Butt-Welded: ’70 VW Karmann Ghia
Concept cars are created to judge public response and the possible success if it is placed in production. Well, back in 1953 VW executives felt they needed a halo vehicle to add to the line-up so they commissioned a styling concept created by Ghia’s Luigi Segre. It was a success. 
They contracted Karmann to build the car in Osnabruck using old style, time-consuming techniques like butt-welding body panels, hand-shaped and smoothed with English pewter – in other words, more money. The rest of the car is Type 1. The marketing people at Doyle, Dane, Bernbach created a classic campaign for the new car aiming at the excesses of true sports cars – Maybe you don’t want to drive a wild-horse, a man-eating tiger or a killer fish…
Did you know that 80% of milk delivery before WW II was delivered to the home by truck? And by the 1970s, that practice almost totally disappeared most likely due to the invention of the convenience store and women joining the workforce. During the heyday of home delivery, a Michigan truck manufacturer, DIVCO, dominated this segment. Unfortunately most of the curvy DIVCOs have been scrapped or litter the back roads of America. How did this one survive, you ask? Well it almost didn’t. It was saved by 2 brothers whose dad drove one on his milk route throughout their childhood. The brothers spent over 3,000 hours combining the one from the field with the drivetrain of another. So it took 2 DIVCOs to realize this beautiful restoration. No detail was overlooked as they tried earnestly to be faithful to the memories of their dad. By the way, both boys were taught how to drive as soon as they could see over the steering wheel…standing up! 
