A 71-year-old VW Beetle in Delmas was recently returned to its former glory. Celso dos Santos presented this Beetle with its rich heritage to an emotional previous owner, Annetjie Langenhoven, her two daughters and sons-in-law on September 15.
According to Dos Santos, the dilapidated Beetle caught his eye one day at the workshop of Delmas Nissan, and he knew he had to have it.
“From there on, it was an uphill battle. I tried convincing Annetjie to sell me the Beetle for over a month.”
One lucky day, Langenhoven gave in, but not before Dos Santos had to make many promises to restore the car to its original condition. Langenhoven told Streeknuus the Beetle belonged to her late father, Jerry van Niekerk.
Dos Santos, known for his love of all things vintage, knew the car was a significant project but was not daunted by the prospect of putting in hours of research and quite a bit of money to return it to like-new condition.
It took many months of sourcing original parts, and not one screw, flicker light, or anything else on the car is not original. He even imported some parts from Germany and re-painted its initial colour.
“My dad bought the Beetle second-hand from a WJ Botha from Pretoria. It was painted green at the time,” said Langenhoven.
“It was a real workhorse on the farm and was sometimes even used as a bakkie. I drove the little car for many years during my youth.”
Langenhoven said the Beetle was locked in a garage on their farm for many years, but they feared rats and mice might destroy it, so they moved it to the workshop in Delmas.
“We planned to restore it ourselves but never got that far, and then Celso appeared on the scene and started nagging me to buy it. It was an emotional decision, but today, I can say I am happy with the result.”
Dos Santos shared a little history behind the specific model 1952 VW Beetle with Streeknuus. The first VW sedan left the assembly line in Uitenhage on August 31, 1951.
The split rear window remained in production until March 1953, after which it changed to the more common oval-shaped rear window.
“This makes the October 1952 to March 1953 amongst the rarest Beetles because it retained the split rear window.”
Dos Santos said that according to history, only 575 VWs were sold in SA in 1952 because the car was still relatively unknown.
He further said he used Dino’s Classic Restoration and Generation Old School in Benoni to restore the car.
The specifications for the car are that it has four cylinders, an approximate 22kW SAE output at 3 300rpm, is air-cooled and has a 1 131cc rear-mounted engine. It reaches a top speed of 100km/h.
“This beauty is a true collector’s item, and my wife Mindi is now the proud owner of it,” Dos Santos concluded.
