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Late Starter


A lot of people bought a '70's Beetle in the '80s as their first VWs, but few still own those cars today, let alone have them looking as good as this


 


Matt Walter bought this 1970 1300 soon after he passed his driving test and it’s the only Beetle he’s ever had. He loves it. But do you think he could find someone to restore it for him?


The fact that he wanted to do it, had the money to do it and was quite prepared to put a decent amount of work someone's way seemed to have no bearing on the situation. “Everybody kept telling me that it wasn’t worth restoring, that nobody wants Beetles of this age and that everyone wants ’50’s and ’60’s cars.” Matt didn’t give up though – he wanted his car, his first Volkswagen, the car he’d bought when he was 18, the car he’d sweated blood and tears on  and the car he’d got married to his wife, Rachel, in. “It was Rachel that persuaded me to buy the car in the first place. I agreed but only if we could use her student loan to do it up! It had been in a front-end smash, had a dodgy MoT, no bumpers, two-tone red paint and cost me £900 at the time, but I just fell in love with it. I then spent a further £3,000 on getting it safe, welding in new panels, replacing the wings and the floorpans, then having it resprayed.”


In the end it was Darryn Coleman at DC Customs in nearby Dudley in the West Midlands that didn’t try and persuade Matt to give up. “Darryn was absolutely brilliant,” says Matt, “He listened to what I was saying, his work was superb, he was so easy to work with and really laid back about the whole thing.” The meeting of the two minds has resulted in a car that has surpassed both their expectations.


Part of the reason things went a bit further was the discovery by Darryn of a substantial crack through the central tunnel near the pedals, possibly as a result of that previous front ender. Either way, it had to be sorted, which meant the body coming off the ’pan to do it properly. The ’pan was then stripped and sent away for media blasting so it could be inspected thoroughly and repaired where necessary. It then seemed rude not to prep it and smooth it all out, losing the notorious jacking point rust traps along the way, and give it a fresh coat of gloss black two-pack while he was about it. Then, of course, you can’t put rusty old mechanical components back on, can you? So everything underneath, from brake lines to a freshly built Freeway Flyer gearbox from Bears Motorsport was replaced or otherwise cleaned, detailed and overhauled. Matt originally wanted the car to sit over 15-inch alloys but when he saw the new, 17-inch, Fuchs-style wheels things kinda went from there. Knowing they wouldn’t fit under stock arches on a standard width beam, Darryn ordered one of Slamwerks’ 5-inch narrower versions and slid this under the front, making up his own steering stops and narrowed tie-rods along the way.


Now it was the turn of the body...


“After media-blasting the ’shell, it showed we had a lot more work to do than first thought,” revealed Darryn. In the end, nearly everything was replaced on it, except the roof and the dashboard. It’s had new quarters all round, new wings, spare wheel well, doors, valances, boot floor, engine bay side trays, rear crossmember and a new bonnet, as well as the new floorpans and heater channels that Matt had replaced in the past. 


“We also did a few subtle modifications to it along the way,” continues Darryn, “such as shaving the rain gutter from the front quarters and blending it into the roof at the rear, cutting carb access panels in the rear quarters, smoothing out the dash and the front and rear valances. We tried to make all modifications as subtle as possible, just to make the car look a lot cleaner.”


The paint Matt went for was a custom mix Kandy blue, which has been laid over a teal metallic base coat. The result is a colour that in certain light looks like stock VW Gemini Blue, but changes through to a sublime teal/green colour as the sun goes down.


The problem now was they were left with the same dilemma they were left with on the floorpan – you can’t put manky old rubbers back in to a freshly painted ’shell, or scratched and discoloured 40-year-old glass, or dinked and dull chrome trim, so that was all replaced with the best quality parts they could source. 


Attention was then turned to the interior. The seats are the old standards, sandblasted and painted by Darryn, but then re-padded to give them a whole different look, before being re-covered in a combination of light beige and grey leather. In place of the school carpet and rubber under foot is sumptuous deep pile grey carpet, while matching leather replaces the vinyl on the door panels and Alcantara the old perforated headliner.


While this car was always going to be more of a cruiser than a racer, having had the car’s original engine reconditioned the first time round, Matt felt his days with the old 1300 Twin Port were numbered, so commissioned Dave Fisher at Kingfisher Kustoms to put together a strong-running 1914cc unit to replace it.


“When we started the project Matt just wanted a simple resto, a nice car to use in the summer,” Darryn continues. “Now it’s finished, he’s telling us he’s scared of getting stone chips on the Kandy paint! It’s not a full-on show car though – it’s been built to be used and I hope that’s exactly what Matt will do with it.”


 

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