Restoration Costs

The restoration took almost a year. And what did all this fun cost (excluding the working hours):

Beetle Purchase Price R28,500

Restoration Costs:

Parts / Battery R135

Parts / Body R3,945

Parts / Electricity R1,013

Parts / Engine R1,906

Parts / Exterior R489

Parts / Gearbox R260

Parts / Interior R3,769

Parts / Lights R532

Parts / Painting R284

Parts / Rubbers R1,781

Parts / Tyres R3,263

Parts Total Cost R17,377

Services / Registration R796

Services / Painting, Bodywork R10,500

Services / Engine R1,500

Services Total Cost R12,796

Miscellaneous / Accesories R1,852

Miscellaneous / Battery R599

Miscellaneous / Cleaning R129

Miscellaneous / Interior R45

Miscellaneous / Painting R722

Miscellaneous / Other R684

Miscellaneous Total Cost R4,031

Beetle Total Cost R62,704

(The calculation is in South African Rands)

Finished and On the Road

Jan Smuts house in Irene, South East of Pretoria

In Irene, South East of Pretoria

On the way to Hartbeespoort Dam

On the way to Hartbeespoort Dam

At Pretoria hills

Finishing Touches

The sound and heat insulation, and the painting of the inside floor.

Carpets finished.

New three point seat belts fitted. The seat belts being the only thing in the beetle not being standard, for safety reasons.

The front bumper was re-chromed, AA membership sign was fitted.

The belly pan was rubberised.

A new 6 volt battery fitted under the back seat.

1963 VW Beetle on the South Pole

Snow Plow Commercial

Replacing Old Vinyl Ceiling

We decided to install a new ceiling even the original still was in a relatively good condition. There was however some dirty spots every here and there that could not be removed. The original padding was left untouched. The overall work took us 8 hours to finish and it is definitely handy to have two persons involved in the process. There is lots of useful information available online to help one with the task, even installation videos on Youtube.

Original ceiling, detached from the window frames.

The padding unfolded from underneath the vinyl ceiling. It was in good condition so it was left untouched.

We started by assembling the rods and fixing the front at its place. The direction was from front to back, one section at the time. The main concern was to avoid wrinkling and hanging of the material. The heat gun was used to warm up the vinyl; this enabled to properly tighten the material when fixing it. Adhesive glue was used to fix the ceiling onto the window frames.

Interior after the installation.

Interior after the installation.

Replacing Rubbers

After all the car is dated from 1967 and unbelievably most of the rubbers were still original. And one could clearly see that; they were hard, dry and breaking. While busy restoring the car it makes sense to replace all of the rubbers at the same time. So all the engine compartment, front compartment, lights, bumber, body and window rubbers were replaced. It is unfortunate that most of the current rust problems could have been avoided if this car's rubbers would have been replaced years ago, when they first started showing signs of ageing.

Replacing the front rubber