[Vwdiesel] Anyone try this?(to have a warm tosty car)

[William J Toensing]

Yes, but not with a VW but a 1965 Citroen ID-19 station wagon which I bought new when I was living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
Here is what I did to have a warm car to get into, & to get it started when the temperature hit a -35 below zero.
1) Bought, when traveling across the Trans-Canada Highway & visiting Jasper National Park, Banif & Lake Louise, an engine block (actually on the left side of the head) heater from the Citroen dealer in Edmond, Alberta. I think it was Pioneer Motors.
2) Bought a 110 volt electric heater mounted under the dash. It was made in Winnipeg.
3) Plugged both into a timer set to turn both on at 4 AM.
4) After parking the car at night, I would put a lit trouble light under the hood (bonnet for you in the UK)
5) hooked up a 12 volt battery charger. By doing this, the battery was fully charged & the charging kept the      
    battery at a +70 F. Then close the hood to keep it warn, then put a blanket over the hood to help keep it 
    warm.
6) I also had piece of card board fully covering the radiator. 
By doing this, I was able to get into a warm car that easily started, & the temperature gage showed the engine temperature gage in the middle range. However, as soon as I turned the heater on, the engine temperature dropped to cold in about one mile & heat no longer came out of the heater. Fortunately I lived only about 4 miles to work. Despite blocking off the radiator, the heater core was more than able to cool the engine, & no more heat came from the heater. 
My first Citroen, an 1960 ID-19 had a very ineffective heater. That Citroen only had a 6 volt system. At the time, VW dealers were selling Stewart Warner gas heaters for VWs. I bought one & modified it to fit in my Citroen. Worked well but had to hook up the battery charger at night during winter to keep the battery charged as the 6 V generator was not fully capable of keeping the generator fully charged.
Perhaps you can see now why I moved from Minn. to Calif. Remember, these were the days before synthetic oil when you used SAE 10/10W oil, sometimes diluted with kerosene. Amsoil got its start in the Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wisc. not because of its superior lubricating ability & long intervals between drains, but it would remain fluid at -40 below enabling cars to start in that cold when 10W oil would turn to molasses in winter.
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA