VW 1500 factory maintenance training slides

Last year Eric Colla was lucky enough to find a set of original factory training slides that cover basic maintenance of the VW 1500, and we put together a digital version of the slide show to share with the Type 3 community. The slides and caption text have been scanned and Everett Barnes created a page on The Samba where they can be viewed as individual images or downloaded as low-res or high-res pdfs. Here are a few of the slides:










From the photos and the information provided it appears that it was produced in late 1962 at the beginning of the 1963 model year. It's a great reference for how the early engines were originally set up, though since many parts have been painted gray for clarity it's not definitive. Even though I've read through all the early VW service literature many times I still learned a couple of new things from going through these slides and captions.

View or download the slide show here.

Many thanks to Eric and Everett for making this happen.

VW 1500 letterpress cut

I got a package in the mail from my friend Steve and opened it to find this old letterpress photo cut of an early VW 1500. Steve knows me pretty well.




Letterpress printing was on its way out in the 1960s, replaced by offset printing for most commercial jobs by the end of the decade, so it's a little unusual to find a cut of a '60s car. This one was probably used in a newspaper advertisement. It's an early '62 or '63 model and "VW 1500 1964" is handwritten on the back of the block.



I know of someone who has a letterpress so I might have to print up some cards. For the time being it can keep company with a old cut of a Bernd Reuters split window that I found years ago.

Thanks Steve!

No tourist delivery notchback for you

I found this VW dealer postcard while browsing an online Porsche forum. Postmarked December 10, 1964, it's a Spokane, Washington dealer's response to someone who inquired about arranging European tourist delivery of a VW 1500 notchback. The dealer regretfully advises the customer that the only 1500 that dealers could arrange tourist delivery for was the "Station wagen" and that delivery of a notchback would likely be very expensive if they were to try to arrange it on their own.




This is interesting. On one hand it's an example of the lengths someone in the U.S. would have to go to in order to buy a new notchback. Why would VW promote tourist delivery of the Squareback but not the notch? Was it some kind of "viral" strategy to stimulate public interest in the Squareback in the year before its official U.S. introduction? At the same time, American dealers who were unwilling to risk damaging their relationship with Volkswagen of America had to turn away business, while they were undoubtedly aware of other less scrupulous dealers who were dabbling in the gray market and making a nice profit. All they could hope for was the possibility of a service relationship on the tourist's return. It was a lose/lose proposition for dealers and customers until the following year, when suddenly they could have as many Type 3s as they wanted. Yet still no notchbacks.

The Gelb Aktion in action

Last year I wrote a short post about a rare 1961 brochure published for VW dealers that explained the many components of the Volkswagen + VW 1500 advertising campaign, titled Wir werben für den VW 1500 (We advertise the VW 1500). It's a fascinating look from a dealer's point of view at the many tools that were available for publicizing the new 1500: posters in many sizes and formats, banners, freestanding signs, projection slides, print advertising, postal advertising, sales brochures, and window stickers. Here are some photos showing how these campaign components were actually put into use by individual dealers, as seen in VW Informationen, VW's internal publication for dealers and distributors.






On the right side of the photo above you can see a poster for the 1961 Frankfurt international auto show, where the VW 1500 made its public debut. This dates the photo to September 1961.




This dealer raised the bar by combining campaign components with additional graphics in a futuristic space frame advertising structure.



And here the dealer's name has been spelled out on the side of the building using campaign posters. Too bad the photo isn't in color!







All in all, an effective demonstration of what today we would call "branding." The bright yellow color, sans-serif typography, and high-contrast imagery made a very bold visual statement. The complex simplicity and flexibility of the system conveyed a unified and consistent message no matter what location or medium. Modern publicity for a modern automobile.



[thanks to Johannes for sending some of the dealership photos above]

We advertise the VW 1500

Johannes Krasenbrink, owner of a few very early VW 1500s including probably the nicest low-mileage '62 1500 Ghia on earth, sent me these photos of an amazing 1961 dealer information brochure. Titled Wir werben für den VW 1500 (We advertise the VW 1500), it shows all the different components of the Volkswagen + VW 1500 advertising campaign that could be ordered by the dealers.






It includes a few of the campaign pieces I've been able to find, including an advertising stamp (21) and a postage meter ad (23).

If I was able to read the dimensions I could have some facsimile wheat paste posters made at their original size. I'd love to see the rest of this rare brochure!

VW 1500S cutaway view

This nice cutaway illustration of a 1500S appeared in the 1964 owner's manual.

