Floorpans: Gerson VS Wolfsburg West

VWsArent4Hippies

Ok, so I have not seen a thread specifically outlining the differences of oval floor pans. From what I have seen NOBODY is selling a "correct" floor pan for '56-'59? beetles. Here are some pictures to hopefully clear up any confusion

Gerson's floor pans are correct for split beetles and ovals through '55. The pans that WW sells are correct for '60?-'70 beetles. Gerson also makes these pans but when I talked to him at Bulli Brigade last November these late pans were being sold as oval pans. This is not correct.

When it comes to seat tracks, -'55 used flat seat tracks. In '56 they started using the angled seat tracks and changes the seat frames accordingly.

I have not seen anyone reproducing correct jackpoints for early cars either. I don't have a picture on hand, but I believe these changed in '60.

WW on left, Gerson on right

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

While Gerson's pan overall is very very nice, it's not perfect. For example, the corners are not flanged where the layers of the tunnel overlap. WW pans are:

-'55 beetles had the early stamping in the rear of the pan. '56+ all had the late rear stamping

Early on right, late on left:

Here is what makes the '56-'59? pan unique. In '56 they changed the rear stamping to later style, but from the seat track forward it kept the "early stamping.

The 'early" stamping was used for cars with pedal assemblies that used a two bolt pedal stop. Here is a picture showing the differences in the front halfs. You can see when they changed to the late front half in '60? they added notches to the rear most long rib in front of the seat track. As well as adding additional stampings up around the pedal assembly:

If anyone has anything to add, feel free. I am not sure the exact year they started the "late" front halfs of the pans. The latest car I had to look at is a '59.

Gerson · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:21 am Post subject:

the Klassicfab pan pictured above is our split beetle pan, we also make an early oval pan, I always try to tell people that even though they will work on later oval and later beetles, they are not correct.....if I was clear on all the little details from year to year we could incorporate them into our later pans.......remember we make out our own dies, we stamp our own parts, we do not subcontract anything out like most if not all manufacturers do.....so we thank you for pointing these details out so that we can incorporate these changes into our production runs..... we thank you and people like you for doing this, it is of GREAT help..... Very Happy

_________________
that's not patina, that's fucking rust man!!!!

we (klassicfab) make the funky green panels...........

VWsArent4Hippies · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:31 am Post subject:

Gerson · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:38 am Post subject:

ok, looks like I will have to buy several sets of og late oval pans, early post oval pans and early sixties pans in order to get this correct.....
_________________
that's not patina, that's fucking rust man!!!!

we (klassicfab) make the funky green panels...........

johnshenry · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:21 am Post subject:

Good stuff all, not only does this give us a great uber-detailed look at pan differences, this type of "research" helps reproducers like Gerson dial in the details and create a product that attracts the detail attentive restorer!
_________________
John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

bugguts · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:02 pm Post subject:

I'll take the few 'mistakes' on the Gerson pan vs the WW pans any day!

VWsArent4Hippies · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:33 pm Post subject:

bugguts · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:03 pm Post subject:

WW Jack posts and seat tracks are crap. Gerson goes out of his way to make the best product available, and I support him for that. It sounds like you have something against him,so you should buy WW and be happy with your purchase.

VWsArent4Hippies · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:59 pm Post subject:

Hanneke · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:50 am Post subject:

This is the (hopefully) original floorpan of my '56 Oval. I am at the moment in the process of restoring the car and found this when I took the carpet out. Overall it looks pretty good and perhaps it helps you for judging the correctness of repro parts.

Volumex

VWsArent4Hippies

sunroof · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:00 am Post subject:

I am very interested in this thread as I have a '59 that I will start restoring soon and would like to get pans that are as correct as possible.

As for jack points: I am tempted to remove them altogether so no one ever uses them to jack up the car.

Don

splitjunkie · Samba Member Joined: April 04, 2006 Posts: 4091

If someone is wanting to jack up your car for nefarious purposed, I really doubt they would just happen to have a stock vw jack on them. They would use a bottle jack or other generic jack.
_________________
Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

AlteWagen · Troll Joined: February 23, 2007 Posts: 8501 Location: PNW

What years did the seat track "ramps" go through? Is it a vert only thing?

This is my Oct 55 kabrio, notice small ramps supporting front edge of seat tracks.

VWsArent4Hippies · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:35 pm Post subject:

BartD · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:44 am Post subject:

Is there already a correct floorpan for a '59? Have the sale problem here.
The only problem i see,is that the drivers side panel isnt correct, the ww right panel can be used and looks the same.

VWsArent4Hippies · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:47 am Post subject:

BartD · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 9:53 am Post subject:

Yes I do, but on the ww are two pressing that are on the originals and not on the kF pans. I think these are for the gas pedal they are about 2" long. Or do they build the correct one now?

72MUST · Samba Member Joined: December 20, 2007 Posts: 114

Informative thread ;

Over time new products are introduced ...!

It seems WWest now list pan halves for ' 56 / '57 Beetles which have a different WW part number to those for ' 58 - ' 70 .
This would indicate a difference in the actual part.

Un fortunately no photo of the ' 56 / ' 57 type.

Does anyone know whether the WW ' 56 / ' 57 pan halves now have the correct pressing in the pedal area ?

( ie 2 bolt pedal stop & without extra dimples etc )


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