Nineteen
Sixty-Seven

My dad bought this Beetle and had it imported in 1971, and it has been in the family ever since. It ran until the early ’90s, then sat for roughly thirty years. According to my mother, my dad had issues with maintaining it so he just parked it at home and let it sit. The car was always ours, and we always knew it would be restored one day. Ironically, he stocked everything from piston rings to spare headlights but not the knowledge to maintain it. Though to cut him some slack, this was the '90s in Goa.

Over time, the body rusted, and my mother used to call the local mechanic, who would come over with body filler to patch up the rusty bits. In 2019, we decided to restore the car at a garage in our state, roughly an hour from home. We figured the short distance would mean less stress during the restoration. Hindsight is 20/20.

They spent nearly three years on it and made a car known for its curves look like a box, with gaps big enough to put my finger through. The panels didn't align, the body still had rust, the interior was somehow in worse condition than it had been at home, and the owner of the garage was telling my mother to "choose a colour of paint" as apparently the car was nearing completion.

Professionalism was not in their dictionary, and at times it seemed like we were doing the work for them, like when we had to ask them (repeatedly) to cover the car with plastic because it was kept outdoors during the monsoon.

Needless to say, this was not going to work out. We settled the dues and got the car back, effectively paying them to make the job more difficult. A car with curves is not supposed to look like a box and the pictures do not capture the crankcase breather hose gap between what we expected and what we received.

Loyal Fernandes of LoyCarz had known of me through a friend, and we first met in 2022. That November, we entrusted the car and the restoration to him. Over about 18 months, he and his team undid all of it and restored the car properly. Almost everything on the car is original, fixed and refinished to look like new. Rubber seals, belt, oil seals and other consumables had to be ordered in, the dynamo was swapped for an alternator, and the ignition system was upgraded from 6V to 12V, as we did not want to deal with that. The turn signals use old school relays, the carburettor was fixed and painted, and even the glass is original and has the serial number and date of manufacture visible. We re-used the oil cooler (as can be seen in some pictures).The original tyre size, 5.60 x 15 (155R15), is no longer available, so we had to go up a size to 165/80 R15, in Bridgestones.

The restored car has no air bags, no power windows, no central locking, no ABS, no traction control, no power steering, no ECU, no fuel injection, just mechanical reliability. The fuel gauge uses a float and at times is more of a fuel suggestion but I get a fuel economy of 12-14 kmpl, which is not bad for a 1.3 litre carburetted car from the late '60s. I don't want to risk ethanol with the carb and seals so I have to fill it with XP100 which does not have ethanol. If I don't find XP100, I settle for XP95, which is not ideal in my opinion but it is what it is.

My mother had the brilliant idea to name the car Bella. This website documents her restoration one chapter at a time.