Junkyard Gem: 1970 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible

The primary new Volkswagen Beetles went on sale in the United States in 1949, cable-operated brakes and all, and Individuals may purchase brand-new air-cooled Beetles right here till the very last 1979 convertibles drove off the showroom flooring. Volkswagen of America’s best period for Beetle sales was 1968-1970, with properly over 350,000 items bought annually, and at the moment’s Junkyard Gem is a once-cheerful Type 1 Convertible from the time of that VW high-water mark, present in a Nevada self-service car graveyard final fall.

At first look, I assumed this was a Sawzall roadster, with its roof sliced off utilizing a reciprocating noticed and/or chopping torch in some again yard. In reality, it’s one of many 11,432 real factory-built 1970 Beetle convertibles bought in the US.

These automobiles are a lot in demand by lovers, and good ones can fetch real money. This one, nevertheless, spent many years sitting outside within the Nevada excessive desert with no high, and it might want a firehose of money sprayed onto it to even method good.

The inside has a captivating assortment of animal feces, at the least within the areas the place the flooring weren’t fully dissolved by rust.

The physique itself isn’t so rusty, however air-cooled Volkswagens get nasty floorpan rust even in dry areas.

The unique Bendix Sapphire XI radio remains to be within the sprint. 1970 was a great year for pop music that sounded pretty good on a single-speaker AM radio.

These aftermarket slotted magazine wheels had been the recent Beetle ticket within the Seventies. Word the fully decayed rubber.

The engine within the 1970 Beetle was an air-cooled boxer-four displacing just below 1.6 liters and generating 65 horsepower. The horrible “Automatic Stick Shift” transmission was not out there within the U.S.-market Beetle for 1970, so the one transmission you may get to your VW convertible that 12 months was a good old four-on-the-floor manual.

This will likely or is probably not this automotive’s authentic engine (air-cooled VW engines are likely to get swapped as ceaselessly as some individuals change their socks), however all these years sitting outside with no carburetor have seized it good and stable. When one among these engines can nonetheless be turned by hand within the junkyard, it tends to get bought instantly.

Sharp-eyed readers could have seen that this automotive has a generator as an alternative of the newfangled (and much simpler) alternator that the majority producers started utilizing practically a decade earlier. At the least VW was utilizing 12-volt electrical techniques by 1970, as a result of 6-volt automotive life is depressing.

We’ll by no means know if this automotive had 75,596 miles or 375,596 miles on the finish.

The MSRP for this automotive was $2,249, or about $17,800 in 2023 {dollars} (the common Beetle sedan was a mere $1,839, or $14,555 after inflation). You’d assume there’d be no method for anybody else to promote a less expensive convertible, however Fiat was promoting new 850 Spiders for $2,168 in 1970 ($17,159 now). Individuals may additionally purchase a shiny new MG Midget or its Austin Sprite twin for 30 bucks (237 bucks at the moment) greater than a Beetle Convertible that 12 months.

As I often do, I introduced an previous movie digital camera with me on this junkyard expedition (on this case, a 1950s Pho-Tak Foldex 30) and snapped a photograph of this automotive with the Sierras within the background.

Come benefit from the open highway.

How lengthy will that 1600 engine final?