I am purchasing a 1966 VW Type 113. I've had to do a lot of detective work as A) The guy who owns it and is selling it to me told me that it is a '65, 😎 The car was half-way to becoming a somewhat slap-dash version of the California Style so not all visual cues are original, C) All dash switches (original) had been removed for the car's "resoration", save for a head light switch that isn't correct for this era of Bug and, to add insult to injury, is mounted where the Emergency Flasher switch is supposed to be. In the stead of a proper wiper / washer switch, he has installed a "lovely", simple, chrome toggle switch under the dash (has he no shame?). On top of it, I need to put "idiot lights" in the instrument cluster and the fuel guage, as these are totally missing, and the guy has somehow wired the whole lighting system together with out a dimmer relay.

So, I did have to do a lot of research, both on the Internet, and by reading various repair manuals dealing with air-cooled Volkses. I haven't owned one since I lived in New York, which was over ten years ago. I, being the same age as the car, have more rust on my hinges than it does, for it has been aaages since I had to do all of this. It's coming back to me, though (I'm speaking metaphorically about rust, of course. Neither I nor the Type 113 has rust on our hinges).

My family has always teased me about my obsession with Volkswagens, Beetles in particular. My sister always has maintained that I can tell the year of a Beetle from "five miles down the road". Having done so, she says, I tend to rattle off what features I'd noticed about the car that tipped me off as to its age, whether the car is wearing its original paint, what after-market mods were made to it, what size flat four she's being pushed by and model year modifications. She's not wrong, actually, although "five miles" is really giving me the benifit of the doubt! :lol:

Pluses of this '66 (asside from having been originally sold only one month before my own birth in the same year) are as follows: It has a solid body and chassis; it has a rebuilt 1300 cc flat four; it is unique in that '66 was the only year of the 1300 cc engine; the first year that the Beetle wore any sort of chrome badge on her deck lid (which read "1300") and, as of August of 1966, was the first year that VW installed and Emergency Flasher knob to the dash cluster. Also good news is that the guy has a whole rental storage shed full (and he means "full") of spare and original VW parts... all at my disposal for finishing the car off. While I may keep the flaired rear fenders (which actually look pretty groovy dispite not being stock at all), I am going to reverse-engineer some of the mods make to this car so that it is a bit more stock. Wish I could get my hands on a stock 6V radio, or at least a decent cover plate for cheap!

I have, also, the original Maintenance Schedule card to this car. Scrawled on it is the date that the car was sold, "November 24, 1966". Since this car has (the space for) an Emergency Flasher, this tells me that it was quite new indeed when it was bought, since they only had gotten E.F. switches added to them a few months before.

You can see, I've been doing my home work. I feel like I'm back in college, high lighting my auto manuals, writing notes in the boarders of each page, and taking notes in spiral note books.

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