Do you know where you are traveling on vacation?

This 1963 ad for VW service features a 1500 Ghia in an exotic Mediterranean locale to underscore the idea that service for every VW is available anywhere. A very nice oversized reprint of the ad was produced by P.A.R.C. with the permission of Volkswagenwerk AG, so you can get your very own copy.

[h/t to JL]

VW 1500 introduction, Sports Illustrated magazine, September 1961

An article in the September 4, 1961 issue of Sports Illustrated about the new VW 1500. It's hard to imagine a time when a subject like this would have made sense for Sports Illustrated's readership.




The writer, Kenneth Rudeen, likes the new bigger VW quite a lot, going so far as to describe it as "an extremely desirable car." He sees the 1500's appearance as being very Italian in spirit and compares it to the contemporary designs of Pininfarina. Rudeen speculates that the 1500 may not make its way to America until perhaps 1963, by which time demand in its newly prosperous home market might be satisfied.

The Type 3s, Ghias, and Type 3 Ghias of Treffen 12

I caught a ride up to Treffen 12 in Oxnard, CA, today with Scott McWilliams in his '64 1500 Ghia. The last Treffen I went to was over ten years ago, back when it was for Karmann-Ghias only. It's now open to all aircooled VWs, but the focus is still on the Ghias. Here are some highlights of the show:





Mark Merrill brought his unrestored 55,000 mile lowlight Ghia. A real time capsule. The original owner lived on Catalina Island and only used the car on visits to the mainland.






Another unrestored time capsule, this one a '61 originally purchased at Van Wyk in Santa Barbara. The pacific blue/blue white color combination and the blue interior are the same as my own 1500 Ghia originally came with, right down to the turquoise wool carpet.





Lisa Meier's '58 and '64 convertibles looked great.





A very nice '64 notchback.



The Type 34 lineup, from left: Chemo Ordaz, Scott McWilliams, Lee Hedges, and Tom Reay.



Scott's '64 sunroof.



Antonio Pellegrino and Luigi Segre, grandson of the Luigi Segre of Ghia, were in attendance to present the Sartorelli Segre Elegance Cup to the finest Ghia of the show. Lee, Antonio, and David Ruby of the Karmann Ghia Club of North America were the international panel of concours judges, and the three finalists were Lisa Meier's '58 convertible, Mark Merrill's unrestored '59, and Tom Reay's '65 Type 34. Lisa's convertible took top honors.




As the Treffen was ending a very red Corvair convertible pulled up, and Lee couldn't resist parking his Ghia next to it for a photo op. Separated at birth? You be the judge.



Best of all, Scott generously allowed me to drive his Ghia on the way back to LA. A very nice car on the road, and the sunroof is a definite plus. Thanks Scott! And thanks to Scott Dempster of KGPR/Airhead Parts for hosting the show.

Los Angeles has always been Type 3 friendly

While I'm waiting for my new Optima battery to arrive here's a photo Ivan Pang sent to me of a faded gulf blue '63 VW 1500 notchback parked in a garage a few houses away from where I live...in 1976.



It's good reference for the kinds of features a daily-driven VW 1500 would have had in Los Angeles back in the day: solid red rear lenses, bias-ply thin whitewalls, curb feelers, AAA sticker on the bumper, etc. The license plate's number sequence points to an original registration date of around 1965, so it may have been a gray-market car. It looks worn but all original, which is no surprise because it was only 13 years old! No telling whatever became of the car; it was long gone by the time we moved to the neighborhood 20 years later.

Ivan has lived in the area for many years and he has always tried to photograph old VWs when he sees them. He has been a part of the California vintage VW scene from its beginnings in the early 1970s and has owned lots of interesting old VWs over the years, among them a Rometsch Beeskow cabriolet. He still has a number of them, including a low-mileage '62 notchback.

Engine is back in

I got the engine back in yesterday. The reinstall was fast, smooth, and uneventful. A motorcycle jack under the engine takes most of the drama out of the process.



I finally got to install the '63 heater mufflers. I had to improvise a substitution for the insulating ring (311 255 379 B) that the VW Workshop Manual advises be installed. I found some self-adhesive silica insulating tape at McMaster that should do the job. Supposed to be good for 1800° F.




According to the Workshop Manual, without insulation here the muffler can get too hot and burn.

Close to having it back on the road. I have a few loose ends to take care of and I have to see if my 6V battery will hold a charge (unlikely) or locate a new one.

Gray e-brake boot

My best find from the VW Classic weekend was an original gray e-brake boot. It's a surprisingly hard to find item, and I've been trying to locate one for years. It's really clean and there are no holes or rips. I picked it up from a seller at OCTO for a very reasonable price. Couldn't believe my luck.

Several years ago the restorer of a '58 beetle had a short run of gray repro boots made in Belgium, and I bought one when they were available. Here it is next to the OEM original.




It's not perfect—the shape and texture are a little off and the gray color is too blue—but it's well made. It's also the style without the adjustment access slots/flaps on the sides. Some original boots have these access slots and some don't, and I don't know what applications got which boots, or when. The supply of these repro boots now seems to have dried up as well. I'll sell this one and put the proceeds back into the Ghia's restoration.

Gray e-brake boots are very much in demand and it's surprising to me that a good quality reproduction isn't currently available. Respraying black boots gray is always an option, I suppose, but I doubt the result would ever look exactly right.

In other brake news, the rear brakes are finally completely assembled, adjusted and bled. If all goes as planned the engine will go back in next weekend.

1500 Ghia visor clips

Speaking of 1500 Ghia visor clips, I'm very happy to finally have a pair of originals thanks to Larry Edson. They're not 100% perfect—both have minor cracks from use—but they're very presentable and far better than most others I've seen. It's rare for any of these clips to have survived due to an overly complicated and under-engineered design. This has lead to a cottage industry in 1500 Ghia visor clip replacements, some more successful than others. A few examples I've accumulated over the years:



I've seen a number of Ghias with these bent steel hooks. They work surprisingly well, taking advantage of the spring tension in the visor mounts to hold the visors in place, and they're simple enough to not call attention to themselves.



John Copello made these machined aluminum and powder coated clips, and it's possible that he might still make them to order. They follow the original design fairly closely but are blockier and have fewer rounded edges. They lack the flexibility that the originals have, of course, but they work. They're presentable but are clearly hand made.



Someone painstakingly cast these clips in resin and then drilled, carved and sanded them into a more rounded version of the originals' shape. They rely on a tension fit to hold the visors up, but the resin is brittle and I think they would probably break if used regularly.



These crudely fabricated aluminum clips were in my '62 when I bought it. They're not much to look at but they do the job.

A number of years ago someone in the Type 34 Registry had a quality reproduction made, but to get a set of them you had to be in the right place at the right time, and I wasn't. It's too bad a larger production run wasn't done. There are rumors of some investigation into a new high-quality repro. Hope it really happens.