This Wrought Iron VW Beetle Is One Of The ‘Real’ Ones And Yeah I’ll Explain What That Means

I encountered my first wrought-iron Volkswagen Beetle decades ago, around when I first moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s. I think it was at the Eagle Rock-based shop I used to bring my Beetle to, and I remember being pretty delighted by the thing. It was such an odd thing to see, like a ghost of a car, all gossamer and etherial, like a lot of lace that was once draped over a Beetle and then assumed its shape.

Over the years I’ve seen pictures of more of these wrought-iron Beetles, and seen a few others in person. I even got to drive one from Volkswagen’s classic collection, which was a huge treat. But I’d never really known the full story about them until quite recently.

This past week in Monterey, I got to see another wrought iron Beetle –a real one, and I’ll explain what I mean by that, I promise – and finally learned more of the story behind these things, and who was responsible for them in the first place. Some of this information I found thanks to research by noted VW collector and historian Randy Carlson, whom I absolutely trust as a source.

 

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The wrought iron Beetles – sometimes called “wedding cars” because of, well, I guess they’d make good wedding cars? – were the work of an artist named Rafael Esparza-Prieto, a Mexican blacksmith who had worked with metal ever since he was a kid.

While in Zacatecas, the owner of an auto parts store asked him to build a wrought iron car to bring attention to the business. I don’t know exactly why Esparza-Prieto chose a Beetle as the basis for this wrought iron car, but I have some pretty good guesses: first, Beetles were extremely common in Mexico, and were built locally there at the Puebla factory since 1967. And nextfully, there’s the fact that a Beetle is rear-engined, meaning that in a car with a body that’s mostly open space, you won’t have to worry about engine heat and fumes coming at your face nonstop while you drive.

That first wrought-iron Beetle was a big hit, and was spotted by someone from the Puebla VW factory, who asked Esparza-Prieto if he could build more. This ended up becoming an order from Volkswagen to build two more for use at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

These two cars gathered a lot of attention, and resulted in Volkswagen ordering 18 more, which were sent to VW dealers in the United States and other countries. So, that’s 20 “official” VW-ordered wrought-iron Beetles.

Esparza-Prieto himself built two more on his own when he moved to California, so those plus the VW ones plus that very first one bring the “official” total to 23 wrought-iron Beetles.

Other talented metalworkers have built their own versions of these wrought-iron Beetles, but this particular one that was up for auction (and sold for $58,800) is a genuine Esparza-Prieto-built car. There’s all sorts of wonderful details on this thing, some pleasingly whimsical, like the fact that he kept the air intake vents for the engine, even though the whole damn car is an air intake vent.

This car is based on a 1970 Beetle, but Esparza-Prieto did add at least one detail from earlier Beetles, those little oval horn grilles you can see below the headlights. The taillights are from the actual 1970 car, as they have the side marker reflectors, and the front indicators have been reversed side-to-side so they present more chrome on their outer side as opposed to the amber marker lamp.

Looking at the engine, there’s an interesting detail to note: see that black cylinder on the right, by the rear wheel? That’s a vacuum reservoir for the automatic clutch, because this car has VW’s semi-automatic transmission!

Looking inside, we can confirm this by the two-pedal layout. I also really like how the artist made a slot for a non-existent radio in the dashboard. There’s no instruments, just a knob for the headlights and hazard lights, and that’s it.

The hood opens, so you could theoretically put stuff in the trunk, though I’m not sure how protected it would be?

These are such magical cars, and being able to see what I know is a real one, built by Rafael Esparza-Prieto himself, was such a treat. Each bit of elegantly curving metal on this thing was shaped by his hands, heated and bent, making that lovely “peacock” design on the doors and all those wonderful loops and twists.

It’s just maybe not the ideal choice for rainy climates.