🅱Confused Bug
:shock: Well, I've gotten the issue of the window vents figured out. Also figured something else out as well... I don't have a '65 but a '66 Beetle! Not much differs in these two model years, save for the rear deck lid. The deck lid on the '66 only appears on that year of Beetle.

The guy who is selling me the car swore that it was a '65, but through research (and a helpful member of this club) I discovered the truth. Plus, there was one more little ol' thing... the Maintenance Schedule card from the car's original purchase!

On the card, the original dealer filled in the selling date as "November 26, 1966"... nearly exactly a month from my birthday, on the 22nd of December! I found the maintenance card stuffed in an owner's manual, oddly, for a 1967 model year VW Beetle, in the glove box, if you can believe it.:o

I love the fact that this car is a 1966 model year, as I have always wanted a Bug that model year, the year I as well came to be! Through serendipidy, I have found the car that I wanted!

Dispite being for the wrong model year, probably stuffed arbitrarily in the glove box by the guy from whom I'm buying the Beetle, the owner's manual is still an interesting piece of VW history in itself. On the inside front cover, the phone number of the original selling dealership service department is stamped with the number "swift 2-9611".

Sadly, the dealership name stamped on my original maintenance card no longer exists. It was once located in Saginaw, Michigan, across the street from a restaurant that I worked at as a kid when we first moved here to Michigan. I remember the "Auto Haus" V.W. dealer, because they had some of the best imports around, including Mercedes, beyond the VW's. I had moved back to New York after high school, and then only in the past decade moved back to the Tri-City area of Michigan, only to find that "Auto Haus" was no more. Coincidental however, is it not, that I should find this car, then?

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My first car was a '66 beetle, I loved it... 😎

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Hi,

The door handels should be different to !
Or am i wrong?? :oops:

Regards,

Grrr.

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I think the door handles are different, the 65 has square buttons and the 66 has round ones (I think). Also, I think the 66 has a middle vent on the dashboard. Early '65s had link-pin front beams, I think 65 was the changeover year for that.

I thought the rear decklids were the same for '65 and '66 though, not sure what the difference is there?

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Get hold of a copy of Laurence Merideth "Original VW Beetle".
You can check all the numbers match up for your model year.

My ,57 is a 58 spec,cause of the Wolfburg August shutdown,so all the numbers run August to August for this era of Beetle.

Is,nt it great when you,ve got paperwork.
I,m lucky coz my 57 only lived in a VW dealership for all of it,s life.
Then the guy died and his brother sold the franchise,so I,m lucky to be in spitting distance of all the histort.

Good Luck with the bug.

RALPH. 🙂