cozy even in Antarctica
If I had a dollar for every comment I’ve read over the years about the terrible/non-existent heaters in old air-cooled VWs, I’d be…a few thousand dollars richer. How odd; I managed to stay quite warm in mine, during the then-colder winters of Iowa in the “Little Ice Age” of the early ’70s.
But then I read the owner’s manual, apparently unlike all those cold former VW drivers:
There it is: crack open the vent window, for the very obvious reason that the essentially air-tight VW body will keep the warm air from being blown in by the engine’s cooling fan. It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you’re familiar with just how air-tight a VW is, it makes all the sense in the world.
It’s quite different in a water-cooled car, as the air in the car’s body (or fresh air) is circulated through the heater core, over and over. And the great majority of cars were anything but air-tight, although that’s largely irrelevant in this case.
There’s nothing intrinsically about air-cooled engines that should keep them from supplying plenty of heat to the car. Air cooled engines throw off heat just like water-cooled ones. It’s a bit simpler and probably a bit more efficient to tap the hot coolant for a heat source via a liquid-air hear exchanger (heater core) than to channel the cooling fan’s output into the body, either directly (prior to 1963) or via heat exchangers (1963-on “fresh air heat”). There’s several things that can go wrong to affect a VW’s heat output.
DougD, who sent me the scan from his ’63’s owner’s manual, also sent me this shot of two VW heat exchangers, the original (right) and an aftermarket one (left). Guess which one is going to be substantially more efficient in extracting the heat from the exhaust? Heat control cables can break, freeze, or become disconnected. The heat travels from the engine to the front via channels in the body’s sills. If they rust out, heat will of course leak out. And if any of the various ducts and/or engine tin (cooling shroud) is damaged, removed, or not connected properly, heating will be impaired negatively.
But if it’s all working, it works well. In the Vintage Review of a ’53 VW by Tom McCahill that we’ve posted here, McCahill extols the VDub’s heat during a major New England blizzard in his usual flowery prose: “The heater was giving us Palm Beach weather while all hell was cutting loose“.
And I just read another one (which I wasted 20 minutes finding again) that praised the VW’s heater.
VW did offer an optional gas-fired heater, which created an instantaneous blast of hot air. These were not uncommon in really cold locales, like parts of Canada and Scandinavia.
And yes, the center defroster outlet added in 1966 did help, augmenting the output of the original two corner outlets. The issue of the inside of the windshield frosting up from the passenger’s breath was a real one, on cold mornings, due to the proximity of the windshield to their faces.
And to placate freezing American VW drivers who didn’t read their owner’s manual, fresh air venting was also added in 1968, and then a two-speed fan to boost the heater came along in 1971 along with outlets behind the rear side windows (not all versions). Cracking the vent windows was now no longer necessary.
VW was a pioneer in having standard heating at a time when heaters in water cooled cars was either optional or not even available. The first series of prototypes in 1938 (VW38) had no heating system, and had to use catalytic windshield heaters. Folks didn’t drive as much in the winter back then, and bundled up if they did. But the final series of prototypes of 1939 (VW39) used the otherwise wasted hot air of the cooling system, and channeled it into the body. It was something of a sensation at the time, to have such a low priced car with standard heating, another way in which the VW was vastly ahead of its time.
I had no real problems with my ’62’s heat, even in the Seattle cold months.
I had a 67 VW bug. I lived in Massachusetts and froze all winter in my car. If it was snowing outside and I turned the heater on..snow would come blowing in my face through the vents. Eventually, I bought a small heater that plugged into the cigarette lighter; it helped to warm me up a bit. I LOVED my bug though, despite the heating issue.
When I rebuilt the engine in my ’64, it got new heat exchangers and flex tubes, which substantially improved the heat in Georgia winters. I never picked up on the ‘crack the vent window’ trick, and would have had even better heat if I had, I suspect.
My ’71 Campmobile had a gas heater, but I tossed it when I gutted the van, not really knowing what it was at the time (my first VW). It never had heat at all, as the plumbing was gone and I replaced the heat exchangers with j-tubes when I rebuilt the engine with a stinger exhaust. I kept an old woolen army blanket in the van for cold weather.
My dad bought new ’70 or ’71 Beetle 1200 and drove it for 2 years (did about 30,000 km ).
