A couple of weeks ago, we looked at a VW Beetle daily driver. I mentioned then that there’s still a healthy number of old air-cooled Veedubs in front line service, so I’m going to document some of them. I’ve seen the squareback 1600 being driven by its youngish owner a number of times, and seeing it at the hardware store inspired me to shoot it. This is serious hardware.
What tells me that this VW is getting appropriate attention are the wheels. Although they look stock, the rims are wider than stock, to mount some beefier rubber. Stock VW rims are absurdly narrow, and wider rims and tires are a key step to improving handling. probably makes getting tires easier too, although I can’t imagine a world in which 165-15 tires are no longer available.
Brings back memories of the Squareback my dad had, and the car I learned to drive in.. It was a dark blue 71.
Friends of mine had a “twin” to this Squareback that I drove a few times. About the same time I bought a 74 Audi Fox. It was hard to believe the same company built both cars and at the same time! (Production overlapping for 2-3 years.)
The Squareback was an accident magnet, so after 3 medium crashes it was traded for a Plymouth Grand Fury.
What I remember about that car? The goofy….deal (?) that opened the fuel filler door. I once nearly ran the car out of gas trying to find someone/someway to open that little door.
It had that little knob inside of the cabin that you pulled on which released the spring loaded door, right? I spend many an evening riding around with my friend in his ’71 (or was it a ’72?) red Squareback.
He also has a after market exhaust. Either that is all he can find to replace a rusty stock or he actually did the upgrade.
That aftermarket exhaust is probably why it has no rear bumper, which in some states would make it illegal for use on the street.
Oregon is vague when it comes to rear bumper laws other than the fact the height is regulated and the place has no safety inspections. In the State of New York rear bumpers are required on vehicles model year 1990 and newer which I only found out after working on my 1995 Plymouth. Had to install a new bumper before it could pass safety inspection.
If I ever buy another air cooled VW, it’ll be this model. I’ve owned more than a dozen VW’s in my life (my first three cars were mid-sixties Bugs), including a ’67 Fastback and ’64 Sunroof/pushbutton Notchback-a very rare car here in the US. The Notch was a true barn find that I spotted in Hartsel, Colorado in the late eighties. It had a totally rust free body, about 98% complete, but needed every body & window seal replaced as well as an engine rebuild, brake job, etc.In the pre-internet days I had a helluva time sourcing some of those parts, and several were unobtanium. I put about 5000 miles on it (fair weather driver!) and will forever regret selling that car.
I sold it to a collector from South Carolina and hope it was fully restored as he intended. It’ll be a real thrill if I ever see it again!
My favorites are the type 34 and the type 3 fastback and a type 412 two-door fastback.
I also had a blue 71 fastback .you would not want it here today in new jersey with this cold and wind . That so called heater could not warm the car up in july . it was good in snow with the weight over the drive wheels
I lived in SE Pa. from 1976-78 and my ’67 Fastback was my daily driver. I got 30 mpg everywhere I went and it was a blast to drive. The pan was rusted-heater boxes &bellows gone- so there was NO heat. I got stuck a lot and always had a can of spray de-icer handy to keep the inside of the windows frost free in the winter. Unless I had the windows rolled down I was driving under the influence of an ether high. One Friday night I was driving home during a snow storm, hit a stretch of deep wet snow/slushy ice, and the weight and force of it tore a hole in the rusty pan under the rear seat at the battery box. The battery ended up under the car- attached only by the positive cable, and since the ground cable was torn loose, the car quit running and the rear seat was forced up/displaced from the several cubic feet of the frozen stuff that got scooped up before I could stop!
I had it towed home and spent the better part of the weekend replacing the floor section after cleaning out the mess. The battery was trashed, but with new cables and a new battery installed in a cobbed together sheetmetal floorpan section, I was good to go.
I had a superbeetle. I modified the heater with PVC pipe. I routed ALL the hot air from the “so called heaters” to the windshield. A direct pipeline from heat exchangers to windshield. I did not have any heat for myself or passengers but at least I had a defroster that worked well enough I could keep the windows rolled up.
Since I was in my teens, I’ve always wanted a Notchback, but I’d gladly sport a Squareback too. The Fastback is cool too, but the Notchback and Squareback are more my style. I would still love a nice Notchback or even a Squareback since I don’t do much driving these days. Would be nice to have one to take me to my occasional V.A. appointments up the road, or to take me to Gamestop for a new game now and then.
