Retro Restoration

02/09/2026

Early oval unrestored survivor for sale. £20k.

Matching numbers Swedish oval built Feb 1955. Original pans and channels look like new under the carpets / mats. Original engine has all correct 55 parts, no end float. Never been apart or modified. Fully recomissioned keeping as many original parts as possible. Recent clutch, NOS muffler etc. Drives amazing.

Located Stafford, UK.

02/09/2026

Nose repaired on Nicks 56 bonnet.

21/08/2026

All the repairs on Nicks UK 1956 body are pretty much finished now, shown here in bare metal 👌 Really pleased with this.

Once finished we will get a coat of epoxy over all the repairs to match the rest of the car.

The bonnet and chassis still need a bit of work before the metalwork is 100% finished. Once it is we will crack on with Gwyns 61, Charlie's 58 and Martins 53 until we are ready to start the prep and paint process.

Have a great weekend 👍

20/08/2026

Almost finished the metalwork on Nicks UK 56 oval beetle and really pleased with how it's looking. A lot of work has gone into this car. Recently we have:

Got the rear valance welded on after spending a bit of time getting it sitting perfectly with the top quality Dirk Hortig rear wings that Nick sourced. They are really nice but still needed a little work to fit perfectly but we were really happy with how it all looked when mocked up so got the valance welded in and finished to look as factory at possible.

The rear valance didn't fit particularly well and needed quite a lot of work. The inner section didn't line up with the side trays at all, foiled the inner quarters and the seal channel swooped down at either end so the engine bay seal would never fit properly. We removed the inner section, reshaped it and welded it back in making sure it lined up with the side trays properly.

Seal strips spot welded in, replicating how they were from the factory with the valance strip spot extending past the valance onto the rear quarter held with one spot weld. The tabs that hold the engine bay tar boards in place were broken other than one, so we made new ones and welded those in.

Got the drivers side rear body mount outer panels removed, tub repaired and the original outer section was repaired before refitting.

Passenger rear tub repaired where the front edge meets the crossmember. Welded to the crossmember on the inside of the car with two big tacks as factory with the luggage tray spot welded to the tub and crossmembers so everything under the rear seat is 100% correct.

Both of the original heater channel outlets were fitted to the Klassic Fab channels and heater tubes welded to the rear crossmembers, as close to factory as possible.

Rear crossmembers were slightly later panels which we modified to have pretty much all the correct details. Only a couple of pressings slightly different to original.

The inner front bulkhead is fitted but still have to repair the outer section and bonnet, plus a couple of areas to tidy up then should be pretty much finished ready for prep and paint 👍

Don't think I've missed anything 😂 Pleased with how it's looking now.

08/08/2026

4" beam fitted to Darren C Bradley Aussie 74 between resto work. Such a cool bus - amazingly solid and original underneath and now sitting with a bit more attitude 😎

07/08/2026

Few photos of the rear crossmember and rear quarter repairs on Gwyns 61.

We drilled out the spot welds on the rear crossmember to seperate the inner wave outer panels as we approached it as two seperate repairs so we could keep as much of the original metal as possible. The inner repair was fairly straightforward but the outer section needed the stud moving to the correct position so the rear quarter repairs fitted as factory.

The Klassic Fab rear quarter panel also needed a fair bit of work before we could fit. The body line for the wing mount was quite nice but the return to the channel was too deep which would have made the panel sit way too high so that was reshaped before fitting.

The front of the panel was nothing like the original so that was cut up and modified ready to fit but I didn't manage to finish it today unfortunately but still a pretty good end to the week 👍

29/07/2026

4 tab bonnet needed for a late zwitter we have in for full restoration. 7 hole with triangle support under the badge area. Does anyone have anything? Thanks

10/07/2026

About as last minute as you can get!
We have decided to do an optional donation to charity while having a photo taken in the toy car box over the weekend.

No pressure to donate but all money raised will go to the Motor Neurone Disease Association. The box will be available for photos on the way out of the show on Sunday and will play it by ear tomorrow.

It took a lot of work to build, here is one part way through building it.

Hopefully see you all over the weekend :)

10/07/2026

If you want to bring an event shelter or similar to hide from the sun at this weekends Pre79 Aircooled show feel free :)

We have a bigger main tent and more shelters this year but have had several people ask if they can bring their own event shelters or similar. Clubs are welcome to have a shelter on their club stand, as are the cars in the aircooled parking section but we dont want them in the line up area in front of the traders.
If you have a car in one of the line ups we are going to have a seperate area for you guys to put a shelter up if you want one, as its going to be HOT HOT HOT! Dont forget your sun cream!
Looking forward to seeing you all.

04/07/2026

Custom 58 Beetle came to us to sort running problems with its 1776cc engine.
First job was to set the timing correctly as it was almost 30 degrees at idle!
Next we completely stripped the carbs down and put them through the parts washer after finding a pump jet blocked, emulsion tubes were full of debris and then generally being dirty.
Once clean we put them back together with a fresh gasket kit and fitted back to the engine.
We then balanced the carbs, set the isle speed and re checked the timing. Now it runs as good as it looks. Such a cool little car 😎
If you have any mechanical work that needs doing on your aircooled, get in touch.