He claimed it had had the best heating of any cars he had traveled in (plenty of old Mercs, Citroen DS, Renault 16, Ford 12/15/20Ms on that list – all water-cooled), during rather bad winters ’66-’73.
Sills also kept quite dry by hot air coming through.
And with skinny tires and a lot of weight on driven wheels, it was unexpectedly good winter vehicle, for those deeps now conditions.
I had a 71 type 3 that had poor heating .mine did not have a heater blower only weak air that came through the floor vents
The blower that it had was for outside air that came through the vents in the dashboard
I had a ’74 412 with the gas heater. Never used it after the first time when it filled the car with smoke. The other thing about that car that was weird was powering the windshield washer via air pressure from the spare tire. Never really worked all that well, and combined with the anemic defroster was a good way to ice over your window on an especially cold new england morning
We ran narrow heater duct pipes from rear seat outlet up between seats and directed pipes to front window for more defrost. Gas heater helped but could over-heat if left on continuiously. This could lead to front tire burning from exhaust outlet. More engine rpms more heat. great car for winter roads!
Manual? I don’t need no stinkin’ manual. Words truer than one would think.
A friend of my wife asked me to help change his oil two weeks ago. Actually means me, since he can’t, but I had no empty space in the driveway that day. So he went over to his wife’s cousin farther away and changed the oil there. Then this past weekend he calls my wife and asks if I can help him add some oil? What?
He drives up, I come out, and he shows me his 5gt container of oil, an oil filter, and an air filter. I’m puzzled till he tells me he bought this combo for the next time but I can use this oil to add more. I asked did you put a whole 5gt in two weeks ago? Yes, he did. I check the oil and see it slightly over the full line. I ask for the manual. He goes silently “what” with that puzzled face some of us know. I go the manual in the glove box. He thinks and says maybe it is somewhere in the kitchen. Of course!
I check the internet for a 2015 Honda Pilot and it says 4.5gt. Why, of course! I go outside to tell him put the manual in the car where it belongs. My wife tells me later he knows absolutely zero about cars and mechanical care which is why he has asked me to change the seals on the variable cam timing system in his 2000 BMW 528i.
Why did he think he needed to add more oil when he put more than enough oil in himself the week before?
I think he’s just lonely and wants some interaction with others besides the ones he lives with, probably going a bit stir-crazy all locked down.
Maybe? I can handle the lock down with ease as I have lots to do at home and go to my office for 20 hours a week to see patients. He is Filipino, like my wife, and they are a very social group, where there are parties every weekend and Casinos to go to for some entertainment and gambling. All that has stopped, and with no hobbies or other interests, then now what.
Still the manual needs to be in the car and read it first.
“Still the manual needs to be in the car and read it first.”
I agree in concept, but reading the manual has turned into quite an undertaking in a modern car. They are not 35 pages of basic instructions anymore.
Correct. It’s 5 pages of basic instructions and 372 pages on how to operate the radio.
Ed hit the nail squarely on the head. Manuals in late model cars have pages upon pages of instructions on the infotainment system and the safety features, but make it like finding a needle in a haystack to get information simple things like fluid capacities, light bulb sizes and how to change the time on the display.
Thankfully the last few vehicles I’ve bought have offered an app or website where the manual can be pulled up downloaded as a pdf onto a smartphone, in addition to the printed manual. I can do a search for a word like “bulb” and find the information a lot faster than going to the index of the printed manual, where it’s often listed under “Lights/Servicing/Bulb Sizes…..3-23 – 3-35, 7-4 – 7-21.”
And don’t forget the 422 pages of lawyer-talk, alerts, warnings, dangers, cautions, and suchlike. And the 647 pages of information that doesn’t apply to the model you purchased, and…..
It’s no wonder some people don’t read manuals – they make the job too hard!
Well, usually one page contains the capacities of the car and it is in the back of the manual. That is how it is in my 2018 Mazda 3 where you go to the back and page through a few pages.
Manuals used to discuss all sorts of useful things like grades of oil to use in different climate conditions, how to change a belt or spark plugs or maintaining proper tire pressure. Now they contain warnings like “do not ingest engine fluids”. How times have changed.
The cut away view of the heat exchangers solves a 50 year old mystery.
After freezing our asses off in various old VW’s, one of our teen age buddies tried to fix the problem in his bug.
After patching the various rust holes in the heater boxes (with old license plates, pop-rivets and roofing tar) it was time to install the new JC Whitney heat exchangers!
