It’s the season of the sun right now in Tokyo. In November, the air dries out and the sun becomes a near permanent fixture. This, coupled with temperatures hovering between 10 and 20 degrees (Celsius, of course) makes outdoor activities far more pleasurable, including CC hunting. Perfect time to get the sunroof open on your classic Beetle, right?
Well sure, in theory. In practice, this one was photographed in early July, which is a horrible time of year here, though it gets even worse in August and September, when typhoon season really gets going.
Summer heat notwithstanding, someone showed up with this amazing VW Type 1, which for once did not have aftermarket A/C and a list of other predictable mods and sods done to it. I have a few older Beetles in my files by now, but this one was particularly fine and therefore got to the top of the pile.
I’m no expert on these, unlike some of you, but I did try to scrutinize the (many) online resources that discuss early Beetles. I think the 1950 date is a fairly decent guesstimate, as it doesn’t have the side vents that arrived in 1951 and the sunroof only came after 1949.
The number plate is interesting too, as it’s an extremely old one, from back in the ‘50s. This means we’re looking at one of the earliest VWs imported (perhaps new, but not necessarily) into Japan. And it looks like it’s in a near-perfect state of patina. Maybe too perfect?
Nothing out of order here, it seems. The valiant 1131cc flat-4 appears entirely in its element. With only 25hp to provide to the rear wheels though, patience must be a cardinal virtue when driving this thing. More so than with later Beetles, anyway.
I’ve been frequenting these little informal get-togethers for about three years now, so I do notice newcomers. And so do other folks. This ancient Beetle, with its khaki hue (which I’m guessing might have been “Reseda Grün L14” when it came off the production line) and seemingly perfect patina drew a bit of a crowd. It was damn near impossible to get a clean shot. But how original was this bug, really? What could a little online sleuthing about the split window Beetle bring up to satisfy my nagging curiosity?
The first item on the agenda was finding some period photos and do a bit of a compare and contrast exercise. This is the sunroof Beetle as depicted in the West-German brochure for MY 1950. A couple of things seem to be evident: the trim piece bisecting our feature car’s hood is too short – it should go all the way down to the handle. That and the bumpers are different.
But at least they’re the same kind of different on the rear end, too. These are ’52 and later bumpers, it looks like. It could be that the original ones had to be replaced sometime in this car’s first or second decade and this was the best they could do. But then, there’s the decklid handle.
Our feature car’s handle is T-shaped, which is not what 1950 Beetles had. Everything else, though, looks fine by me…
It has 16-inchers, as a pre-1952 VW should. Correct wheels and hubcaps, as far as I can tell…
Lovely (and fully operational) semaphores, of course… There are photos where those are clearly painted black, too. All quite kosher, if one may employ the term for a Volkswagen. let’s take a look inside this thing, shall we?
The curtains seems to match the drapes, all right.
How’s this for an original interior? Seventy-five years old and still going strong! I’ve seen a couple of cars from this era with 100% original fabric upholstery, and it was very similar to this. Maybe the door cards are NOS, as they’re a little too perfect.
The headliner mirrors the seats pretty faithfully, in my opinion. That iconic split window is just as awesome from the inside as from the outside. But let’s get back to the front seat, as there is something to be noted, I think.
Sunroof Beetles, by default, were Deluxe / Export models, as the chrome trim on this car’s beltline, headlights and running boards attest to. But this here is a Standard trim dash. Deluxe dashes had chrome trim as well, plus cream-coloured switchgear, a clock on the passenger side and a stylish two-spoke steering wheel.
Here’s a period photo (1949, probably) of the Deluxe / Export dash. I’m partial to the Standard model’s dash and that three-spoke zero-frill tiller, but this snazzier cabin is what our Tokyo car should have. Unless they made a special just-for-Japan edition with a Deluxe exterior, a Standard interior and a sunroof, but that sounds a tad far-fetched.
