My Uncle Dave, who previously brought us the North Platte Bronco, once again brings us cell phone pics of a cool old car, and really, who doesn’t love an old Beetle?
Last week he was at the Ace Hardware in Iowa City, and on the way back to the car, spotted this late ’50s or early ’60s (update: it’s a ’62) VW in the parking lot. Yeah, it’s not a split window or oval window, but it’s still an early one, with those chrome overriders, canvas sunroof and classic domed VW hubcaps. Good for the owner, to use his Curbside Classic for hardware store runs!
Nice old beetle the sunroof is a rare option here but there are still many of these here one of my daughters school friends father is restoring one about this age I must give him some tips on paint prep as being English he know nothing of spray putty and hes having trouble getting it straight having done a beetle resto getting the wrinkles out of all the curved panels is an art.
I am no beetle expert, but I thought that the marker lights atop the fenders put it into the early 1960s. I’m thinking 1961 or 62 because the fendertop turn signals are not amber. Now this is bothering me. Let’s hear from the beetle brigade – what year is this little cutie?
It’s a 1962, unless it’s been messed with. Last year for the Wolfsburg crest on the hood, first year for the larger taillights.
It’s a ’62. Larger taillights than ’61, still has the Wolfsburg crest on the hood.
This is a real cool old Beetle. Very much like my first car, a red ’63 sunroof. Something about these cars is just so solid and so endearing.
We had a ’61 Bug (hardtop, darker shade of blue) that we owned until 1970. It still ran well, but the body was rusting out. My dad sold it to someone who owned a golf course – apparently he wanted the engine to run a water pump. The late ’50’s – early ’60’s Bugs are my personal VW favorites…though I rented a pretty sweet Passat with the 2.0 T motor a few months ago.
This is my favorite vintage of Beetles, the “Herbie” style early 60’s bugs with the canvas roof, I blame most of my automotive obsessions on Disneys 1968 “The Love Bug”.
I can still quote it word for word.
“Hey, where’d that wheel come from?”
screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech……….
Thorndyke again…..he made a pizza out of it.
Herbie was a 1963… In The Love Bug, all the VW emblems were removed from the cars used in shooting, and you never hear the Volkswagen name at all. That changed in subsequent films.
“The little car takes first! And third!”
Herbie was a 63, the movie was from 68.
Its true, they call it a “bug” everyonce in a while, but never a Volkswagen.
There’s a New Beetle around here with “53” on the side. Makes my teeth hurt just to see it, sorry.
Best VW in the movies was in the Coen Bros. first film, Blood Simple.
Close second is the 200-year-old one Woody Allen finds in a cave in Sleeper.
Well if you live near Peoria, it’s probably me… (c:
The Canvas top is one of my favorite automotive accessories ever.
It’s neat to see such an early car still on the road. The Midwest Salt Monster was particularly demonic to Beetles of any vintage here.
(My Aunt is a proud original owner of a 68 and it’s rust free only because she moved to SoCal 3 days after making the purchase!)
My second car, bought used in 1962, was a ’57 beetle. Indestructable.
Not only is it a ’62, it’s a “Type I Deluxe Sunroof.” I’m not sure the Standard was even imported into the USA. “The strength of forty horses!” (c:
I have a ’62 sunroof and a ’63 sedan out in the machine shed. Both are completely disassembled, and my son and I will eventually finish restoring them. A family road trip along Route 66 in both cars is planned at that time.
First one I ever drove was my best friend’s black ’56. Too young to drive on the street we were off-roading in the dirt behind my house. At least he was the one to roll it over, no real damage. Good times. He has moved on, automotive-speaking. I cant let them go, hence the Karmann Ghia in my avitar, and the Thing that somehow appeared in my garage recently.
The 111 Standard was not imported officially until the 1970’s.
They are a little harder to date here as our assembly didnt keep pace with the German changes, the shape of the front guards changed about this time too but thats harder to spot and of course the luxury of an indoor gas gauge. This one is later than the one I restored it was a 60 Ozzie built with acrylic paint not enamel. These things go ok in the Bay but can only leave in a southerly direction any othe roads are not VW friendly.
Just noticed the single tailpipie is that a 1100cc mill in there?
Nope, it’s just missing one tailpipe. The earlier engines tailpipe exits farther over to one side.
While you can still get parts fairly easily even for older Beetles, there’s a huge difference in quality. When I rebuilt the engine in the ’64 I drove in Atlanta for six years, the replacement muffler was rusted out in less than three years. Learned my lesson, and our two current project cars will get German-sourced parts wherever possible.
I drove a single pipe 1100 a 54 model while at school talk about gutless though you could outdrive the lights in town horrible car I havent seen a 1100 in years.
