PRETTY AS A PENNY Think you need a suitcase of cash to build a show-winning Bug? Shawn Mitchell would disagree! By DG Leadbetter • Photos by John Bunker
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e’ve all had this internal conversation before: You’re at a VW show looking at all the cool VWs and say to yourself, “Man, I’ll never have the cash to create one of these beauties.” You can do one of two things: You can either start collecting pop bottles (wow, did I just date myself?) to scrape together cash, or figure out an alternative way to achieve your goal. That’s exactly what Shawn Mitchell, a 17-year Army veteran, of Lakewood, Washington, did. In April, 2010, on his way to work, Shawn spotted a ’57 Oval sitting at the side of the road with a “For Sale” sign on it. To be sure, it was worse for wear. The front end had been hit, the floor pans were all but gone, it had the wrong deck lid, and the rear clip had been cut off. Not to mention it was
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on a ’69 pan. The real kicker was the person that owned it wanted a ton of money. After some intense wheeling and dealing, Shawn picked it up for $2,000. With the Oval in his possession, Shawn set out to turn this beat-up shell into a real looker. Not wanting to break the bank or take money from his pellet stove business and chimney sweeping service, Shawn knew he had to get creative. And creative he got! Since Shawn didn’t have the luxury of owning a body shop with a boatload of tools and fabricating equipment, he built a rotisserie for what was left of the pan. After media blasting the tunnel, installing brand new pans, and giving it a fresh coat of Raptor bedliner, it was time for an upgrade on the front end. Wanting to get the stance of the ’57 a little more aggressive, Shawn
added a 2-inch narrowed beam and 2-inch dropped spindles. To help with stopping, Shaw upgraded the stock drum brakes to a new set of EMPI disc brakes. With the pan up to snuff, it was time to work on the body. Shawn hand-built a body rotisserie to get access to all the spots that needed some TLC. Save for about 10 hours of bodywork, the engine, brake lines, and final cut and polish, Shawn did all the work on his VW by himself! This included (but was not limited to) hand-forming sheet metal repair pieces, fabricating the bumpers, and body and paint. When you’re building a Volkswagen on a budget, doing as much work as you can yourself is a must. It was now time to paint the body, fenders and doors. Shawn’s original color choice was a Dodge Charger copper color
