VW Beetle Split Screen Ragtop!

My dad once said to me that everyone has one restoration in them - be it a house, a car, a motorcycle or whatever. That may be true, but there are always some who laugh in the face of that comment. And it's the same in all parts of the modified, or indeed restored, car world - while many will struggle on for years trying (and just as often failing) to complete one restoration, there are others who knock them out on a regular basis without ever breaking into a sweat. There are ways of making it easier, of course, be it having the use of a fully equipped workshop, a fat wallet or a lot of individual skill, but it still takes a certain kind of person to want to go through all the effort that it entails over and over again. More and more these days we're hearing of people 'project managing' restorations and, while this is undoubtedly easier than doing the dirty work yourself, it still takes up a lot of time and requires an ability to keep tabs on numerous different things at once. And for those who say that having a lot of money makes it all easier, yes it does, but very few people have the money without having to work hard to amass it and keep it flowing, in which case time becomes the biggest enemy of all.
When we first met Henry Marchena it was in our June 2008 piece on the Foreign Creations car club from Long Beach, California. It quickly became obvious to us that Henry was the kind of guy who had the ability to do a lot of things at once. Not only was he holding down a hectic job as an Emergency Room nurse, he was the spokesperson for that club and the one responsible for collating all the information for us for that feature, and he also had the wicked burgundy Split featured therein. We knew that car from its previous owner, and knew Henry hadn't restored it himself, but he'd certainly made some fundamental changes while it was in his possession. He told us at the time that he was doing another car and, since then, he's also brought the old Peaches 'n' Scream show car back onto the circuit (see our August '08 issue) and has another, even wilder, car in the works as we write this, but for the minute we'll concentrate on the car you see here.

For the full story check out the October 2008 issue of VolksWorld magazine. On sale on 05 September and then available through back issues.

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