I was tooling down West 13th one day last summer, when this bright object in the Faith Center parking lot caught my eye. How could it not? This would make my Xbox a lot less appliance-looking.
Given the sign in the rear window, it appears to be owned by Faith Center. Hmm? The pastors car?
It’s a ’66 1300, the only year that motor was sold in the US. I still claim it was the best combination of power, gearing and fuel economy of all the Beetles. It had a much higher power peak (4200 instead of 3600/3800 rpm) than the 1200 and bigger motors, it made 50hp, but still had the low (high numerical) gearing of the 1200. It could keep up with a 1500, but got considerably better mileage (28-29 instead of 25). The odds of it still having a 1300 are not good; it seems they all got replaced by bigger mills eventually.
I know this from intimate experience, as my older brother had one for some years, and I spent a whole summer driving it while he was in Europe. It was the sportiest Beetle, and I titled it that in my CC of a ’66 1300. This looks very familiar, except for the fake flowers.
The turn signal indicators are not in their stock location at the top of the fenders; these are where they were prior to 1958, in the olval-window Beetles. After I crashed my ’63, I mounted a couple of ’57 fenders on it with these low indicator lights.
This looks to be a pretty high quality paint job. But the Faith Center is a big church; a mega church, actually. Nice wheels too.
No one did actual tie-die paint jobs on VWs back in the 60s; they just got out some cans of leftover paint and went to it. Here’s one from London Munich. Check out the van. Who can identify the car greenhouse on top, with a jalousie window?
But tie die is perpetually popular, so why not?
Why not indeed? At least it looks like they didn’t use some total rust bucket. Nice job. This would be a bit hit up here in Bellingham (Eugene Jr.) Needs a couple of Deadhead stickers, though…
I believe that the 1960s photo is from Germany with the license plates and “Damen” on the sign.
I did a GIS for “ford taunus transit hippy” 🙂 and after a bit of scrolling down I ended up in Munich:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-transport-transportation-car-vehicle-variants-volkswagen-painted-vw-86449421.html
Doh! Of course. It said “London” and I never even questioned it.
The FR prefix on left Beetle is Freiburg im Breisgau.
Groovy, man.
Groovy indeed. What looks even odder to me is the combination of the larger windows with the low mounted signal lights.
It’s well done, and it gets driven, so that’s a win right there..
How about a Hillman Imp roof on top of that van in Britain?
It’s a BMW 700 sedan roof.
Larger window body was 1965 MY until end of production in Mexico.
I had not previously read about your crash in your ’63 Beetle. I left some comments there. Thanks for sharing, and an important reminder for those who to this day don’t wear seat belts. BTW I never did either until they made it a law here in the mid 70s.
I’m not sure about that superstructure being Hillman Imp, it looks a little more curved than the Hillman. I was thinking DAF. Or possibly even Trabant? Makes sense with fiberglass also.
BMW 700.
Wow that is quite the paint job, looks well done and it had to take an incredible amount of hours.
The original white paint in the interior git me to thinking this COULD be a vinyl wrap. They can do some pretty amazing work with wraps these days and some are glossy like paint. A member of my Challenger group has his done up like the MFP patrol cars from Mad Max—the yellow with blue/red stripes. We all thought it was custom paint but it was a wrap. Had us all fooled.
Did you expect the interior to be painted in tie dye too?
I checked it: it was paint, not a wrap.
Not necessarily the full tye dye effect inside, although that would definitely be taking it to the next level. Actually, I was thinking the yellow being the lightest might have been used as the base color, would have made sense for the interior and doorjambs. But what sparked the wrap is Scout’s comment on how intricate and labor intensive this had to have been. Also, that wraps are popular for ‘rolling billboards’ like this for businesses—full color graphics are just more economically done that way. And most wraps I’ve seen are done over neutral paint jobs such as white…it won’t clash when you see the non wrapped parts.
But it’s all moot if you’ve already established that it’s paint…
Yeah there are some nice wraps and it is usually much cheaper than a quality paint job that is that intricate. However the Beelte would have to be a real PITA to do nicely.
This talk does remind of the old Beetle Boards. http://normgregory.com/Scrapbook_KZOK_BeatleBoards_110180_HALF.html
This is a blast from my past! I remember the KZOK bug. Now all we need is several episodes of “Leave it to Beaver 1980” on KISW.
I don’t feel to good Wally.
Interesting blend of themes on this bug: the tie dye paint job is theoretical hippie look, but having it actually glossy and professionally done as well as those gorgeous wheels would suggest a So-Cal type of look.
As to the period pics…looks like someone else is a Hendrix fan. I have a lot of his music, and some T-shirts, but I dunno about a car door portrait. To each his own, right?
Nicely done. The artist/painter is quite talented. I’m guessing that yellow was the base color.
The paint work is fine, fitting even, but the back dating? Apparently this is why us Oval owners can’t find front fenders any more. Ha!
I assumed they just filled the holes at the top of the fenders and mounted those older lights down low rather than change fenders. But it’s theoretically possible.
I think it’s a bit of a “thing” to have these low-mounted indicator lamps.
I’m sure you are correct, the placement is a little off. Here’s my original.
Very nicely done, I like it! It’s worthy of a diecast replica in my opinion.
My first car was a ’66 1300 Beetle Dad bought new. This was in ’72. It had a recently replaced factory VW long block, only a few thousand miles were on the engine. After totaling it in a accident similar to Paul’s, (the door didn’t pop open on my car) I bought a ’63 Beetle with a very tired 40 horse engine. It also had a earlier split case transmission with non syncro 1st gear. Brought a friend and a floor jack and tools to the impound yard, swapped the engine and interior out, no one seemed to care at the yard. So it went to the junkyard with a worn out engine and interior from the ’63. The ’66’s transaxle was destroyed due to the impact on the rear wheel, the axel was shoved into the case which was then broken. The extra low gearing of a trans designed for 36 HP really took off well from a stop, wound out a bit on the freeway. This Beetle is nicely done, I like it.
Beautiful! We had a ’66 1300, bought new in California when my dad started a new job. I was eventually allowed to take it to university, as did my younger sisters in turn. And you’re right, it got exactly 29 mpg on longer trips on I-80 to Lake Tahoe! Easy to tune up with static light and feeler gauges. Loved the valve covers you could pop off with a screwdriver.
Jack Handle, the rod with the angled end, was best for the valve cover bails.It appeared to be made to do that.
Yes, I know this is about the Beetle. But the most interesting thing about the first picture is that your XBox no longer has red wheels!
That happened like three years ago, when I got winter tires. They’re on the red wheels. I bought some junkyard steelies for the regular tires. I got a bit tired of the red.
God knows just how much I dream of having a beetle bug one day. Will ya pray with me?
Amen.