SOT: White '63 beetle Options

[watsonrx13]

After working on my parts car today, I stopped at the gas station to fill up. Anyway, while I'm pumping gas a white beetle, with 5-lug wheels pulls in. When the guy gets out, we start talking. This is a project that he's been working on for 5 years. It's a '66 with a 2.5 engine and 5-lug Porsche wheels.

Really nice guy, couldn't quite understand him completely, some kind of foreign accent, eastern European, I think. Anyway, it was nice to meet a close 'relative' out on the road...

-- Rob

[DanT]

The car is a mix and match of parts. The main body appears to be '66 due to the larger window openings, deck lid and last year of wide chrome trim on side. The knobs on the dash are from a pre '66, as '66 was the first year to use black dash knobs. The passenger grab handle is in correct black as is the hand brake. There is also a gas guage. I can't remember which year a gas guage was OE. I know that '61 still had the lever on the fire wall for the reserve tank. No gas guage. I can't remember if it was 64 or 65 the guage became OE.

A very nice car none the less. I have owned two '67s. My first was also my first car.
Actually pop out rear windows were not that rare of an option. They became extinct in '68 when VW went with the assisted ventilation system.
Most pre 68 cars with sunroofs had the pop out rear windows to aid in ventilation. It was an option on all of the pre 68 cars.