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| D-pillar | The rearmost roof support metal on a 4-pillar car. Also see A-pillar, B-pillar, and C-pillar |
| DA | Slang for the "Dual Action" air tool used for stripping paint. It has a random orbital surface. |
| Daily Driver | Refers to a VW of any type that is driven regularly: to work, school, shopping, errands, etc.. Opposite of Trailer Queen |
| Dak Dak | Australian nickname for the Beetle sedan and convertible. This term is onomatopoeia for the sound a Beetle makes. |
| Danbury Multicar | A third-party, aftermarket camping conversion for the Transporter. |
| Dannenhauer und Staus | D&S was a specialty coach-builder that, like Hebmüller and Rometsch, produced a number of very exotic cabriolets. |
| Dash | Slang for dashboard. |
| Dashboard |
Area in the front of the interior
around the steering wheel that houses the gauges.
 |
| Dashpod |
Small dash area used on Barndoor Buses from 1950-1955. Can also refer
just to the Bakelite speedo dash face used on Barndoor
and Split-Window Beetles |
| DDB | Doyle, Dane & Bernbach was the New York advertising firm that conceived and produced the fabulously successful Think Small marketing campaign for Volkswagen of America. Debuting in 1959, it was the single most successful automobile advertising campaign of all time. One example was a Beetle in a sea of blank space, with a simple phrase below. |
| Dealer Memorabilia |
Promotional items given away by VW dealers, ranging from key fobs to body
badges to lunchboxes. Highly collectible.
 |
| Dealer plate frame |
Dealer plate frames were added to cars and usually had the
name of the dealer and the city on them. Used as free advertising for
the dealership.
 |
| Decklid |
Term to describe the engine cover on various VW models
 |
| Dellortos |
One of the more popular brands of dual
carburetors for high performance upgrade of the VW motor. |
| Deluxe |
Term for highest trim level on a bus. A Standard microbus with the
addition of trim strips along the beltline, dash clock, etc. Deluxes
began production in 1951 and were available in both sunroof and non-sunroof
models. |
| Denzel | Austrian coachbuilt sports car. The first
Denzel had a hand-built wooden body based a Kubelwagen chassis. It
used the Kubelwagen's 25hp engine and won first place in the 1949 Austrian
Alpine Rally. A production prototype was completed in 1951 using an aluminum
body on a steel frame chassis and utilizing the Volkswagen suspension and
engine. Formal production began in 1953 and ended in 1959 with about
350 total cars produced. The bodies came from Karosseriefabrik F K
Gesellschaft, a Viennese firm that also produced some of the early Porsche
bodies. There were 3 models: Denzel Sport "Seriensuper" with 1281cc 52hp engine Denzel Sport Super with 1290cc 64hp engine Denzel Sport International with 1500cc 80hp engine 
 |
| Devin | Devin produced fiberglass cars based on the VW
chassis. One was taken from a rare Italian car named Ermini around 1954.
Devin also created the all recognizable dune buggy which created a
fiberglass craze from the 50s to 70s.
 |
| Devon | British Camper, Devon Ltd converted a huge amount of Bay Windows to Campers. |
| Disc Brakes | Device for slowing or stopping the rotation of
a wheel. Consists of a rotor and brake caliper. The rotor, usually
made of cast iron, is connected to the front or rear axles. Friction
material in the form of brake pads in the caliper are forced hydraulically
against both sides of the disc. Friction causes the rotor and attached wheel
to slow or stop.
 |
| Dizzy | Slang term for distributor |
| Doghouse | Introduced in the 1971 model year on all upright air-cooled engines, the "doghouse" fan shroud (so called because of the two additional pieces of tin that were added to the rear of the shroud to accommodate the new cooler) provided a more efficient system of cooling the VW engine. The new design re-located the oil cooler (found previously within the shroud, over the number 3 cylinder) by offsetting it away from number three towards the front of the car. Coupled with a high volume fan this set up provided more cooling to the VW engine. As a side note, the doghouse fan itself is not interchangeable with non-doghouse shrouds and vice versa. |
| Dogleg | Area of metal on a VW Bus
surrounding the front wheel well. Aka the front wheel arch. Also see Dogleg - Thin Lip, Dogleg - Fat Lip  Barndoor 3-piece doglegs, note seam on top |
| Dogleg - Fat Lip | Style of Dogleg used on
pre-1962 Buses where the lip is thicker, approx. 46 mm high in the center.
Also see Dogleg - Thin Lip
 |
| Dogleg - Thin Lip | Style of Dogleg used on
62-67 Buses where the lip is thinner, approx. 24 mm high in the center.
Also see Dogleg - Fat Lip
 |
| DOKA | DOKA is German slang for a DOppel KAbine or double cab pickup |
| Door Check Rod |
See check rod |
| Door Panel | Hardboard, vinyl, cloth (or a
combination of one or all of them)
that covers the inside of the door in the interior. Often replaced during a restoration.
 |
| Doppelkabine | See Double Cab |
| Dormobile | A large number of third-party, aftermarket camping
conversions for for various vehicles were made by Martin-Waller, Ltd. of Folkestone, England. In fact, so well-known were these that many people
refer to any camping conversion generically as a "Dormobile".  |
| Double Cab |
After realizing the popularity the Binz coach-built
truck models had achieved, VW realized the demand and stepped up production
of their own double cab model. The official VW Double Cab was similar to the
Binz design yet the door was almost half the width,
leading to a smaller rear passenger compartment and a slightly longer bed
area. Initially Double Cabs had gates made from shortened
Single Cab gates until production was ramped up
for DC-specific parts. DC's were never available with ribbed bumpers.. |
| Double Clutching | The action of pressing in the clutch, moving the gearshift to neutral, then pressing it in again to up or downshift once the transmission and engine rpms match up. Necessary on pre-53 VWs with a crashbox transmission |
| Double Door |
Indicates a VW Bus that has cargo doors
on both the left and right hand side of the vehicle. The term
"drive-thru" is also used. |
| Drews | Pronounced "Draivs". Coachbuilt sports car
from the early 1950s. They were quite square-looking, with suicide doors.
Some have lips above the wheel wells and/or ribbed bumpers. According to an
article in the May 2004 issue of VW Trends, 150 were made.
 |
| Drive-Thru | See double door. |
| Dropped Beam | Front-end that has been modified to allow for lower stance, creating a lowered VW. Also see adjuster. |
| Drop Spindles | Modified front-end spindle that produces a lower stance for the front of a vehicle |
| Dub | Shortened version of Vee-Dub |
| Dual-port | Refers to
the number of individual intake passages into the head. Dual ports
have 2 per head. |
| Dumped | Slang for lowered.
See also slammed and body-dropped. |
| Dune Buggy | General term for an off-road
VW kit car based on a Beetle chassis. See Meyers
Manx |
