The car is owned by well-known American vintage VW collector, Dr. Robert ‘Mac’ Jones. Its 13-year restoration was undertaken by his good friend, Brian Hyerstay, and involved parts sourced from all over the world, and plenty of horse trading. But where do you start with a restoration like this? And, perhaps more importantly, where do you find a ’44 KdF-Wagen. Are you sitting comfortably?
If you’ve never really paid that much attention to wartime VWs, I highly recommend a visit to the Bad Camberg vintage VW show in Germany. I never had much interest in the really early stuff until I hitched a ride to the 2011 meeting with Simon Towler in his ’67 Double Door Panel Van. I was the guy huddled in the back in a sleeping bag as we left Bognor Regis at 5am to rendezvous with Rich Oakley and Dave Ball for the journey to Germany. Rich was in his grey ’47 Beetle and the first revelation for me on that trip
