MEXICO: MARTIN GUTIERREZ SANDOVAL BUILDS VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE CAR OUT OF PARTS FROM DISCARDED RECORD PLAYERS

Record ID: 225372

  • Title: MEXICO: MARTIN GUTIERREZ SANDOVAL BUILDS VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE CAR OUT OF PARTS FROM DISCARDED RECORD PLAYERS
  • Date: 24th February 1995
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV RECORD PLAYER CAR DRIVING ON STREET 0.05 2. SV INTERIOR OF CAR (3 SHOTS) 0.20 3. SLV EXT CAR STOPPING / SV PEOPLE LOOKING AT CAR (2 SHOTS) 0.37 4. CU SIGN READING "VOLKSWAGEN (VW) INDUSTRIAL MODEL, 1968 BODYSTYLE BUILD WITH TURNTABLE PARTS (SPANISH) 0.42 5. CU/SV CAR BODYWORK (7 SHOTS) 1.17 6. SV MARTIN GUTIERREZ WHO BUILT THE CAR SAYING I WAS WORKING IN THE GARRARD RECORD PLAYER FACTORY FOR 18 YEARS, IN MAINTENANCE, SO THE PIECES OF THIS CAR WERE THROWN AWAY, NO ONE WAS USING THEM SO I GOT THEM TOGETHER AND BOUGHT THEM BY THE KILO (SPANISH) 1.37 7. SV GUTIERREZ SHOWING HIS ASHTRAY CAR 1.42 8. SV GUTIERREZ SAYING HE BUILT A LITTLE CAR ASHTRAY AND DECIDED TO BUILD A BIG CAR (SPANISH) 1.59 9. SV GUTIERREZ DRIVING OFF IN CAR 2.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 11th March 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
  • City:
  • Country: Mexico LATIN AMERICA
  • Reuters ID: LVADPUG84F98GJ0I7IWGXYONQOLO
  • Story Text: Using only parts from discarded record players Mexico City resident Martin Gutierrez Sandoval has built a silver Volkswagen Beetle car.

    The former factory worker used 2,740 pieces of reject record-player parts to build the car and has earned himself a mention in the 1997 Guinness Book of Records in the "Feats of Man" section.

    "The idea came when my son crashed his Volkswagen Sedan," Gutierrez Sandoval, 70, said. "I had made a mini Volkswagen ash tray, and I decided to turn the small one into a big one." Working alone for five years and supported only by his pension of just 150 pesos (21 United States dollars) a week, he gathered together bits of rejected turntables from the Garrard record player factory where he once worked.

    Soldering them together, he created a 1968 Beetle with a body not unlike shiny chain mail armour. With an engine fitted into the trunk, the car runs smoothly, albeit a bit breezily as air rushes through the holes in the bodywork.

    On Friday, Gutierrez Sandoval won recognition from the Guinness Book of Records.

    On Monday, a local policeman was so impressed that he refused to ticket the car when it was illegally parked. "No way. It's a work of art," the policeman said.

    Gutierrez Sandoval now wants to sell the wonder car.

    Asking price, 150,000 pesos (20,000 U.S. dollars).


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