1955 Volkswagen Beetle - Jay Leno's Garage

but you know I remember growing up in Massachusetts and my dad's friends and if anybody bought a foreign car well you were a weirdo kind of a strange duck he's got a Volkswagen buddy what oh yeah you're not a German thing then this is me I just love the way it sounds I love this car I love the way VW sing welcome to another episode of Jay Leno's Garage today we're doing my favorite category original and unrestored this is a 1955 Volkswagen Beetle as you can see paint is original uh we're going to talk to the owner here in just a second it's fun to find him this way you don't find these anymore when I was a kid Volkswagens were all over the place for a couple of hundred bucks and then they just disappeared so to try and find a time capsule like this is pretty rare let's meet the owner Matt Jacobson Matt come on in how you doing my friend Jake Thank You ring announcement yeah I don't think we have only had told me about it I was intrigued now this is obviously later somebody added yeah the car had in it had a radio originally it's got the original Motorola M radio on it okay and you know Motorola stands for No well back in the day when they come out with car radios the most popular phone with me which was the Victrola right where they ruled so when they came out with something for your car it was a motor roller rate so motor as in 11 and rolling that's where it came from and that looks like a later piece is that you think that's rich yeah I know it's probably period-correct but I don't think it was original to the car so where did you find it I found it from the second owner who had got it from a guy in Indiana he was in Washington Maryland and I found it on the Samba which is the Volkswagen Shousha forum and I've been looking for it I only collect unrestored cars and started buying unrestored Volkswagens and as you said there just aren't any unrestored beetles around I mean this car was probably worth $25 in the 70s right and the fact that didn't become a dune buggy but I you know I love that both he and the guy before him you know and then we finished it as his idea of preservation at restoration right now this doesn't look factory this looks like some accessory it's an accessory but a period-correct right right because this looks rather crude I see the Germans what is this we cannot have this must be some American thing you cannot have this thing like this for they're not coming to you you know I mean what's good about you can't steal it because actually the door closed is what keeps you from oh I get it off so actually it's a surprisingly good design you know my Hudson these work wonderfully well to keep the heat off the dashboard the car you're in trouble ISM I've got one of my Hudson Hornet and it comes to here and the previous owner told me he was going down the highway and he had a flock of birds and they okay they got stuck underneath it was like so Alfred Hitchcock's movie the birds are right here in his face and he's got his hand out the window at 60 miles an hour trying to get him out of there they just keep on so I'm on that's fine or you have the we have the the stoplight problem where you're like you know you can see if you don't have the president I can't see the stoplight but yeah this one's set up pretty good now that's easy you mentioned the prism nobody knows what that is they used to sell a device you put on your dashboard it would the stop light would shine it and you would be able to see that the the lighted change I've got a 51 Chevy pickup that's with a visor it's a Fulton visor that's long and I'm constantly you know doing that lean either out the window or yeah now what color was this originally was it blue it was Green the green is your green is your river color because I notice the rear trunk is blue so a car was originally green it had been pay at some point in its life in Indiana was painted blue right and then luckily the entire car inside and out was painted with white latex house paint which you know served as kind of a modern cosmoline right really protected everything and we you know the process of getting it back to this color was goof off and a scotch brite pad yeah that's well yeah it so the original first guy in Indiana who started he started doing that the second owner in Maryland started doing that and then we finished it here doing that but wouldn't a scotch-brite take off the original paint as well yeah I got you know we were just careful yeah we were just careful because it does and it's just a clear coat that's not what's on there no it's a a linseed oil linseed oil okay because it looks like it when we get that Sears antiquing kid right no fake patina over here well that's what someone said to me is that did he add the patina I said no I'm sure it's all original but that's what the linseed oil does and if you ever use linseed oil it's really dangerous because you put it down and while you're sitting there it will burst into flames so be careful with linseed oil I was so clear egg and water leave it outside okay and the car is really dry I mean it has no rust and never you know and you can kind of see it now it's never been hit all the body panels are original the car and I just feel really I just felt really lucky to get is one of those stories when I found it the guy you know I knew he was very ambivalent about selling it and I was here he was in Maryland and I knew I had to kind of get it done that day or I would never get it from him so I had him drop it at a colleague of Mines house near DC and does pay him I just get because I one more day and he would have change his mind this is a six volt system yes okay and how many miles on the car you know it's a 55,000 on the on the odometer and you know there of knowing you not detailed I respect 56 yeah