What special event happened May 4th, 1959? I hadn't yet had my second birthday when this brand spankin' new little German car, a beige 1959 Volkswagen DeLuxe,, showed up in our driveway at Lake Sammamish. This photo was taken in June of 1960 when the car was a year old so I'd be around 2-1/2 then (a neighbor girl is in the photo with us three kids). Ain't that little car a beaut (what you can see of it)?
Dad really splurged on the options for the car. By far the most expensive one was the very basic AM tube-type radio for $69 ($775 adjusted for 2026 inflation), but Dad liked to listen to the radio. The remaining options were: undercoating ($24), driver's outside mirror ($5.50), and fuel gauge ($19.50). A transportation charge of $6.30 was squeezed in there where the "safety belt" cost should have been (they weren't seen as quite so necessary back then). The main reason for this blog posting is that I recently ran across the invoice above in some paperwork my sister had that I was able to scan, and since that little VW was such an integral part of my life for 30 years, I decided to put some photos and stories together.
Side note on the fuel gauge mounted in the dash. It was a simple design that had a clear plastic reservoir filled with mercury. You know, the stuff that thermometers used to have in them but don't anymore due to toxic health issues. The reservoir had a rubber tube running to a metal tube poking down into the gas tank. When the tank was filled, gas would fill the metal tube and compress the air in the rubber tube, which in turn pushed on the mercury in the reservoir and the mercury would then rise in a small tube off the side of the reservoir. Really it's a lot simpler than what is described.
The reason I know how the gauge works is one time it stopped working so I had to pull it out of the dash, only to find a small plastic nipple had broken off the mercury reservoir. I glued it back in place and the gauge started working again. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
I can still remember turning on the AM radio, hearing the hum, and waiting for the tubes to warm up before a radio station would emanate from the speaker in the dash. And all these old VW's had a gas reserve lever for those times you ran out of gas and you could just flip the reserve lever a quarter turn and be able to drive to a gas station. Just remember to flip the lever back or the next time you run out of gas you'll be walking to the gas station.
A twilight shot of the car at Lake Sammamish.
This photo below was also taken in 1960. It's when my parents took a 1,200 mile road trip from Issaquah, Washington to southern California to visit Dad's sister Aunt Gladys and her family. The 1-year-old VW is there on the left.
This next photo was taken in 1969 at our Kirkland home, when the VW was 10 years old. Dad is on the bottom and we three kids are piled on top of him. The VW had a fairly new at the time carport stablemate, a 1966 Plymouth Fury VIP. We got that car in 1967 when it was a year old. I still have the license plates that were on both the VW and the VIP in the photo, ANT-792 and OCD-594. The OCD plates are currently (2026) on my 1966 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S.
These next three photos were taken at our home on Bainbridge Island in the 1970s. Here the old VW is nearing 20 years of age. It at least has a carport covering (until my brother got his first car and took over the carport). Dad taught me to drive a clutch in the Volkswagen at this house.
Ok, I have to add this photo of my brother's car. It is the engine and frame behind my 1979 Harley Davidson XLS. You can see the silver engine, gold painted valve covers and kind of see the two Carter WCFB carburetors. The frame was also painted.
The VW rarely seems to be at the forefront of any photos. Here it's behind the VIP. That's my brother and I getting the opportunity to cut up the log on the ground. No, we didn't land the log there, Dad did. Dropping the tree in the driveway made for easier clean-up.
Dad decided to finally get rid of the Volkswagen in November of 1983. He had commuted to work in this car for 23 years and when he retired, he decided to part ways with it. The car didn't go far though. He sold it to me for $100 and I promptly gave it my personal touches, like a shiny red paint job (and flat black bumpers because the chrome was pitted), and new rubber seals around the windows (from Bow Wow in Seattle). I also sewed and installed a black velour headliner for the car. I don't remember if the old one was torn or if I just wanted to make a change. These next two photos are at my parents home in Poulsbo.
There's that nifty license plate.
Yes the VW is in this next photo (taken ~1982), hiding behind my 1967 Dodge D200 that I made a flatbed for. I also made the three axle gooseneck trailer from a mobile home frame. The dozer on the trailer is an early 60s Case 310 with a Davis backhoe attachment. Also in the photo are my brother's two vehicles, a blue 1966 Valiant with the venerable 225 slant six and a yellow 1967 GMC 3500 flatbed with a 351 V-6 and 4-speed. The truck behind my trailer is Dad's 1973 Chevrolet 2500 with a propane-fueled 454.
My wife had never driven a car with a manual transmission so I taught her how to do it in this VW, the same car I learned to drive a clutch in.
About 1989 I came across a deal I couldn't pass up. A guy at work had a 1970 Road Runner and he wanted to trade me straight across for my little ol' VW Bug. How could I pass that opportunity up? Unfortunately this next photo is the only one I have of the Road Runner exterior. It came with a 1971 440 installed but the guy also had the original numbers matching 383 that I rebuilt and reinstalled. The car was really in pretty decent shape. It didn't have any rust that I can remember, and still wore its original paint. Sigh.... the good ol' days, right?
This photo shows the engine compartment of the Road Runner after the 383 rebuild.
The time came where the wife and I decided it was time to move on from the Road Runner, so up for sale it went in the local Auto Trader. For whatever reason I saved the ad when I advertised the car (second from the top on the right). Yep, that's $2,383 I was asking for it at the time, rebuilt engine and all... I ended up trading the car to a guy stationed at Lewis McChord military base in Tacoma. He had a 1983 S-10 4x4 that he had swapped in a 4.3L V-6, but the work wasn't completed yet so I couldn't test drive it. I didn't know it at the time but the engine was out of balance due to him installing a wrong clutch that wasn't balanced to the engine. It was still a fun truck though.
Getting back to the VW, maybe 10 years ago I ran into the guy who I traded with for the Road Runner. I asked him about the Volkswagen and he thought he still knew where it was (maybe at his sister's house?). I didn't try to pursue it, so that's the journey of our 1959 Volkswagen that was an integral part of my early life.
On another note, which of the above ten cars would you choose to buy for those prices today? I'm guessing the Road Runner would have appreciated the most in value in the 37 years since these cars were for sale. The '73 Dart Sport 340 would also be a pretty nifty catch for $1,000.
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