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1958 European Beetle Sedan Restoration
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About Schnitzel: This is Schnitzel and his little brother Zwarte Piet. Zwarte Piet is a 2001 New Beetle with many modifications and customizations. Click here for information and pictures on Zwarte Piet.
Schnitzel (VIN 1 647 963) was produced in Wolfsburg, Germany on September 9, 1957 and delivered to an employee on September 10th.
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| His original colors are: L41 Black paint, blue/grey vinyl door panels, blue/grey/black woven cloth seats with blue vinyl sides and seat backs and off white piping, light grey cloth headliner, light grey assist straps, dark grey carpet in the front and lighter grey carpet behind the rear seat. The shifter boot, hand brake boot, floor and tunnel mats were originally grey colored rubber. The steering wheel, steering column, seat frames, shifter, and hand brake were all L471 stone beige. The correct original color for the wheels is L87 Pearl White on the inside rim and L41 Black for the outside of the rim. |
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| This is the original cloth upholstery in Schnitzel, the black stripe runs sideways on the seats, that is from driver side to passenger side. |
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Here is the interior that was in the Beetle when I got him. It is hard to tell in the photo, but almost every bit of cloth and padding was dry rotted and just fell apart on touch.The carpet was an ugly beige that was even installed upside down in the front. The door panels are original and in very good shape. The seats are worn through to the original hair padding, and were recovered a long time ago in the same style as original. The cloth fabric was the same colors as the original with a larger pattern. The tunnel mat was original and the floor mats replacements in black. The headliner was a 1-piece replacement in beige, the black seat belts were a generic variety. |
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| Schnitzel is a European model Beetle so he has bumpers without the upper bars and with shorter guards. He also has semaphores, both the bumpers and semaphores only appeared until 1954 in the U.S. specification models. The headlights are European, and the cloth seats are also. The American models had 2-tone vinyl seats. The speedometer for this car goes up to 120km and the accessory VDO fuel gauge is in German.
Schnitzel is shown here in his pre-restoration state. As you can see from the photos he is in quite good shape to start with. The paint on the body is very very old, he has been repainted once.
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| This is the sender location for the fuel gauge. It slips down the mouth of the tank and screws though a hole drilled in the neck of the tank. This is not the original fuel tank, I bought a spare one to mount the sender in. I just couldn't bring myself to drill in the original one. The paint code for 1958 Beetle gas tanks is L29 Gray Blue. Black tanks are repaints or replacement tanks. |
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| This is my accessory VDO fuel gauge in German. The RES. is for "reserve" (spelled the same in German as English) and the VOLL means "full". It is a very accurate gauge. |
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| The original headlights were long gone and replaced with cheap aftermarket American style ones. I purchased these NOS Hella European headlights from Germany. These are for 1961 and later Beetles with a push-on connector. |
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The original gas tank was in great shape and in the original gray blue paint. I pulled it out and it is in storage. I will be using a spare one that I drilled for the sender for the VDO gauge. The spare tank didn't come with a gas cap, and my original one was dented quite badly. So I began hunting at swap meets and online for a replacement one. I found this perfect original accessory "cog" style cap at the VW Show in Norwalk, Connecticut in June of 2002 for ONLY $5.00 as well as a nice original dome light for the same price. |
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| When I purchased Schnitzel in June of 2001 he had a cheap plastic wire cover under the dash, I found an original gray hardboard one in very good shape. The trunk liner is a gray hardboard reproduction.
The trunk had a gas heater installed in it, but it and the original semaphores were stolen out of the car before I purchased it. Unfortunately, when the thieves made off with the heater they didn't take the holes in the trunk with it. I had several round 1 inch to 2 inch holes welded up and a four inch square hole as well, and some miscellaneous small holes from the heater mounting. It looks like new once again.
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Schnitzel will need a little more welding done in addition to the holes that were fixed in the trunk. The bumper bracket mounts in the rear need to be repaired as well as the rear shock mounts. At some time in his life he was rear ended and has a very slight wrinkle in the frame on the left side to be straightened. His rear decklid is original and has a big dent in the right bottom. Also the rear apron has a crack in the lower right side that needs to be welded up. These final major body repairs are scheduled for November 16th, 2003 at the very start of his restoration. |
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Schnitzel has his original transmission. The motor he came with runs very well, but leaks oil from every seal possible and failed New Jersey inspection for visable smoke in September 2003. |
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| The motor he came with is not the original one, it is from a 1959 Beetle. |
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| Poor Schnitzel has quite a dent in his butt. |
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| I found a low mileage October 1957 engine to rebuild as a replacement, it is a few months late for my car's production date, but close enough for me. I degreassed the entire engine, which was amazingly filthy, removed the mouse nests from it, took it apart down to the shortblock. I had the heads redone at a machine shop locally and the rest was done by me!
I have rebuilt the engine myself with new pistons and cylinders, an NOS thermostat, refurbished coil, new generator, NOS muffler, NOS vacuum advance, NOS Bosch condenser and rotor for the distributor, rebuilt fuel pump, new valves, guides and of course all new gaskets.
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I purchased a kit to rebuild my original VW fuel pump and then found this one on eBay for a nice price and temporarily gave up on my other one. The distributor, Bosch VJU 4 BR 8, is the original one that came with this motor. I rebuilt it myself, I also rebuilt the carburator for this engine. |
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| I straightened all the bent tin, and repainted everything in satin black paint. I reused the heater boxes from the motor the car came with. I coated and cured them with the POR-15 intake manifold paint in grey along with my intake manifold and muffler. I installed this engine in September 2003 after the old one failed emissions. It passed with no problems, runs very smooth and started right up the first try... after I remembered the fuel tank was empty and added gas, that is. It was then pulled back out in after receiving my 2 year inspection sticker and will be reinstalled when the restoration is completed.
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