[Vwdiesel] Anyone try this? (To have a warm toasty car)

[William J Toensing]

I don't know if I have written about this before but this was something I did to have a warm toasty VW air-cooled beetle in -20 degree Minn. winters. This was done back in the winter of 1958 when there were no warnings about asbestos. Some of these suggestions might be useful today, others not. When I was on active duty in the Navy stationed in Norfolk, VA, I took delivery of my first new car, a 1957 black VW Beatle. I was released from active duty on 12/7/57 & drove back home to Minn. I had read somewhere in a VW club newsletter that existed at the time, a suggestion about improving the heating qualities of a VW sedan (as it was then called) & basically it was insulating the passenger compartment from the outside cold. From a hardware store I got some sheet asbestos from a hardware store & rapped the heater boxes with  it securing it with lite wire. I then covered the heater boxes with heavy duty aluminum freezer foil, securing it with lite wire to protect the asbestos from water & road debris. Next, I got some carpet padding to cover the floor under the removable mats. VW had provided no insulation there. Lastly, I stuffed some spun cotton like fiberglass down the defroster tubes on each side by removing the cardboard cover access for the instrument panel, after lifting up the front hood (bonnet-UK). The results were fantastic! I had to crack the front vent wings at a -20 F to keep from getting to warm! I saw no need to buy an optional Stewart Warner gas heater for my VW but later, did buy one to modify for use in my first Citroen.

Cars in the late 1930s & older had re-circulating heaters with either no or inefficient defrosters. What one did back then in Minn., other cold winter states, & I assume Canada as well, was to put frost shields on the windshield, side & rear windows to be able to see out in winter. The deluxe windshield frost shields had electric heating elements built into them for the windshields. Another accessory was to mount a small electric fan on the steering column to blow warm inside air against the windshield. I believe the first car to take fresh cold outside air & channel it thru the heater core was Nash with its Weather Eye "air-conditioned" heater to eliminate the need for frost shields. 
Most of you are no longer driving air-cooled VWs in the winter but ever you can do to insulate your car for the severe winter would probably help. I WOULD NOT recommend use of asbestos for health reasons, if you could find it. I think spun fiberglass insulation would work just as well.
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA