We don't need no stinkin' badges...

...but we buy them anyway. Some time ago I found an ADAC enamel badge commemorating the 40th Internationale Automobil Austellung (IAA), the 1961 auto show where the VW 1500s were first shown to the public.



It's an enamel interpretation of the 1961 IAA poster. The poster looks great—I'd really like to find an original one someday—but the design was clearly hard to translate into enamel. Let's just say that it's the kind of thing that could only have been created in 1961, so in that way it's perfect.

The question now is: If I were to install it, where would it go? Normally a badge like this might be mounted on a car's radiator grille, but that obviously doesn't apply here. On other rear-engined cars like Porsches badges sometimes get mounted to the rear air intake, but the 1500 Ghia's flat rear deck doesn't really lend itself to that solution. What to do? Luckily great minds tend to think alike, so there are a few other 1500 Ghia owners who have already taken up this very same challenge.



Lee Hedges opted for the classic vintage VW badge location: low on the right side front fender between the wheel opening and the door. Looks good, and it's historically appropriate, but the downside is that it requires drilling into the fender, making the installation a fairly permanent decision.



Andy Holmes chose to mount his badge above one of the front overriders on a custom-fabbed bracket. This looks great and has the advantage of being close to the traditional location on a front grille or badge bar. But there's already a lot going on visually on the front of a 1500 Ghia, so I'm just not sure.

I'm currently leaning toward mounting it on the glove box door. I found a good strong magnet that will keep it in place. It's not permanent, it will keep the badge out of the weather, and I'll get to look at it (occasionally) while I'm driving and remind myself of where and when the 1500 Ghia had its debut.



[Photos by Lee and Andy of their cars "borrowed" from other sources.]

You can take it with you: the Blaupunkt Derby 660

In the 1950s and '60s Blaupunkt and other European auto radio manufacturers offered portable "picnic" radios that had the option of being installed in a car as a dash-mounted pullout. Unlike more recent pullout systems that were intended for theft prevention, the idea behind these older pullouts was versatility.



The Blaupunkt Derby 660 was introduced in 1965 so it's a period-appropriate accessory for a VW 1500. It's larger and more modern-looking than the previous Derbys and offers shortwave, longwave, and FM bands. I bought this one many years ago and found the under-dash mount more recently.



Nice typography on the dial still has echoes of the 1940s.




The car mount was meant to be installed under the dash. It carries the Ideal brand. Ideal was the original name of the company, and the blue dot that was used as a quality control symbol eventually evolved into the company's trademark. The name was formally changed to Blaupunkt in 1938, but apparently the Ideal brand was still used for some components.



A plastic ridge on the top of the radio case guides the radio and secures it as it slides into the mount. The following sequence shows how a protective flap on the mount automatically opens to accept the radio as it slides in. When it's pushed fully home the power, antenna, and speaker are automatically switched over to the car's components.






The radio is then locked in place. A push tab above the radio unlocks it and allows it to be removed again.



The radio also has jacks for an alternate external power source and external picnic speakers or headphones for use away from the car. They thought of just about every possible need.

In the last few months I was able to find instructions for mounting a Derby 660 in a VW 1500 or 1500S:







I originally bought this Derby with the intention of mounting it in our '65 Squareback, but I didn't locate the mount until after I sold the car. I'm not sure if it will find a home in my 1500 Ghia or not. We shall see.

VW+VW1500 gift guide

Though it's not very widely known, the small appliance manufacturer Braun offered a few auto accessories in the 1960s. Their T 510/580 portable radios, introduced in 1962, were available with an under-dash slide-in mount that allowed you to use your radio in the car and also take it with you, like the Blaupunkt Derby and similar radios from other manufacturers. What Braun offered that the others didn't was the international-style aesthetic of industrial designer Dieter Rams. Rams has a cult following among design fans and his work for Braun in the '60s is thought to be the inspiration for much of Apple's award-winning product design of the last few years. He's currently the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Design Museum in London. These radios come up for sale occasionally but the under-dash mounts would have to be among the rarest of the rare of auto accessories.



Braun also offered an automotive version of the famous Reinhold Weiss desk fan. The design was also licensed to VDO, so there are both Braun and VDO branded versions out there. One of these would be right at home in an early VW 1500.

VW+VW1500 gift guide

In addition to VDO and Gossen, Weigand also made 85mm tachs that fit in the VW 1500 dash. The 7000 rpm Weigand tach pictured in this 1969 ad is similar to one that's advertised for sale on The Samba right now.

VW+VW1500 gift guide

Kamei offered lots of practical and functional kitsch for the VW 1500 including accelerator pedal covers and parcel trays.