The end result?
You still had to warm your hands using a Zippo cigarette lighter.
A complete waste of time and effort.
I had a new ’75 Super Beetle with the new, enlarged heat exchangers for that year. I was so happy to have a Beetle with a sunroof, that I frequently opened it at night even in the winter. I remember a time/temperature sign along Interstate 680 which read 39 degrees one night as I drove by with the sunroof wide open – and I was quite comfortable.
The heat output of my VW is rather tepid. But when I bought that car is was still a well used/abused daily driver, I’d guess it has poor quality heat exchangers.
My bigger problem is the heating system delivers fluff from mouse nests, which isn’t very fun coming out of the vent right by my face. Any VW experts have suggestions for removing mouse nests from the heater channels without taking the body off the pan? That one isn’t in the manual. 😉
A very powerful shop vac, compressed air and a contractors fish tape. Might be tough to find where they are coming in though.
I have a Citroen 2CV that also has heat exchangers on the exhaust. I had the misfortune to have a mouse nest in one (made from pieces chewed off the felt liner for the hood). About 15 km into a drive on the highway I smelled smoke, but my father always said that if you smell smoke it is from the car in front of you, so I wasn’t worried. This turns out not to be true. The mouse nest caught on fire, and it was not just smoldering, it had flames coming out of it. Fortunately the heater boxes are at the top of the engine and no near any fuel lines, so it just burned itself out. I would not recommend this as a way of removing mouse nests.
When I was at university in southern Ontario several of my friends had VWs. We appreciated the flat windshield because it meant that you could use an ice scraper on the inside. They don’t work well on concave surfaces. Scraping was generally the responsibility of the passenger.
Won’t help to take the body off the pan, as the heater channels are integral to the pan stampings. You’d have to take a cutoff wheel to open them up for cleaning, then weld closed again – Cang’s idea is probably your best bet.
It’s good you mention this, though, as I’ll make sure to clean out both my pan’s heater channels before putting the bodies back on.
Perhaps installing access doors in the channels for clean out while the body is off? Not so easy if they run through the cabin though. Mice are real pain. Made a comfy home in the heater box of my 66 Mustang. Opening the fresh air vent door one spring yielded a shower of poo and seat padding.
Colour me skeptical because in a country that experiences real winter conditions, I don’t recall many people back in the day praising the heaters in their VW’s. Oh yes, gas heaters did their job very well.
I used to get a ride to high school in the Beetle of my friend’s brother. Not so fun with its minus 25 F (-31 C).
“But then I read the owner’s manual…”. Uh-duh!
OK, I like to read. A lot. I like to read the book before I see the movie.
I also know some people don’t like reading. Same for relative automotive enthusiasm or not. Yet this is the operational manual for something expensive and increasingly complex that you use daily.
On a popular blog dedicated to my car model, there are endless questions easily answered by the manual. One poster mockingly never answers the question, but instead, helpfully provides them page number and paragraph as the answer. (Overwhelming majority of these owners recently bought new) Sort of like putting the doggie or kitty treat in a puzzle ball.
My dad weirdly used to keep his car manuals in the file cabinet where all his home appliance manuals were kept. We were out in his car one time, and some issue came up with infotainment that was really annoying.
“I can’t get that g-d thing to stop! Do you know how?”
I open the glove box…. “Where’s your manual”?
“It’s in the file cabinet at home”. Two hours of further annoyance.
Remember, heat comes from energy, no energy used, no heat produced. Example from my experience in Colorado winters is that you get heat going uphill and cruising but, coasting downhill gives you cold feet. First Bug I had was awesome in the snow, great ski car, and toasty warm heading up to ski, but 30mi of mostly downhill coasting coming home and you get squat for heat. Frozen feet, and frozen clothes, frosted windshield inside so you need an ice scraper (go ahead and open the wing vents) became a running joke.
I lived in Alma (10,000ft) during my last few months in Colorado, from Sept. to late Jan. and I worked in Frisco, about 25 miles north and over Hoosier Pass (about 12,00ft) for most of those months. It was common for the early morning temps to be well below zero in Alma. I was driving a ’74 Beetle and had a fresh battery and a well tuned engine with ALL the pieces and parts of the heating system intact and sealed as designed and zero rust. In the first few miles of climbing up the pass towards Breckenridge, the interior would go from stone cold to toasty warm. I had to keep the vent window open to avoid fogging the windshield with my breath for the first mile or so but then on it was closed tight. The reason why I had good heat was simple- a well sealed system with properly adjusted ‘bellows’ and a functioning thermostat, and keeping the revs high to keep the heater boxes hot and air pumping through the system. The entire system was well designed but poor maintenance doomed it if rust didn’t destroy it first.
