International Vintage Volkswagen Forums

Hi all,

I'm new here but am over on VZi under the same name. I bought an oval Last week (its the Black '55 that was on sale here and VZi for £5500). Looking at the car its an early Oval heart shaped lights etc etc (but the wrong wings) but going by the chassis number which is 1-0809462 its a late Oval.

https://www.inerd.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=32 

https://www.vw-resource.com/years.html#1951-1960 

Chassis number 781,885 (1st of Jan '55) was the first of the non-heart shaped lights.

So do I have an early Oval or not?:?:

For further info these are the sellers photos if that helps :wink:
https://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu86/hannahman58/1955%20Oval%20Betle/ 


Cheers,
Paddy

Looks like Jan '55 Paddy.

Don't worry i knew the previous owner(RIP)before the guy you purchased it from.
Little bits not OG to the car but it is as it was sold
Early '55 genuine RHD UK car still retaining it's original number plate,£5.5K,you've done OK there.

Welcome Paddy and nice car.

Had a look through the photobucket photos and from your chassis number you car is as George says above definitely an early 1955 car. Good to see it still has a lot of the early Oval features (pre Aug 55) - large cap fuel tank, ribbed doors, batwing steering wheel, pre Aug-55 rear seat and side panels.

What are you plans?

Cheers for the replys guys.

My plans are slammed and narrowed, big motor and a big rear window conversion that was all the rage in the '60s :shock: :shock:




Only joking 😛

Basically first of all I'm caking the floorpan in Dinitrol to preserve it then I'm getting it resprayed piece by piece (wings, decklid and bonnet first) in black and then eventually the shell (as and when funds permit). I'll hopefully be going for a 2 tone look similar to this Bug



As the motor isn't OG I'll probably convert it to 12v but I can see me hunting down a 36 horse motor or crank case of about the correct number. Other than that it'll be stock height and a stockish motor.

I'm planning on using it as a daily too as I'm a firm believer that cars are meant to be driven.


Cheers,
Paddy

Hi Paddy, nice to see you over here.....

From our previous conversation, I might have mis-informed about the front wings.

I've since learnt that only the rear wings have a recessed pressing between the bolt holes, not the fronts, so there is every possibility it is still running original front wings.... which others here might be able to confirm or correct?

The only thing I noticed from the pictures is that the tail lights appear to be mounted a little higher than normal - they normally sit quite low on the wing, where yours seem to be in the position of a snowflake later style light - maybe later style wings have been fitted at some point?

Once again, I'm open to be corrected.

I bet you're still over the moon with it?

Nice car!

---

You were right about the wings even if it was a lucky guess Andy! Both have wee plates welded into them where indicators used to be :lol: All in all thus really doesn't bother me (yet....) and I'll be ecstatic once the car is rust proofed and running sweet. The rest of it can wait. I was on the phone to C&C about getting the keys re-cut as I have 4 different keys for 4 locks and that's a BIG pet hate of mine.

As am I chuffed with it? You betcha! I'm driving around with a permanent grin on my face. The steering is precise and the gear selection/gearbox are sweet too, it stop well and now I've cleaned the carb, put in new plugs and Bosch HT leads it's runnig well and it just looks fantastic!! :d :d