About Jody Sauvageau

I’ve been fascinated with Volkswagen’s since I received my first Beetle matchbox car in 1976 at the age of four. In fact I still have it today. My first car was a VW and I have always owned at least one in the twenty five years that I’ve been driving. My total to date is thirteen and three of those have been 1967 Beetles. I own two 1967 Beetles at the present time as well as two other vintage VW’s. My pride and joy is my '67 which I restored from the ground up. I have been researching and collecting information specifically to the '67 model year for the past eighteen years. I love to collect VW literature and I own every issue of Hot VW' s Magazine.

FOR SALE — Polished Stainless Steel Beetle Hinge Covers

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Jody Sauvageau

I’m selling a set of polished stainless steel beetle hinge covers from Aircooled Accessories.

“These are identical reproductions of a very hard to find accessory. Originally available through Perohaus of Europe, they neatly fit over the hinges on all years of the Beetle to give that finishing touch.”

Unfortunately, they don’t quite fit on my car. The space between the hinge and the pinch weld on the drivers side is a little to tight for the covers to slip in as they are supposed to, due to a front end collision my ’67 had years ago.

They came shipped in a nice box along with an AAC logo sticker and an AAC logo air freshener to hang from the mirror.

Status: For Sale
Location: Providence, RI
Price: $40.00. Shipped Priority Mail
Contact: Jody Sauvageau | 401-744-6798

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’67 Volkswagen Beetle — Traveling in Europe

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Jody Sauvageau

This is a nice little story by Friede Strobl from the February ’67 issue of Foreign Car Guide magazine. In the article Friede describes what it’s like to travel to Germany to pick up your brand new VW as so many Americans did through the tourist delivery program. There are some good photos of an “early” ’67 and it’s cool to hear her boast of the new 1500cc motor.

As a side note, the cover shows the VW Blue ’67 Friede purchased in full color. You can clearly see the blue beading and the black running boards. It’s been long argued that the running boards should match the beading and vice versa on 60’s Beetles, but here with VW Blue this is clearly not the case.

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’67 Volkswagen Beetle — Air Cleaner & Pre Heat Hoses

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Jody Sauvageau

Do you have the stock factory oil bath air cleaner on your car? Maybe you just bought a restored one from 1967beetle.com. Well, now that it’s sitting atop of your carburetor, where are those two pre heat hoses supposed to attach to? Do they just pass through the engine tin and dangle under the car?

1967 was the first year that the Beetle air cleaner had two pre heat hoses. Previous years had one, so some new parts had to be manufactured. First the rear engine tin had to have two holes to accommodate the hoses. Next, a new pre heat tube was made for the right side of the engine. It is shaped like a J. The left side uses a short straight tube, the same one as previous years.

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’67 Volkswagen Beetle — Engine Lid Latch Dust Cover

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Jody Sauvageau

Ok, so you think that your ’67 Beetle has all of the specific ’67 one year only parts? Think again. Open your engine lid and look up at the engine lid latch. Is there a rubber dust cover over the latch? Chances are, there isn’t.

This protective cover was prone to cracking in the center which leads it to eventually falling off never to be seen again. It took me a while to track one down but they are out there. I put a drop of a high temp adhesive on mine to hold it in place.

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’67 Beetle — Hella SB12 Headlight Ring

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Jody Sauvageau

The Hella SB12 headlight ring is one of those pesky ’67 only parts that didn’t even make it onto all ’67′s. Only some ’67 Beetles (and Type III’s) have stamped into the top of the chrome ring; SB12. Hella was the company that produced many of the electrical components for VW.

First let’s start off with what the stamp means. As we all know by now, US spec ’67’s were the first Beetles to have sealed beam 12 volt headlights. So, SB meaning sealed beam and 12 for the voltage. Second, not all ’67 Beetles had them installed. Most were just the regular chrome ring without the stamping.

This item is a hot topic for ’67 Beetle owners. Most in the VW community state that these rings were on the early production ’67’s. This would make sense, with the new headlamps and electrics, but I’ve talked with some ’67 owners with original cars that don’t have them. My early ’67 (built the first month, August 1966), doesn’t have them. This may be one of those parts that varied with production days and or availability.

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