and so I don't you know I if you look at the car and how straight it is original motor as well that I really think that that is original miles now is it kilometers or miles per hour it's in miles per hour so as an American it was for yes it was sold to a American servicemen it was delivered in Belgium oh okay and then he brought it over because that was the thing back in those days if a serviceman bought a car in Europe the US government would ship it right so a lot of these cars came back though because I know it has a lot of unusual features this is you didn't really see this too much in the American stuff no but these lights what are these lights here so I found so these are Bosch fog lamps I just luckily found these with the brackets in that green okay so I found them you know recently I just wanted a great set of fogs for it but they had to be the right one right yeah have them on the back because we have got one stop one on the back and they're on their six volt is their six volt okay and these were nos lens guards I found right right I'm trying to think of what's that now it has the water squirted which is unusual yeah it's you know it doesn't work but no but this must have been a more upscale VW writing with just these little just little things like that 55s are neat I mean there's a lot of stuff that's unique 255 semaphores yeah oh yeah sure we'll look at now the english call these traffic aters or semaphores i guess yeah now did this um is this a leather interior of vinyl vinyl and when I fan when I got the car every seam on that every scene was blown out because you can imagine these were these were inexpensive cars right and then every scene was blown I didn't know what I was going to do and I figure okay I'm gonna put it back kind of a Frankenstein you know baseball stitches my back together and just a wonderful guy I found you know put it back together and it looks it's unreal yeah you can save original interiors you know I've got my 1959 Fiat millecento and it has the original tear but it was the thread was breaking in correct part and rather than just redo it we managed to stitch it up and I'm so glad we did it that way I tried I tried desperately to save the original headliner but it was a mohair headliner and it was just that wasn't going to happen so replace the headliner it's the original mats right now the carpet in the car like the early Porsches a rubber mat with carpeting on the side so it's the right color car because I had that and then the original mats did the American cars have these two until middle of 55 oh okay so I had that and then the other unique the other things unique to this car which I'm sure we'll look at are the Hart taillights oh yeah let's come around back here so the Hart taillights were you know again a lot of this stuff is not for sure when they actually ended but mid by mid 55 they were gone and so the heart taillights you can see on the top of the light that's not the turn indicator because the turn indicator of the semaphore right but when the lights are on it gives you kind of a running light it's a glass piece it looks like a heart to the heart taillights and this is a stop light yet to stop light okay well that's interesting in it yeah well because the taillights were so tiny yeah a lot of guys ran these bigger stoplights and what was the last year of the split window so I think it was I think it was 52 okay it was early one that if t2 is a split okay and then let's open it up now that dumb question I also it was a round tail tailpipe that may have been rounded one Pleasant thing I must exact washed yeah okay can we open the surf wow it's nice and clean obviously rebuilt the motor rebuilt the motor but put everything back on it so and this is what 36 horsepower there is a horsepower what is that that original piece no that's not a Ridge we had to pick that one huh no the air cleaner is the one that you want no that's the original airplane is good yeah but I saw there but what does that a regulator regularly yeah yeah so you kept a six volt system yep the six volt which is a pain and it's why what's the problem with it you know it just doesn't have the cranking and you know I'm it's just constant you know I'll tell you something that you can do for this I have a friend named Don Allen he doesn't thing called a generator he takes your six volt generator he keeps it looking period he installs an alternator inside ah so it becomes a six volt Alton there so it's really bright out it's great and it keeps the power up because I know I've got some six volts and you come to a light like my cord yeah a guy to a dim and the radio would go off then you'd rev it and come back again because it couldn't put out the right hour that's a great but you can rebuild that you can keep that you know and keep it six volts right you want to make sure you use six volt wire with well when you replace everything so what are we talking 36 horsepower 36 horsepower it's the original motor I have the birth certificate from the car that I got from the right Volkswagen Museum so it's the original motor that came with the car they weren't matching numbers there was a motor number and a right then no body number and they they weren't the same but this is the one that came with the car I'm not a big fan of the matching number thing to me it's kind of like rich guys through on civil dollars in the ocean right get to the point where well this one has met because a lot of cut like to me you find a 66 Corvette and as a 66 320 seven was not same when they came it's the same yeah okay guys fudge numbers and if it becomes a whole phony so that's not you guys I just love that you know that yeah this is the motor that came with the car right you know it was these guys were the the guys who I got the car from they had gone through