Paul Kileen's 1963 Ragtop

Wed, 6 Aug 2008
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I’d like to tell you about Herbie, my 1963 Ragtop Beetle. I imported him from California in 2005 and since then a lot of time, money and effort has been put into getting him to the stage you see here.
The idea was to import a solid car from the USA and make it as good as it could possibly be! We found a great first class mechanic called John Massey who has done the majority of the work, including the paintjob. My dad Michael (I call him Tennessee) has been with me every step of the way and I couldn’t have done it without him! It has been a total body-off restoration complete with a new 1600 twin port engine.
We recently attended OXO '08, a show run by the Northern Ireland Beetle Owners Club, where Herbie got voted ‘Favourite Car’ of the show, and that’s with him not even being finished! The headliner, carpet and door cards are yet to be put it but hopefully by the end of the year we should see Herbie finished and you guys could take a closer look!
Paul Killeen, Belfast