Since I’ve owned Felix, I’ve had a quality repro rack on his roof supplied by our friends at Wolfsburg West.
A few weeks ago, a friend who is moving contacted me about an old rack that was sitting in his house. This rack had been on his Dad’s ’62 and ’68 Beetles in the ’60s and ’70s, but he happened to keep the rack even though the cars have moved on.
Intrigued, I went over to his house to investigate. The only marking I noticed in the dim light of the parking lot was “HWE”, and some searching on TheSamba, eBay, and Bing found me info about HWE Type 2 racks, but nothing for our venerable Beetles. I started a thread on TheSamba to find out about pricing, as I didn’t want to rip off my friend (or be ripped off if it’s a repro!).
I decided to buy it, as I really liked the Load Capacity sticker on it.
After I got it home and cleaned it up a bit, I did find a stamped VW logo with Made in Germany beside it!
I’m still not sure about the provenance of this particular rack, but I think it looks great. Cherry stained original wood slats, the German-style warning sticker, and the galvanized-look metal all seem to fit right in on Felix.
Anyone here know anything about it? I’m super-thrilled to have what seems to be an authentic German rack up top, but I’d love to know more about it.
Nice Find?
Where are the hubcaps?
I also have an ipod jack to radio adapter from M Klassen in Germany for the Blaupunkt/Frankfurt radio if you want it. I found it while cleaning the garage,
Russ
Russ – good eyes! The hubcaps are off right now; I’m planning on polishing them up and cleaning out all the brake dust from them.
I’d totally be interested in the adapter!
According to my 1967 optional accessories price list, the luggage rack installed was $24.95. That would be equivalent to $175 today.
That’s a rare rack now for sure. I’ve seen one just like it sell for $450 at our local VW event.
Love that rack! Is your ’67 an org color? It seems creme.
Ben – Felix was repainted by a previous owner to an off white color. Getting back to L282 is in our plans…
A terrific find! Just goes to prove that still there remain a lot of unfound authentic VW accessories sitting in garages and attics. “Felix” must be very proud to have a piece of history sitting atop his historic self! jay
It’s a really nice rack. I’m a bit jealous!