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56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles
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esde
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2023 6:40 pm    Post subject: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

I've been uploading pictures of this car for a while and answering many questions, but haven't found the time to start a thread till now.. so this will be a barrage of pictures.
This is not a car I really ever thought I would own, but somehow that's how things happened and I couldn't be happier. I met the owners when they bought a 65 tin top westy that was stored at my business, and we became friends. Dan came over to help install the glass in this zwitter project https://tinyurl.com/34epear4 and he drove this car over. It was the first time I had ever seen it in person and I was amazed at how clean and original it was.
Here it is at first look
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Now obviously the exterior has been resprayed and the seat covers arent correct, but how often do you see a nice oval vert that hasn't been restored?
I floated the idea that if he ever thought to sell it, we should talk. At some point over several months, he decided 3 red cars (beetle, bus, and 914) were too many red cars, and a deal was made...
I picked the car up in January and stashed it in my shop to install some seat belts, and wait for nice weather to bring it home (and to tell my wife Shocked )
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Here it is in the shop, literally the first real inspection I gave it
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So, after a good hard look, the bad: it has aftermarket bumpers, an incorrect top, a non original motor (maybe, maybe not though), exterior respray, and it was hit once in the passenger rear corner. The right rear fender has been replaced, and this buckling is the only damage from the hit
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There is some previous rust that was repaired in the front of the driver heater channel and rear crossmembers under the back seat. Not great repairs, but adequate and certainly fine to keep the car in it's original driver state. I did get the original right rear fender, which is excellent by todays standards, and the original bumpers which are pitted (but are nice enough to be re plated)
The good: It is all there, and it all works. Everything fits and the car is wonderful to drive. It starts right up, pops out of third if you don't baby it, gets smiles everywhere, and my family loves it.
All the weird vert stuff, like the hinge covers and the vert mirror, has all survived.
Here are all the pics I have of it and some of what's been done since I got it:
First trip over the bridge into Philly. Almost made 55 going uphill on the bridge!
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Posing outside at my shop
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I decided to dig into the front and rear brakes. Turning all 4 drums got a nice steady pedal with no pulsing. While the wheels were off I found:
3 of the 4 trim rings are dated 55
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under the white and black spray paint on the wheel centers was some beige.
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I decided to try out what might be the correct wheel color and had a rattle can mixed to match
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Pretty happy with the results
I had traded an original theater poster for the Great Escape for this gas can, and it's a much better match than the empi tool kit
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Replaced the original passenger mirror for this one from WCM, which I can almost see out of
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And with the magnolia tree in full bloom
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We packed it up and dragged it to Flanders All Air Cooled Gathering. This was the first time my wife and both kids came with me, and camped. We had an excellent time, though a little cold. I met a ton of people that wanted to talk about the car, which was great. Learned a bunch too
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The picture of dad c comes to every show
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morning dew
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my kids. The westy in the background belongs to Dan and Kari, who I got the car from
56cabrio pointed out a few late 55 things to look out for, like these snowflake light brackets with the tabs turned up
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and the lenses with no part number
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Here is where it's stashed now, next to my ratty rusty 65 bus "the Bavarian"
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The replacement top is well installed and has worn well. I'm being very careful with it. The 56 dated NJ plates have been registered with the car!
You can see the chrome on the drivers side window frames is trashed and has been painted silver. One of the things I hope to do in the next several years is have all the chrome replated. Yes I know it's $$$
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small tear in the top
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Amazing, for the age of the thing
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Passenger visor has been swapped but I have a correct one to put in
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Here you can see the paint difference between the original interior paint and the exterior
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Which leads me to the color. I believe it's L259 Pelican red, which was apparently an option as any of the Ghia colors could have been sprayed at Karman coachwork. Theres no crayon mark under the rear window to confirm and I haven't ordered a birth cert for it yet.
Here's another Pelican red vert, this is an early 55, thats in in Massachusetts
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And then to the interior, it was black and red which I have not been. able to find any documentation of. But here it is
Door panels: note the textured red piping.
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Here is a pic of the seats before they were recovered. They look good int he pics, but I was assured they had deteriorated in a weird way. It seems the vinyl was extremely brittle and delicate, but the surface had gotten soft and slimy. I have a few scraps of the fabric in an envelope, but it's been misplaced somewhere here in the house..
Hard to see in this pic, but red seating and back surface, black sides and seat backs, red piping
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I'm searching for the right red piping, and will have correct seat covers made as the originals. Thats on the list for next year
Supposedly the engine was swapped for another at some point. BUT, this is a 56 engine number, and it has the correct 56 wavy top pump... could it be correct?
The engine number is off a few months from the body number, but with the cars going to Karmann.. how close are the body numbers to engine numbers with the
coach built cars?
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And lastly, but of most importance, meet the original owner Jimmy Sprinkles.
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After he passed, his kids sold the car to a local collector, who traded it to Dan for a BMW motorcycle, and then I bought it. I'm pretty sure this car was originally housed just 11-12 miles from my house, so it's always been local. There's more to the story, which I'll fill in w my next post. I'm waiting on more old pics and to confirm some of the back story before posting it.
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Last edited by esde on Wed Oct 18, 2023 4:32 am; edited 1 time in total
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56Cabrio
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2023 11:05 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Very cool post and what a beautiful vert you have Seth. Maybe our cars could have been built on the same day, that would be neat. Another thing I forgot to mention, all my windows have the 1955 big sekurit logos.
Jimmy Sprinkles, what a cool name. It sounds like a name my grandfather would have been friends with on Sullivan street in Greenwich Village.
Thanks for sharing.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 4:53 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

nice car! the number plate is great and the name jimmy sprinkles is perfect - it reminds me of grayson perry's teddy bear called alan measles Laughing
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 6:02 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Beautiful vert! Congrats, cars like that dont pop up very often.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 6:39 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

welcome to the oval vert club you will enjoy it.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 8:24 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Awesome find and super nice car.

