Amazingly, the paint shop didn't take much longer than they had said they would to paint the shell. If I were cruel I might say this was because they rushed it the day before we collected... Anyway, they did offer to touch-up any scratches we made while we were refitting the car, so we couldn't complain too much. (This also gave us the opportunity to sort out some of the worst patches of the paint to be redone.)

With the body and chassis bolted back together, the engine was put back in place, although I think it came out at least once more before the car was "finished".  This also shows the rebuilt rear suspension.

We got a new burst of energy once the garage full of oily bits suddenly began to resemble a Beetle once more, and things moved on rapidly.  The wings and other panels were bolted on, and the lights began to work.

With the steering & brakes connected up, the electrical fun began!  If you leave any wiring looms in the car when it's painted, make sure they're taped up, by the way!

Once all the dirty work had been done, we decided it was safe to put the new seat covers on the frames and put the carpet set in.

The seats weren't as difficult as I'd been warned, but heating the covers in the tumble drier helped!  The door cards are the originals - after a lot of cleaning.  I don't think seatbelts had ever been fitted to the car, but I got hold of these reproduction static belts, with Wolfsburg buckles.  These eventually gave way to inertia reel belts, after complaints from passengers became too much! Rear belts also arrived later on. 

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