This old bug has an interesting and amusing history. The paint and much of the car are original. Mike, the owner, drives it almost every day. His father in law purchased this VW in 1960 and drove it for many years. It was a familiar sight around the little town of Napa, California. At one time it was often used in the pursuit of truant students. They learned to avoid the little red bug and a ride back to school. The little convertible was finally retired to a barn where it sat for about 15 or 20 years. The front license plate is the original rear black plate, while a current license plate is mounted on the rear. Hopefully, the highway patrol won’t notice! The dent in the hood is the result of a mishap on a cross-country trip behind a motorhome.
Mike’s father in law finally agreed to sell it to him if he would agree to keep it in the family. The top, interior, and rear floor pan were replaced to make it driveable, but the rest is original. You might notice a gas gauge to the right of the steering wheel. It was installed by the dealer. The upholstery is new, but the rest of the interior is original.
The 36 HP engine still runs well. It’s had regular maintenance and repair as necessary.
There’s the custom license plate from the 1970s. That’s a really nice “2o foot” paint job, especially after almost 60 years. Mike has been quite successful in his career, but he usually chooses to drive his little convertible and he’s really proud to be the current caretaker. He recently retired as the Sacramento Regional Transit General Manager and CEO, overseeing a fleet of over 200 buses and now happily oversees just one little red convertible.
Great story, very nice car. Enjoy it for many more years Mike.
I would be sorely tempted to mothball the 36hp and run a much later 1600, but either way this is almost enough to make me forget all the times I’ve been stranded by VWs.
Someone somewhere is going to apply to be adopted into that family to get a crack at this beauty. Great car!
Very cool car and a great ownership story. The front plate can’t be the original rear plate as they didn’t come out until 1963. Would be even cooler if had the yellow plate as well but I’d be thrilled if I had an original car that my family bought when new.
Technically you are right but those yellow plates were required to be turned in for the black plate in 1963, so it is original from that date forward, which was all that was possible and it is an early black plate.
I have never considered having a VW, and yet this car some how touches me. Perhaps it reminds me of when I skipped school. Many good years ahead for both car and driver.
I would highly encourage you to get a Bug, Mike. I’ve got a fleet of vehicles, but ever since the Bug arrived, it gets more use than the others sum total. It is incredibly fun to interact with people, even those who could care less about cars, because virtually everyone has a wide-eyed grin when they see an old Beetle. Fuel stops are media relations events. Seriously. Last summer my wife and I were in a toney section of town, and I had heart palpitations seeing a Black Lamborghini Countach behind us. Out of a restaurant runs a photographer with an impressive telephoto lens, presumably to snap a pic of the Lambo, right! Nope, he had us pose for his photo. Man, I love our ’67 Beetle!
I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone who hasn’t owned a VW.
As for me, I bought 2 1968 Beetles when I left the service in 1967. A red one for me and a blue one for my wife…$1800 each. Later traded for a 1971 VW wagon.
All were very economical and fun to drive.
I recall adjusting the points on many VW Drivers with a matchbook cover!
.016 or close enough to it!
Great fun and easy to work on.
Nice Bug! I had a ’57 when I was stationed in Germany, which had an unusual feature. Below the dash was a rod connected to a cup that was inside the gas tank, which is under the hood. If you were about to run out of gas, you could rotate the rod, which would dump the cup inside the tank. Rotate it back to get it filled automatically the next time you stop for gas. It had no external filler door either. You had to open the hood to fill the gas tank.
I could be mistaken, but I don’t believe that there was a cup of fuel that could be inverted to add more fuel.
Rather there was a petcock lever that accessed one of two feed tubes in the bottom of the tank. The “main” tank feed tube drew fuel from an inch or so above the bottom of the tank and the “reserve” fuel tube was lower and drew from the absolute bottom of the tank.
So you returned the lever to “main” when refilling, and then drove until the engine sputtered from fuel starvation, at which time you would rotate the lever to the “reserve” position which would allow the engine to draw fuel from the bottom of the tank giving you approximately an extra half gallon of fuel to get you to the next fuel stop. These main/reserve fuel petcock’s were very common on many European cars of the period before fuel gauges were used as standard equipment. They worked great unless you forgot to return the lever to the main tank position when refueling. Want to know how I learned this? I learned this the hard way in a Cessna Skymaster airplane at 9,000 feet above sea level!
We had a 57 or 58 when I was a kid that was my dad’s commuter. I remember the gas lever the way you described, but I was almost positive there was a small, vertical gas gauge on the left end of the dashboard. Faulty memory or possibly an option? When my dad was finally tired of getting passed all the time, he gave it to me to sell (I was too young to drive), and told me to ask for $50 and take $30! He then special ordered a family grocery getter: a 1970 Fairlane 500 station wagon with a Cleveland 351! That’s the car I learned to drive and have had muscle car fever ever since! Seeing this car brought back great memories!! Thanks Mike!
You are lucky. John Denver was allegedly hunting for the Reserve Fuel lever in his new light plane….missed it….crashed into Monterey Bay.
When flying, you can never have too much air or gas.
Or perhaps a good preflight checklist?
You are correct. I had been told at the time by the previous owner that it was a cup inside the tank. A little research today took me to this website with an explanation: https://tankonempty.com/viewstory/1956-vw-beetle,233
Any beetle any year, any style is good enough for me…
The rear plate is from the ’80s. It has much smaller digits than the ’70s plates.
Thanks for posting a great story. Having owned a number of VWs in my misspent youth, I always wanted to have a Karmann convertible.
I wonder if the current owner has converted it from 6V to 12V…….
VWs had the reserve gas peacock until 1961 I believed, 1962 bugs and beyond had gas gauges. My first car was a 1959 Karman Ghia, and being an ‘upscale’ car, it had both the reserve petcock AND a gas gauge.
That dealer-installed fuel gauge is a great improvement over the “gauge” I had for my Karmann Ghia (forgot the year; I had a whole bunch of Bugs and a few Ghias in my early driving years) and 1960 Bug. Open the trunk, remove fuel tank cap and use the official fuel level stick to measure the remaining gas!
Great story on this little red Bug. Enjoy your retirement with it, Mike!
Is this little Red Beauty for salr or not ???
PeterK…it still has a 6 volt generator.
Are the loovers on the Hood original ???
The convertibles had the louvers in the deck lid since they didn’t have them below the rear window.
I doubt this is original paint. The first reason is that I’ve never seen a red VW that didn’t fade. And the second reason is that there’s overspray on the deck lid seal. Beautiful VW, though.