It also sounds strange to retrofit a Standard interior into a Deluxe. Or to add all the Deluxe exterior trim, plus the sunroof, but leave the interior as Standard. So we have a bit of a Käfer Konundrum on our hands.
Not that it really matters, in the grand scheme of things. This is a lovely veteran Beetle by any Standard (or Deluxe), and chock full of little details I had never picked up on before. Like that little notch in the window, which apparently only lasted a couple of years and was designed as a cheap way to help with ventilation, before proper quarterlights were added.
It’s also interesting to see this sunroof version, which I wasn’t terribly familiar with. The Fiat 500 and the Citroën 2CV kept theirs for eons, yet somehow, the Beetle looks even older with that beige toupee stuck on its dome. Speaking of which, it’s unclear to me when VW stopped making these exactly. There were metal sunroofs available in the ‘60s, and several aftermarket kits were around right until the end of the Beetle, but when did the factory fabric sunroof end? If you know, illuminate us with the rays of your stellar knowledge.
How genuine is this antique Type 1? It’s hard to say. It sure looked the part in real life, even if a few details do seem a bit out of place. After all, which 75-year-old among us hasn’t had a little surgery, cosmetic or otherwise?
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1946 Volkswagen 1100 (Type 11): The Beetle Crawls Out Of The Rubble, by PN
Cohort Classic: 1952 VW 1100 – The Most Desirable VW, by PN
CC Capsule: 1949/1961 Volkswagen 1200 – Bitza Beetle Beauty, by T87
Vintage Snapshots: Happy Early VW Owners, by PN
1963 was the last year for the fabric sunroof, it was replaced by the smaller steel sliding panel for ’64.
I have to wonder if this car was built as a Standard and upfitted with the Deluxe trim later. That would explain the later bumpers and later, shorter hood strip – a ’50 would’ve been pre-Wolfsburg crest and by the time that was deleted there was a pushbutton front hood with a grip handle fixed at two points, necessitatiing a shorter hood trim strip like the one this car has.
That is a very fine old Beetle. As to the last year for fabric sunroofs, the common date given is 1963. But that is for the DeLuxe/Export version. Apparently the very basic Standard Beetle was still available with a fabric sunroof through 1967.
Yes, there are some unexplained deviations on this car, as you’ve noted. Especially the interior; that’s a bit of a head scratcher. But VW did mix and match elements for various export markets, and it’s possible that the Japanese importer wanted the Export exterior with the Standard interior, for cost reasons perhaps. There are many such deviations in the world of the VW Beetle. But the hood trim is definitely off and not original, as there was no such thing used at the time. It looks like a later piece added from one with the Wolfsburg crest.
Actually, as I think about this some more, I think that this might well have been a Standard model that had the exterior trim pieces added later, although I’m not sure the Standard was offered with a sunroof back in 1950. But then as I said, VW easily mixed and matched features for specific export markets.
It would require having the chassis number to properly deconstruct this car’s original status.
Very nice indeed. I don’t worry one bit about how this combination of parts came about, first of all because it’s awesome and second that old VWs have had lots of time for parts substitution. My own 1963 Beetle has a lot of 1965 parts on it.
I particularly like the patina and lack of accessories, the only thing I don’t like is that plastic fuel filter. Use metal, VWs have enough engine fires as it is.
Absolutely. Bloody. Fantastic.
As a fan of Beetles, I really love the “older” ones.
I prefer the look of them pre 73, when they got the BIG silly taillights. Funny, such a similar shape over the years, but these old split windows with the tiny taillights look SO old. (and Awesome). really such a simple Vehicle that “stood the test of time”, ya know, until the 90’s, or so, when cars were getting much faster. Still fun (slow fun), but fun regardless. 🙂
Great find and a lot of research, as ever. We all learn from T87 and the comments he gains
If Volkswagen’s production was restored to the point where they could tailor their options packages differently for different markets as soon as 1950, wouldn’t they have had the ability to export right-hand drive variants, 5 years after the British government had taken control of Volkswagen, placing orders for a total of 40.000 vehicles just after the war had ended in Europe?
