[KPS]

Kaizer is finally home. The plan is drive the car for about 1000 kms, to checkout any niggles and complete other small jobs

82399 Miles at the time of delivery


Parked at home


Checked out in the Bangalore rains too!


The engine is in great condition. First time the engine seal was even opened. The original gasket was there when we opened it up. All parts not within tolerance we replaced or repaired. Hopefully will not need to open the engine for another 50 years !


Original seat belt set up from 1967.

This is clamp between the front seats


Original seat belts clamps are massive and heavy. Note the absence of lap belts


Got the original basket weave seat covers


Door pads were made locally


Roof lining was made locally


The rare and original cardboard glove box has survived time. Shows how original the car was in the first place!


Carpets were made locally


Looking forward for more drives in this fantastic car.

Cheers

KPS

[Bulldogji]

Your dedication and passion, be it a Daimler or Beetle, remains the same, amazing to say the least.

Congratulations to you and your team for yet another success story

[arun1100]

Congratulation KPS and hats off to the men who worked on the car. Beetle looks factory fresh! Looking forward to meet the Beetle and you again, this time after the restoration!

[ninjatalli]

What a wonderful ending to this - the car looks gorgeous in every frame. @KPS, wishing you many years of blissful ownership with this beauty.

[ajay99]

It would have been great if you had opted for the VW bosch black coil, and genuine VW pierburg fuel pump also

[rohantn]

Oh wow!

Seeing the initial pictured brought a sense of deja vu.
When I was a child in the early 1980s, our neighbour (next house down) had a VW beetle with a KLA registration.

My eye popped when I saw the RC book copy. This was the same car!!

Sister Mary Bardsley (Nursing Superintendent at Tiruvalla Medical Mission Hospital) was our neighbour and this car used to be garaged at a car shed between our homes (hospital quarters in the Tiruvalla Medical Mission hospital).

She used to be happy to let others borrow her car for trips, if required.

2 deeply ingrained memories:-
1) 2 families including me (4 adults and 3 children) were going in that car for a film. The monsoon rains were in full swing. The car ended up skidding on the road, did two 360 degree spins and ended up in reverse (but upright) on the side of the road. The uncle who was driving the car did say that for a moment, he thought it would be curtains for everybody.

2) The ambulance driver at the hospital would sometimes take the car out for some work. While it was being driven in the hospital campus, I would run up to the car and jump on the running board outside the door and hitch a ride.
On one such occasion, I jumped off the running board, but ended up falling down and my arm went under the wheel of the car. The tyre mark could be seen from the top of my arm to the back of my wrist, where the car had run over my arm. I was immediately taken to the hospital and my arm x-rayed. But there were no fractures.

Anyway, I am so glad to see that this car has been preserved, and has found a good home.

[the mole]

A really well done restoration the car looks truly special! fantastic colour too! my favorite beetle colour that i have seen so far.

[KPS]

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

Your dedication and passion, be it a Daimler or Beetle, remains the same, amazing to say the least.

Congratulations to you and your team for yet another success story

Dear Bulldogji, coming from you means a lot to me. Thank you

Originally Posted by arun1100

Looking forward to meet the Beetle and you again, this time after the restoration!

Thanks arun1100, we should do drive together!

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

@KPS, wishing you many years of blissful ownership with this beauty.

Thanks ninjatalli, yes the plan to is do a lot of drives in this car

Originally Posted by ajay99

It would have been great if you had opted for the VW bosch black coil, and genuine VW pierburg fuel pump also

Noted ajay99. The original fuel pump is reconditioned and stored. We have upgraded to a newer version, as the plan is to do long drives

Originally Posted by rohantn

Oh wow!
Sister Mary Bardsley (Nursing Superintendent at Tiruvalla Medical Mission Hospital) was our neighbour a.......

2 deeply ingrained memories:-
....... The car ended up skidding on the road, did two 360 degree spins and ended up in reverse (but upright) on the side of the road......

2) ............. The tyre mark could be seen from the top of my arm to the back of my wrist, where the car had run over my arm. I was immediately taken to the hospital and my arm x-rayed. But there were no fractures.

