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Tue May 01, 2012 9:34 am

Is there any kind of reference available that would have details on the vehicle importing process in the 60's? The reason I ask is that I have seen 4 beetles here in California, including my 66, that Birth Certificate's show their destination as Philadelphia and none of them show any signs of being "East Coast" cars, no signs of salt damage etc.. Would the vehicles have been sent to Philadelphia and then dispersed around the country? Any info would be appreciated.

Tue May 01, 2012 9:57 am

It was a lot easier and probably cheaper to ship across the Atlantic and truck them from there then it was to go through the Panama Canal and up the west coast.

Tue May 01, 2012 10:17 am

drscope wrote: It was a lot easier and probably cheaper to ship across the Atlantic and truck them from there then it was to go through the Panama Canal and up the west coast.
Duh! Geography was never my strong point. Thanks for pointing out the painfully obvious. :oops:

Tue May 01, 2012 10:28 am

They probably came to CA early in their life before they could rust out.

One '57 I owned was from back east but had been in AZ since the early 70s.
"AZ car" LOL, except for the insane rust and rockers made of wood and bondo.

I have a Double Cab right now I got from Washington that was delivered to Miami... It had been in WA at least since the 70s. I wonder if someone drove it across the USA at some point or if it got trucked.

I think a lot of people either moved and drove their Bug out with them or it broke down on a big trip and they left it.

Tue May 01, 2012 11:18 am

In the summer of 1968 I worked for a company that steamed cleaned the cosmolene off and under coated all the Vws that came into Oregon. We had to pick up the VWs at the docks and drive them to the shop so know that the cars for the north west came by ship.

Tue May 01, 2012 1:09 pm

When I first started messing with these cars I used to go to a little shop near my house for parts and help.

The shop was owned and run by 3 brothers from the old country who had all worked for VW before coming to America.

I was asking one of them once about why some of the cars rusted away so badly and why others just rusted.

At that time, there were plenty of these things around and we knew of folks who had similar year cars and drove and treated them the same. Some of them rusted away to mere skeletons while the others hardly showed any signs of rust even though they were driven in the salt and slush just as much.

He told me his first job when coming over here was "fixing the floaters".

When the ships arrived in port here, often times the ones on the lowest deck of the ship would be in water - the "floaters". His job was to fix things and get them ready to go to the dealers.

So while road salt in the northeast is responsible for a lot of rusty cars, it wasn't the only reason. Sea salt also played a role for many of them.

Tue May 01, 2012 2:49 pm

drscope wrote: He told me his first job when coming over here was "fixing the floaters".

When the ships arrived in port here, often times the ones on the lowest deck of the ship would be in water - the "floaters". His job was to fix things and get them ready to go to the dealers.

Now thats a new one to me.... Ive never heard that story.

Tue May 01, 2012 3:10 pm

Funny my 66 was original to Philidelphia too.It came across country when the owner was drafted and then ended up at Camp Pendleton.Im guessing more than a few came back and forth that way