Part of doing a restoration like this is documenting what you've done, and better yet, getting to look back at how far you've come. To that end, I'm going to try to include a lot of pictures and things that I've learned here.

A lot of the stripping got done today. The dents in the roof also got the rubber block treatment to get everything nice and smooth following my cousin's kid's treatment in the barn years ago. (Another whole issue to get upset about some other time.) But the roof came out very nice.

I ordered $1000 of parts today, and there are more to come. As we take parts off, the rubber has gotten hard, and is powdering as we remove things. I can't believe how much all that rubber costs - but then it is great that it is still available after all these years, and the chrome trim too.

We cleaned up the VIN tag a little bit, and the numbers all match between the chassis and the body, and they all check out in the book as a 1954. Everything is looking great on that front. As we take off parts we're getting to areas with the original paint, which appears to be Stratos Silver, a very cool metalic silver/blue/green combination that changes depending on the light.

I should have done this years ago, but now I need to send to Wolfsburg for a "birth certificate." I don't think it will give me too much more information than I already have, but I'm hoping it will include the M codes for some of the cool rare accessories that were in the car (like the reclining leatherette HULS seats) and tell me the original country of delivery. I know it wasn't the US since the speedo in there is in KM, and they didn't "officially" start importing beetles until 1955.

There seems to be a lot of concern over

the "H" rear apron, and the "TT TT" or "four finger" front aprons. Reproductions are extremely expensive, or just not available. So just to ease my mind, I took some pictures to make sure I had the right aprons front and rear.

I shot a lot more pictures than I can post just today, but I want to share one or two other interesting details... You may notice on the front bumper a bracket for mounting driving or fog lights. These are factory mounts, and I have a great set of driving lights to mount on them. Very cool...

When we pulled the fuses from the fuse box, the paper that states what each fuse does was still present. Hard to believe an almost 60 year old paper has survived a decade and a half of driving, 20 years in a field in the mountains, and almost another 2 decades in my barns and garages waiting to be restored.

Looking back, I have to say I am extremely glad that I left her alone until now - had I taken her apart before having the parts and money to do it right, this just wouldn't be possible...

Getting Started!

I've owned my Oval since 1990. I picked it up in the mountains of Arkansas rather abandoned and covered in weeds. Over the last 17 years I've searched for parts for her, and kept her tucked away ready to some day restore. I'd like to say I finally have the money to do it right - but I don't. So we're going to get started and do everything "right" and hope the money works itself out in the end. (Them are dangerous words!)

In December of 2006 we moved her from my garage to my friend and mechanic's garage. I took storage two of his Karmann Ghias in exchange for letting us work in his nice heated workshop. Stripping has begun of all of the parts to determine what metal is good and what needs to be replaced. We've spent a couple of hours already cleaning up and carefully removing rubber and fixing seal channels.

After nearly 17 years the hard work is finally just beginning, and if all goes well I will be documenting most of it here!