I think of that fuel pump as 1955 but maybe it went into the '56 model year?
I may have missed where you said what month/year the car is...

You said the engine # is a few months off from the body # but do you mean the VIN #? They should be pretty close and I think that's true even for Karmann-built cars. If you want to post up the VIN # and engine # we can verify things for you.

The door panel trim sort of looks like early Barndoor Deluxe seat or middle seat kick panel beading if that helps. I don't know if your original seat beading is textured or smooth but later Barndoor Deluxe seat beading are smooth, like my '55 Bus:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=684344
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 8:29 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Seth, that car is AWESOME! You lucky F’r! Did I read that right, the headliner is OG? Damn!

This will be fun to watch!
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 9:28 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Very good story, my Inca red car is very much like yours, never fully restored, but much needed maintenance has been done, new rubber, newly chromed window frames, new door cards, new top, heater channels repaired. Then enjoy, I drive mine at every opportunity. And love the Inca color, it is magnificent at sunset…
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esde
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 6:29 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

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So the car is titled as a 56, but the vin number puts it as August of 55. The engine number 1577753 indicates October 56.
I'm not sure where on Samba convertible body numbers are listed? I found some posts discussing body numbers and build dates, and if they are correct my body number falls somewhere in August/ September 55.
56cabrio, how close to mine is your car?
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 10:35 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

absolutely beautiful! Cant wait to see the new seat covers.

So interesting, Ive never seen the made in western germany tag riveted on before. Usually the VIN tag is riveted and the MIWG tag is screwed. It looks like you have the large head screws for your VIN tag like mine and a few other vert owners.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 19, 2023 8:28 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

My body # under front bonnet 15-25929
Eng# 1-0993706
Chassis # 1-1015501
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 19, 2023 8:58 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Wauw, that is a beauty! Cool Cool
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 2:19 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

VW_Jimbo wrote:
Did I read that right, the headliner is OG? Damn!

almost not. looks like replacement headliner, og would have been made of stretch wool fabric.

fine car,esde!
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:36 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Seth it looks like our cars are 462 cars apart, very cool.
My body number is 15-24586. So if you kinda do the math Karmann made something like 6868 convertibles in 1956, divide that by 260 working days in a year ( Mon-Friday) it comes out to like 27 cars a day. My vert BC says it was built on Aug 9, 1955. I’m going to say your vert is Aug 31,1955. If I’m right I should play the Lotto Laughing
Not Safari Izzy posted his 1956 has a body number of 15-26486 exactly 1,900 away from mine with a build date of Nov 18th 1955.
Strange thing is my vin puts my car in July 1955.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:43 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

56Cabrio wrote:
Seth it looks like our cars are 462 cars apart, very cool.
My body number is 15-24586. So if you kinda do the math Karmann made something like 6868 convertibles in 1956, divide that by 260 working days in a year ( Mon-Friday) it comes out to like 27 cars a day. My vert BC says it was built on Aug 9, 1955. I’m going to say your vert is Aug 31,1955. If I’m right I should play the Lotto Laughing
Not Safari Izzy posted his 1956 has a body number of 15-26486 exactly 1900 away from mine with a build date of Nov 18th 1955.
Strange thing is my vin puts my car in July 1955.
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Such cool info! Thank you!
I did apply for a birth cert for this and my zwitter, just haven't gotten them back yet. If my build date is August 31st I'll buy you the lotto ticket Laughing

kaieric wrote:
VW_Jimbo wrote:
Did I read that right, the headliner is OG? Damn!

almost not. looks like replacement headliner, og would have been made of stretch wool fabric.

fine car,esde!


yeah, my photo comment was unintentionally misleading, I'll edit it. I'm pretty sure the car was hit in the 80's, and got the respray and new top when it was fixed then. Still, sort of amazing a replacement from the 80's is in such decent shape.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:50 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Seth does your convertible have a smooth gas tank?
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 7:07 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

56Cabrio wrote:
Seth does your convertible have a smooth gas tank?
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It does. Someone at Flanders commented that the tank must've been swapped because it wasn't ribbed, and another guy said most every vert he had seen had a smooth tank. This one is the exact body color so I'm confident it's original
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 7:15 pm    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

Found a few more pics. I had pulled the fuse box in an effort to brighten some lights and make the wipers sort of work. Nice that it had the original paper label..
Cleaned and reinstalled, and it made a minimal difference.
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While my intention is to leave this car original, I have ordered some LED kits for the rear snowflakes from Chip B. It's a safety thing like seatbelts, so I'm ok with it.
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2023 2:38 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

esde wrote:

I had traded an original theater poster for the Great Escape for this gas can, and it's a much better match than the empi tool kit
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indeed a great accessory! and much helpful when you met the reserve inmidst the nowhere.

who exactly is chip b?
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2023 2:48 am    Post subject: Re: 56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles Reply with quote

kaieric wrote:

who exactly is chip b?

He makes LED taillights

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=153242

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/search.php?username=Chip
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