e-nesmoe

In 1993 I started my search for a vintage Volkswagen. It was nearly 10 years since the last time I had a Beetle, and I wanted to have one as a hobby car. In the mean time I had driven various Golf I, II and III’s. (And one Opel Ascona, I’m sad to admit)

The ultimate dream was to get a split window Beetle, but I did not believe that this was at all possible at the time. I was not yet a member of any VW-club and did not have a network of friends sharing my interest in vintage Volkswagens to make this dream come true.

The next best thing was an Oval. Back in 1993 Ovals were still fairly easy to find advertised in various newspapers. I looked at five Ovals before I found the one that I ended up buying. It was a Strato Silber 1955 model. The big ragtop made this one more tempting than the others, and it was free of rust. The owner was a Doctor living in Oslo. The car had been in his family since 1962, when his uncle imported it from Sweden. This type of import was common back then, because of the poor economical situation that Norway was in after WWII. Very few people could afford a new car, and used cars were easily available in Sweden.

Over the years the Oval had been restored several times. The Doctor had repainted it in 1988, but had been rather careless as a driver. Several dents and scratches were silent witnesses, and the outside ragtop clothing was in very bad condition. The interior had suffered badly because of the German Sheppard that seamed to be the Doctors co-driver. The seat clothing was partly eaten, and small dog hair had penetrated the interior everywhere.

Nevertheless, I was convinced that the car had potential and I drove it home with confidence in May 1993. I used it unchanged the whole summer and started the planning of the restoration, in which I thought would be done in a year or two… Since then I have, like many others, realized that this is a never ending process. It was re-painted, inside and outside, in 1994 and the ragtop and the interior were redone in 1995.

Since I bought the Oval I have restored or changed almost everything from bumper to bumper. The car is not heavily loaded with accessories, but I have fitted it with a few items from my collection of Volkswagen accessories.

The Strato Silber color changes a lot depending of various light conditions at the time the pictures were taken.

Top Ten accessories on my Ragtop Oval:

· Judson supercharger

· Yellow fog lights with integrated bumper fittings from Hella

· Stick shift ashtray from Schenk

· Speedometer with trip, (120km)

· Speaker grill with VDO Perohaus clock and extension ring

· Stick shift knob with shift pattern

· Bumper horn with integrated holder for back-up light

· 100.000 kilometer badge on the glove-box door

· Happich grip on the e-brake handle

· Petri Pealit with Bremen crest on the horn button