It is a car restoration that happened more out of circumstance than long-held desire.
Shayne Yasinski said the flashy green Volkswagen Baja Beetle he unveiled at a car show at A&W in Yorkton last Thursday is not his dream car at all.
"I never like Volkswagen bugs," he said, although he added "I liked Volkswagen kit cars and dune buggies. I just wasn't a huge fan of the bug."
But then the stars began to align for Yasinski.
He said one day he was perusing Kijiji and saw a kit for a Volkswagen dune buggy, and it was a Canora telephone number. He made the call, and bought the kit, figuring he would resell it one day.
Then friend Monty Johnstone came along.
"He had a '69 bug in his backyard," said Yasinski, adding when he started to make what he termed a "cash and pizza" deal, he found out it was a package because there was also a VW bus involved. The bus had been in an accident, but the motor was overhauled.
"So I ended up with a '69 bug sitting in my yard," said Yasinski.
One day Yasinski said he began to assess things, and between the dune buggy kit, the two old VWs, and mounds of stereo equipment and wiring he had accumulated through the years he had everything to convert and restore the bug.
That was about a year ago, and Yasinski took the plunge.
The initial plan was to keep it simple.
"My idea was to give it a quick paint job, and get it on the road," said Yasinski.
Years in Saskatchewan conditions made that impossible.
"Like every Saskatchewan vehicle it was rusted," said Yasinski. " It was a Flintstone car when I got it."
So Yasinski started to tear the '69 bug apart.
"I took this thing down to the ground," he said, noting he has a bad back and still with the help of a friend they could move what was left of the body.
Yasinski said in the end the '69 bug he started with became pretty much a memory in terms of the finished project.
"There's not a part of this thing that isn't new except the windshield," he said with a smile.
The project was helped by having the bus motor.
"I thought this is great I have everything I need," said Yasinski, "But not everything went together as easy as I would have thought."
Of course Yasinski was in uncharted territory too.
"I had never restored a car from nothing," he said. "I had fixed cars and put stereos in, but I had never done it all at once."
That at least meant Yasinski had a good shop to work in.
"I've always had a good set of tools," he said.
Yasinski said the detail is the amazing part of a complete restoration. It's not just putting in a new gas pedal, then the brake line and attaching it to the motor.
"Every single part you really take for granted, it wasn't there," he said.
Yasinski said he did have help. When he started the project he was recovering from back surgery, so Rob McQuarrie pitched in, or the project might not be done yet.
"He (Rob McQuarrie) was my grunt guy. He'd come out and I basically just pointed and he did it," said Yasinski.
Yasinski said no project comes without help, and he was quick to credit his wife Carmen.
"She did a lot of stuff too, and she was accepting," he said. "If you're wife doesn't like the idea it's not happening."
So what was the hardest part?
Yasinski thinks a moment then simply replies "the whole project, and it's not done yet."
Yasinski said a car project is one of those things that really never gets finished. There are always details that can be changed, although he said he is not likely to tinker long-term with the VW.
"I like to build it, have it, but go on to the next one," he said. " I just want to call it done."
Yasinski said doing a bug restoration might be one of the easiest.
"If you were doing it every day you could basically build a car like this in three months," he said.
The finished product may be a long way from the junker '69 bug Yasinski started with, but it remains a Volkswagen through and through.
"It's all Volkswagen, right down to Volkswagen wheels and tires," he said.
Yasinski said in finding parts he was happy for the Internet and CIP1.ca
"They're amazing," he said.
Yasinski said the online service actually has various lines, one with authentic German made parts, and other lines made in the U.S. which are lower cost.
"It wasn't important to me to have a brake line made in Germany compared to one made in the U.S.," he said.
So what makes Yasinski's bug 'special'?
Well he said he has always wanted a 'stereo car' and the bug is a rolling boom-box with 38 speakers.
And there is a touch of futurism with an iPad mounted in the dash.
"It's awesome. All my music and movies are there," he said.
The sound system is one Yasinski is proud of, cobbled together from garage sale speakers and wires.
"Sometimes I just go in the garage and sit in it and listen to music," he said.
Yasinski admitted the decibels the sound system can put out is not something his wife likes, adding "everybody says it's too loud."
The car has the 'Baja' look too, with flaring add-one fenders, and a shorter profile.
"You cut the nose off the car, and the tail," said Yasinski, adding there was a practical reason beyond the 'Baja-look'. "Doing that I got rid of a lot of rust."
Yasinski said he is not sure what he will do with the bug now.
"I want it to be more than a Sunday driver," he said, but added it won't see a highway in winter.
"They never had a good heater to begin with and this doesn't have a heater at all now," he said with a grin.
So what was it like to finally drive the finished car?
Yasinski said it was sort of a strange experience.
"What is really odd is I had never driven a VW bug in my life," he said. "It was a weird feeling getting behind the wheel."
The first drive was one of cautious optimism.
"Everything I put together is holding up. It's so far so good," recalled Yasinski. "It certainly met my expectations."
But that still leaves the question why a guy not into bugs to start with undertook the project, even if most of the pieces fell in his lap?
Yasinski said it likely goes back to his parents.
"My dad died when he was 53 and my mom six-months later," he said, adding they worked their whole lives, and didn't do many other things.
"Dad always wanted to do an Excaliber kit car, but he worked and worked and then all of a sudden cancer and heart disease and they were gone.
"I don't want to lie on my death bed and think, 'I never finished that bug."
