Like every kid, I ever wanted to build my own go-kart with a lawn-mower engine... And years are passing away, and we never build the go kart...

Then one day, I found the realisations of VW-Bratz, a UK base company, which now has disappeared. Wow! Not only it's a DIY go-kart, but it even looks like a VW! I definitely need one! (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm 6 years old in my head... So what??)

Those mini splits are pure perfection marvels, but... Well, this perfection has a price (300£ the shell, around 450€)! (see on FreeBugRiders the "pour les gosses (For Kids)" thread to see pictures of those VW Bratz splitties). Plus, 1.60 meters long is pretty big, therefore bulky to bring on a meeting.

I then found Mini Buggies in Netherlands, superbs as well, little less bulky, but less original, and still a little bit expensive (260€ the shell alone) for a toy I'll use twice a year...

So, I started to think about making my own model of mini-VW... I first started thinking about a mini bay window combi, then a beetle... But finally, the Thing is way easier to make! Plus, I own a real one to take measures on, and this will definitely be more original!

So I started taking all the measures on Küby, my Thing, then I transfered it into a 3D model using Sketchup. I decided to make it scaled 1/3 : this is the same scale as the VW-Bratz Splitties, if I meet some one day, well make a perfectly scaled 1/3 mini-meeting... And a 117cm long shell by 50cm wide is a good compromise between bulkiness (therefore transport) and "comfort", the final goal being to give it an engine and drive it... Here is the 3D model... Now I have to build a wooden master out of it, using the numeric model's measures. So, after buying a router and a few woodcuts of MDF, I start making a master as close as possible to the original one...


Here we are! July 2006, the master piece is finally ready to go, now I have to make a fiberglass mould out of it to make the mini-Thing shells...

So, priority #1 is to put the beast back on the road...

Which will finally take way longer than I expected! Between my job, lack of money, lack of time, and those bloody fucking brakes that I can't bleed correctly... The whole thing took one year!

So, Fixing the brakes... Wheel cylinders, master cylinder, flexibles : everything's new. At least, it will brake!


Tires : I wanted to get an "off road" look, so needed large tires with big studs...
Finally, I decided to use 195x15 Colway C-Trax MT (reference given by PJ Macua, 181spirit.com's webmaster ). Rather cheap, quite good quality, and perfect look!
For those who are interested, I bought these tires from BONNOT 2000 (BP 2, 183 Rue Raymond Poincaré, 88290 Saulxures s/ Moselotte - (+33) 329.266.161) : they're very serious, shipped and received within 48 hours at a very good price, plus a very friendly contact. Good addresses are so rare, let's share them!


A nice ground clearance, hum??

Well, of course, like in every restoration, I had a few "bad surprises"... Here, the floor pans have been eaten by rust, everything being skillfully hidden with fiberglass. However I had verified carefully... Well, this is not that serious, I can fix it...


After having lost a lot of time on the brakes, giving a new youth to the ignition system, remade a large part of the electric wiring...
April 2005, Küby finally goes through its security check, my car registration document looses the "non driving vehicle" mention, and I can go for my very first cruising! Isn't it ugly with this color... Er... What the hell is this color?? "Cow"?


Phew! I'm more than happy to finally drive Küby now! If you have a closer look at the third pic, you'll see that this is a place that I particularly appreciate (see my IFA and Porsche pages)...

OK, so, finally it drives... Now let's make it more presentable!

I was thinking about buying a 181 (you englih people call it a "Thing", right?) for a while... Without really looking for one, but the idea of a 5 seats convertible, to cruise during the summer, going to my job with the wind in my hair, the windshield being folded down on the front hood, was very seductive to me!

I finally found Küby on eBay, a few dozen of kilometer away from home. March 18^th 2004, I go in le Var with my friend Laurent...

The Thing is being sold by a vintage cars enthusiast, but Küby is a bit... "Neither done nor to be done".

It's in primer, but not painted ; the engine runs, but not smoothly... I could drive it, but the brakes and tires are dead for a long time...
Unfortunately, and I'll discover it much later, some body parts have been "repaired" using fiberglass... Obviously, there's no top... The top chassis is there, but it's a bit bent... Plus the front rail is over-rusted! That's an usual problem on Things, humidity accumulates inside this cavity, and here is the result 30 years later : The interior is not complete, and looks like a "patchwork"... I'll have to look for a lot of parts... Well, OK. Obviously, Küby is not in a very good shape!
But anyway, I don't want to do a full restoration on it, nor a Best of Show, but just a good cleaning, to have a funny convertible for next summer...

So, this is not the best deal ever, (1800 euros for the base), but I take the Thing... I gotta expect lots of work to do!

