[Vwdiesel] '81 Rabbit questions

[William J Toensing]

Brian Decker, if on your trip from Washington to Texas, & you are traveling near Sacramento & have time, I would like to meet you. I'm the one with two Dasher wagons & two '81 Rabbit project cars.
When living in Minn. back in the '60s, I bought a new 1965 Citroen ID-19 wagon. I did not have a heated garage but was able to get it started by doing the following: 1) hooked up the battery charger to keep the battery warm & at full capacity (this would work for any car), 2) left a light bulb on under the hood to keep things warm under the hood, 3) had an electric engine coolant  block heater on a timer to turn on 2 hours before I was ready to start the car in the morning, 4) has a 110 volt electric heater inside the car hooked up to the timer so I would have a warm car to get into, 5) I had the radiator totally blocked off with cardboard.
This done, the car started readily at -35 below, & the engine was at normal operating temperature. However, as soon as I started driving & turned the heater on, the engine temperature gage dropped like a rock & the heater became ineffective, still with the radiator fully covered. Experiences like this made me move to California.