4 door wagon

[bradself]

Does anyone recall the posts/forum where a fellow welded in a four door sedan section into a wagon? I recall he was Euro (Netherlands?) it was some years ago, looking for a link if it still exists, or pics if anyone downloaded any. I do recall the car turned out great. --Brad

[raygreenwood]

I think it was on shop talk forums also. Man....thats a lot more than simple welding. These are crumple zone cars front and rear. Ray

[bradself]

Found it!

http://www.rastall.com/412/index.html

[raygreenwood]

Awesome! Need to reread now. Thank you!
Ray

[bradself]

I'll write him to ask exactly how he dealt with the back door frames at the top--he rectified the roof line but it's not clear how he dealt with the door itself.

[KTPhil]

I always thought the idea of a 2-door wagon was a poor one. Even for the Type 3, I would have expected the wagon configuration to be a 4-door.

After seeing the history of model development at VW back then, I realized how different the structure of a 4-door car must be, and understand why it never happened for the Type 3.

But with a 4-door sedan in place, the 4-door wagon sure would have made sense. I expect the buyers of a wagon, small families, looked at the 411/412 range (as well as the Type 3 squareback), and said, "no thanks, I need 4 doors." With the FWD, water-cooled cars already in development, the 4-door Type 4 would have had an uneconomically, short production life.

Too bad, it would have been a fine car to own and drive!