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Sat May 23, 2009 8:52 am

I'm looking a buy a 49 Split. Are there any 49 only items I should look for and how can I tell if the fenders, aprons, are original. What other things should I look at when buying a split?

Sun May 24, 2009 7:57 am

If someone could help me with this post that would be great.

Sun May 24, 2009 8:32 am

Your question is a little broad and not easily answered in a single post. Many here, like myself, love to help but when we see questions that will require paragraphs of text, it is a little overwhelming and we pass it up.

There are many aspects to ascertaining what to look for in a split. As for '49 only items, I think it may be month dependent, but I am no expert. Deluxes came out in the letter part of that year.

Rear fenders should have the dot-dash pressings on the flanges, and the front apron should be 4 finger, with the "punched out" tabs in the wheel well to hold the headlight wiring, not welded on tabs.

Rear apron should be an H apron with no tailpipe cutouts.

Front fenders should have the bulge where they meet the running board, circular horn grills (if deluxe). There are other details on split front fenders I can't recall at the moment, search this forum ...

Sun May 24, 2009 9:38 am

Henry, Thanks for the information. I'm a long time 67 purest and I have like a check list of things I look for on 67's. I understand what you are saying about the changing every month. I'm just trying to get a list of things I can check to tell what is right and wrong, which is going to effect the amount of money needed to get it back to original configuration.

It does seem like there are all sorts of changes that took place during production that is for sure.

Thanks,

Richard

Sun May 24, 2009 12:52 pm

Do you have a chassi number of the car you are interested in?? then it would bee a lot easier to tell what it should or not should have. -49 is the year when most changes was.

Sun May 24, 2009 6:22 pm

I was going to buy a 49 once, then I woke up. When it comes to splits ol' Henry knows his stuff. :wink:

Sun May 24, 2009 10:01 pm

There are some things that are shared with later splits (especially the standard splits), but pretty much all 49's (deluxe or standard) have these items.

Probably the biggest and most difficult things to find are taillights (thin versus thick rings), Left/Right semaphores, mushroom airfilter, Rearview mirror (early ones have a "football" mirror), shocks (single action lever shocks), cable brakes (the parts for them),

There are several other subtle details that those of us that own one would notice:

Front fenders have a deper headlight bucket and wider head-on profile because of it.

Rear fender pressings on the trailing edge are different than later oval ones (althought this could be a split versus oval thing).

Bumper guards

And of course, the VIN 8)

Mon May 25, 2009 3:41 am

There is a world of difference between Pre-July '49 cars and Post-July '49 cars. Let us know the chassis number and then perhaps all of us (including Henry) can comment further.

Tue May 26, 2009 10:23 pm

johnshenry wrote: Your question is a little broad and not easily answered in a single post. Many here, like myself, love to help but when we see questions that will require paragraphs of text, it is a little overwhelming and we pass it up. That's right. It's too general a question without a chassis number. Like other production years including '67, the VW was changed from month to month, and an early '49 is a different beast compared to a late '49. Major modifications included floorpans, decklid, bumpers and the dash.

Tue May 26, 2009 10:41 pm

RichOakley wrote: There is a world of difference between Pre-July '49 cars and Post-July '49 cars.

You can say that again!

Sun May 31, 2009 8:45 pm

aircooled wrote: I'm looking a buy a 49 Split. Are there any 49 only items I should look for and how can I tell if the fenders, aprons, are original. What other things should I look at when buying a split?

it would be a big help, if you would post a few pics, i have owned a few splits over the years, including a couple `49`s and 1 was a july deluxe model.