Glittering Prize – ’57 Oval Rag Top

On any vintage car sales website there is always a flurry of activity around any advert that starts with the words ‘barn find'. Sadly, more often than not, that barn find is a wreck that was dumped in a shed halfway through a bad restoration in the 90's, but occasionally a real find does turn up. This Oval is one such car, but don't be fooled into thinking it was a one careful owner runabout found under a silk sheet in a dry barn scenario. Jeff Spearn, the owner of this Oval, simply have to make do with what he'd found.

Jeff is no stranger to VWs. Having seen his older brothers drive around their VWs in the 1970's Jeff bought his first Beetle in 1985 when he was 15 for just $45, so you can imagine the condition it was in. But he fixed it up and was on the road when he turned 16, and this gave him the desire to build better and faster VWs. His previous VWs include a 1972 Beetle, a '57 Split and a '73 Beetle, which he raced in the SCCA Solo 2 events to become Midwest Regional Champion against MG Sprites, Porsches, Corvettes and Mustangs to name but a few. So I think we can safely assume this Arkansas native knows his stuff.
Looking for his next VW-related challenge, the 39-year-old wanted something special that would really challenge him. Jeff knew his friend had an Oval sitting in his barn that would be ideal but by no means was a barn find in the best sense. "I purchased the car from a friend who had it stored in an old barn and was using it to step up into the second level. As you can imagine, the roof and hood were quite damaged from such abuse. The car was in dismal shape, virtually every panel needed rust repair or replacement. Several times my friend thought of taking it to the crusher for salvage but after many attempts to buy his VW stepladder he agreed to sell it to me in 2002". The car is a 1957 Oval and had clearly not had an easy life. With the Beetle home, Jeff stripped it of all its loose bits and sent it off to be walnut shell blasted to reduce warping from heat.

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the August  2010 issue of VolksWorld

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