It's possible because this is exactly how it was painted. The rear Window went up into the air and the the rear Gate went down. So, this allowed me to leave the gate up and open the rear window and put out our 10 foot 4 inch surfboards when we drove to the beaches of Malibu and Huntington Beach then in 1964 to 1966 while I owned this car The boards hung out around 2 to 3 feet but it was okay back then to do this. We left the fin or skeg as we called it then hanging out the back of our boards so it didn't break off by accident. When I graduated High School in 1966 my parents wanted me to trade my car in for a 1965 VW Bug for college as it was more economical than the Ford. However, I drove this car all over southern California, San Diego, Mt. Waterman, Palm Springs, La Jolla etc. with this car. I drove about 200 to 400 miles a weekend because gas was only 17cents a gallon for regular and I made part time anywhere from 2,50 an hour to $3.00 an hour which then was 2 1/2 the minimum wage to 3 times the minimum wage by the time I was 16 part time. However, there was a lack of people to employ then in the U.S. Unemployment was between 1% to 3 to 4% at most back then. But, making 3 times the minimum wage at age 16 likely would be pretty unusual or almost impossible at age 16 now. minimum wage was around 1 dollar to $1.16 and hour then.
This is what my 1965 bug looked like with white interior. 30 miles per gallon when gas was only about 17 cents a gallon or less then meant I could drive from Los Angeles to Mt. Shasta for less than $10. So, it's about 600 miles to drive from Los Angeles to Mt. Shasta. Actually after getting a calculator out I realized I was wrong. Basically, you could then drive in my bug from Los Angeles to mt. shasta and back for under 10 Dollars. At 17 cents a gallon it's only $3.40 to drive to Mt. Shasta from Los Angeles but here's the thing: gas was only this cheap a couple of places in Los Angeles not all along the way. I climbed Mt. Shasta in 1970 in August with friends and when we almost froze to death and died on Mt. Shasta during Christmas Vacation of 1970 all I saw when the white out passed the next morning and we dug down and realized it was road only the top 3 inches of the aerial on my bug were visible above the snow then. This bug has it's aerial telescoped down. Mine was all the way up because I liked to listen to the radio driving so the aerial was extended above the roof.
Three of us also rock climbed in the winter or any time of year in Yosemite national Park from this bug. If it snowed we just put our sleeping bags under the bug and left our heads out back then in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Actually, thinking back I had two bugs. I bought this one in 1966 (a 65) and then in 1968 was working on computers so I could afford a Camaro. Then in 1970 or 1971 I went back to college a 2nd time and bought a 1966 Bug of the same exact color and a little more power. Same color and same interior exactly after I burnt out programming computers and realized I didn't want to do that the rest of my life because RAM didn't exist yet for Business computers for programmers then.
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