Yukon not be serious - '68 Cabriolet Beetle

Weddings come and go, but a rock solid ’68 Cabriolet is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Clive Allen knew that, he just had to explain it to his fiancée...  

“My Beetle passion started when I saw a sweet looking orange Bug at the age of about 12", explained Clive Allen. "Then it was the Herbie films, and that passion for Vee-Dubs has stayed the same all these years.” And talking with Clive today, it’s clear that love of VWs is still as strong as ever, and he’s doing his best to pass it on to all those around him, too. “13 years ago I meet a girl when I was in Ibiza on holiday. Things went well and we decided to move in together in Bristol. It wasn’t long before she found out how mad I was about VWs. The turning point was when I asked her to sell her low-mileage Metro so I could get a paint job on the Buggy. When she did, I knew she was the one for me.”

That Beach Buggy eventually gave way to another orange Cal Looker, this time painted in Lamborghini orange, but eventually that gave way to, wait for it, a wedding. Now we all know weddings can be costly affairs, so Clive put the money from the sale of the car to one side and started saving for the big day. “It was all going well until I saw a very small picture of a Yukon Yellow ’68 Karmann Cabrio in the Auto Trader. I ’phoned the bloke up to ask about it and it sounded nice.

“I ’phoned my mate Lee up and we decided it needed a look, so we booked a B&B and set off. As soon as I saw it I was hooked, but I know never to buy a car just on the paintjob alone, so we went right over it and found out it had never been welded at all and didn’t need any. It also still had its original engine and there was a nice bit of history with it. The car had been built in October ’67 and shipped in November of that year to a VW dealership in Huntington Beach, California. It was ordered with whitewall tyres and, so I was told, was collected from the dealers after hours on Christmas Eve, so it could be given to its new owner on Christmas Day. That was it, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity and paid the man five grand.” Which just happened to be what was in the wedding fund...

“I rang home to tell Alison about what I had just bought and she didn’t seem happy at all,” Clive recalls, somewhat perplexed by her lack of excitement about the new acquisition. “Dreading the journey home, we put fuel in her and started the long drive back. The car hadn’t been on the road for quite a few years, and we didn’t have AA or RAC cover. It was a risk, but I had faith in the car already.” 10 hours later, the terrible two arrived back in Bristol, eager to show Alison what they had bought. “She said, ‘it’s nice, but we could have got married with the money!’” Clive remembers, to which he replied: “Well, at least we’ve got the wedding car now...”

Now, any ladies reading this will no doubt sympathise with Alison, while any blokes will most likely be on Clive’s side, but the good news is the couple are still together – still not married, but together, and, as Clive has recently bought Alison a New Beetle convertible, he thinks (hopes?) he’s finally been forgiven.

The Cabrio stayed stock for two days, before it was stripped of its front end and the original beam replaced with a three-inch narrowed version, the stock spindles swapped out for a pair of dropped disc brake ones and the rear end turned two splines on the torsion bars. While he was doing this work, he took the opportunity to strip all the underseal from the inner wings, revealing original factory paint underneath. “I got the car together in about three weeks, and have just been doing odd jobs on her ever since,” he explains. One of those odd jobs some six years ago now was to repaint the outside of the car in the original Yukon Yellow colour as it was starting to look a bit tired. The mohair outer hood was on the car when he bought it, and that is holding up well, but the most recent additions have been the 17-inch replica Fuchs wheels and the full leather retrim.

Fitting 17-inch wheels to any Beetle with stock wings is a bit of a chore, and Clive’s the first to admit things weren’t entirely straightforward here, but he’s more than happy with the end result, even if he has had to roll the front wing lips and put up with a bit of ‘interference’ on lock and on bumpy roads and a less than London taxi-like turning circle.

“This car has always just been used,” says Clive. “Apart from the money I spent right at the beginning, it’s not been one of those things I’ve ploughed loads of money into, it’s just been an ongoing project, and one that I still love as much today as the day I bought it. People keep telling me I should change it into a ’60’s looking car with sloping headlights and stuff, but I like it just as it is, and I’ve no intention of getting rid of it. VWs are my life, and we all still love them after all these years. If I sold it, what would I replace it with? I know the car is rock solid, I like the history of it and I love driving it. It’s the perfect Bug as far as I’m concerned.”