a you know a three year period of lovingly I mean the scrubbing that went on this engine with like Dawn dishwashing soap and degreaser like it was it lovingly done I shared you know with one of your producers you know some of the nine hundred photos these guys had taken and of course you kept the original distributor and everything what kind of shape was the engine in did it require new Pistons and everything like that or was it just no they were it was amazing when I went through all the details on the car and because they really documented one of the beautiful things about the Samba it was this full documentation of every step of the preservation of this car and this wasn't a super expensive car I mean these guys just put it was just it was a love all right and but they went through and they were really impressive that you know the crank and the Pistons were still within really good tolerance it didn't it didn't meet it didn't wasn't in need of a rebuild it was just time to rebuild it and what what's top speed about 76 yeah I'll tell you what bust my tires and keep your foot in this thing all day long it'll run flat out yeah and you know and I live at the beach of Manhattan Beach with a couple of very steep hills there and like you know it pulls fine yeah yeah salt air doesn't do yeah that's like you know I live on a living down there is like living on a boat right you know it's a constant battle but yeah now is this the original green that's the original green okay so oh it's a little light almost looks like a military green yeah but you can see it's still on the fender there yeah yeah yeah right this part I look at you on the thing that I love about if you look here you can see that the fenders and this rear valance there are all the original ones to the car I've plenty of you know the fuse can't get that fit anymore and then you got the the venetian blinds here yeah I found a set of gradual ox venetian blinds new old stock you know I got those are my sit around all these are great I go down the road me yeah I know I haven't I know kind of drive every pothole every pothole the yeah I found a you know I wanted you again I'm it's kind of hard out Google me so I found a lot of interesting little bits oh yeah you know the plates and then I found a I wanted a plate frame that was you know kind of from close to where I live and I dealer incompetent hadn't been able to find anything about okay oh we go Huey what is that Huey roadie motors incompetent which is you know ungoogleable well somebody else and watch somebody watch this it's and I remember really yeah very cool and it's amazing never been damaged never been hit I mean you figure they made 15 no maybe 20 million of these things right and how many remain really you know it's it's they were used up and thrown away and probably Meyers Manx had more to do with just yeah war Meyers Manx it remember that many of those dune buggies but like all of the Baja bugs yeah they're all know our friend rod Emery he's gonna come by his father invented the Baja Bug right I was responsible for he's getting you know kind of converted but you know define one you know again these are not super expensive cars right right but if I if I said hey here's $50,000 or $75,000 don't find me another one yeah I don't know if you could right right right can we open the front Trump sure I'd love to see it so open this for you okay well there's a rare piece I haven't seen one of these in a long time when sets a you know a water tank or spare gas spare gas okay so I want you know the the the Holy Grail item is that toolkit right it fits in there and they were you know hard to find and I found this this piece a guy in Europe had it and I thought well that's a kind of a cool thing too and I've actually used it is this a Volkswagen pieces in an aftermarket after marker okay and your gas tank is what about seven gallon seven gallons with a giant original gas cap the big radio in there big radio the you know the thing was great is the glovebox is hard to open yeah so having it hard to open Mendte to preserve the original box insert which you kind of never see yeah and the original fuse block you so originally fuse box with the Oh gotcha yeah so was there a cover on that original no they were like that it's like that okay and what what is this here so this is the previous the previous to the previous owner had ordered from Volkswagen Museum the birth certificate for the car so I'm going to cover up his name it was Larry ordered it yeah but it's the original documentation documentation that this was the motor that came with the car and that's kind of nice you can still get that from Porsche it's like a Ferrari certificate of classic oh yeah or see away from Porsche yeah there you go that's it yeah buddy doesn't cost you $25 exactly well very cool the other thing that's interesting about the car Jay is that you know if you remember in a hurry a lot of guys will would slam these without undoing this there was a constant porsche and volkswagen problem and so this one luckily had been lovingly the hood had never been crimped so what happens if you don't yeah because of that you kind of slam it yeah they always get crimped over here and this this one never been crimped I think it's time to take this for a ride she goes very good yeah it runs good right my dad would say zippy you know I remember these my dad was in these foreign job she taken touches any car that wasn't made and there's a foreign job my dad would call it's so funny you couldn't get parts for it together but and that was a dealership or you worked as a multi brand dealer right well what the hell were you when I was a kid then we were called foreign motors because we had rolls-royce Bentley Mercedes Puzo Oh situations that really got the American market was a Mercedes