1962 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible
When visiting the West Coast, one can get lost in its amazing culture and lifestyle or even perhaps buying your dream car, like this stunning 1962 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible.
Words by Tony Matthews
Photography by Tony & Carmen Matthews
This feature originally appeared in Superfly Magazine and is reproduced here with their permission
We love the West Coast of America, that California Love is real and no matter who we talk to that has visited California, it holds a very special place in their hearts. The same is for our friend Andy at Spikes Vintage Restorations in England, as he is a regular on the sunny roads of California.
Andy is a connoisseur of restoring classic cars, especially Volkswagens and Porsches as he runs one of England most prestigious classic car restoration garages, so when it comes to his very own project builds, he ventures over to Cali to find the holy grail of Volkswagens, like this super low 1962 Volkswagen Beetle.
It was a few years ago when Andy saw photographs of the Beetle on Instagram and he knew he had to buy it from Rene Ruelas from the Dukes Car Club. Thanks to Robert A.K.A VW Kidd, he organised the deal of the sale and then Rolando Alvarado organised the logistics side until Andy could fly over to California from England.
When Andy arrived in California, he then did what everyone must do when visiting California, is to do a road trip. From Los Angeles, to Palm Springs on Route 66 was the obvious choice and it was the trip of a lifetime for Andy. I mean, how much more California Love can you have, whilst driving Route66 in this stunning VW Beetle.
We spoke with Rene the original owner to find out more about his love for cars and the build of the Beetle, so I will let him share the story…
I come from a family of car builders and Car club guys who started the Dukes Car Club in 1959, my brother Oscar Ruelas started the club in South Central Los Angeles.
As a kid I had seen them building Chevys and Cadillacs, so I guess I was bored of G.M. cars. That’s when I decided to get into imports. I had my Brother Ernie who was into European cars mainly Jaguars. Back in the 60’s, my brothers worked for a company who built aerospace parts. The owners the Gunther Bros, also Built race cars and they had built a drag VW called Durachrome Hillborn.
That’s what caught my eye and got me to love classic Volkswagens. My first build was in 1979, with a 1967 convertible Karman Ghia and it was the first car documented on Early 6″Heart Fuchs. As my brothers then got into lowriders, I added some lowrider style to the Ghia and engine built by Steve Tim, who is sadly no longer with us.
Then as I got more into Volkswagen, the Volkswagen Beetle was next on my list, which is the one you see in these photographs. I had a few people involved with the build, who are specialists in their field, starting with the body and paint, which was by the Ruelas Brothers South Central L.A. who applied a single stage acrylic enamel.
The Interior and hood (top done in Haertz material) was done by Blind Man Mike at Blindstitch upholstery in Whittier, ca. Stock pattern interior and carpet and headliner.
The Beetle has all original wiring, original German bumpers, accessory German locking steering ignition, OG aluminum Robni gravel shields and foot scrapers, original German running boards, Empi Gt wheel, Gene Berg shifter factory A.m. radio, set of Bosch fog lights Original 3pc and top mouldings. I assembled the rest of the parts myself as I like to also get involved in the project.
Article reproduced with permission from the awesome team at Superfly Magazine