This car was originally purchased at the dealership in Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1955. I found it under canvas in 2006 in Racine Wisconsin and spent two years restoring it back to its original condition when it left the Karmann factory in Osnabruck, Germany. 1955 represented a year where several significant changes were made "mid year" in transition to the 1956 models imported to the US.

The semaphores (flag style turn signals) were replaced with the more traditional style turn signals, the bumper over-rides as provided on this car were added to the front and the rear bumpers, and twin tail pipe exhaust replaced the single tail pipe as provided on this VW.

This car has only one of the three major changes, the addition of bumper over-rides, which partially block the tail lights. This was corrected in 1956 with larger tail lights moved up on the fender.