Roberto Baumgarten is a former racing driver from Brazil, who currently has a garage that restores old Volkswagens. Roberto is also part of the Froxx Classics family, so we asked him a few questions to understand more about restoring old cars.
Roberto, what is your favourite Volkswagen?
I like most of the classic Volkswagens! However, my absolute favourite is the Volkswagen SP2, which was sold exclusively in Brazil. I believe that it is the most beautiful car ever made in the history of VW, thus being my favourite among favourites.
What is the best car that you have ever restored?
The best car I ever restored was a 1959 VW Type 2 T1 Bus. I liked it because it was an extremely rare car, and it is extremely rewarding when you restore a rare car.
Why is it expensive to restore old cars?
Old cars require a lot of attention to detail to many parts, so the specialist labour required is a lot. Parts can also be very hard to find, such as for the VW T1 mentioned above. Thus, we must manufacture some parts ourselves, and even parts that aren’t replaced need to repaired. This all takes a lot of time and detail, so the price of a restoration can increase a lot.
What is the most important part of a restoration?
All the details of the entire restoration of a car are important. You need to be aware of all the areas, bodywork, painting, mechanics and electrics of the car you are restoring. None of these areas can be underestimated, but the bodywork and painting are the parts most difficult to achieve perfection in, because the structure of the car changes over time. Sometimes previous owners have modified the bodywork from original, but most of the time the bodywork suffers from rust and damage. Using modern paint helps improve the durability of the of the car, much better than factory paint from over 50 years ago!
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