1956 Australian Right Hand Drive Oval Window Beetle Sedan For Sale

The car being an Oval window isnt what makes it so special...it is where the car was built and the great history behind it.
In 1954 Volkswagen started building cars for the Australia and New Zealand markets in a new factory in Australia.
In the early days the factory basically assembled cars that were produced in Germany and shipped in pieces.
This type of arrangement was referred to as CKD (Completely Knocked Down). CKD cars were then built
on site in more remote locations and often fitted with smaller parts obtained from local vendors.
Quite often glass and electrical items were from local suppliers and in some case have very minor differences from the
German made counterparts. In 1956, just two years into VW Australia, they had ramped up production
to just over 9,000 cars per year. This pales in comparison to German production of course...which makes this
car even higher on the rarity scale.

So...it's an Oval, which is cool.
It is an early CKD car, produced in Germany but assembled in Australia...which makes it rare.
And it is in all original condition with only 24,000 original miles since new...which makes it amazing.

The car is in very nice shape for being 50 years old...heck I hope I look this good at 50.
It has had a few small chips and scratches like these little marks on the left front fender.
No serious accidents of any sort and best of all it has escaped the steely grasp of the demon "rust" almost completely.
It is a true survivor.

The rare and important original bits are still in place and everything is in great condition.
Check out these gorgeous fluted buld type headlamps.

Look how nice the paint is even up front where the rocks normally wreek havoc.
A few scant chips but overall really nice.

Early style hood emblem. all original body panels.

Glass is in excellent conditon.

Cool side view mirror...different than the German mirrors I have seen.

Several cool decals in the windows from it's past life in Australia.

Here's another neat sticker...not sure what it is for...but I like.

The door handles look to me to be a slightly different casting than the German ones I have seen...the base is a little puffier.

Of course the car features the ever so cool Semaphore turn signals...which function well by the way.

Here's a small paint chip on the driver's side door
(remember...this car is Right Hand Drive...so the Drivers side is the Right side of the car.)

Just gorgeous dont you think?

A little paint fade on the drivers side taillight housing... the car has a very light patina to it
that in my opinion really gives it a great feeling...it just screams "survivor" to me.

Another awesome vintage decal in the rear window.

The original 36 horse engine runs superbly.
Mechanically this car is super sweet.
A delightful driver, very smooth and tight.
The engine is very clean with no noteable leaks.
It has had a little odd hand painted accents done years ago by the original owner.
But is otherwise totally original and correct.

Here is some touch up paint done around the crank hole on the apron.
Not sure why this was done.

Super nice original finish under the decklid.

Check out the hand crank nut here on the crank pulley.

Very cool almost corduroy material used on the firewall
(correct original material for the Aussie cars)

Super cool original mudflaps.
Ive never seen another set like these.

Awesome old Olympic Air Ride bias ply tires.
These are a bit old but they seem to be holding up pretty well.
I personally would keep them on the car as they add to the aura of originality that the car exudes, but some might
disagree and want to put on a new set of wide whitealls or something which would sure look nice as well.
Creat accessory trim rings on the wheels too.

Down under (pun intended) the chassis is in excellent original condition with no noteable rust other than a scant
peppering of surface stuff just starting.
I think that with a little elbow grease the underside of this car would polish up quite a bit.
Its all original finish, and a good application of polish and some wax might make this picture look phenomenal.

Again...a little dusting of surface rust but no rot in sight anywhere.
Pretty dreamy.

Fender wells too are extremely solid and rust free.

Gorgeous straight sheet metal evereywhere, no collision damage to be found.
Interesting to note that the fenders on the back of the car look to me to be of a 1955 or earlier stamping
as they have the holes for the earler lights. This makes sense with a CKD car though as often
there were months of time between when the parts were produced and the car was assembled.

Again up front it is more of the same virgin sheet metal...never hit and never rusted.
The horn is currently not mounted as you can see...

But here is the restored early horn ready to go back in.

More solid rust free sheet metal.

Ok...you get the idea...it''s a super solid super straight original car....

Under the front hood is really clean as well.
The red paint you see here is the primer used on the CKD cars.
The cars were all red-primed before final coat.
Here there must have been a little brake fluid leakage at some point that took off the top coat.

The one interesting detail that I noticed here was the small wire used to keep the resevoir cap in place.
Im guessing the original owner didnt want to have that fluid repeat it's spill any time.

The body tags are all the German style, as the parts were made in Germany, but the true story is in the body nunber
stamped below the screwed on plates. Note the textured backround to the numbers, a security feature
unique to the Aussie cars, and of course the body number sequences are all different from the German stuff.

Backside of the dash is extremely clean and proper.

Look how tidy that wiring is...and the original glove box in such great shape.

Underside of the hood with the super clean original paint and all the proper clips and boots and such.

Front apron is excellent.


A little chrome pitting hidden behind the front plate, otherwise the chrome on the car looks great.

Are you falling in love with this one yet?

Just wait till we crawl inside...

The interior is all original from top to bottom and is in quite amazing condition.

Rear seat looks like it has seen very little use.

original carpets and headliner too!

Headliner looks great.

Great warm original feel and smell to the inside of this car.
Heck bottle that stuff and I'd wear it like cologne...

Not bad for 50 year old material eh?

Right hand drive...I absolutly go bonkers for a good right hand drive car.
Its not difficult to get used to, your left hand quickly learns to shift.
And it is ever so cool to pull up somewhere and step out of the "wrong side" of the car.
My kids love it too as they can ride on the normal driver's side and pretend like they are at the wheel...gets some fun looks from
the other drivers on the road. Heck let your dog ride shotgun and really freak folks out.

24,000 original miles.
Speedometer has a neat KM overlay sticker that shows the conversion to Kilometers.

Gorgeous clean unmolested original dashboard.

Glove box.

Very cool original turn signal switch.

Original door panels in amazing shape.

All original carpets and mats.

Some minor staining down low.

Rear mats also excellent.

Check out how clean and shiny the original paint is on these floor pans...oh yeah!

Some more notable staining down low on the drivers side.

So...pretty darn cool dont you agree?

A couple more things of note.
It looks to me like the passenger side (left side) rear fender has been resprayed.
I looked underneath and done see any signs of any noteable collision damage or anything
so it must have been due to a minor scratch. Everything else on the car looks to be the original finish to me.

Close up of the taillight.

Heres the car's biggest ding, a little scrape jab just above the tweeter pipe on the rear apron.

Oh and here are some more cool decals in the window.

So...there you have it.
This is a very rare car in very nice survivor condition with no notable rust or body damage
and almost entirely original from top to bottom.

I think anyone would be proud to have this in their collection...I sure know I would love to have it for mine.

Asking
$21,500 obo