Compare that to my VWs I owned in the early 70’s in western NY with completely rusted out heater channels and boxes, broken and rusted control cables, blown thermostats, gaping holes in the pan and the belief that I should never ‘over rev’ the motor. I actually added clothing before I got in the car in the worst of the winter months, and I always had a can of spray ether at hand to keep the windows defrosted. High times!
My first VW Beetle was a ’65 and I got it before the rust made it unsafe to drive but only drove it for another year before it wasted away. It had a gas heater and Man that thing was great! It could rust through from the combustion chamber however and that’s when it became lethal. And, as was mentioned up thread- the exhaust pipe had to be kept in excellent shape so as not to allow CO into the cockpit- not easy considering it was routed close to the front wheel and corroded at an exceptional rate.
Paul, how was the heat in your Corvair? With more conventional looking controls it didn’t require reading the manual to understand how to make it warm in the car.
not speaking for Paul here, but I daily drove Corvairs for about 15 years, and restored a Rampside, late Convertible, late 2 dr and late 4 dr.
The air heaters on all of them worked just fine as long as you had a stock exhaust and all the flex hoses and tin ware were intact.
There is a nifty floor outlet in the back seat support that has a door you can close if desired. One night climbing a 10,000 foot mountain pass in Colorado, I put a cold can of Chun King chow main in front of that outlet
Halfway up the grade I spun the can a half turn, and at the top it was piping hot when I opened it.
Where the system fails is if you are running headers, any air flex hoses are missing or torn, or if you have leaky pushrod seals.
Also, on long drives you may get a small amount of fine black dust coming through the defrost ducts and accumulating on the dash pad. It’s from the fan belt as it wears.
Mine was good, if perhaps not quite as good as the VW. I seem to remember one drive on an extremely cold night and the Corvair’s heater having some trouble keeping it as warm as one would have liked. But then I’m not sure if it was working up to spec, as I never maintained it.
“the air in the car’s body is circulated through the heater core, over and over”
I’m not sure I understand this one, every US car I’ve ever been in had a fresh air heater which brought outside air into the system and blew it through the heater core then into the car. I agree that US cars are far from air-tight, and also had fans to assist.
I think this is a translation problem. The car is German: “There’s nothing wrong with the car, the problem is you.” And the US buyers were American: “There’s nothing wrong with the way I’m doing it, the problem is the car.” 🙂
You had a choice of optional heaters in most US cars back then. The standard recirculating air or the more expensive fresh air heater.
I was referring to the older systems, that were just a heater core in the body somewhere and a fan. Yes, most of the newer systems did have fresh air, at least as an option. But even today, one can switch systems to Recirc, no?
I was pointing out the fundamental difference, in terms of the VW relying on hot air to be pushed in by its cooling fan.
Yeah by the 60’s a fresh air heater was what you got in your US car. Unless it had AC it was always fresh air and if you did have AC in only recirculated air in Max AC mode. In those cars that didn’t have flow through ventilation cracking a window did improve HVAC performance. My Pintos for example benefited from a cracked window to improve fan speed and thus heat output. I can definitely tell the difference in fan speed when the window is cracked in my Panthers too.
It was the Japanese cars of the 70’s that introduced the ability to select fresh or recirc independently of any of the other settings.
For more on the subject of auto heaters and their history here is a nice article: https://www.airah.org.au/Content_Files/HVACRNation/2008/July2008/HVACRNation_2008-07-F03.pdf
Heaters became standard on GM cars in 1962. I assume Ford and Chrysler also did so at the same time.
¨In 1962, hot water heaters became standard on all General
Motors cars. For several years, it was possible to buy a
car without a heater if specified at the time of ordering.
However, few cars were sold without heaters. The heater
option was cancelled in 1968 with the establishment of
the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (MVSS) that
required that all passenger cars, trucks and buses sold in
the US be equipped with windshield defrosting system,
which is an integral part of the comfort heating system.
Effective Jan. 1, 1969, testing procedures and performance
were added to the MVSS specification.
