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Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:52 pm

Does anyone have a breakdown on production totals per year and model of what came out of the westfalia plant and would love to see any pictures of busses in for conversion.

Wed Dec 11, 2013 12:24 am

I think most of these records were lost in a fire at the Westfalia factory. For the SO-42's you could get a general idea of the number based on the highest known Fabrik-Nr. The SO-42 registry located here has some records although it does not appear to be updated much:

http://www.so-42.com

For example, in 1967 the highest Fabrik-Nr. is 12664 for a bus made in June which is late in production for 1967. For 1966, Fabrik-Nr. 6241 is the last listed for a bus built in June of 66. For 1965, Fabrik-Nr. 1383 is the last listed (build date unknown). Other plates have since been found so the numbers below have been updated to reflect that (1965 production now known to extend to at least Fabrik Nr. 2162).

Based on those you could probably say SO-42 production was roughly (figures edited based on additional detail from Clara):

1965: Fabrik Nr. 1-2200 (about 2200 produced)
1966: Fabrik Nr. 2200-6900 (about 4700 produced)
1967: Fabrik Nr. 6900-12700 (about 5800 produced)

SO-42 total production of around 12,700.

Per Clara:
Quote: FWIW they made 148 459 buses in 1967. If 6400 were SO-42 westies, that is 4.3% of all 1967 model year production.

Those are just estimates of course but probably the closest you can find unless there is still some factory documentation of production available. This assumes that Westfalia issued the Fabrik-Nr. sequentially and did not skip numbers.

I'm sure Lind or some of the other Westy experts can add additional detail about earlier Westy production. Lind used to maintain a complete Westfalia registry although it's been offline for a while so I'm not sure what it actually contained.

This thread has a few Westfalia factory photos (albeit from mostly later years):

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=539958&sid=be6792362fb6e18b2d1e8603e370865d
Here's an early one:

Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:38 am

How rare are SO23's?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:06 am

CommodoreCollector wrote: How rare are SO23's?

they're not. but some so-23's are more rare than others due to options available and originality.

Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:47 am

I think we only have some idea of production for the number tagged busses (so-42's as above and so-44's)
I think very roughly 500 or so SO-44's may have been made

Depending on the source by 58 or 59 Westfalia production had reached 1000 units

to quote one of the experts on frequency (quote from 2005)

Lind wrote:
SO-33s aren't rare. nor are SO-23/SO-34/SO-42. SO/35/SO-36/SO-44 are uncommon. SO-45, SO-22 and any of the pre-SO campers are rare.

off the top of my head, the frequency of campers is something like:
most common
SO-42
SO-23
SO-34
SO-33
SO-44
SO-35
SO-36
mosaik
'58 only
springframe
campingbox
SO-45
SO-22
least common

Some of this may have changed due to the discovery of new busses.

Lind would you make any changes to this now?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 11:12 am

I recall reading that were only about 100 pre 1960 Westies know to exist.
That stands to reason that if there were about 1000 made by ~1960, roughly ten per cent would survive.

Anyone confirm or deny?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 11:20 am

Riff Raff wrote: I recall reading that were only about 100 pre 1960 Westies know to exist.
That stands to reason that if there were about 1000 made by ~1960, roughly ten per cent would survive.
Anyone confirm or deny?

There are 126 SO-23's on the Registry Alex was doing - last updated in 2007 (112 1960 and earlier)

http://so-23.com/

I would imagine there are many more that exist (as these are just one camper configuration and people connected to the internet, also last updated 2007)

Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:09 pm

A quote from Clara in another thread:

Quote: I think 'mass production' might be a mis-nomer. In 1959 they made the 1000th VW Westfalia camper, an SO-23. The camping box versions (standard and export) were very low production number. I would guess a few hundred would be an optimistic number. (There would be more of the 57/58 kit, and the SO-23 kit) There are more bd deluxes around than campingbox westies. Each campingbox (the box behind the driver) seems to be slightly different.

Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:39 pm

does anyone know the vin # of the 1000th westy?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 5:47 pm

TRG wrote: does anyone know the vin # of the 1000th westy?

I have a '59 SO-23, that would be rad if it turned out to be the 1000th.

Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:16 pm

Braukuche wrote: TRG wrote: does anyone know the vin # of the 1000th westy?

I have a '59 SO-23, that would be rad if it turned out to be the 1000th.

right! mine is 02 02 9, when was yours built?

Thu Dec 12, 2013 7:44 am

TRG wrote: Braukuche wrote: TRG wrote: does anyone know the vin # of the 1000th westy?

I have a '59 SO-23, that would be rad if it turned out to be the 1000th.

right! mine is 02 02 9, when was yours built?

Mine is 24 09 09, pretty late I guess.

Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:37 am

TRG wrote: Braukuche wrote: TRG wrote: does anyone know the vin # of the 1000th westy?

I have a '59 SO-23, that would be rad if it turned out to be the 1000th.

right! mine is 02 02 9, when was yours built?

no way! that's my birthday! albeit 28 years earlier

Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:41 am

Here is Feb. 3 '59

Thu Dec 12, 2013 5:12 pm

Long-roofs wrote: Here is Feb. 3 '59

36hp with split case trans?

Fri Dec 13, 2013 6:24 pm

last splitcase/36hp bus was chassis #469 505

Fri Dec 13, 2013 6:33 pm

Long-roofs wrote: Here is Feb. 3 '59

thats awesome…just over 500 apart. similar m codes as well. does/did yours have a heater installed? mine does, and i thought that may explain the 544 code.

Fri Dec 13, 2013 6:41 pm

sled wrote: TRG wrote: Braukuche wrote: TRG wrote: does anyone know the vin # of the 1000th westy?

I have a '59 SO-23, that would be rad if it turned out to be the 1000th.

right! mine is 02 02 9, when was yours built?

no way! that's my birthday! albeit 28 years earlier

cool. your westy is lookin real nice. that color is killer.

sorry, back to production totals...

Sat Dec 14, 2013 12:18 am

srfndoc wrote: I think most of these records were lost in a fire at the Westfalia factory. For the SO-42's you could get a general idea of the number based on the highest known Fabrik-Nr. The SO-42 registry located here has some records although it does not appear to be updated much:

http://www.so-42.com

For example, in 1967 the highest Fabrik-Nr. is 12664 for a bus made in June which is the last month of production for 1967. For 1966, Fabrik-Nr. 6241 is the last listed for a bus built in June of 66. For 1965, Fabrik-Nr. 1383 is the last listed (build date unknown).

Based on those you could probably say SO-42 production was roughly:

1965 - 1400
1966 - 6300
1967 - 12700

FWIW, the numbers for SO-42s did not restart each year. There were about 13000 SO-42 campers made over 1965-1967.

so you would say
1965 - 1400
1966 - 6300-1400 =4900
1967 - 12700-6300 = 6400

FWIW they made 148 459 buses in 1967.
If 6400 were SO-42 westies, that is 4.3% of all 1967 model year production.

Sat Dec 14, 2013 5:04 am

That's great to know, thanks. I guess that supports what I've heard about dealers saying it was very hard to get Westfalia's from VW as they were in short supply (hence the market for OTW buses).