Strange Brew - 1956 Standard
Take a good hard look at this picture, then tell us what you see...
This is not your typical oval - it’s a little bit more unusual than that. What you see is a Canadian market ’56 Standard, ordered with a Golde sliding sunroof. Now that’s something to talk about.
What’s interesting about this car though is the odd combination of Standard and Deluxe parts it wears, which, by all accounts, is exactly as it was built. Then there's the metallic paint, whereas all Standards we’ve ever come across before were in solid colours, most often the rather dour Jupiter Grey. Not only that, it’s also got external body trim, a VW roundel at the top of the bonnet and a Wolfsburg crest down by the handle, chrome US-spec ‘towel rail’ bumpers and chrome handles all round, as well as chrome hubcaps. For those unfamiliar with the differences between European and North American market VWs, those bullet indicators up front are correct, having been fitted there since May ’55 after the federales decided semaphore indicators were next to useless. Look past the shiny bits on the exterior though and you’ll see some of the telltale Standard signs – painted horn grilles, painted quarter light frames, no running board trim and no trim in the window rubbers. Move inside and there are yet more giveaways – painted knobs on the dashboard, a painted central grille and painted trim around the ashtray. Then there’s the three-spoke steering wheel, the lack of a full headliner, the black painted ancillaries and seat frames with wing nut adjusters and the painted chassis backbone without sound deadening. It all points to a Standard until you notice the chrome inside handles and the trim – you did notice the trim, didn’t you? According to Bob Wilson’s ’49-’59 restorers’ ‘bible’, Standards came predominantly with cloth interiors, either a beige or grey herringbone. Leatherette, he says, was an option on Deluxes, leather only an option on Cabriolets. Now, K168 red was a leatherette trim colour you could certainly specify on a Deluxe and we’ve seen it a number of times on factory black cars. We’ve also seen a few Polar Silver Ovals with it and a couple of Nile Beige ones too, but it’s always been pleated and it’s never been as in your face as the red you see here.
We studied these photos for a long time and were amazed by the quality of the workmanship and the attention to detail everywhere. Then we discovered that it was the product of Lenny Copp’s West Coast Classics restoration shop in Los Angeles. Now, there are a lot of VW restorers in the world, but only a select few have a reputation like WCC. When we first saw the pictures of this car, the one thing that really jumped out was that interior – was that colour correct, we wondered?
The guys at West Coast Classics assure us this car is correct in every detail. Who are we to argue?
As far as we have been able to ascertain, Canadian Standards more commonly came with a spec somewhere between the German home market cars and the more usual Export models – that is to say they had no chrome body trim, but chrome handles, bumpers, headlight rings and hubcaps. Two horn grilles seems to have been normal but, unlike others we have seen, this one also has side and bonnet trim and both bonnet badges.
To order a car in the spec you see here would have been a very strange thing to do indeed as you’d effectively be ordering a Deluxe model but deleting such fripperies as a full headliner, carpet on the central tunnel and easily adjustable seats. It’s unlikely you’d save any money doing that, and would certainly pay extra for the privilege of the special order paint and sunroof, so you’d be paying more for less and getting what you could buy off the showroom floor as a Deluxe anyway. Still, you know what they say, there’s nowt as queer as folk.
What makes this particular car even more of an anomaly today is the addition of some very rare and desirable accessories, but at least we know those definitely didn’t come with the car from new, but were added by arch vintage VW parts collector Henry Marchena, who owned the ’56 when it underwent its restoration. Personally, as much as we love the look of that full circle horn ring – and we are assured it’s one made for a Standard 3-spoke steering wheel – we can’t help but think it seems out of place on this particular car. Likewise, others would offer up body parts for the super-rare day/night rear view mirror. The stock Standard rear view mirror is a beautiful piece in its own right, coming as it does with a simple, black finished arm and no sun visors to get in the way.
Whatever the real story is behind this intriguing car, it stands up as yet another stunning piece of restoration work from the guys at West Coast Classics and, as it now lives in a VW dealership in Miami, will hopefully exist for years to come, to perplex and baffle any VW lovers who have the chance to see it for real.