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  KSJ was built on 17th August 1961, making it one of the first of the 1962 model year. For the anoraks out there, improvements for this year included the addition of a fuel gauge, indicators on top of the front wings, and rear turn signals in new, larger, light clusters. The model is also the last to feature the Wolfsburg crest on the bonnet and the “stale air” type of heat exchangers.
The Gulf Blue car left Wolfsburg the next day and was registered in the UK on the 24th October as 712 MRL. Unfortunately, a certain Mr. M R Lister bought the car in 1985, fancying the number plate for himself. He quickly sold the car on, having had it re-registered as AHJ 373A. I believe the condition of the car deteriorated aver the next few years, until it came into the hands of a worker at Microgiant, in Essex, in the early nineties. Here, the engine was reluctant to run, and apparently preferred petrol to be poured into the carburettor. The noise it made earned it the name Oodle-Ollop!
 In 1994, a friend of the owner saw the car and bought it; his intention being to restore it for his girlfriend. In 1997, the project had lost momentum, and a mint 1960 Beetle had been purchased instead. The project had to go, and an advert was placed in a VW magazine, which is where I came in.
 After a few months wait to get somewhere to work on the car, my father and I set about the restoration. We spent the next eighteen months working on the car each Sunday, in a single garage. Slowly the pile of boxes were emptied of their parts, which were in turn bolted to the shell, and the assortment began to resemble a Beetle once more. The car made its way back onto the road in June 1999, now wearing a non-age-specific number plate once again.
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