Men without hats

VW used the same sales brochure to promote the 1500 Karmann-Ghia from 1961–64, updating its written content and changing and/or retouching some images to keep things up to date. It's interesting to see what they thought needed to be updated (obvious improvements like the 1500S engine, of course, but some minor details too) and what they left alone. And it wasn't just the car that got updated: sometime in 1963 the owner lost his hat. Why would VW go to the trouble and expense of removing his hat of all things?




The first few years of 1500 Ghia production coincided with the time when custom no longer required men to wear hats. An old urban legend blamed/credited President John F. Kennedy for the decline in hat wearing, but it's more likely that he just helped to popularize a trend that had already started years before.




But if you're VW and you have cars to sell, you have a decision to make. At what point are the advantages of a hat (demonstrating headroom, implying sophistication and upward mobility) outweighed by the disadvantages (possibly appearing stodgy, old fashioned, and conservative)? Maybe Kennedy did have something to do with VW's decision after all -- he gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in June 1963.

VW 1500 Convertible brochure, 1961

I've been waiting to post until something blogworthy presented itself. Fortunately this brochure just arrived in the mail.






Sadly the VW 1500 Convertible — aka Cabriolet, aka Type 351 — never made it into production, but lucky for us the brochure did.

Mid-1960s Karmann brochure

There's a great large-format Karmann brochure for sale on eBay right now. It has a lot of documentary photos of the Karmann assembly line, and of course the VW 1500 Karmann-Ghia makes an appearance.







Someone should seize the opportunity to claim this rare document of Karmann's history. Thanks to Lee Hedges for the tip.

[images liberated from eBay]

Solex 32 PHN training chart

European Bug-In impresario and 1500 Club member Freddy Peeters sent a nice scan of this 32 PHN chart from the very early days of VW 1500 service training. As you can see, the drawing features the early round cutoff valve. Thanks Ffred!

1961 VW Type 3 parts book

I bought myself a Christmas present this year: a 1961 VW 1500 parts book.



I've had later copies of both the Type 3 and Type 34 parts books for years now, but they're not as useful to the owner of an early car, since when early parts were discontinued or superseded they were often deleted from the later books entirely. This is a 1961 book with supplements through 1963, so there's a lot of information in it that's missing from the later books. The supplements are useful in determining roughly when certain design changes were made during early production, although they were only dated up through Supplement 6 (May 1962). (Bob Walton has posted downloadable pdfs of the early supplements in the technical section of the 1500 Club website, and has provided estimates of the dates of Supplements 7 though 15 based on the idea that they were likely released one to two months after the changes in production occurred.) These supplements are a great resource to anyone researching the early VW 1500s.



For example, beginning with Supplement 10 (early '63) the parts book lists all the parts specific to the Type 341 1500 Ghia Cabriolet, of which it's said only 10–20 examples were built before the model was dropped. This underscores what a last minute decision dropping the 341 must have been. In addition, some pages in Supplements 9–11 refer to models 351 and 352, the left- and right-hand-drive VW 1500 Cabriolet. While it's clear that the 341 Ghia came much closer to a real production run than the 351/352, this does suggest that a "convertible notchback" was still not completely ruled out until early in 1963.

The '61 parts book and supplements have already answered some longstanding questions I've had about when a few changes to the 1500 Ghia took place:

• The original Lemmerz wheel trim rings that were used on 1500 Ghias beginning in late 1961 (241 601 155 A, also seen on deluxe microbuses and Type 1 Cabriolets and Karmann-Ghias) were discontinued at chassis number 0 050 173, around July 1962, and replaced by the familiar thin-slotted Type 3 beauty rings on 1500 Ghias (and, according to the book, on the 341, 351, and 352!) beginning with chassis number 0 050 174. These same beauty rings (part number 341 601 155) are more popularly associated with the 1500S models of 1964 and 1965. [Go here for more information on slotted beauty rings.]

• Two-piece front and rear window trim was discontinued with Supplement 8 (around August 1962), replaced first by three and then four pieces front and back. Small strainers were also added to the water drains at the rear air engine air intake at roughly the same time.

• A revised dipstick "with sealing cap" was introduced in Supplement 11 (early 1963).

• Accessory wheel beauty rings in four styles were introduced with Supplement 3 (January 1962) and the accessory spare tire tool kit with Supplement 12 (mid-1963).



Nice illustrations too.

There are also some clues about when the early shift and heater knobs might have changed. I'm sure the more I look the more I'll find.