Evidently, this later model, supposedly stored in Britain’s National Motor Museum ( https://duckduckgo.com/?q=1950+volkswagen+export+britain&iar=images&t=h_&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fnationalmotormuseum.org.uk%2Fmedia%2Fkycpwunz%2Fvolkswagen-beetle-1953.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26quality%3D80 ), is genuinely a right-hand drive example (if it was a mirrored shot, the license plate would be reading backwards). Which questions our featured Bug being an export model destined for Japan or first shipped to a left-hand driven vehicle market elsewhere, sometime before entering Japan
Some early Beettes were converted to RHD locally (there was a small cottage industry dedicated to this) but. like most imported cars, VWs were sold in LHD form in Japan for many years.
The Wolfsburg factory first made RHD cars for export in 1953, but already in 1950, RHD Beetles were assembled in Ireland, which were the first VWs to be assembled outside of Germany. But these were for local consumption only. RHD VWs were also assembled in South Africa starting in 1951.
The 40,000 VWs built for the British armed forces were not intended to be used in the UK, but for the occupation forces in Germany (and Austria, I assume).
Thanks for the reply. I’ve just noticed that e-mail notifications of replies to my comments haven’t been received, despite having checked the appropriate box above the post comment button. Yes, I’ve been checking my Spam file. It might be my e-mail account. Some of them are known for blocking mails from certain sources.
40,000 Brit soldiers each with their own assigned-to Bug sounds more like an invasion than an occupation, considering that the former Viertes Reich was disarmed to the point where an armed uprising would no longer have been possible. Talk about overkill or simple lack of governmental auditting into how the military spends taxpayers’ money. Well, at least it raises the chances of us getting our hands on one of those rare Beetles, if any even still exist
The number was actually 10,000, not 40,000. It’s also possible that some of those were given or sold to key German agencies that really needed a car. The fact is that it took some years before private buyers could actually get their hands on a new VW as the first few years of production were almost exclusively allocated to essential users, like government agencies, doctors, businesses, etc.. The demand vastly exceeded the supply.
Regarding the paint color, I’m afraid I disagree. “Reseda Green” is a much later VW color, or rather, a color from the RAL standard color roster.
The vehicle shown here is likely painted in “Pastel Green.” As far as I know, this was the only green color available for civilian VW Type 1s at that time. The upholstery also suggests this is the color (see also here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/51colors/51splitcolor-2b.jpg).
Looks like you’ve got an excellent point! Pastel green it is.
I would assert that the outside mirror(s) are add-ons. They don’t seem to be original production.
Well yes, as outside mirrors didn’t come on cars back then.
I believe this elderly German is an immaculately attired impostor. It is like the description Mark Twain gave to Australian history – it does not read like history, but series of the most beautiful lies.
Oh, without doubt it’s an early Beetle. But its ageing is too perfect to be like that of life. A car of such antiquity gets scratches, and dents, which are entirely missing. Bits of trim get indentations: not here. The dash gets scratches from hands with rings and fingernails, but it here shines with nary a mark. Paint peels off engine bits in ways we all know but are here unseen. Rubber seals age, or look new – here, they are in neither of those states.
It is, in short, a creation, a kind of art work, and admirable at that level alone, parts of it aged curations, in others, carefully aged additions.
Does it make the thing less good? On one view, yes, because I cannot believe the tale it is trying to tell me.
But on another, it probably doesn’t matter.
One more survivor, this being a #116 sunshine rood standard .
Yes, it has a few bits and bobs changed but it’s still out there doing it’s thing .
Many years ago I owned a 1954 standard with sun roof , this is the early three fold version used through the 1955 year model .
I see a few replacement bits on the engine too, the 25HP engine wasn’t fast but it was no slug either .
THANK YOU for posting this, and happy thanksgiving to all and sundry .
-Nate