’64 Plymouth Valiant brochure still shows it as an extra cost option. At least Ford made it a delete option by then.
This is fascinating. It has been only recently that I have been reminded that these Beetles were so airtight. I started remembering the urban legend (?) that they would float.
They simply sank at a much slower rate!
From What’s Up Doc?
If only…
I remember this ad from when it came out.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vw+floating+beetle+ad&oq=vw+floating+beetle+ad&aqs=chrome..69i57.13505j0j8&client=tablet-android-alco&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#
My 1960 Southern California Chevy had air conditioning but no heater.
A friend of mine had a winter beater Chevy, full size ’69-’70. He drove his Trans Am in the summer and the chevy in the winter. He had been driving this wreck for three winters freezing his butt off because the heater fan didn’t work and replacing the fan was a pain. The chevy even had A/C. He dropped by one freezing frigid below zero day. Face with frost on it, scraping the inside of the windshield. I figured we should check this out now that I had a garage to work on vehicles. Get out the test light and flip the fan on, no power, relay for high is burnt out, OK try a lower speed to check resistor block. The fan turns on! Fan works on all lower speeds! This guy had no mechanical skills and he had never tried lower fan speeds in three years? I wouldn’t have believed that except for the fact I was there.
“He had never tried lower fan speeds in three years?”
I can believe it-
My mother in law runs the heater and fan on high until she’s too warm, then shuts the fan off. Five minutes later we’re all freezing, so WHAM, back to full fan and heat. Of course, the heater system includes a slide switch to modulate temperature, but I’ve learned it’s best not to point these things out…
I’ve encountered similar episodes while riding in other’s cars – if it’s a dual control system I usually just reach out and configure my side to my liking. If not, I try to diplomatically explain that the temperature setting knob/slider is akin to the thermostat in your home – you don’t continuously bounce it back and forth from 60 to 90 degrees – the same can be done in a modern automobile.
My ex and I had a Jeep Cherokee. It’s temperature control had a graduated blue symbol on the left side, and a graduated red symbol on the right side. My ex insisted that if I were to move the knob past the center point, it would only produce either cold or heat, but [her words] “various degrees of hot or cold”!
Just another reason why she’s “the ex”.
My father’s family did that with the HOUSE thermostat.
When Grandma (head of the household) got cold, she moved the thermostat up a few degrees. About the time the house heated-up to “almost warm”, she’d walk over and slide the lever back down to “icy”.
No one else in the household was brave enough to challenge her.
I don’t remember any US T1/T2/T3 with heater fans. I do remember Super Beetles got a windshield fan when they were introduced in ’71 but it didn’t blow hot air. The windshield fan did help keep the windshield unfogged by simply blowing air (as I recall fresh air from the trunk) over the inside of the windshield. That was even more important in ’73 when Super Beetles got curved windshields.
Of course that was a long time ago and I could be mistaken. Heat wasn’t a problem on my neighbor’s rust-free ’64 Bug, which she bought new in Germany but had shipped to the US in ’66. A few years ago her doc took her keys away so it was my job to take it out once a month. I had to drop the heat lever down even in in below-freezing weather after driving around town for more than ten minutes because it blew too much hot air.
Her car did have a six-volt Eberspächer from the factory but it didn’t work, likely due to disuse after the car arrived in the US.
My ’72 T2 bus had a standard squirrel cage blower above the engine to force heat all the way forward. The problem was that there were no channels in the body, but an “insulated” duct exposed to the elements underneath. My back seat passengers were nice and toasty, but I was cold up front in snowy conditions. The windshield was far enough away from my breath and the just above freezing air coming out of the defroster vents, that was not a problem.
Thanks for the correction. My ’71 Westfalia didn’t. Blower motors must have been standard starting with the Type 4 pancake engine in ’72.
I did install an Eberspächer in mine when I swapped a Corvair engine/Powerglide into it. It certainly heated everything up quickly and was especially needed with that fiberglass/canvas top.
“Crack the window open” also works well with the A/C during the hot summer months. It helps purge the superheated air, especially after the vehicle sits in the sun for a while. Living in the south taught me this trick.
Yes, and labeling recirculate as “MAX AC” causes people to do exactly the wrong thing in a hot car.
