I bought my 1965 1200 A Beetle from the first owner 1991. The ruby red Standard Beetle had 40.000 kilometer run, a Saxomat clutch and was in very good condition.
After I had the car it was painted black, because I did not like red at that time. I also installed chrome pumpers and chrome hubcaps.
From 1992-2000 the Beetle was my daily driver and I drove about 80000 kilometer with it. After that, the beetle was very rusty and a quick TUV repair was not possible. I bought a 1983 beetle and put my 1200 A in a garage for 10 years.
The body off restoration of my VW Beetle started with disassembling and the welding was finished by the end of 2011. After welding the beetle was sandblasted, painted and assembled in 2012.
The first pic shows my 1965 VW 1200 A Standard Beetle before restoration. The black bug is my 1200A which I have since 1991. That’s the beetle which I restored. The second ruby red 1200A is for spare parts.
Below are pictures and information of my 1965 1200 A VW Beetle restoration:
WOW, I love what you did. I have been able to restore 2 VW so far. A 1972 and a 1964. I have a 1974 now that doesn't require much and I want to keep it simple, but the 64 needs a new engine and some TLC after my nephew took it for a joy ride. I was wondering if you can take that job on and how much would it be. thanks
Looks great I recently bought a 1956 vw beetle rag top it's currently red but originally horizon blue the red looks great but it's not original your beetle looks so cool I wonder if I should leave it red
Its really awesome you did to yr bug.....how many working hours were put in to restore the lovely bug? Was it easy to get quality parts? I started my restoration in 2012 on my bug but stopped ....time n money constraint....im excited again to restart my project....
thank u..
johnston
Malaysia..
Hello Johnston from Malaysia. I collected parts for a few years and had the hard to get parts before I started. It takes a lot of time to get everything restored and together. A few hundred hours. Good luck, Lutz
Hello, I am Ravi from New Delhi in India. I am in the process of restoring by 69 Beetle which is badly rusted. It was lovely to read your post and I can surely pick up several tips from here. Congrats on a really wonderful restoration. Cheers
one of my favorite car. I have 1965 manufactured 6 sri 0931 car. should resorted. we used it as our homecoming function car! you had a good job in the name of Volkswagen.
I just purchased a 1965 standard bug and I am about to "Pop The Top" and restro my bug. My bug came in Sea Blue. Someone painted it in some nasty blue and she's going back to Sea Blue 66. This car is the first one i'm excited about tearing into it. If you could give me any more details on how you tore it down it would be greatly appreciated. I have to put a new front clip on just like you did. Well thanks for all the info you posted and pics I'm sure we all appreciate it alot.
Thanks for your post in my blog. I wish you good luck with the restoration of your Beetle.
I can recommend that you take lots of pictures when you take the parts off, then it is easy to put together. If you do not do this, you have to read and google more at the end.
What a wonderful, inspiring job you did.
Here in South Africa it is a lot more difficult to be able to obtain absolutely brand new and original parts for Beetle restorations.
Please could you forward me a list of places where our fanatic Beetle lovers can order parts from.
Many thanks once again for a superb job. You made us all proud.
Matthys Moss
Dear classiccult, I have owned my 1965 Type 111 A sedan since 1968. The car was built mid January 1965. 1964 111 marks the last year they were called standards. 1965 111's were called Type A sedans only in that year, 1966 and afterwards they are called 1200 A. 1965 A sedans were the last year to use button type body pan, meaning the floor mats ( 4 ) snap onto buttons welded into the pan. The pan is unique because it is the last year that uses the stud in the pan with a claw and wing-nut to hold the front seats into place, in other words NO seat tracks. 1965 A sedan is also the last year to use the old style ( Franz Reimspiess design 1937 ) engine case. The engine is a 1200 36hp with fresh air heater system. My engine is numbers matched to the car and confirmed by Wolfsburg. There is no doubt your car is a standard model, however your car is built like a German 1966 1200A, with seat tracks, new style mats and a 1200 40hp What is your production date? have you ever seen a 1200 1965 fresh air 36HP? have a look;
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/516081.jpg
Hi Don, thanks for the detailed information. Yes you are 100% right. My 1200A is made in 12/1965 and a 1966 1200A. These are the papers of my Beetle
Greetings, Lutz
Hi Keith,
I used mipa-paints.com. Silver beige L466 and grey black L43 was scanned from original color because it was not in the Mipa-System. I have the code now.