I wanted a Karmann-Ghia for a pretty long time... To be honest, a bit by despite, my 356 dreams flying away with their prices.

My only imperative was to find a "small lights" model, as I'm not fond of those last generation KG big rear lights. So I was reading the classified ads for month, affordable bases being rare, I even thought about shipping my KG from California... Until this January 2006 day, when I found an ad on Flat4Ever! A '68 KG, looking pretty fine, for 8000 euros ; and moreover, it's only a few kilometers from where I live! So I contacted the owner (Mike, if you read this : many thanks!), who sends me some more pictures of it... I soon met him to have a closer look to the beast. The KG comes from South Africa (Johannesburg) : this is why it is way less rusted than what we usually find down here. Actually, it is still registered in South Africa...
Engine and gearbox had been changed in Johannesburg, and it's been repaired by Technifun, a local shop that I know very well since it's arrived in France. The owner, very friendly, explained that he brought back 3 KG's from South Africa (where he used to live), thinking that selling 2 of them here would pay for the third one he will keep for himself (the two others are left had drive)... Finally, and unfortunately, it did not work as expected, as he had to make many repairs on the cars (I got the bills) + importation taxes in France that were way higher than he expected.
The paint had been re-done (original color, nice but not perfect paint job) a few years earlier.
No rust in the wheel arch, bottoms are clean, no fiberglass detected with my magnet. No rust around the windshield, only 1 or 2 spots on the bottom of the rear hood lid.
Inside of the nose is clean, bumpers holders are perfect, no looseness in the door hinges (surprising on this model!).
The seals are clean, the interior is almost perfect ; the only thing I can't stand is the dashboard, the fake wood is too much seventies to me...... Drive test : big looseness in the steering box, the owner tells me it's already tighten to the max : I'll have to change it.
The shock absorbers are tired...
Some noise in the tachometer : the needle move, but the odometer doesn't ; the clock is present but doesn't work neither. The 1600cc engine is pleasant to drive...

The clutch cable makes a funny noise in the chassis... The heating system was removed (useless in South Africa), but the heating boxes are present, it shouldn't be a big deal to put it back. The back of the car looks lower than the front, probably the torsion bars being tired as well...

The owner tells me the car had 2 shocks back in the past : one on the rear left wing, another on the front left headlight. The later was not repaired correctly, there's some resin and the paint is ugly. The floorpans are clean (but not perfect) under the carpets...

So! The beast isn't perfect, but it's pretty healthy compared to what we usually see in France. I don't like the fake wood on the dashboard, I had prefered an older model with the 2 big tachos... But anyway, this one is complete, with a ball joints and disc brakes front end, I'll be able to drive it untroubled.

Some discussions and 7500 euros later, I'm her new owner!

I still have a lot of ideas for this car... But I lack of time and money for it...

But it will come toghether, it's just a matter of patience!

Elvira's origins :

This is a type 1/13 Limousine (as told by the Wolfsburg Museum!) that went out of th production line on August 19^th 1959. This was an Export model for Greece.

It's been bought by the Spain Royal Family, whose domestics used it for several years, befoe the car got brought to France (first French tags on 09/08/1985).

Then one day, Marie Messia de Lesseps, Countess of Bavière and Bourbon (gosh!), moved to Villefranche sur Mer, taking Elvira wih her.
Unfortunately, this dear lady did not have great driving skills, and Elvira's wings had to go through some difficult years!

A VW enthusiast, who lived in the same town, found this 59, which was then still in a pretty good shape. He finally manage to persuade Marie MdLCoBaB (making it short) to sell her car. He re-did the interior, but a few years later (a birth and a moving later, actually), he couldn't afford keeping this vehicle.

This is when I appear in this history, buying this car in 1994. I used it as a daily driver for a year, to go to the University in Nice (40 kilometers back and forth). All that with it's original, never rebuilt, 36HP little engine... Until I finally put Elvira in my garage, giving it a new beauty along years, as money comes in...

Original condition :

Here are 2 pictures "before". The first one was taken at the Draguignan meeting in 1997. The 2 others were taken in August 95, in Corsica, facing the "Iles Sanguinaires" (Bloody Islands) at sunset (this is at the end of the Ajaccio gulf ; they're called "bloody" because those islands turn dark red at sunset during the winter).

So, that was my beetle when I bought it! The interior looks like new, the body has almost no rust... But the engine is really tired, the external paint, burnt by the sun, looks flat, the original "export" bumpers were replaced by single-blade models... Plus, it's been dropped, the wheels are not the crrect color, etc...
So more work to do!