My name is Jonathan. Here's a little about my love for Beetles over the years. I bought my first 1968 Beetle when I was 16. It was all original (beige). I had the heater channels cut out and replaced, installed an adjustable lowered beam which led to some major water issues (leaks). In the winter I would have to chip the ice away so my peddles would operate freely, and of course there was the scraping on the INSIDE of the windshield. So, no, the heater channels never worked properly again. Also installed a nice 4 tip exhaust and had a lot of fun with it as there was a bit of a gap in the set up and flames would explode out the back at times. I also fried my entire wiring harness when my air filter popped off and shorted my electrical through the entire car. Lost some money on that one, but some good experience was gained.
My next Beetle came from Port Coquitlam approximately 20 years ago (thanks to Chris Baker!). I convinced a guy to sell me his 1959 convertible Beetle that was definitely not for sale, and completely disassembled it after my tranny seized and never got it back together. I had plans to completely restore it of course, but that never happened, sold it in 1997. I've seen it at past GCVW shows put back together nicely.
I have also had a string of Beetles in between (1965, 1967, 1969) and recently my baby blue 1968 Beetle that I flipped last July after I installed some drop spindles and rebuilt the 1500cc engine; but I had been searching for on oval window Beetle ever since I was 16 and had my first Beetle.
So here is my mostly original 1957 Beetle that I picked up from Vancouver Island last summer. You may have seen it on the Samba. Awesome family that owned it since 1977 and sold it to me for a great deal. There are a few little things that I am working on with it currently, but no big projects yet. I'm going to wait a bit until something really needs attention. Too often in the past I have gotten too deep into a project with the proper knowledge, so I am going to approach this one slowly. I picked up a correct "w" decklid at the Spring swap at AVR (thanks to whoever sold it to me for $60). I would like to find an original Bosch 010 to pair this up with (if I can find one at a decent price) so I can keep things period correct and improve my pick up off the line. Eventually I will drop the ride and upgrade the tranny and engine and convert to 12v, but for now I am just going to enjoy as a "stock ride".
Anyways, thanks AIRSPEED community for reading, I love reading all the posts and seeing your pics!