Greetings
Lutz
Beautiful labor of love on your 1200 A. Pretty surprised to see the Sachsomat stuff on such an early car. We (my father and I) used to service a couple of type 1s, (auto-sticks) I wanna say 1968s or 9s in the early '80s. We hated them, they just killed what ever fun that could be derived from driving a bug. That said, I love that you kept yours as ordered. I assume this Sachsomat apparatus came from Wolfsburg and wasn't dealer installed. It seems to me, counter intuitive that a 1200 A would come all duded up with a fancy ohne Kuplung option.
Cheers
Bernard
Hello Bernard, I bought my Saxomat VW from the first owner. The first owner had only one leg when he ordered the VW in 1965. This is the invoice and VW put the Saxomat in the car in the factory. Greetings
Lutz
Hi! I recently bought a VW Beetle 1965 1600 cc. The engine is in running condition but the car is very badly rusted! I don't know where to start from! The restorers ask for ten lacs whereas I can buy a car in good running condition for five lacs. This is my passion and also want to make the trading of these beauties my business. Pl advice thnx
Hello Neeraj, yes that’s true. They run and run and run but they do rust. In most cases it is much more expensive to do a restoration compared to buy a good car. So it is up to you if you spend lots of time and money and do the resto or take it easy and buy another VW instead in better condition. Either way I with you good luck. Lutz
Hi, a fantastic effort well done, the car looks splendid. I have a 1966 Beetle 1300, built here in Australia, in Clayton, Melbourne, all original engine and gearbox. I've reupholstered the seats and installed a new headliner. There's absolutely no rust in it, and I love driving it around. I was going through this site when I saw your trunk liner resto, great idea so today I'm in the shed glueing newspaper over all the cracks like you did on the trunk liner. I'll try to find some felt as I think that's a good idea also. I hope your car is still going strong for many years to come, just lovely to see so much effort in a restoration of these fine cars.
Regards Frank
Hello Frank, thanks for your comment. Yes sure I still drive with my 65. It is always good to repair the parts like the trunk liner. New repro is often boring. Have fun with your 66, Lutz
thank u..
johnston
Malaysia..
I just purchased a 1965 standard bug and I am about to "Pop The Top" and restro my bug. My bug came in Sea Blue. Someone painted it in some nasty blue and she's going back to Sea Blue 66. This car is the first one i'm excited about tearing into it. If you could give me any more details on how you tore it down it would be greatly appreciated. I have to put a new front clip on just like you did. Well thanks for all the info you posted and pics I'm sure we all appreciate it alot.
Thanks for your post in my blog. I wish you good luck with the restoration of your Beetle.
I can recommend that you take lots of pictures when you take the parts off, then it is easy to put together. If you do not do this, you have to read and google more at the end.
Best regards,
Lutz
Here in South Africa it is a lot more difficult to be able to obtain absolutely brand new and original parts for Beetle restorations.
Please could you forward me a list of places where our fanatic Beetle lovers can order parts from.
Many thanks once again for a superb job. You made us all proud.
Matthys Moss
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/516081.jpg
Greetings, Lutz
i start to restore my 1966 1200A this year. Can you tell me where you get this seat covers from? Is this from TMI?
Thanky you
Thx, K
I used mipa-paints.com. Silver beige L466 and grey black L43 was scanned from original color because it was not in the Mipa-System. I have the code now.
Greetings
Lutz
Cheers
Bernard
Lutz
Regards Frank