Hello my wife and I bought our 1969 convertible VW Beetle in March of 2008. Its VERY rought and I have been told I'm crazy for trying to restore it.......... But thats okay, its never stopped me before, people have told me I was crazy for building hovercrafts, and for building a half scale R/C hovercraft, buying and fixing up the house we live in etc........... They have all worked out great so far, so I figure I'll be okay. We will get it restored one way or another, it might not be in a conventenal method, totally origonal, but we'll be driving it one day.

The Story of Our VW...............

First of all we wern't even looking to buy one........ I was looking on ebay to see if anyone local was selling any cherry lumber because we are wanting to make our own bedroom furniture (I'm also a woodworker) Then I seen a local guy that had a garage heater up for auction, but it was going for more than I was willing to pay for it. I took a look at his other auctions and there she was, a 69' convertible beetle sitting in his backyard rusting away. It was affordable, in Spring Bay, IL (about 40 minutes from our house) and it was just calling our name..... It must have been fate.... LOL

My wife has always loved the old convertible beetles and I liked the looks of them too, also I like doing stuff like this. Plus she also likes the new bugs, so I figured if we got this one there would never be any reason for her to buy one of those ugly new bugs..... LOL Well anyways I mentioned it to her and to my surprise she said "sure lets buy it!!!"

So here we are now with a new project, and after talking to the previous owner and looking at what info I have on the title, we put a little piece of this beetles history together.

Our title goes back to 1983 when Ace Auto Salvage in Tonica, IL (about 2 hrs north of us) got a hold of the car.

Then 5-16-89 Garrott Antique Auto Collectors in Peoria IL bought it (about 20 minutes from us) They restored it at some point and 6-30-91 sold it to the guy (Dave) we bought it from.

From talking to Dave the car was complete, had a new top, no rust, etc. Although it wasn't a great restore job, because I found sheets of aluminium screwed down over rusten holes... He bought it because he was buying beetle verts, camaros, and corvettes and selling them to people in the UK, he said there was a big craze for them over there??? He parked it when he bought it almost 17 years ago and was planning on selling it in the UK, but shipping cost got to high and he got stuck with this one and an incomplete Karman beetle vert and for some reason just let them sit and rot away....

Well this is when my wife and I came along and saved the poor beetle. From the best I can tell this beetle was blue with a blue and white interior in the beggining. Now the interior is still blue and white, but the outside was painted the brownish color you have all seen in my pictures. From looking at the blue under the flaking brown it looks like all the body, panels, etc are orig. except for the front fenders, they are green underneath the brown.

It also seems that it might have the orig. engine in it also, the 1500's engine code matches that which was put in the 68's and 69's and the odometer reads 87,xxx. The PO also thought it had the origonal engine in it too.