The first love of Jonathon Elliot's life was his 1964 Volkswagen Beetl

The first love of Jonathon Elliot's life was his 1964 Volkswagen Beetle 1300 which was also his first new car. He lovingly looked after it for 10 years without any driving mishaps whatsoever. The time came however when he decided that he had to to trade it in for a new car.

Since then he had never kept any new car for more than a few years, certainly none for as long as his beloved VW Beetle for which even after 30 years, he had very fond memories. Driving, while still enjoyable, was not the pleasure it had been when driving his beloved VW. It was a classic car, Cars were just not made like that any more.

With retirement looming Jonathon experienced a growing sense of panic. His work was his life and he never had time to develop hobbies. driving to work one morning past the local scrap yard he noticed a familiar chassis. It was that of a VW Beetle probably the same vintage as his beloved first car. It looked in a terrible state he noted gloomily. "It won't be that long before I join it on the scrap heap," he thought to himself as a dark cloud of depression settled over him.

On the way back from work on an impulse he drove into the scrap yard and inspected the discarded VW. "Restoring that vehicle would be a challenge," he thought "but if I was successful I would be the proud owner of a classic car exactly like my very first car."

He bought the car, which still had wheels but not much else, from a bemused scrap dealer and arranged delivery. He had to move fast to clear his garage for use as a workshop before the agreed delivery date. He obtained a list of local skip hire companies and chose the first one that was able to deliver a skip almost immediately. .

When the day of his retirement arrived he felt an exhilarating sense of freedom surge through him. "No more soul destroying office drudgery" he thought. He had a new exciting future ahead of him as a classic car restorer.