Joe Goeppner
Anderson, South Carolina
winner1@bellsouth.net

"'Golden Girl.' A VW Super Beetle Sunbug, restored over a three year period (1994-1996). Restoration was accomplished by myself and my wife. One day in September of 1994, I was shopping for a VW book in Greenville and parked at Books-A-Million. Parked in the lot was a very decrepit rusted out VW Beetle, which I suspected was a Sunbug. I paged for the owner, and asked him if he would sell me the car, he agreed and I bought it on the spot. Later I drove it home to Anderson, after inserting a piece of wood under the driver's seat in order not to fall out the bottom. Confirming my notion that it was a Sunbug, there was a Sunbug Gearshift Knob in the car. The car was totally rusted out inside and out. It was necessary to completely disassemble the car - removing the engine for re-build by Cross VW of Anderson, separating the body from the chassis and sending the chassis to Cross VW in order that full floor pans could be welded in, and a total re-build of the running gear could be accomplished. The body was totally sandblasted by us, with fenders, doors, bonnets, etc. being acid dipped at Unpaint in Atlanta. Using the original paint code tab, the paint formula was obtained from Germany, and following preparation and priming by us, the car was final painted by an Anderson body shop. After obtaining a copy of "The Car of The Century, Volume Two, (1961-1980 Volkswagen Beetle by Garwood)", from Dave Keller of Summerville, SC, I was able to confirm by serial number, paint code, and other data on the car that this vehicle is, in fact, an original 1974 Sunbug, being manufactured at Wolfsburg in June of 1974. It was originally sold in Florida and we purchased it from the second owner. We were able to obtain a facsimile Sunbug emblem from Dave, but later an original (new and unused) Sunbug emblem was obtained from a most generous Neil Pickett of North Carolina, thereby enabling us to complete the restoration of the car to original state as delivered to the dealer from the factory.

The car was shown at the First Annual Bug-In of the AVWA in June of 1997, winning First Place in two classes."