TheSamba.com :: View topic - When you tore into it, what did you find different?

Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:39 am

I suppose I should be used to it by now, but I keep finding things on my bugs that don't match the year and descriptions in the manuals. I'm talking about things that I know weren't modified by a PO. Did VW sometimes just install stuff that they had excess of in the assembly line? :wink:

Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:03 am

harryset wrote: I suppose I should be used to it by now, but I keep finding things on my bugs that don't match the year and descriptions in the manuals. I'm talking about things that I know weren't modified by a PO. Did VW sometimes just install stuff that they had excess of in the assembly line? :wink:

NO.
Many times the manuals are wrong. Even the Bentley.
I found one in the Type 3 Bentley a while back. The picture of the fuse box is a Bug fuse box, not a Type 3.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:41 am

30 years, 40 years, 50 years or more.....a lot can happen and a lot of things can get changed that appear to be factory now, but weren't when the car rolled out of Wolfsburg.

Even when the cars were young and serviced by the dealers, things got changed due to parts availability and the owners wishes and demands.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:52 am

I have made changes to my VWs, but I always tried to use VW parts and make it look stock.

For example, when I wanted to add fuses, I cut out the right side "blank" for RHD cars and added a second stock fuse box. I used a 4-way flasher switch for foglamps, using a late gas heater knob with the "heating coil" emblem buffed off.

These improvements looked stock since they used stock parts, and I could go to a dealer or parts house for parts, and they'd have them in stock. I find a lot of owners do this, using later stock parts, or those from another VW model.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:32 pm

VW used to retrofit upgraded parts in dealer service departments from time to time as well. Kept inventory manageable.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:39 pm

Blasphemy to stock nuts, but when the windshield was out of my '65, I cut the center dash to install the '66/'67 center defrost outlet, and got the right hoses/connections from a junkyard. I also installed a '66-type flasher setup with 4-ways. Oh, and I added the headlamp relay and flasher button (the stock T/S arm was already drilled and threaded to take it!)

I sold it years ago. But it must drive whowever is buying it now nuts when they see it, thinking it's a '66, and then double-check the VIN! They probably suspect it's a '66 body on a '65 pan (ball joints,etc). ;-)

Thu Mar 04, 2010 2:45 pm

harryset wrote: I suppose I should be used to it by now, but I keep finding things on my bugs that don't match the year and descriptions in the manuals. I'm talking about things that I know weren't modified by a PO. Did VW sometimes just install stuff that they had excess of in the assembly line? :wink:

You KNOW??? How do you know? Was it your father or a close friend still alive and talking to you? Or do you simply ASSUME?

As already mentioned, a lot has happened to these cars in the past four or five decades that you have no clue about.

Please give us some particular items that are different than you think they should be. The general "things" is very vague. Give us chassis number and item, people here will tell you factory or not.

Dave

Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:21 pm

I think I know what the OP is talking about. For example, my '72 Super has lobster claw seat belts, which aren't too common on later models. Most of the late models made in '72 that I've seen have the newer style retractable belts. I also know they are what was on the car from the factory, being friends with the PO. How it ended up with those seat belts, I dunno.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 6:11 pm

72 would have had to have had 3 point belts to be brought into the USA. Even if it was bought overseas, it had to have USA spec components to enter the USA.
The lobster claws were someones change along the way.

Thu Mar 04, 2010 6:26 pm

Russ Wolfe wrote: harryset wrote: I suppose I should be used to it by now, but I keep finding things on my bugs that don't match the year and descriptions in the manuals. I'm talking about things that I know weren't modified by a PO. Did VW sometimes just install stuff that they had excess of in the assembly line? :wink:

NO.
Many times the manuals are wrong. Even the Bentley.
I found one in the Type 3 Bentley a while back. The picture of the fuse box is a Bug fuse box, not a Type 3.

yeah!

Thu Mar 04, 2010 6:34 pm

Russ Wolfe wrote: 72 would have had to have had 3 point belts to be brought into the USA. Even if it was bought overseas, it had to have USA spec components to enter the USA.
The lobster claws were someones change along the way.

They are 3 point lobster claws. And nothing was changed along the way, everything on the interior of that car was original when I got it, seat belts included.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 9:47 am

On my first '74, the speedometer had been replaced with one for 1968 models. It looked fairly clean for its age despite the rest of the car.
At the time I wanted to find a correct one and didn't care or know that some would pay money for certain parts, so gave it away for free. It may have been NOS for all I can remember..

Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:33 pm

TheRustySuper wrote: Russ Wolfe wrote: 72 would have had to have had 3 point belts to be brought into the USA. Even if it was bought overseas, it had to have USA spec components to enter the USA.
The lobster claws were someones change along the way.

They are 3 point lobster claws. And nothing was changed along the way, everything on the interior of that car was original when I got it, seat belts included.

When did you get it?
When did the person you got it from get it?
When did the person before him get it?
We could go back a dozen or more owners, isn't unheard of and can be quite common with these old cars.

If you got it from the original owner who got it NEW from a VW dealership and It came that way, start documenting, you may have something. Any different, it's been changed along the way by someone for some reason unknown to you or us.
VW wasn't a disorganized mish mash of odd parts piled in corners and Gustav yelled over to Helmut "hey!! I found a few old lobster claw belts over here under these old rags, let's slip them in the next couple of cars Okay".(only in German)

Dave

Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:11 pm

Those belts may have been added, because of someones disability. They needed something easier to unbuckle.
Many things got changed at the dealer because the customer wanted it that way.
Changed the tires from Firestone to Continentals on many a VW, after a strike at the local Firestone plant cost a lot of people their jobs.
Unless your yourself are the original owner of the car, there is no way to tell when a part was put on a car.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:36 pm

djkeev wrote: TheRustySuper wrote: Russ Wolfe wrote: 72 would have had to have had 3 point belts to be brought into the USA. Even if it was bought overseas, it had to have USA spec components to enter the USA.
The lobster claws were someones change along the way.

They are 3 point lobster claws. And nothing was changed along the way, everything on the interior of that car was original when I got it, seat belts included.

When did you get it?
When did the person you got it from get it?
When did the person before him get it?
We could go back a dozen or more owners, isn't unheard of and can be quite common with these old cars.

If you got it from the original owner who got it NEW from a VW dealership and It came that way, start documenting, you may have something. Any different, it's been changed along the way by someone for some reason unknown to you or us.
VW wasn't a disorganized mish mash of odd parts piled in corners and Gustav yelled over to Helmut "hey!! I found a few old lobster claw belts over here under these old rags, let's slip them in the next couple of cars Okay".(only in German)

Dave

I know the people who bought it new, and that's how it came. It was a demonstrator car as well...I dunno if that would have anything to do with it.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:28 pm

TheRustySuper wrote: djkeev wrote: TheRustySuper wrote: Russ Wolfe wrote: 72 would have had to have had 3 point belts to be brought into the USA. Even if it was bought overseas, it had to have USA spec components to enter the USA.
The lobster claws were someones change along the way.

They are 3 point lobster claws. And nothing was changed along the way, everything on the interior of that car was original when I got it, seat belts included.

When did you get it?
When did the person you got it from get it?
When did the person before him get it?
We could go back a dozen or more owners, isn't unheard of and can be quite common with these old cars.

If you got it from the original owner who got it NEW from a VW dealership and It came that way, start documenting, you may have something. Any different, it's been changed along the way by someone for some reason unknown to you or us.
VW wasn't a disorganized mish mash of odd parts piled in corners and Gustav yelled over to Helmut "hey!! I found a few old lobster claw belts over here under these old rags, let's slip them in the next couple of cars Okay".(only in German)

Dave

I know the people who bought it new, and that's how it came. It was a demonstrator car as well...I dunno if that would have anything to do with it.

I've seen 3 point lobster claws on Euro models.

Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:32 pm

one of my '73 supers has a center seat belt in the rear, my other ones, don't.

Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:33 am

Bought my 62 beetle from a minister and missonary. Never wrecked. Just needs a generator. Got it home and learned it had a new front end grafted on. IT ALSO HAS BALL JOINTS ON THE FRONT END. Oh, and a hole in the block.

Gives me a jaundiced opinion of people of the cloth.

Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:39 am

hd74cid wrote: Bought my 62 beetle from a minister and missonary. Never wrecked. Just needs a generator. Got it home and learned it had a new front end grafted on. IT ALSO HAS BALL JOINTS ON THE FRONT END. Oh, and a hole in the block.

Gives me a jaundiced opinion of people of the cloth.

No, he probably didn't know any better. IT does however prove that these cars have passed through so many owners who have done so many things to them that for most, it's really hard to tell what is original and what isn't.

Dave