my63vw

When i first started looking info for my VW restoration, i searched all over the internet, and foud a lot of info, most of it from the USA, so at the begining i thougth that the cars here were the same than there, but thats not correct, let me explain why, and how it afects the restoration.

Here in Venezuela i cant say for sure when the first VW came, i think it was in the mid 50s, but in the 66 or so, they started assembling german cars here, the car was almost complete when it arrives, so they used to finish the assembly and put a litle informative data plate at the left door, thats the way to know if the car was assembled here - mine doesnt have one, cause it was buyed in Germany - they did it that way until 73, making the super beatle with round front window a one year only car, in the 74 they started to assembly here brazilian cars, if you pay atention to the details on them, you can easily diference one german car and another from brazil, cause the windows are diferent, the brazialian ones have the same size that the german cars until 64 had, some of they came with a 6 volts electric system, and a 1300 engine, this one was less expensive version. The cars were assembled here until 1982 when problems with the company ended the production, 15 or so years laters, volkswagen imported some cars from Mexico to be sold here, but they were expensive comparing to a chevrolet corsa, ford fiesta, fiat uno, etc, so only a few were sold.

When i started to look for parts here, i discovered that most of them are for brazilian cars, making a lot of them really diferent from the ones that i needed, the transmition and engine parts were the same, but here you can only found parts to assemble a 1600, my car came with a 1500, so i had to convert it, the brazilian’s cars front beam is what in the USA call a ball joint front end, mine is link pin, wasnt that hard to find parts, but they are a lot less common. Talking about electrical parts, interior and related is the same, you cant find switches, fuse boxes, etc for a pre 66 car.

Well thats a litle explanation of the diferences here, im sure there is a lot more to say, but by now this is what i learned talking to people who used to work seling parts, or in the assembling factory.

This car is a late 79 or 80, brazilian, look at the diferences, it has the same windows than my 63 (below), but late fenders, bumpers, etc.