I’ve always loved those cars, ever since I was a kid. (“Slug bug, no return!”) I don’t see them as much as I used to. 
My husband’s cousin has a yellow one that I covet.
[slight hijack]
One of my brothers had an orange Karmann Ghia convertible that I remember quite fondly. It had three-tone orange/brown shag carpeting in the rear windshield area. Despite the shag carpet, it probably would’ve been quite the chick magnet if he hadn’t been schlepping his kid siblings around all the time.
“Had a '62 when I was in high school-any idea how hard it is to buy a good 6 volt stereo?”
I’m still wondering where you would get a 6 volt battery these days.
“One of my brothers had an orange Karmann Ghia convertible”
There was a time these were so hot people would take the parts off of them & resell.
One time I got an early 60 vw pickup truck & I took out the main shaft in the tranny, took it to the store & they put in a new gear & it was $40. Sure was easy.
Did you know that the squareback had a bit of a design flaw? The location of the engine made for poor airflow, which is bad for engines that are air-cooled.
Maybe that’s why our squareback threw a rod.
My parents loved VW’s. They began with a cream-colored Beetle. I remember Mom loved the little space behind the back seats because it made the perfect “nest” to put a baby in.
Next they got a gray Van, '63 or 64. The next van was the best looking one, a turquoise and white … '68 I think. That one also threw a rod in Memphis as we were returning from a camping trip. We bought a peanut-butter colored one ('74?) which had dual carbs. The dang things never could stay in tune together. My brother and I still put glass packs on it and were the “traveling party” every weekend.
My sister got a cute turquoise '68. It was the best-running one I’d ever seen. A friend of ours drove it on a 50-mile trip to Memphis and back … then discovered it was out of oil. Never seemed to hurt it.
I had a '70 with a weird “automatic stickshift” in it. When you pushed down on the stick, it would engage the clutch and you could change gears. Other than that little problem, the thing was a dream. I ended up selling it for a “mud buggy”.
Re: the theiving of parts - that happened to me, too. My Beetle sat at the dealership for a year waiting to get a front stablizer bar. The part had to come from Germany, and while they were waiting for it to come in, they took other parts off my car … so that when the bar came in, they had to turn around and replace the other parts ! Grrrrrrrrrrr.
I was just remembering that the engine was located under the rear deck…where else would it be, right? There were air vents along the side of the car under the rear windows.
Ours seemed to run pretty well for several years under very heavy use. I don’t remember what it finally died from …I was only 10 or so when it died.
Actually, 6 volt batteries are plentiful, if you know where to look.
Many trucks use two high ampacity 6 volt units wired in series to get 12 volts with fierce cranking power. 6 volt units are also popular in many types of construction and material handling equipment like forklifts, scizzors lifts, and one man booms.
Pep Boys is a long shot-you’d be better advised to go to some place that specializes in batteries as they can match up the proper size, post configuration, and CCA rating to your original equipment.
Sorry if that was a little TMI. 
Handy, I can tell you they are all over Seattle and can be easily picked up for under $1000. Got myself one recently, a '73.
They are a fine Seattle car. People tend to drive mellower here. Mine has about 35 hp. Hills are a bit rough, but you get up them eventually…
You can also pick up a copy of VW Trends or Hot VWs and you’ll find a tremendous amount of info and parts sources.
I bought a new 1965 sunroof bug with an AM/FM radio for the total price, tax included, of $2060. This was shortly after the first Mustangs came out for $2250, for comparision.
I loved that bug and drove it all over the U.S. But 5 years later, at 65,000 miles it threw a rod and was not cost-effective to repair, so I was told. So much for longevity.
The oil cooler was attached horizontically to the engine, with the result that it partially blocked air-flow to the #3 cyclinder. The beetle had the same problem, just not to the extent the squareback did. I had a 1971 squareback that ran beautifully and forever. I also had a 1957 VW bus, back in my hippie days.
As to throwing rods, I think it much more likely that engine failure resulted from failure of the exhaust valve of the #3 cylinder. When overheated, the valve head tended to separate from the valve stem, which left a fairly large chunk of metal free-floating in the combustion chamber. The usual result was the absolute destruction of the cylinder head and the #3 piston. In some cases, the connecting rod would bend, but the root cause was the valve failure.
I own a 1968 Beetle.
As a famous guy likes to say: “They’ll take its wheel from my own dead hands”.
This car is just fantastic. Rear-wheel drive permits you to really do anything you like, although if you DON’T know what you’re doing, you might end up at the opposite wall. Still, it’s the only car I drove that really did what I asked it to, as long as I didn’t ask for something pressing, like coming to a dead halt from 60 km/hour in less than 20 metres.
It was rebuilt in '92, and again last year. It’s too old by now, and rusty, I’ll probably buy a newer one in some years. No heater on it, and no A/C of course. Still, its job is to get you somewhere, not to heat you (although I admit that when I use it in the winter, my hands get really cold). It’s my second car, after all, but I love it a lot more from my Ibiza.
The only mechanical problem I always get is when it’s winter a too much rain falls in the machine, which is a fairly easy situation to fix, if it’s happened to you before and you have the necessary spray along.
The real beauty of it is that it’s basically four tyres, a driving wheel and an engine. Does the job, no frills.
There’s plenty of classic VWs down here, from showroom quality Beetles and Karmann Ghias to busses with the sliding door held on by ropes. 
I drive a '77 bus, my roommate has a '68 Karmann Ghia, and her boyfriend a '73 Super Beetle. They’re great cars, and I’ve started learning to repair them myself. They’re so simple to work on it’s ridiculous. There does seem to be a steep maintenance curve when you first buy one, unless it’s been completely restored, but after that they’re relatively cheap to keep running.
My brother had one in the late sixties. They’re not good as the family car, with two small kids.
Another brother had a VW truck in the 70’s. Jeebus, that was ugly. I wonder if they’re worth anything now, I can’t imagine many of them sold.
Right. Combine those little air vents with the oil cooler problem mentioned by LouisB and you get some prematurely dead engines. I think Karmann Ghias had a similar airflow problem, moreso than the Beetle but not as much as the Sqareback.