Sean’s 1965 Volkswagen Type 3
We met Sean near his home in Greenwood Heights in Brooklyn. It was a beautiful day in late October and we decided to go for a drive in the neighborhood. The amount of smiles we got from people in the streets - priceless. Good times in BK!
WONYC: Great to meet you Sean. Please tell us what do you drive?
Sean: This car is a 1965 Volkswagen Type 3. At the time this model was introduced, in 1961, Volkswagen had only two platforms: the Beetle and Karmann Ghia (the Type 1) and the Microbus (the Type 2). Volkswagen wanted to make a larger car as an upgrade path for Beetle owners so they did not have to leave the brand when they outgrew a Beetle. So the Type 3 was born. It initially came in two body styles - the main body style looked like a regular 3-box sedan and was simply called the Volkswagen 1500 (note that the Beetle engine at the time was still 1200cc). The body style of my car, then, was called the Variant, as it was a variant of the original 1500 body style. At the time there were two trim options, the N or the S. The S was the high-spec version with extra chrome trim. The S also had a twin-carburetor 1500cc engine with domed pistons for high compression which gave it about a 10 horsepower advantage over the N model. So you could say this car is a 1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S.
WONYC: What is the story of this car?
Sean: A lot of the story of this car is sadly lost to time. I have reached out to relatives of known previous owners but got no response. The Type 3 was not sold officially by the VW dealer network in the USA until 1966, so this would be some kind of grey market car. Back then you could order a non-US model through a VW dealer if you wanted. It was also not uncommon for servicemen stationed in Germany to buy cars there and then ship them home when they rotated back to the US. Another option was tourist delivery where you could order the car through a US dealer to be picked up at a dealer in Europe. Then you could use your new car to take a road trip around Europe. At the end of your trip, you would simply drop the car off at the port and VW would ship it to the USA for you. So I don’t know how this car came to be in the US. But according to VW records it was built in September of 1964 for the 1965 model year and was originally delivered in Germany. It has the German-spec parking lights on the front fenders which were not installed on US market cars (they are not turn signal repeaters).
The previous owner told me that the car spent a lot of time in the Lake George (NY) area and was used by a farmer as an egg delivery vehicle. This was the story the previous owner got from the guy he bought it from. It had quite a lot of rust damage from living upstate for so long, so the gentleman that I bought it from restored it over the course of about 10 years. He endeavored to keep it as original as possible and he did a good job. This is the original color of the car, though obviously not the original paint. The VW paint code is L360 SEEBLAU which translates to “lake blue” (think Alpine mountain lake green/blue).
I’ve owned the car since 2015 and while metalwork is not in my skill set, just about everything else is. So I’ve been through just about all the mechanical and electrical systems on the car. I do all my own work on the car and I have also tried to keep it as original as possible. For example, I rebuilt the engine to the original S spec, using the original 1500cc domed pistons. The electrical system is still 6 volt. I have made a couple updates but only in critical safety equipment. The car originally had front drum brakes which were OK but coming down the Rockies convinced me to finally switch to disc brakes up front. I have also upgraded the brake lights to some ultra-bright LEDs and I have removed the USA-spec sealed beam headlamps and replaced them with Euro-spec H4 housings and bulbs (yes you can get 6 volt H4 bulbs!).
This car is my only car. I’m not some rich guy who can stock a garage full of classics. So for me, if I am going to drive a vintage car (which I am!) then it must also be practical as a car. I need to be able to get groceries with it, or pick up bulky items from the hardware store, or pack it up to go camping, or be able to throw my surfboard on top and head to the beach. So this is a great car from that standpoint. The only concession I must make to keep it healthy for the long term is that I don’t drive it when there is salt on the roads.
WONYC: What do you love about it?
Sean: I’ve always been into the old air-cooled Volkswagens and I’ve owned a few over the years. The cars are deceptively simple but in reality the engineering is quite complicated, especially around the cooling system, which a lot of owners sadly don’t understand. I really enjoy the weird engineering quirks and how they’re so mechanically different from most of the other cars of their era. These cars were built to a high standard for their time and if you maintain them properly they are quite reliable and dependable. Of course, a lot of people don’t. What I like about vintage cars generally, and old Volkswagens in particular, is that you are fully plugged into what the machine is doing. Engineers of modern cars seem determined to isolate the driver from the machine, from the road, from the world around them. This car is the opposite of that. Everything is manual and nothing is power-assisted. Manual steering, no power brakes, no a/c. This car tells you what’s going on and you have to be in tune to what it’s telling you. And when you’re driving through the world, you’re not in a little bubble sealed off from everything. The windows are down and you’re fully in the world, for better or for worse.
WONYC: How does a perfect day in NYC look like with this car?
Sean: A perfect day in NYC with this car usually involves getting out of NYC Though the best use in NYC is to throw a couple boards on the roof rack and head out to Rockaway for some surfing and some tacos.
Though I do often use it in town for errands and such and I always love driving it, this is car that likes to be out on the road. I love taking this car on road trips and using it as it was intended to be used. In late 2019 I took this car on an epic road trip across the country and back and visited a lot of national parks. The trip was about 9000 miles total and I did all my own maintenance along the way. The car performed beautifully aside from a bad condensor which I fixed in Bend, Oregon, and a brief bout of vapor lock on a very hot day in Oklahoma.
WONYC: How is this your car?
Sean: This car definitely reflects a geeky, precision-minded part of my personality. I love the mechanical-ness of it. I love learning how everything works. I love taking it apart, fixing something, and putting it back together. My zen time is when I’m in the garage working on the car - getting the valve clearances adjusted perfectly, syncing the dual carbs, getting the dwell and timing set right, replacing the generator brushes, etc. I love being able to use my skills to make it run sweet & smooth. This car is largely my outlet for working with my hands but it also lets me use my logic and problem-solving brain when troubleshooting. But mostly, I just love driving it.
WONYC: When it comes to cars, What is the biggest lesson life has taught you so far?
Sean: I’ve never regretted buying the right tool for the job. We’ve all tried to make do sometimes with whatever we have lying around but sucking it up and buying or making the right tool is almost always worth it in terms of time saved, aggravation avoided, injury avoided, and (hard to find or unavailable) parts not damaged or broken.