I was far more amused by the AMC “Desert Only” alternative. A friend of mine in high school inherited his Mom’s Sportabout, we used to contemplate if the world might freeze over if we engaged with the windows open in a non-desert environment. There may have been inebriants involved…
AMC’s “desert only” setting was where you basically set the compressor to run non-stop. In a humid environment, that could actually cause the evaporator to ice up (from all the moisture condensation), and then you would lose airflow, and by extension-cooling.
My ’66 Bus needed the curtains closed behind the front bench seats, with all heat directed into the front of the cab to stay warm, it couldn’t keep up with the large interior of the camper in the rear.
But my ’66 Beetle and ’73 Sport bug both had heaters that worked well. If you went too fast through really deep water, you could get blasted with steam and instantly fogged up glass, though. The toastiest of all my VW’s was my ’66 type 3, it also had a great fresh air ventilation system, lots of air in the summer as long as the car was moving.
Keeping the right rear pop out window open was the key for good heater flow without a doubt. I did live in SoCal when I had my air cooled cars, but often went up the mountains to the snow in winter and, except for the Bus, had plenty of heat. A can of silicone spray rolled in front of the rear heater outlet on the Fastback, it got so hot it blew the top of the cab off. Glad it wasn’t spray paint!
The can of silicone spray got so hot it blew the top of the CAN off, autocorrect is a pain sometimes.
Yup. My Bus was always just cold, period. It didn’t matter how hard you pushed the engine or how long. I always packed a blanket to cover my legs in the winter.
I wonder how much of this urban legend came from used bug buyers that didn’t get told how to correctly use the heater, didn’t pay attention or the manual was missing. But we all know only us car nerds read the manual. Living in Minnesota and only having driven water cooled engine cars I can safely say the very last thing I would think to do would be to open a window to allow airflow when it’s 20 degrees below zero.
My 60 lark was a factory heater delete car. Wasn’t too bad in southern CA but I would rather have a warmed air fan forced defroster. Worst vehicle I ever had the misfortune to live with was a ’61 VW Transporter. brutally hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It had a rebuilt motor in it and the heater boxes were not reinstalled for years. When it got a freshen up with a big bore 40 horse piston and jug kit, The bottom end was solid and not touched. I reinstalled the stock heater boxes even though it was summer. This pile had the stinky air heater that ducted the hot air from the bottom of the engine. Rear flaps open, hot air out the back. Flaps closed hot air forced forward to the poor sob driver. Problem is that even with the flaps open it restricted the airflow enough that climbing a hill at full throttle on a hot summer day was enough to overheat the engine. I’m talking oil light flickering at lower rpm and on solid at idle until it cooled off. I changed the oil that night to another brand and it seized on the same hill the next afternoon. It did recover when it cooled off but was never the same. I would rather drive a Yugo than that transporter.
Yes exhaust can be an excellent heat source giving hot air much quicker than coolant based systems. The fact that heat was almost instant was one of the things I really liked about my Honda 600.
However
#1 on a well used car the owner’s manual was often long gone.
#2 there are lots of things to go wrong on the Beetle’s system and the older it gets the more likely it was that something was wrong.
So while they might be great when new and working properly, in the real world performance was often poor.
I had a 65 VW when I was in college. One cold morning I walked out to a windshield covered in ice. Started the car and waited for what seemed like hours to get it to defrost. Finally, out of frustration, I punched the window, which of course caused it to shatter. Lesson learned; don’t punch a frozen VW window. (Don’t judge, they didn’t have a class in defrosting VW windshields at my college)
I’m a professional photographer by trade. When people come to me to ask questions about their camera, I say to them. Rule #1 – Read the bloody owners manual.
Suprise! Nobody ever does.
WOW! That information would have really helped my ’63 beetle…..if it still had floor boards instead of the cardboard I had to continuously change 😂
That first photo of the Australian-made ’63 Bug in Antarctica set me off looking at pics, and to my great amusement, not one photo or film shot shows it driving with the quarter vent cracked! Car was supplied by VW Oz gratis for the base there, and the PR was well worth it (AND it came home and won a road rally of 3,000 miles in ’64), but seems even VW didn’t tell them how to get that heater working.
Not surprising really, as it does seems unlikely that anyone’d believe the instruction, “If the weather is very cold, open the window for maximum warmth”.
I’m going to really go out on a limb here and make a truly wild ass guess that the Beetle VW shipped to Antarctica was equipped with the optional gas-fired heater. I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s just me…
Hehe!
