cal-look project a UK magazine was doing at the time. The mag was called "Street Machine".  They ran a series of articles on the Cal conversion.   I was hooked !   Knowing nothing at all about Beetles, I went straight out and bought the first Bug I could find - a '69 semi-auto in savannah beige (and rust).

What a heap of junk it turned out to be !   It was also too new for my liking ... I wanted a Bug with sloping headlights, not the new-fangled upright ones. The search was on........

In January 1986 I found advertised locally a 1955 Beetle (it turned out to be a '56 model built in '55) - it was a bit of a mess due to an engine bay fire, but the body looked sound.

We haggled ... well actually I said "I'll give you 50 quid for it !"  He said "OK". £50 changed hands and she was all mine. What luck !!

Many years later after buying our first, then second, house (and being perpetually broke from paying the mortgage) I started on the long and expensive restoration trail.

In the following pages I plan to chart the step by step restoration of the '56 Bug.