I noticed this over-the-top custom VW at the Cohort a few days ago, shot in Chicago by Joseph Dennis. But today’s post by Gerardo about the wholesale defacement of Japanese cars due to the Fast and Furious phenomena reminded me how many other fads there have been like that before, including the great VW Fever that really peaked in 70s. Just like every old Ford was once fodder for the hot rod/custom crowd, so every old or junkyard VW was cut up into something else, or adorned with an endless variety of custom parts that were being churned out by a whole industry geared just to VWs. I’m not sure if this is a “restoration” or whether this stuff is still being sold, but either way, it’s quite the period piece.
Ive seen some of those parts before, the engine cover frinstance used to hide a 3L V6 Zephyr motor which really does make a Beetle fast though the weight distribution doesnt help the handling any but yeah these things were being tuned long before F&F came about.
The Slow and Ambivalent.
Are those watanabe alloys and ill-fitting louvers over the back window? It must be my birthday.
No, they’re wannabes.
I’m trying to bring the average down, my VW has ZERO accessories.
I think it’s safe to say that the owner won’t have difficulty spotting his car in a crowded parking lot…
I love air cooled VW bugs, and have owned 3. I really hate to see one messed up like that. Two of mine were mostly stock with chrome VW wheels, and 1776 engines with dual Webers and custom exhausts. One was an all out drag racer which was not street legal. Yes it was highly modified, but it’s modifications had a purpose, and I started with a car that was in really bad shape to begin with. I now find myself wanting a completely stock 1960s bug. Unfortunately the inability of being able to put A/C in it means it would be a winter time toy only here in Phoenix, AZ.
I’ve seen factory-convertible Bugs in NZ with factory a/c, so you could be in luck! They all seem to be the Super-Bug though, with the plastic dash that better lends itself to the a/c ducting and vents.
Wow, the evaporator must take up the whole trunk on one of those!
I didn’t realize Chicago Police has kept the same livery for decades. It almost seems out of place in an era of loud police car graphics. Nice to see their commitment to the simple, but memorable design.
I wonder if it’s actually copyrighted. Boston and LA PDs also have their distinctive looks that haven’t changed over the past few decades, either. (Others too, I’m sure–this is what came to mind.)
Ah yes… when the J C Whitney catalog was the go to place for most of your VW accessory needs.
…”needs”…
Like the fake Rolls-Royce trunk lid!
And don’t forget the oil filter that used a roll of toilet paper as an element!
Ah, the “good” old days….spent endless hours combing through the JC Whitney catalogs as a kid. They satisfied the little “car junkie” in me, the same way the Allied Radio catalogs satisfied my little “inner audiophile” .
“need” is in the eye of the beholder…
I used to make lists of accessories from J. C. Whitney I wanted to buy for whatever old jalopy I was driving at the time. Not that I followed through on the purchase. Doodads to surround the driver’s seat like map lights, consoles, altimeters. I still have a ritual of stopping at a nearby parts shop to check out the latest gimcrackery when registering a car, under the guise of picking up a set of license plate fasteners. I must have five or six razor blade scrapers hanging about from these stops.
Filling out the order forms (and adding several extra addendum pages) was the best part of the whole JC Whitney catalog experience as a kid!
And yeah, I’ll admit to putting the Rolls trunk lid on one when I was enamored of Bugs 😉
(I also “designed” a car with four-foot-high fins and lots and lots of chrome ’59 Caddy bullet taillights)
Hey…I was a kid!
Sacre Bleu! It’s the one of the fabulous twin Folkes-Vagenne 1.5 Biatelles from 1949!
I believe it is No. 2 of 2.
These marvelous machines were re-bodied by Saoutchik, using many of the carrossier’s well known styling hallmarks such as plated fender appliques.
Biatelle Numereau Un is, if anything, even more artfully styled than Numereau Deux (photo attached). One would be proud to show either auto at a concours!
Lol, brilliant 😀
The Baja bug and the Manx dune buggy are also responsible for hundreds of thousands of stock bugs getting chopped up. And given the bug’s propensity to rust, the supply of decent ones is getting smaller. The price of a decent rust free bug has reached about $10,000 in my area.
Being a Pinto owner, I have also seen a few bugs fitted with the 2.0L Pinto engine. Mostly the Baja type.
As for cop cars, I prefer the old school black and white, which not only looks right, but makes them easier to spot. Many of them look like taxis, especially with the new super low profile clear light bars.
When you consider how many ex-cop cars end up as taxis, I’d think you wouldn’t want them to look like a taxi to begin with. But I suspect that even an old cop car that was maroon with a chartreuse stripe would be distinguishable as a cab.
In addition to the fake 40 Ford hood, I remember seeing one or two VW Bugs back in the day with fake 37 Ford hoods as well as a good many with fake Rolls-Royce hoods.
I saw a strange Beetle with a 40 Ford (I think) bonnet(hood) and fake grille at a classic and custom car and bike show earlier this year.There’s been some odd things done to them over the years
I needed the rear deck lid when I put the blower on my 66 bug. The blower and headers made it a screamer and very competitive for an eighth mile. Couldn’t close the engine compartment and that was just about the only givaway. It seemed everyone had headers so that was common.
Pretty much all the chrome and those whitewalls have GOT to go. Not feeling thatdecklid either. But a shaved, blacked out, slammed and souped up bug in this color with those wheels…Id take it. Im not against those window louvers either.
Don’t care, I still want a fiberglass body dune buggy fourty years after they were popular.
Yeah yeah yeah, cry me a river, I love those or a Baja bug kit done right. I guess you could call them the ricers of their generation but would rather put the badly customized vans of the era in that category instead
Lose the decklid and louvers and it would be a lot more tasteful. Does look nice in that blue. I have never seen those oversize fender trims before.
Wow , what a FUGLY car ! .
Poor little thing .
In the early 1970’s J.C. Whitless catalog had these weird rear fenders that were skirted , from Brazil .
They never caught on , as I like fender skirts on Split Window Beetles I was considering a pair just for grins & giggles .
They also sold a device you’d attach to the generator pulley so you could wrap a rope around it and yank to start the engine when the battery went dead .
We used to have a few of those ‘ 1940 Ford ‘ hoods kicking ’round the Shop , I wonder what ever happened to them ~ the grille piece was made of thick pot metal so it weighed a lot .
My Son also wanted a Myers Manx and found one in some local back yard , original yellow gel coat is still on it , he put my Mexican 1600 Twin Port engine in it slapped a turbo charger on and beats the stuffing out of V-8 Mustangs and Camaros at the Irwindale drag strip .
VW’s are fun cars to me , I loved them for many decades .
-Nate
As my Dad used to say, that thing looks like someone drove it through a Western Auto Store!
That’s very funny ~
In the late 1970’s I was in Alhambra and decided to stop by the Western Auto Store on Valley Blvd. , as I was parking my truck I noticed the front window was completely full of bicycles and appliances ~ before I could open the door , a smarmy jerk in a $35 suit stepped out and rudely asked me what I wanted ~ I told him and he shook his head , blocked the door and said ‘ we have nothing you’d want in here ‘ , refused to allow me to enter the store .
Needs less to say , I never went back and they went bankrupt shortly after .
Same old same old , stupid jerks take over a successful chain , change it and run it out of business .
-Nate
I guess this was the precursor to all the “Cali” custom bugs in the 80’s with pastel paint jobs, billet or painted Fuchs wheels, weird spoilers, and assorted sundry customizations?