A special little car that was built by the previous owner with a money no object attitude that featured in the June 2015 issue of Hot VWs.

The oval was in Southern California, still retained all the 1955 original features, correct front and rear valances, solid body mounts, no signs of damage and a rust-free floor pan.

Over the following months Romance with Rust completely rebuilt and transformed the car mechanically and totally changed and improved all the characteristics of the car including paint work, undercoating, the accessories, etc.

The car has been built taking into consideration the UK climate, the reason for the underbody protection, extra driving lights, the ultimate braking set up, etc and has covered less than 600 miles since the build 8 years ago.

Features include 1914cc motor, headlight guards by Aircooled Accessories, Albert mirrors, driving lights by Unity, period correct license plate - yellow over black (51 plates with 55 year of manufacture tag), Wilwood braking system, Porsche wheels, custom one off handmade interior parts. Rust-free and well-presented painted shell with correct 55 oval features.

INTERIOR:
Original style interior by West Coast Classics
Powder coated seat frames, front and rear
Wool headliner
German square wave carpet
Factory style lap belts fitted front and rear (no holes drilled in the rear, stock holes used, so if needed, they can be removed).
Factory inspired door cards and seats only trimmed in vinyl but to replicate original
3 spoke split/standard steering wheel (restored and repainted to match the rest of the ivory interior)
New Vintage speed shifter (painted ivory to match the rest of the interior) as were the steering column, turn signal cover, e-brake and any other ivory parts. All colour-matched to work with the new dash knobs
New Retrosound deck unit (Radio, MP3) with hidden amplifier and 6x9 speakers – all fully blue tooth compatible, working with smart phone and iPad. Hidden plug hook up in the dash, hidden microphone for hands free. Modified with a plastic bezel cut and fitted into the stock dash, then re-chromed
Coco mats
Hand-made custom aluminium kick panels, body-worked and painted to perfectly match interior and complement the seats.

FRONT SUSPENSION:
Brand new front axle, built hub to hub by Old Speed, which consists of:
New 4” narrowed beam with KYB shocks painted black
New steering box
Modified pitman arm to correct steering geometry
New tie rods
New tie rod ends
New steering damper
New king pins
New link pins
New Old Speed modified drop spindles
New 11” drilled and slotted brake rotors zinc coated, Porsche PCD
Modified spindle to accept big four pots Wilwood calipers
New braided flexible hoses
New dual circuit brake system fitted from Old Speed
Modified hard lines and new hard lines fitted throughout car along with braided steel flexible hoses.

REAR TRANSAXLE:
New Freeway flyer with 3.88 ring and pinion, Super-Diff HD side plate, welded 3-4 gear hubs, and steel shift forks from Rancho Performance
New stock sprint plates
New Old Speed rear disc brake kit, which consisted of:
11” drilled and slotted rotors Porsche PCD.
Single pot rear Wilwood caliper
1955 Modified new e-brake cables to work with disk brake set up.

ENGINE:
Proformance Racing engine set up by Dave Greiner.
1914cc with forged, counterweighted 69mm crank (8-doweled). Bolted-on VW 043 dual-port heads (40x35.5mm stainless steel valves), set compression at 8.25:1, solid rocker shafts, plus chromoly pushrods in stainless steel tubes.
Bosch 009 distributor (Compu-fire), Bosch coil, and NGK B6HS plugs.
Carburetion consists of dual 44mm HPMX carbs, intakes, and linkage, all from Empi, 1-1/2-inch exhaust/ muffler system by Vintage Speed, Stage 1 clutch from Kennedy, and serpentine belt set up is MST
All engine tin is original German or Empi, all powder coated in satin black.

WHEELS AND TYRES:
5 New Flat 4 Chromed Fuch 4.5 front and 5.5 rear, which modified and detailed to replicate original Porsche detailing
Centre caps fully detailed
Porsche style original lug nuts chromed
Radials Continentals 155/60R front and 195/65 rear
5 wheels including a Fuch for the spare.

The plan for the car was not to build a drag racer, but to build a great all round driving car with enough low-end toque and PKTQ: 102.38 at 2500 and PKHP: 103.93 at 4250 to drive the car quite happily and get out of its own way with 4 people inside.

The car really does go and stops well. It is tight with no squeaks, rattles or bangs.

As you would also imagine, everything works – horn, semaphores, wipers, dash lights as everything did in 1955 (only with the benefit of being 12 volt not 6).

Complete history file with the car made in December 1954 and first registered in 1955.

Recently serviced and ready to go. A very honest little oval.