165Rx15 are what fits the original rims of my 59 Minx and the tyres are not obnly hard to source but expensive, I run 205/60x15s on Michelin steeliess ex Peugeot 406, easier to get and the handling is improved to near modern grip levels.
A nice contemporary review of the notchback in 1961 below…I’ve always thought this model deserved to be more successful.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/new-volkswagen-1500-will-hit-81-m-p-h/
(BTW – Paul’s recent link to the Modern Mechanix site has been an eye-opener for me. Here’s a general link to all of Tom McCahill’s car tests and articles. http://blog.modernmechanix.com/?s=mccahill )
Everyone wants the notchback.. they were officially sold in the UK in the 60s along with the squareback (Variant) the later fastback and the unusual looking type 3 Karmann Ghia. but all are very rare now especially the notch.The feature car looks like a later model.The early ones were the nicest looking with a lovely rounded nose that was later squared off to allow more luggage space up front.I once read that from about 1970 the notchback became available to special order only in the UK so seems like in the early 70s people preferred the fastback (unlike today.)
We had not one but two of these, in this exact color. I remember lying down on the rubber mat in the cargo area, hoping for some engine heat to warm me up. I also slammed my thumb in the passenger door and lost the nail.
Funny, I’ve never wanted one.
Some claim the heating in these VWs is ok if the heat exchangers are in good working order but they dont tend to get replaced.I had a Karmann Ghia that gave no heat at all but it had been imported from California where maybe the good climate rendered heating unnecessary.I got used to the cold but never the dreadful automatic choke that made the car stall all the time in the winter.
The choke was probably not to blame, if properly adjusted, as it was electric with vacuum. Carb ice was the more likely problem because the manifold heat riser was usually plugged and the air cleaner thermostatic preheat disabled.
Wonder if it’s still running EFI? When the fuel hoses start to rot, there are quite a few feet of special high pressure hose that needs to be changed. If I could find a 67 Fastback for the right price, it would be a fun project car, and the heater system, as long as it was in good condition would be OK for the mild PNW climate. A 69 (stick) to 73 if it was set up with dual carbs would be OK, and would have the advantage of IRS although I never really had a problem with the swing axles. And you don’t have to lift the trunk lid (hood) to put in gas. I put Saturn SL2 wheels on my niece’s 89 Jetta, the 195 60 15 tires can be gotten for $35.00 each and are a nice upgrade. They bolt on and clear like they were made for the car. It sits up a little higher, but I checked the speedo with one of those “your speed” radar units in town, and it’s off by less then 2 MPH. The 175 70 13 tires it had are more expensive and hard to find, and it corners nice with these cheaper and bigger tires. The wheels were in my garage from a Saturn we had years ago, and I was suprised how well they fit.
I had a ’74 Beetle-another rust free Colorado car- in the mid to late 80’s- and the heating system was fantastic! I was living in Alma (at 10,000 ft) during the winter of ’89 and that car started every time I turned the key. The battery and starter were fresh, and I kept the engine in a great state of tune. I would leave for work in the morning in a cold car- sometimes in minus 20 temps- and climb the mtn. pass from Alma to Breckenridge on the way to my job in Dillon. The cockpit would be toasty warm by the time before I had reached the top of Hoosier Pass (11,500′ ) which took less than ten minutes even in the worst conditions. A lot of folks made that drive every day to get to their jobs in Summit County so the pass was well maintained.
The trick was to have rust free heater boxes (common in Colorado) and duct-tape both ends of the bellows. Even more important was to have a new thermostat and a carefully adjusted flap assembly within the fan shroud. High mileage or poorly tuned engines suffered since the resulting vibration would cause excessive wear to the thermostat/flap assemblies and heater boxes. Obviously, the heater channels that ran through the body up to the front had to be rust free as well, and the heater ducts at floor level had to kept clean- something that was all too easily overlooked even in the warmer months.
I had to do a lot of maintenance on that car during my ownership, but I drove it for years and it was one the best cars I’ve owned.
My grandmother had on of these! I believe it was a 1973, yellow. My grandfather ended up totaling it…had he not, I wonder how long she would have kept it!
Had one between 1973-74 as a company car when I was 20-21. Even managed to get a speeding ticket in it one late night on the Altamont Pass on my 21st birthday (1974) no less. I was coasting down the grade (55 mph) and went right past a CHP Polara patrol car. Duh!
Come to think of it I got a ticket in 1973 driving through Los Angeles. Ticketed for doing 60 mph instead of 55 mph. Imagine that two speeding tickets in a VW Squareback which isn’t the fastest kid on the block.