Benz right and they were teamed up with Studebaker right distribution right yeah when I was a kid every schoolteacher if you were a single lady schoolteacher looks like this usually what the heck cuz you know you'd buy it because it was reliable and dependable and I mean that was the whole thing of these cars it was the dependability right they didn't break down they were air-cooled and they had the best ad campaign in the company oh they didn't know there were amazing ads in the 60s I remember who was the ad agency but you know I bought a lemon buy a car you think small man I know the think small thing was unbelievable that was a super you know current and it floats the other one be not so funny you can use this everyday like I use my Model T a lot in LA because nobody's going more than 30 miles an hour anyway in fact in London now the average speed is dropped from 8 miles an hour to like 7 points up Wow it is now slower then a horse and wagon was in the way 1,800 you can actually get around one get around London quicker in a carriage then then you can in a AMG Mercedes not but I think that what will happen when self-driving becomes more of a thing then driving will be an enthusiast yeah think driving will think well you'll get the fun of driving back yeah it's like I didn't bother fixing the radio in this car because I love the way Volkswagens sound yeah you know Oh semaphores yeah modern Volkswagen on our tail for the plenty of legroom Lincoln could drive this thing with the hat we got on top hat the thing that's funny is it drives incredibly different depending on who's in it so do by yourself yeah the most different drive than when you got so a passenger probably feels faster at much faster have I got my dog 80 pound dog in the back that changes everything now it was your goal to find an even older one like a 48 no I mean you know what I don't like I don't have like I'm really stoked about I have you know yeah you know I'm not like there is no like quest for it and like you know when I found the 55 Prix a Porsche I've been chasing a 2002tii that have been in a garage the two blocks for me for three months and the guy was just panicking and wouldn't sell it and then he he finds all the time it's not gonna sell it and then the next day is when I found the Porsche I wasn't looking for her yeah you know so if this happens and I'm always amazed on how maintenance-free air-cool cars are I've got a 19-15 Franklin and real I haven't done anything to it there's no water to corrode ya know it's like the electric car yeah this is the kind of road this car was made for this is me I just love the way it sounds I love this car I love the wavy wson but you know I remember growing up in Massachusetts and my dad's friends and if anybody bought a foreign car well you were a weirdo kind of a strange duck he's got a Volkswagen oh yeah you're not a german thing well take it to the dashboard here we have our obviously our compass it's not working no that's not where anything to be wearing off yeah well you so long okay I did tell me about that so this was an aftermarket clock and it's really just a watch right but it was made by this company Comfort it's a wine it's you know you wind it right but it's just a magnet so I love that but he wanted to joke that's a joke originally or the big AM radio with pink right this is without a man in German - or not just in America that was American it but this car was set up for a radio so it you know it had that and that was the original rated - it gold box which is you know why I think I pointed out luckily it was hard to open if it preserve the original yeah you get one block yeah when God did the original package tray the package train is really cool yeah you couldn't eat it yes for like magazines and things like that what is it a rope like material yeah it feels like someone it's plastic but I feel you might be like catgut from old tennis racket yeah yeah you know and this one uh headlight oh there's a parking light and headlight there's to something then you have a fog light switch over here the phenomena which optimistically goes to 80 yeah I think that it that is optimistic actually client chills very nicely yeah I know I wasn't there Bri I mean it makes me happy that you like it because I there's something special about him you know when I was a kid I never thought I'd like when they would say certain cars you cruise at 45 or 50 it seemed like it would drive me crazy right but this is a have a bike relax let it drive and it's all the steering everything is so light interaction control the anti-lock brakes it's like my clarinet well I hope you enjoy these little history lessons as much as I do you know this is great fun it's only 36 horsepower but it feels very lively and fun and we don't 5060 more than keeping up with traffic and it's got that just dependable hum in your ear from the back I mean these these old cars a lot of fun this shows you that you don't have to spend a fortune on a collector cars but sometimes a great collector car just a car that's different you know and it's funny for me to say that because when I was a kid everybody had these but if you were born after 1985 this is like a whole new Reagan so if you find one of these old school Volkswagens around take a ride I think you'd be I think you'd be surprised just how much fun they are Matt thank you very much thank you Jay saving this piece of history I appreciate it and we'll see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,498,173

Rating: 4.8948135 out of 5

Keywords: volkswagen, bettle, matt, jacobson, Jay, Leno, garage, patina, facebook, instagram, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: 7cPkvQ5KI88

Length: 24min 1sec (1441 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/MyIQis76]

About time he did a bug.