They mention “winterizing”, including engine rebuild with special bearings, asbestos-wrapped exhaust and inlets, sump guard, oil so thin it was like kerosense and twin batteries wrapped in wool, without mention of a heater. And the drivers don’t mention heat at all, even though they all loved the little thing for sheer ability (up slopes, towing stuff, across miles of corrugated ice), all at many times the speed of their tracked, 356-engined snowmobile machines.
However, it WAS provided for the PR benefit, including, ofcourse, boasts about never freezing or needing water, etc, in the subsequent ads. Now, when the Bug returned to Oz and did PR displays here and there, a member of the Antarctic team got to have a good look underneath the front, expecting to see the many welds they’d had to do on the frame head where it had kept cracking in the severely rough conditions, but lo and behold, it was immaculate! He surmised, likely correctly, the whole bulkhead had been cut off and replaced by VWA, so it wasn’t really quite “as was” at all.
It doesn’t take away from the amazing job the car did do, but it does illustrate that when PR is involved, the truth can become an elastic thing – including, possibly, the small matter of a heater that just might have been fitted….
Concerning rodents inside vehicles:
Field mice have the amazing ability to dislocate their joints to get thru openings as small as 3/8″, or about the size of a standard wooden pencil. If there is a single hole of that size in your car, they will enter the car, especially if they can smell the slightest amount of food.
Make sure you keep all all holes tightly plugged. One of the best things to use is fine steel wool. Mice cannot chew thru it. Also make sure you use a 2% solution of bleach in water, in a pump sprayer. Spray this mixture around any hole you want to keep mice out of, spray on both sides of the hole. This will eliminate the urine trace mice leave behind to help them find their way back again.
I used to have a multi-acre storage area behind my restoration shop where we kept vintage cars, most for spare parts, some were rescued from being scrapped. With a couple of hundred old cars, we always battled rodents. The BEST way we found to keep mice from entering cars was SNAKE SKIN.
We found that placing 4 to 6 inch sections of any type of snake skins in a vehicle, would generally keep them out. We put 2 sections of skin in the underhood area, one on the front seat cushion, and one on the rear seat cushion, finishing off with a section in the trunk. Replace the skins every fall and spring. We had no problem finding snake skins, we contacted pet stores and school biology teachers. They were happy to save skins for us in exchange for a few dollars!
My first car was a 68 VW Type 113 (Type 1 Deluxe). It had almost too good heat. There was I gas heater integrated into the normal heat system. I never looked underneath to check it out but it had its own exhaust system that came out behind the left rear wheel. When you pulled the heat lever fully up it kicked in. I recall that the time to full heat was about 30 seconds from startup. If you put your lunch box behind the front seat it would cook the contents. It has always been my practice to crack a window in the winter to prevent frost inside the windows during warmups. One VW lost art is driving with your head out the side window to see where you are going.
Thanx for the snake skin tip Bill ! .
-Nate
My 66 Beetle had great heat. If you opened the floor vent in the back seat it would burn a hole in the ankle of the poor schmuck sitting back there.
My 67 Ghia had no heat or defrost or anything else. But it was a sweet ride.
I had a ‘71 Datsun 1200 where the heat couldn’t be turned OFF. Hot ride in the Lancaster summer.
Russel ;
When new and if _properly_maintained_ air cooled VW Bugs had passable heat .
Sadly during routine maintenance things got disconnected, removed, lost etc. because “oh that’s not necessary” .
I had the pleasure of riding in pop’s new 1954 Kombi and with all six of us brats and mom in there too it was okay even in the freezing new England Winters .
Mom’s new 1967 Typ III Squareback also had plenty of heat, even when moving slowly with only one person .
She complained it blew heat all the time (it didn’t, she just liked to complain) .
Ghias, I don’t know what the issue was, they never heated now vented in Summer well .
Same engine and air ducting so it must have been something in the body’s duct work .
I’ve had many angrily tell me “you’re wrong ! my VW’s perfectly maintained as new !” but whenever I look at one that “has no heat” it’s FU-BARed” .
-Nate
There was no heater fan in 1968. You may be thinking of the fresh air box that was under the hood. Yes, there was a 2 speed fan in 1971 and up, but that was only on Super Beetles, and it didn’t really blow hot air, it took outside air and acted as a vent or as a defroster. Busses received a fan in 1972.
Thanks for the correction. I’ve amended the text.