TheSamba.com :: View topic - This isnt VW38 but whats the history of this car?

Sat May 05, 2012 11:16 am

Ive just come across this looking through Google, it looks like its in the VW musuem and it says 1938 on the plate but i thought VW38 was the only concept VW left? Im a newbie to all the VW history but im loving learning about it, also im visiting the museum next year.

Sat May 05, 2012 11:22 am

There are 3 VW38's known to exist. 2 of which belong to the Wolfsburg Museum. VW38/03 and VW38/31. And the third is owned by Christian Grundmann and that's VW38/06. That "VW38" appears to be VW38/03, in which case, it's the oldest VW in the world and it's legitimate.
VW38/03(Owned by the Wolfsburg Museum and with Nr.2 license plate)

VW38/06(Owned by Christian Grundmann)

VW38/31 (Hitler's Cabrio, Owned by the Wolfsburg Museum)

Sat May 05, 2012 11:24 am

i never knew this!

any shots of the other car about?

Thanks

Sat May 05, 2012 11:31 am

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=340552

That's the entire thread about the restoration of VW38/06 by Christian Grundmann and the Hessich Oldendorf team. It's an incredible story and even to this very day, they are still finding parts here and there to restore and install on the car, give it a read!

Sat May 05, 2012 11:36 am

PatterBon wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=340552

That's the entire thread about the restoration of VW38/06 by Christian Grundmann and the Hessich Oldendorf team. It's an incredible story and even to this very day, they are still finding parts here and there to restore and install on the car, give it a read!

yea ive read the whole thread and seen the car at Volksworld 2012

Thanks thats another thing learnt 8)

all amazing cars

Sat May 05, 2012 11:41 am

No problem, I'm sure others will chime in with more info. Bjoern Schewe is an absolute gold mine of info about these cars. If something is to be known about them, he's the man who will have the answers.

There is also an imposter VW38 in Japan. It's a replica of them, but it's the wrong color and I don't know the quality of it.

Sat May 05, 2012 11:51 am

PatterBon wrote: No problem, I'm sure others will chime in with more info. Bjoern Schewe is an absolute gold mine of info about these cars. If something is to be known about them, he's the man who will have the answers.

There is also an imposter VW38 in Japan. It's a replica of them, but it's the wrong color and I don't know the quality of it.

based on a KDF Beetle? are they claiming its a VW38?

Sat May 05, 2012 11:57 am

They do claim that it's a replica, but I don't know if it has a split chassis under it or not, or if the entire car was reproduced. That's something that a real split expert would have to chime in an tell us.

Sat May 05, 2012 1:00 pm

If I am not mistaken it is the Japanese 1942 KDF from the registry here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/registry/

So no VW38 but still pretty old and rare. Btw how do you know the color is wrong? All pics form that period of time are b&w so who can tell for sure? :wink:

Sat May 05, 2012 1:53 pm

MDKG wrote: If I am not mistaken it is the Japanese 1942 KDF from the registry here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/registry/

So no VW38 but still pretty old and rare. Btw how do you know the color is wrong? All pics form that period of time are b&w so who can tell for sure? :wink:

It is time to update that registry. Looks like the VW38/06 is missing.
And I also read somewere that the 1939 was lost in a fire...

Sun May 06, 2012 4:10 am

There seems to be very little information on the VW38/03 out there. It was restored right after the war using a lot of parts from regular post-war split beetles. Then in the nineties it was redone to look more correct.

Here is a picture of what it looked like between those restorations.

and the story as written in the book published by the VW Museum in Wolfsburg.

These are pictures of what the car looks like now after its second restoration

Sun May 06, 2012 10:06 am

good info, id have loved to see what it looked like before restoration 8)

Sun May 06, 2012 12:18 pm

I had read that the blue car in Japan was a VW38 replica, my bad..And Undis, thos pictures are incredible! Looks like it's restoration quality was right up there with VW38/06.

Also, Ste-9n2, VW38/31 is undergoing restoration, or it was as of 2010. So all 3 VW38's (I would assume) are under going, or have undergone a complete and correct restoration.

Sun May 06, 2012 5:56 pm

VW 38-03 still has a few things incorrect, such as later doors, bumper supports, gas tank and so forth, but the restoration was sympathetic for the time. The VW 38-06 has taken Volkswagen restoration to an entirely new level.

I believe the convertible is next up on the restoration agenda, but its restoration is steeped in controversy because it's the same car that was presented to Hitler on his 50th birthday. You can imagine restoration of the car is not the greatest PR for Volkswagen.

Sun May 06, 2012 6:44 pm

I would say that out of the three surviving VW38s the 03 is the least correct. Going by the story in the book (posted above) and from what I have heard, only the body was found after the war. The body was pretty rough with the front end damaged by the wood burner installation. Keep in mind the restoration was done in the early ‘50ies when being correct and authentic was not a priority. Close enough was good enough, that is why the 03 has later split doors (location of inner handles, regular ice-pick handles on the outside), later front and rear aprons, later front fenders, lights, hood and deck lid handles plus numerous other areas. In the pre-restoration pictures you can see that the front hood had later style rounded corners as a result of using numerous sheet-metal parts from production cars.

The Cabrio VW38/31 has survived in a much better form with most of its bodywork intact. It served as a great reference for the replication of the missing lower and inner bodywork of the Grundmann’s VW38/06 just as the VW38/03 provided reference for the missing rear window and dash areas.

If one wants to see what a pre-production VW really looked like down to the smallest detail, then the Grundmann’s VW38/06 is the best example. The surviving body had the missing areas rebuilt by hand using the Cabrio and the surviving areas of the 03 as reference. Original technical drawings were used where no real-life reference was available. Besides the bodywork, the VE38/06 also has a correct chassis, transmission and now a date correct E-60 engine.

Mon May 07, 2012 1:36 am

Ive only just learnt of VW38/06 and im amazed by the retoration and history of the car, thats whats got me interested in the history of these `birth of Volkwagen` cars. Im currently translating the 06 Book! Anyway as much as we hate Hitler and the awful history of Germany during the war its history that i think people should still be able to see. I hope 31 is viewable next year when i visit the factory. Thanks Undis i love your knowledge! :)

Mon May 07, 2012 12:23 pm

pbaptist wrote:
And I also read somewere that the 1939 was lost in a fire...

Good point Patrick. I never did get to hear what happened to the Raffay VW39.

Björn: did you hear anything?

Mon May 07, 2012 4:36 pm

On the vw38.de website, in their registry, they have pictures of a VW39.

Here:
http://www.vw38.de/home/index.php?option=com_joomg...mp;lang=en

Mon May 07, 2012 6:44 pm

Why does the vin tag of the VW39 say "VW38" on it?

Mon May 07, 2012 11:46 pm

Shadd wrote: Why does the vin tag of the VW39 say "VW38" on it?

That is a repop. So it says whatever someone stamped in/on it.