This Fan Car Friday is brought to us by Jerry and his 1952 VW Beetle. This Beetle in particular used to belong to Jerry’s father, Matt, and is something Jerry intends to pass down to his kids when they’re ready.

Fan Car Friday is a segment where we want to share with the world the automobiles that our fans have. These cars are not for sale and we have absolutely no affiliation/relationship with the cars, the build or the owners, we simply saw the photos and felt they should be shared with the world to inspire others on their build. Or, simply put, its great eye candy for those of us who can’t make it to car shows or meetups as often as we would like. This post was made with written consent from the owner.

This 1953 Beetle has only had two owners, both from the same family, both father and son. Jerry’s father, Matt, first purchased this off the lot back in 1952. Back then he was living the California dream. Matt would work the night shift as a machinist for 4 days of the week doing 12 hour shifts. During the precious hours between shifts and his 3 days weekends he was either out at the beach or enjoying the California life.

After many years of living the dream, Matt met a woman he was madly in love with and had to sell the Beetle to help pay for their first home together after quickly getting married. Rather, he would have sold it had it not been for Matt’s mothers stepping in and giving them a “loan”. She knew the car wouldn’t be able to fetch anywhere near enough to offset the emotional attachment he had to the car. Unfortunately though, once they started a family, the car sat dormant for decades until Jerry decided to take his father’s car and restore it to it’s former glory.

Jerry spent many years restoring the car with the intent to present it as a gift to his father. He took the body back to bare metal, stripped any rust he could find, repainted it to its factory correct color, redid a correct interior, replaced every electrical component on the car and even kept the drum brakes while replacing the wheels with reproduction Porsche ones. But restorations aren’t as simple as they sound on paper; the paint does have a few flaws, the chrome doesn’t pop the same as it once did and the gaps aren’t perfect. But, none of that matters to Jerry or his dad. It feels exactly as it did to Matt when he first purchased it so many years ago.

After getting the car back from his son, Matt was overwhelmed with what Jerry had done to it. He took his wife out for a date and went for a ride on the coast like they did all those years ago before they were married. But when they came back, Jerry was the one who left with the keys. As overjoyed as his father was to have the Beetle back in his life, he knew it had to start a new chapter with his son’s family instead of continuing where his left off. Don’t get the wrong impression though, Matt goes over to his son’s house frequently to “borrow” the car for a day or two.

Jerry says his favorite thing about the car is sneaking away from responsibility for a few hours during the week to go for a drive with his dad to any of the local establishments for a quick bite.

His father’s favorite thing about the car is seeing it have new life in it once again.