1) In '96 at WCA club meet at first time. "Hi dudes, is this the FVWA meet?" "No (you idiot)." 2) Two years later almost externally complete. 3) And in '99 alongside with friend's New Beetle.

In February '96 I picked up a copy of latest issue of Volksworld. There it was, the Ruby Red '65 Beetle of Max Morley, slammed, fitted with MWS EMPI 5-spokes and hot engine. It simply changed my life, I just had to have a car like it. Also in the same issue was the Colledge's '65, now with solid paint job.

In Easter of '96 after visiting American Car Show '96 and drooling over Jussi Jyränkö's Herbie-replica I decided to pick up a latest issue of Keltainen Pörssi (Finnish buy 'n' sell -magazine) and start making phone calls. There were two interesting prospects. I called both sellers and made appoitments. I visited the young woman who was selling the ODY-46 first and cancelled the next appointment. I probably could have spent more time looking, but I thought that this was as good as it can get.

When Mr.Huhtala died his son took the car and brought it with him to Espoo in 1982, he owned it until 1993. By then the car had some rust problems which the next owner repaired and sold the car as a project to the woman I bought it from.

Her boy-friend (or something) was a car-mechanic and he assembled the car. He dumped her (or vice versa) and she did not know what the hell to do with the car, so she sold it. So I bought after Easter of 1996.

The floorpan had been welded in two places, there is a 30*40 cm area of new sheet-metal under the driver's seat and smaller patch about below the battery. The driver side rear inner fender has also been welded. The paint was worn and had some really ugly repairs.

Interior was busted. Side parts of the headliner and floor mats were long gone. The previous owner was planning to do a fake Cabriolet, but luckily tearing the headliner was only she had managed to do. I bought a new headliner and it was installed in July of 1996 by Kai Aulankoski. I installed a new set of floor mats soon after that. Driver's seatrest didn't have almost any fabric left other seats were just dirty. Fabric for european style seats seems to be very difficult to find. Probably the only positive thing about the interior was that door panels were in excellent condition.

The original engine was pretty much dead. I bought a "guarantee repaired" 34hp 1200 engine for 4300 FIM from Tammer-Diesel, which was really stupid move afterwards (email me if you're from Finland and thinking about exchange engine..).

My original intentions were just restore the car to original condition or Resto-Cal Look. I then thought by restoring the car and then slamming it and fitting repro EMPI 5's I wouldn't ruin anything. Car would easily converted back to original.

The car had been in front end collision years ago. Front fenders weren't originals and they haven't been rust-protected from the inside. After mild sand blasting sun shone right through them. There were lots of small dents around the car. Somebody had driven the car into garage (or something) sideways, so both of the rear fenders were dented. It became cheaper to buy a new set of fenders than trying to fix the old ones.

I installed new rubber sealings to doors and windows. Colour matched fender beading and running board mats are from Wolfsburg West all other rubber is either german or from West Coast Metric. In the 3rd photo is the finished car in the '97 VW Open. (It turned out that the two-toned Resto Looker on the left of my car belonged at the time to Aki Ruohonen, fellow Old School nut whom I have met over the Internet, small world..)

Also set of reproduction BRM wheels from BUGPAJA were fitted with 145 and 165 tyres.

I visited the Bug Run at Mantorp and saw a slammed '62 two-tone Gulf Blue Resto Looker with Empi 5's, someone else had finalized my vision..

Mint interior in 1999, sorry I forgot to vacuum out the carpets :-)

My goals for '99 was to start an engine project and have the seats re-trimmed. I found an immaculate set of 4 '62 seats in BUGPAJA and bought a stroker project from a friend. Hopefully the engine will be ready for VW Open #5 in May of 2000. Electrics were converted to 12-volt, brand new parts were again supplied by BUGPAJA. I also managed to find a set of pop-outs (from BBT Belgium) for pre '65 Beetle and they will be fitted over the winter.

Brake system will be converted to dual-circuit type, rear suspension will be slightly lowered when the new engine and gearbox are installed. Handling of the car slightly sucks, probably due to the nose down stance and worn shock absorbers..