The Hessisch Oldendorf Show Is Over…

But it was a super event this year! Lots of very nice cars. Is a Hebmüller rare? Nah, I saw at least 30 of them last weekend I said my prayers in the church where the vw38 prototype was located. Hopefully God heard my prayers and watches over the whole restoration process.  I talked to a lot of people and searched for rare VW parts and literature the whole day. I came home with just one item. Most of the parts and literature had a nice price tag on them. For instance the pre ‘49 tail lights I’m looking for… 2000 euro… so I’m still looking I took a lot of pictures. Went to the Gründmann museum and almost had a 2 hour journey to vintage VW heaven… What a nice collection they have! I can’t wait to go the the next one… Counting down already… Still 3 years and 364 days to go…

Hessisch Oldendorf Countdown!

The Real Deal?

This week I came across this auction on eBay of a type 82e or a type 92 Kübelwagen based KdF Beetle. Is it an original one? It definitely looks like one. It has some specific KdF era details like the ‘ears’ on both sides of the gast tank. Also the small round gas tank is from the KdF era. Looking at the price ( 60.000 euro ) it must be a real one. If it’s a fake the owner did a real good job trying to make it look as real as possible! My guess… It’s original! Just start bidding and maybe it will be yours!

Rare Vintage Rally Accessory

On http://forums.pre67vw.com/ I came across these pictures of a nice Zwitter. The owner has added some really nice accessories to it, especially the  front hood. Ever seen three head lights on a bug? No? Just take a look at this picture. A very nice accessory, don’t you think? When was the last time you saw a front hood like that? This rare Volkswagen accessory could be found on rally bugs in the early fifties. This Zwitter was seen on a local VW event in Bad Rappenau, Germany. The owner is also working on a pre A Porsche 356 engine for it. Talking about a real vintage race monster! It certainly left me with some questions… Who made this accessory and is this the only car known fitted with a rally front hood or do more examples exist today?

Gründmann To The Rescue!

It finally arrived at the right place. The VW38 prototype is now part of the vintage VW collection of the Gründmann family located in Hessisch Oldendorf. The rumor goes this car and an April 1943 KdF Type 92 Beetle were traded for a fully restored 1943 KdF Beetle. Good deal? I think so, because they have the parts (maybe not all, but a lot), the skills (check out their other cars) and the knowledge (impressive collection and of course good connections) to give these cars the restoration they deserve.  Hope to see these cars at the Vintage VW Show in Hessisch Oldendorf in June this year. I wonder at what stage the restoration of these cars will be when the show starts. More pictures can be found on their new web site http://www.vw38.de.

1951 Rometsch Coupe

Drews Delivery Van

What a rare car! I haven’t seen this one before. It was built by coachbuilt firm Drews located in Wuppertal, Germany. Look at that strange front bumper. It doesn’t seem to be a VW part. I found this picture on http://www.sv-drews.de/. You can see some more interesting pictures when you click on the ‘Historie’ and ‘Presse Oldtimer’ buttons. The only thing I have in my collection related to Drews is an original brochure of the VW based Drews convertible. Only one car exists today. Reprints of this brochure are available. I had one but sold it when I received the original one…

Another Hebmüller Sold

And take a look at that price! 10.000 Swiss Francs, approximately 6600 euro. What a bargain! But… It eventually sold for more than double the price it was offered for. The lucky buyer sold it again and earned some extra money. The car is now located somewhere in Germany. It has body number 455 and appears to be in fair condition. I found this interesting story on http://forums.pre67vw.com/. The owner of this site missed the chance of a lifetime. He is looking for a real Heb for a while now. Maybe next time… They are still out there and show up once in a while for affordable money…

KdF Era Delivery Van

I came across this original picture on Ebay a while ago showing what appears to be the type 88  KdF era delivery van (see Chris Barber’s book page 191). It must have been built somewhere in the early 40’s and was based on a Kübelwagen chassis. Note the banana style bumper at the front. This was not the only pick-up type car Volkswagen produced during the war but these models never became high figure production cars. Even after the war Volkswagen never developed a pick-up type Beetle. Coachbuilt company Beutler built some pick-ups and another coachbuilder named Fischer converted some Ovals into pick-ups. I wonder what happened to the KdF one on the picture. Is it still among us? who knows…

1952 Volkswagen Commercial