I had just about forgotten owning a Squareback. It was a stray year between two NSU 1000 TTs, when I decided to go straight and get a conventional, mainstream vehicle. The SB was comfortable and commodious, but its performance disappointed and the reliability was poor, too. Great to sleep in, though, on an impromptu camping trip!
A Squareback flashback occurred when I bought an ’04 Forester two decades later. The proportions of the cabin, the shape of the dash and the rounded, slightly dropping corners of the windshield reminded me very much of the SB’s basic architecture.
The picture brings back a precise memory. My last car (in 1992 or so) was a ’73 SB, like this except more yellowish-orange. The last place I drove it was True Value Hardware to pick up ladders and tools and lumber to set up my newly purchased house. After those errands, I realized that I didn’t NEED to drive any more and didn’t ENJOY driving in the big city, so the car sank into the grass until it finally got towed.
Great picture – this car is definitely “EUGENE HARDWARE” and has “TRUE VALUE”. Couldn’t have posed it more perfectly. I’ve commented here before about the Squareback being one of my first big automotive crushes after seeing tons of them in San Francisco as a kid, and I’d still really love to have one. That was my sole trip west of the Mississippi and I’d never seen one in person on the East Coast.
For proof that the CC Effect is alive and well, right after I saw this posted here I ran out to get lunch and spotted the car below in the parking lot at the local train station. It was 16 degrees out at the time!
“I can’t imagine a world in which 165-15 tires are no longer available.”
There was a time when you could buy special rims for Harley motorcycles which would take a VW tire.
I traded a guy a 340 Dodge engine for a 64 Squareback in 1978. He needed the engine, I didn’t need the car. It was a fairly reliable car except I had to torque the right head every couple months or it’d lose compression and the car wouldn’t start. I drove it about a year and a half like that until the injection system quit.
Has anyone else had problems with the heads losing torque? Or was that just my car?
Fuel injection on Squareback’s came out on the 68 models in the US. VW had a problem around this time with the studs pulling out of the case or sometimes losing torque. It was really common on vans because they run so much hotter, but all models could have the problem. VW solved the problem by going to thinner studs that would expand and contract instead of pulling out of the case. You could buy “case savers” that were helicoil inserts that would use the thinner studs that would solve the problem. I believe VW also improved the alloy on the later cases, the problem was resolved around 72-73. If the intake air bellows was in poor condition on Type 3’s, this would also make them overheat. A stuck thermostat could also cause the problem.
I don’t think I had a 68 engine in the car. When I asked about parts for it they just looked them up. No one said anything about the 64 models not having fuel injection. But it could have been a 68 or newer motor.
I know that they wanted a lot more money for the parts I needed than the car was worth. I ended up trading it even for a 73 Mustang Mach l.
my superbeetle did it a couple times. the third time I junked it.
This problem wasn’t limited to just the heads; the case halves themselves, esp. at the main bearing webs, benefited from a periodic re-torquing. I don’t recall if this was part of VW’s maintenance schedules, but it was a fairly common practice with built-up motors. Having the crankset & flywheel balanced helped as well.
For what seemed to be a very simple engine design, there was a lot going on that most of us shade tree mechanics weren’t used to dealing with. The engine cooling system was quite complex. Poor maintenance or a lack of maintenance caused enormous problems for owners.
With only about 2 1/2 quarts of oil, essential for cooler running engines and any oil leak, if ignored, could quickly destroy an engine Frequent oil changes were mandatory, as well as frequent valve adjustments.
The unexpected maintenance issues are what turned me off toward my superbeetle. I had a ’71 iirc, with a big bore kit. It might’ve had cams too. I don’t remember because the mods were done by the previous owner. It would do 100mph which was better than typical according to what people told me at the time. It was a rust bucket and I considered it a pile of junk. I paid very little for it and junked it when I got tired of all the headaches.
My parents had a yellow 1972 Squareback that they picked up new in Wolfsburg and drove around to visit relatives in Denmark, then shipped home. It was a good car for them – I remember one time when we met them in Nevada, and Pop wanted to show us some of the places where he’d prospected in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. On one of the little desert paths we encountered a little stream that had eroded enough that the crossing was rather abrupt. We ended up all getting out to push, and made it across okay. But in the process the rear valance was bent – this upset Mom quite a bit as the car was normally her daily driver at home.
Now there’s a big gold mine not that far from one of Pop’s old claims. Not surprising, back then you couldn’t make a living on the low levels of gold content that are acceptable for large scale mining at today’s gold price.
a twin of the Type III I drove 35 years ago. Mine was minus the vrrrrrooom tube!