WARNING.— The person in whose name this vehicle is displayed may or may not be the current owner of the vehicle. Readers are warned, therefore, that this entry is not proof of ownership.
Details
- Registration Mark
- GZL 445
- (a) Type:
- Type 1
- (b) Year:
- 1967
- (c) Colour:
- Metallic Green (Originally Black)
- (d) Paint code:
- Unknown (Originally L41)
- (e) Engine CCs:
- 1600
History
- (a) Country of origin:
- Ireland
- (b) County first reg'd:
- Dublin
- (c) Current or last known location:
- Kerry
Model information
1200 Beetle Deluxe
Info
This Beetle was assembled in Dublin in October 1967 so was the first of the new, more modern 12 volt, upright headlight Beetles. This Beetle was ordered as a 1200 Beetle Deluxe in Black (L41) with contrasting red vinyl upholstery. This striking VW was then delivered to VW Motors in Dublin on October 11th 1967, where it was sold and quickly sold and then registered on October 17th 1967 as GZL 445
I photographed GZL 445 at the 1992 Kilcommon VW Festival in Tipperary. This Beetle had been restored and customised by Emilio’s Beetles with a two-tone paint job, Marathon Beetle wheels in white, a dechromed body which was exactly what the young VeeDubber wanted their Bug to look like back then.
A huge thank you to Emilio Macari of Emilio’s Beetles for the update with some interesting history. The Beetle was his wife’s own car for 5 years from 1984 to 1989, when Emilio sold it to a new owner. From 1989 GZL 445 had a few owners but in the year 2000, Emilio bought the Beetle back and carried out a review of the car as it stood. The result was that the body was too far gone to economically repair so as Emilio had just recently bought a shipment of new Mexican Beetle bodies, the decision was made to re-shell GZL 445 onto the original chassis and in doing so, this original Irish registration was saved.
What many people may not realise is that at one point in time you could walk into your local Volkswagen dealer and order a brand new bodyshell as it was, like every other component, a part in its own right. Emilio did exactly the same here, except he had his own bodywhells in stock! As a result, here we are looking at GZL 445 in 2024. In fact, the most recent photos were taken by Tommy Walsh who is the newest custodian of GZL 445 as of last week. What has Tommy in store for GZL 445? We will wait to see but what we can see is that this Beetle has had an interesting life since it rolled off the MDL assembly line in October 1967!
Thanks to Emilio of Emilio’s Beetles for the update and to Tommy Walsh for the current photos.
http://www.emiliosbeetles.com/
UPDATE 31-10-24: We received a new photo of GZL 445 from Emilio. Judging by the cars in the background it looks like the photo was taken in the 1990s when it had a very different look; dechromed, bumperless and of course the main difference is the shiny and bright shade of yellow. As we always say here at Beetle.ie, every old VeeDub has a history and a story, we just need to dig a bit deeper to find it!
Thanks Emilio for the update photo.
Submitted by: Tommy Walsh
Additional Photos