According to the ad, the pedal cover keeps the accelerator mechanism clean, protects the floor mat and tunnel from wear, relaxes the foot muscles and promotes good circulation. It also makes your accelerator pedal look like it's melting!

VW+VW1500 gift guide

The Petri/VDM model 355 steering wheel, aka the "coach" or "carriage" wheel, was available for the VW 1500 beginning in 1965 and was a popular upgrade. Here's an early ad:



This ad from 1969 lists a different version for Karmann-Ghias after 1967:

VW+VW1500 gift guide

A Hirschmann auto antenna to go along with your new radio.

VW+VW1500 gift guide

Jokon accessory reverse lights, including the VW 1500 version.

I seek the grail

I was lucky enough to find an original VDO 6-volt tachometer for the Type 34 Ghia. I've been trying to track one down for years. It's a very rare original accessory part—I've only seen three of them in person in 22 years of looking, and I only know of a handful of others that exist. VDO Type 3 tachs are pretty common in comparison. It needs restoration but seems to be relatively sound. It doesn't appear to have been opened for repair in the past. Cosmetically, the biggest restoration challenge will be the cracked "glass."



It has a white needle and silver knob and escutcheon. That and the fact that it's 6-volt means it was intended for a late '65 or '66 Type 34. All Type 34 VDO tachs were 6000 RPM to my knowledge. I had never noticed before when looking at others that the scale is progressive—it expands at the higher RPMs.




The bevel in the back of the housing was to allow clearance for the windshield wiper armature.




It has a May 1967 date of manufacture on the back. The terminals are marked (from left to right): +12 (blank terminal), +6, 1, and -, where +6 goes to the fuse block, 1 goes to the corresponding terminal on the coil, and - goes to ground.

A VW technical bulletin with installation instructions for the Type 3 VDO tach is available here. Conventional Type 34 wisdom says that when a tach is installed in the clock's location the clock is then supposed to replace the in-dash speaker, but these instructions offer a slightly different take on this idea:

The installation and wiring of the rev. counter on the 1500 Karmann-Ghia takes place in the same manner. On this vehicle it is also possible to fit the clock in place of the insert for the loud speaker opening if a radio is not included.
[emphasis mine]

So, at least in VW's view, with a tach installed you could have a clock or a radio but not both. In practice of course the solution is simply to relocate the speaker elsewhere.



When I have this tach restored for my car I will substitute an earlier brass center knob and escutcheon to match the other gauges. Red needle too, of course. I'll keep the original silver parts so it will be possible to revert to the '65/'66 style in the future. Interestingly, the center knob is plated plastic, unlike the early knobs which are solid polished brass. (Were all silver colored gauge knobs plastic? A late-model Type 34 owner would know.) It appears that the knob and escutcheon aren't unique to the tach, but seem to be parts that are shared with the other gauges. That will help.

More information on Type 3 and Type 34 tachometers is available here and here and here.

Unwrapping an NOS Blaupunkt Type 34 speaker

Seeing the light of day for the first time in over 40 years.









Is it just me or does it look like it's smiling? The foam seal that goes between the speaker and the grille has begun to decompose, but everything else looks o.k.

NOS Bosch accessory reverse light

I found this Bosch reverse light at the VW Classic swap meet a few years ago.






It's not specific to the VW 1500 or even to VW, but it does have an interesting connection to the Type 34 Ghia: it's the same reverse light that's mounted on the VW 1600 Karmann-Ghia TC fastback prototype, which is on display at the Karmann Museum.



[photo borrowed from type34.org]

Blaupunkt speaker jacks

A number of people have asked where they can find Blaupunkt speaker connectors recently. While Blaupunkt's own dual plugs are hard to find, the good news is that the individual connectors themselves are a standard item that is available from any electronics supply source. Known as the "banana plug" or "banana connector" (in German, bananenstecker), this standard audio jack system was designed by Richard Hirschmann in 1924. He was the founder of the Hirschmann company that has for many years been a primary producer of audio antennas for VWs and other cars.




Blaupunkt's version of the the banana connector was a closely spaced dual plug (12mm or 15/32 in. on center), as seen here on an old Blaupunkt speaker I salvaged from a junkyard Squareback.

Modern dual banana plugs are available, but they all seem to be more widely spaced than the Blaupunkt plugs. The 12mm spacing may have been Blaupunkt's proprietary version of the connector. Single banana plugs work just as well as long as their insulators are small enough in diameter to fit within the Blaupunkt jacks' 12mm spacing.




Banana plugs: you can't enjoy Suprakustik® sound without them.