Anyway, I am so glad to see that this car has been preserved, and has found a good home.

Thank you so much rohantn for sharing these wonderful memories. It is such stories which enhances the ownership for me. I am glad you recognized the car and number.

Please do share any old pictures you may have of the car or of Mary Bardsley. It will be wonderful for have period pictures of car and of its owner then. Any pictures of the home at the Mission? I do plan to drive down to the Mission one day in the Beetle !

Originally Posted by the mole

A really well done restoration the car looks truly special! fantastic colour too! my favorite beetle colour that i have seen so far.

Thanks the mole. I understand that this was a one year colour only (subject to correction). The car looks good in this colour for sure!

Thank you all for appreciation of this fantastic car

Cheers

KPS

[rohantn]

Thank you so much rohantn for sharing these wonderful memories. It is such stories which enhances the ownership for me. I am glad you recognized the car and number.

Please do share any old pictures you may have of the car or of Mary Bardsley. It will be wonderful for have period pictures of car and of its owner then. Any pictures of the home at the Mission? I do plan to drive down to the Mission one day in the Beetle !

I don't have any photos with me here in the U.K. I will look for some, when I am next back in India (currently scheduled for December).

The old house that Sr. Bardsley lived in, and other houses are still there and looks pretty much the same. I doubt however you will find anyone still working there who remembers Sr. Bardsley or that period. My mother was the last person who was still working there from that era. But she has retired and moved from Tiruvalla and now resides in Cochin.

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by rohantn

I don't have any photos with me here in the U.K. I will look for some, when I am next back in India (currently scheduled for December).The old house that Sr. Bardsley lived in, and other houses are still there and looks pretty much the same..

As per my info in the late eighties or early nineties, there was another Doctor who hailed from Othera was working there in the Mission hospital and he too had a VW beetle of the sixties. Do you remember having seen that car??

[rohantn]

Originally Posted by ajay99

As per my info in the late eighties or early nineties, there was another Doctor who hailed from Othera was working there in the Mission hospital and he too had a VW beetle of the sixties. Do you remember having seen that car??

Do you recall the Doctor's name? I don't recall another VW beetle in the campus.

But there was another doctor who the other doctors would tease as car crazy.

He had an imported Opel kadett and 2 or 3 other cars.
He also had an Ambassador with a lot of extra fittings, such as an aircon and power windows. That was the first time I had seen power windows.

TMM Hospital also owned a VW Transporter van, at around the same time. It would be interesting to trace what became of that van.

It was a petrol engined van, and I remember the administrator complaining that it gave a fuel efficiency of only 4 kmpl.
Though petrol used to cost around Rs. 4/- per litre and diesel as I recall was Rs. 8/- per litre...

[rohantn]

Oops, I incorrectly reversed the my memory prices of petrol and diesel. Petrol was Rs. 8/- per litre and diesel was Rs. 4/-.
My brain went into uk mode, where diesel is more expensive than petrol.

Having said that my father recalls petrol being Rs. 1/- per litre when he was a university student…

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by rohantn

Do you recall the Doctor's name? I don't recall another VW beetle in the campus.
TMM Hospital also owned a VW Transporter van, at around the same time. It would be interesting to trace what became of that van.
Though petrol used to cost around Rs. 4/- per litre and diesel as I recall was Rs. 8/- per litre...

I will pm you the doctors name.
If you meant the VW microbus it was later acquired by another hospital in Thiruvalla itself and scrapped a few years later(hearsay)

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by rohantn

TMM Hospital also owned a VW Transporter van, at around the same time. It would be interesting to trace what became of that van.

This I think may be with another TBHPian in Kochi. He was working on that at least

Best Regards & Ride Safe

[TechnoBloop]

Wow, the good old VW Beetle. The car that changed and revolutionized VW's future. As a matter of fact, it's still my favorite VW, second being the ID Buzz.
It still looks beautiful, that's VW design for ya!
All the restoration work has breathed a new, fresh life into the VW Beetle!
Man, you are soo luckyy to own one, looking forward to more write-ups on this beauty!