Down On The Mile High Street: 1968 Volkswagen Beetle


Given the way that Beetles have had all their parts swapped over the decades, I’m always reluctant to try to nail down an exact model year of a street-parked example, particularly when it’s a primered-out survivor owned by a guy who spends a lot of time at junkyards. If we are to go by the taillights and hood latch, this car should be a ’68… or it might be a ’64 with a fender swap… or a ’74 pan with a ’68 body. Anyway, the important thing is that it’s an old air-cooled Volkswagen survivor that gets used as a tow vehicle.

This car is the daily driver and freight hauler for an artist who’s something of a legend in my south Denver neighborhood. His studio is an overwhelming house-sized collage of found objects, including thousands of automotive emblems; I’ll have to get over there and document his place with my stereo camera one of these days.
Here’s a short video that gives you the idea. This VW makes a couple of cameos.

Some folks would say that a Toyota truck with a good heater would be the ideal Denver art-material-scavenging machine, but a Beetle with a small flatbed trailer works just as well (provided you dress warmly in the winter).





















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Those pop out rear windows are the best flow through ventilation. Apparently you could not get them if you ordered the S/R.
Are those 4-bolt wheels some sort of an adapter plate, or did "later" Bugs actually use that pattern? I had a '67 with the wide-spaced lug *bolts*.