VW 1500 brochure photography, 1961

Early VW 1500 brochures had dramatic layouts that employed panoramic photography. The photography and minimal modern typography gave the brochures a clean, smart, and contemporary feel, possibly taking a lead from Volkswagen of America's famous ad campaign by Doyle Dane Bernbach. Here are a few panoramic spreads from the 1962 VW 1500 full line brochure (click to enlarge):







The VW 1500 cabriolet was included too. VW didn't officially pull the plug on it until the middle of the 1962 model year.

1961–64 VW 1500 Karmann-Ghia upholstery fabric

After years of thinking about it and months of planning and research I finally have a manufacturer starting work on a reproduction of early 1500 Ghia upholstery fabric — the woven fabric used for the front and back seat inserts and door panels from 1961–63 and the seat inserts only from 1963–64. I asked 1500 Ghia owners which colors they would most like to see reproduced and the three most requested colors were red (554), silver (564), and cerulean (559), so that's what I'm having made. 3 yards will be needed for seats and door panels and 2 yards for seats only.

Here are some samples of the original fabric (shown larger than actual size):


554 red, originally used in black and pearl white cars from 1961–64 and anthracite cars from 1963–64.


564 silver, originally used in anthracite and ruby red cars from 1961–64 and emerald green cars from 1963–64.


559 cerulean, originally used in sea blue cars from 1961–64.

(You can see these and other paint and upholstery combinations in the early VW 1500 Ghia color brochures)

It should be available by late summer or fall of this year. If all goes well the next project will be reproducing "salt and pepper" fabric for 1961–63 Type 3s.

Many thanks to Lee Hedges and Matt Pierce for sending original samples of cerulean and silver fabric, respectively.

Blaupunkt radio installation kit for VW 1500/1600 Karmann-Ghia

I found this NOS Blaupunkt installation kit a while back:





It includes a speaker, mounting hardware, knobs, escutcheon, trim plate and complete installation instructions — everything you need except the antenna and the radio itself. The trim plate in particular is a sought-after part in the Type 34 community. Brand new ones almost never come up for sale. The speaker has never been unwrapped. It's been that way for 40 years so it can wait a little longer until the Ghia's finished.

Here are the installation instructions in case they're of use to anyone (click to enlarge):






Antenna template (the full size image is actual size so download with confidence):


Noise suppression instructions for AM radios:



Noise suppression instructions for FM radios:





I have a very clean used Blaupunkt Frankfurt AM/FM/SW radio that I'll install in the Ghia using this kit. Since it's a universal kit for fitting any Blaupunkt model to a Type 34 Ghia it doesn't include any parts that are specific to certain models. Those parts were included with the radio. Unfortunately that includes the chrome outer knobs seen in a Type 1 Ghia in the photo below, which I'll need for my Frankfurt:


If anyone knows where I can find these knobs please let me know!

Warndreieck

I found this German emergency warning triangle recently.



It features a very VW 1500-like car in the instruction diagram. Everett Barnes has posted photos of a similar one made by SWF on The Samba. This one seems to be identical only without the SWF brand.

Air cleaner boot and clamp

I got this used air cleaner boot and clamp from Jack Fisher.



Jack had noticed the NOS but "incorrect" 2-pleat boot on my engine and offered this used 4-pleat boot, which is the right one for an early engine.

He also had this late quick-release clamp:



It was pretty corroded but an overnight soak in Evapo-Rust cleaned it up nicely. Evapo-Rust is great stuff for de-rusting small parts. While not "correct" for an early engine, this clamp will make things a lot easier on tune-up day. I'll just have to remember to put an early screw clamp back on whenever any 1500 Club fact checkers are in the vicinity.

Thanks Jack!

A package arrived from Belgium

Bert van der Jeught (BerT3) read my blog post about early carbs and manifolds and realized he had the early NOS intake manifold I needed, so he contacted me. Sold!



When I had to tear down my engine again after the initial rebuild due to a piston clearance problem I promised myself I'd use the opportunity to take care of something I neglected the first time around: clearing the blocked heat riser on the intake manifold. I have spent many, many hours trying to clear the carbon from my car's original manifold, and was able to clean out a lot of the 12-18 inches of solid carbon blockage (the previous owner had rigged up a manual choke that caused the engine to run way too rich for many years), but the wire cable I was using to clear it broke off inside before I was able to get to the very center. Removing the broken cable will require cutting or drilling the manifold, so it's probably best left the way it is. Everett Barnes came through with another used manifold that was also blocked, and I was about to start in on cleaning out that one when Bert contacted me. This version of the manifold was only used for about 5 months in 1962, so I didn't hesitate when the opportunity came up to buy an NOS one.



I also bought an NOS Type 34 right-side sun visor from Bert to take advantage of combined shipping. If anyone has an NOS early left side visor they would part with please let me know.

The 1500 Club at Bug-In 33

Cathy and I checked out Bug-In 33 at the California Speedway in Fontana today. After a 45 minute delay in the lineup to get in (the event organizers really need to rethink their setup) we hit the swap meet, where we saw Martin Serrano with a freshly scored set of concentric circle Type 3 beauty rings in hand. Not too much else in the way of Type 3 parts for sale, though Pedro Sainz picked up a bunch of fuel pump rebuild kits and a first-year-and-a-half-only large-diameter crankshaft pulley (which he passed along to me — thanks!). Pedro runs the same early pulley in his '64, so now we know why his lights are so bright. The 1500 Club was out in force: in addition to Pedro we saw Freddy Peeters (co-organizer of the European Bug-In, in from Belgium for the event), Gizmo Bob Walton, Jack Fisher (thanks for the air cleaner parts!), Russell Canales, Everett Barnes, Corey Bloom, and new member Oscar Guevara. We also got to meet Chemo Ordaz and Adriel Rowley. Then it was off to the grandstand to watch the drags. I've gotta say that the sound of drag racing does add a lot to the VW show and swap experience. Much better than the lousy fake surf music they usually have at the VW Classic.

Here are some of the stock Type 3s that attended:











Chemo's son decided he was ready to take the wheel.


I've got to get over to the European Bug-In in Chimay at some point. All this and real beer too.