Mounting the body
Before the rebuild can start, the body and chassis need to be in the same place! Thus the body was taken up to Double H Restoration, where the final build of the car was to take place. Thank you to Stevo and Nick for letting me finish the car there.

Body and floorpan ready to be final joined back together.

And the body on. :)

The build up
Once the pan and body were back together I started by fitting the electrics and dashboard back up.

Next up the wings were fitted up, as were the tail lights and headlights. Thanks’ Nick for all your help with all this. (Yes I know there’s only one headlight fitted! Later pictures show them both fitted up)

Most of the dash and the wirings is now also in.(n.b This is a temporary workshop steering wheel, there a Motalita one waiting to go in)

Everything in the engine bay is fitted and ready for the engine.

I also started fitting the small bolt on parts back on.

Headlining and ragtop
Next up the car went off Chris at Custom Coach Trimming to have the headlining fitted, as well as the all important ragtop. I cannot thank Chris enough for his excellent work on the car, the trimming is awesome. :) He also had to get around a number of issues, but the end result is epic. :)

The first problem he encountered was with fitting the headlining. For some reason, maybe another 58 quirk, or maybe due to the car being a hard top, but the lip above the rear window was facing the wrong way?! This meant that Chris could not simply catch the headlining behind the lip and tension it up. However after a bit of head scratching Chris came up with the solution of mounting the headlining to some fibreboard, this has the added bonus of being easily removable if the ragtop needs tightening up. :)

The second problem was the inner skins that run down the gutter of the roof line. For some reason, maybe when the ragtop was welded in, the usual gap between this had closed up. Rather than the usual 8mm gap, Chris couldn’t even get a putty knife in!!

However a quick call to Nick at Double H Restorations soon sorted that out. Nick came down and gently massaged the inner skin down.................... with a slide hammer! :D Thanks again Nick for saving the day.

Thankfully after this there were no more problems and Chris expertly installed the headliner. I am so pleased with his amazing work. :)

However, it’s not a ragtop till the ragtop’s fitted. This bit went was relatively straightforward with Chris expertly re-trimmed the ragtop in mohair. Again he made an awesome job of this. :)

And here’s the car with the ragtop and headlining all fitted. :)

Seats and Interior
There has also been progress in other areas of the interior. After what seemed like months of searching I finally managed to get some blue-grey seat cloth (correct for 58-59 models) from Lenny at West Coast Classic Restorations. Thanks’ dude for the help with this, really appreciated.

Lee the Trimmer then expertly re-trimmed my seats in it, and he has done an excellent job. Thanks also to Stevo of Double H Restorations for stripping down the seat bases a painting them in a fresh coat of cream before Lee worked his magic. :)

Here’s the seats and door cards in storage waiting to be fitted.

And here’s the interior starting to go in. First up was the carpets. Thank you Nick from Double H Restorations for fitting all these, and sorry it was a nightmare of a job! They look great!!

Then the back seat, harness bar, and the harnesses went in.

The genuine style rubber mats can be seen better here. Im really pleased I decided to go for standard mats as I think they look just right. :)

And finally the actual steering wheel to be used is in. Really pleased with the choice of a Motalita wheel.

Next up to go in was the front seats. This was the first time I’d seen them out the bag, and I gotta say they look great. Thanks again Lee.

The Door cards were next to go in.

The build continues
Although it was a great psychological boost having the ragtop, headlining and the interior in there was still the rest of the car to finish finishing.

Stevo had expertly painted the fuel tank in super shiney black, and this was put in. Finally the under dash area is starting to look complete.

The car is not going to be much use without an engine, so this was built up and put in. It was a proper tight fit!!

Sadly the DDS manifolds had to be changed for short BERG manifold as there was not enough material on the DDS ones to be ported. The Berg Manifold were a really tight fit to the fanshroud, but we eventually got them in!! Thanks you James from Stateside Tuning for sourcing the manifolds and the great job you did of porting them.

Next up the external trim started to go on. It’s really starting to look like a car now!

And finally it was time for the bonnet to go back on.

The decklid was also fitted.

However after all the hard work that has gone into the car, I couldn’t just fit a set of ratty wheels. Thank you to Biagio for all his hard work stripping and repainting of the gasburners, I know they were a nightmare to do.

Here's the wheel s during the painting process.

And here’s the final painted wheel. Note they have been painted in a satin black as we decided a gloss black was a bit bling.

The finished car!
And finally here’s the finished car!!

I really must say a massive thanks to Nick and Stevo from Double H Restorations for all their hard work on the car. I wouldn’t have got the car finished to such a high standard without your help.

Volksworld Show
Not only was the car finished, but it had also been accepted to be shown at the Volksworld Show, which is one of the biggest VW shows in the UK, attracts cars from all across Europe.

It was so happy to just be there, so I was blown away when the organiser decided to put the car by the front entrance. :) I had an awesome weekend at the show, with so many nice comments about the car from both friends and people I had never meet before. Glad you like it. :)

I actually realised as we were waiting to load the car up and take it home that I hadn’t taken hardly any photos of the car! So these are taken after the show, and explains why the hall is looking a bit empty.

However come the end of the weekend I was blown away when I found out I had actually won Best of Show. :) :) :)

Here’s me and Nick from Double H Restorations after winning (Thats Nick’s happy face!)

And here’s the trophy. :)

To add to the amazing weekend I had at the Volksworld Show, i also got to meet one of my hero’s, Ron Fleming! Ron is widely credited for being one of the creators of the Cal Look, and to get the seal of approval from him was the icing on the cake. :)

Well I had to get him to sign the glove box didn’t I! :D

And here’s me sitting in the car grinning like a loon. :)

So that’s it the finished car. :) (Well there never finished, but it’s together at least!). Next step is to get it to the race track. :)