©2000-08 KdR

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My 1960 Type 117 Beetle aka 'Steak Dinner' Actually finding a ragtop Beetle was something I had hoped for for a long time. I was told about the existence of this 1960 Beetle the morning of Saturday, April 5, 2003 in an email from a well-known west coast VW collector sent to a friend of mine. It seemed too good to be true- a ragtop sunroof, little rust, in a dry house garage for 32 years!, and by order of the District of Columbia, needed to be cleaned off the run-down property ASAP. It belonged to a man who died and left his belongings in the care of a friend. I struck a cash deal on the phone at 11 a.m., and by 12:30 p.m. a hired towtruck driver and I were on the road with a three hour drive ahead of us. We arrived in a really old Washington D.C. neighborhood and pulled into an alley near the garage where the car was tucked away. We thought it would be a simple task of opening up the sliding trolley-door garage. We had to actually destroy the doors to get at it. What initially blew me away was it was jacked up off the floor on stacks of bricks so that the tires weren't touching the ground! Even though the Beetle was super dusty, filled with garbage (almost a 32 gallon bag worth), and rusted at the battery tray, it was otherwise in great shape. The odometer read just over 82,000 miles. We pushed the car out into the alley, got it on the truck, and headed back home. I have no plans (or money) currently to go all out with a restoration. The suspension, brakes, and engine have been modified, and it's driven regularly. There's nothing I can't put back to normal. A huge Thank You to everyone who helped me get this one back on the road! My car was built in July 1960 and sold from Blanchard Automobile Corporation in Greenwich, Connecticut. That dealership lasted for 3 years until it became Pray Automobile Corporation. Around 1970, the car ended up in northeastern Virginia and then was moved to Washington, D.C.. The defunct Mid-City VW Sales Corporation,located less than 2 blocks from where I found the car, serviced it until early 1971. It was removed from the streets due to failed inspection. The owner intended not to give up on the Beetle and stored it away. I'm on the look-out for items bearing the logos from any of these dealerships!