I hated Beetles when I was growing up. They were the antithesis of what I thought a proper car should be (front-engined, water-cooled, curved windscreen etc etc). But…I don’t know what’s happened to me over the last decade and a bit, but I love them all now! The original ovals are way cool, as is the 1303S Super Beetle, which is probably my favourite – I love the curved windscreen, the deeper dashboard, the big chunky taillights, the decent Mac-Strut front suspension and resultingly better boot space. I saw one for sale recently that had air-conditioning – goodness knows what that did to the engine power! The factory convertibles are the most cool – even with the aftermarket fibreglass bonnet (boot?) like this one that’s for sale on trademe currently:
I will confess that I always loved the beetles with the fake 40 Ford nose. It was the ones with the Rolls Royce nose that I couldn’t stand.
+1. I remember several fake ’40 Ford VeeDubs and a couple of phony Rollswagens in the neighborhood when I was a kid in the late 70s and early 80s. The shape of the Bug takes the faux Ford front fascia quite well, but the phony RR grille just makes you look like a low-rent Superfly who had to send his Eldorado back to the finance company.
Supergnat, maybe?
I like that. Now just needs a good six cylinder engine…
I loved my darker blue ’67 beetle; last ones with those lovely chrome bumpers. Was lucky to get it off the “wait list” while serving in the USAF.
Hey, except for the canvas sunroof that could be mine!
(Also that one seems to have an interior and a wiring harness and drive on the road….)
These old Beetles with steelies and hubcaps reminds of what a superb job VW did replicating them on the ‘New-New’ Beetle. If it weren’t for the miserable quality rep, I’d give some thought to getting one.
I don’t know why everyone gets a chubbie for these pieces of crap. Even the Germans hated them.
My friend bought a ’67 convertible new. He had constant electrical problems with it. The VW dealer accused him of rewiring it. The paint on the hood literally disappeared and began to fester with rust blobules. The dealer repainted it.
I borrowed the car one winter to visit my girlfriend outside of Chicago. It was a gusty day on I-80 and with every gust the little turd would move laterally three feet. Talk about white-knuckle driving! Luckily I didn’t run into anything, especially a semi.
Another idiosyncrasy was the passenger-side windshield wiper. It had a penchant for shedding blades. Inconvenient, especially when raining, which naturally, was the only time it happened.
The car came from the factory painted a light yellow. Very apropos since it was a real lemon.
Out of 21,529,464 produced, I’m not surprised at least one had problems…
(c:
Yup, if you base it on the numbers the Beetle and the Model T were the most troublesome cars of all time.
Relatively few Bricklins, Studebakers, and Hillman Minx’s had problems..
I had three Beetles – 60 (first car), 63, 69 (first new car). Enjoyed all three, great fun to drive, great handling in snow in midwest, but all had problems, especially not starting in rainy/damp weather, rusty junction boxes/poor heaters, lousy generators, etc. I do remember driving the 63 in a headwind that limited speed to about 40mph. The 69’s 53hp and better suspension made it seem very modern by comparison.
However, it was the new 69 that ended my VW ownership. Lousy dealer service, myriad problems with the car from day one: bad radio, dealer scratched dash installing new one which itself was defective and had to be replaced, throwout bearing failure at 3K, rusting wheels, rusting heater junction boxes, heater control cables broke, brake problems, muffler rusted and fell off within two years, cheap Continental tires wore out quickly. In 3 years and only 20K I was done. My friend’s new 69 convertible with the auto stickshift was much worse. Ironically another friend’s 67 was a wonderful car, and I had the impression quality went down in the following years. Of course years later my friends with Rabbits and Jettas (how can all four power windows and AC fail in the same week?) had even more grievances to share…
Don’t get me started on the problems I’ve had with my ’00 New Beetle. Google “new beetle problems,” and I’ve had every one.
The so-called ‘dealer experience’ simply stinks. It took them four tries (after me telling them exactly what the problem was the first time) to repair a bad glow plug harness. 1.5 hour trip one way each time, and no loaner car so I had to beg folks to run me down (twice!) each time. I have other horror stories, but maybe I should save those for a “Liftrack Classics” article.
I drove a ’71 Type II for eight years and a ’64 Beetle for six, and the main reason I bought the New Beetle was that I needed a car I could count on to start every time. I loved the Old Beetle, but they are definitely ‘high maintenance,’ as were most cars from this era (compared to modern cars).
Kevin: Good to see a different opinion. I don’t agree or disagree with it (having zero experience with the cars). Paul has said that part of the Germans’ dislike for it stemmed from the fact that they were seen as `establishment’ cars in Germany. When The Man drives a VW, its hard to like it. The Bug-philia is a US specific phenomenon fueled by some movies and the fact that you could get these cars for cheap (used, of course) in the 60s, which suited the hippie-wannabees who never drove them enough to notice any problems, turd or not. The Yurpian counterculture icon is the 2CV, of all cars.