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Thu Jul 04, 2024 7:00 pm

Wow, those are bad .

I'd not sweat too much about getting the exact fender but if it will bother you, do what's necessary .

There's an outfit in Belgium that sells fenders, they're imported to the U.S.A. by CIP1, this is a slipshod company that doesn't stand behind anything they sell so be aware, I bought a right front fender and like you, haven't test fitted it yet .

Please keep us aware of what you do to solve this, I have three battered original fenders on my '59 and expect to need to drop $eriou$ ca$h on getting them un dented .

As much as I love my '59 survivor I fail to see how that's the best year, almost no difference between '58 & '59 plus many do not like the "spike" exterior door handles and so on .

Mon Jul 08, 2024 9:07 am

mabbo wrote: Hi guys,

I have been trying to find out what the correct wipers are for my 58... Reading through this thread I can see that the 58 wipers have the separate base and fixed thin arms and blades, the same as ovals.

Apparently oval arms are not sided, but 58s are sided... which is what makes them one year only.

Is this right? My 58 (Nov 57 built) came with a pair of broken wipers. They have the separate base, with thin arms that look to be the same... but both blades have been broken off. So assume the only thing that can make them different to an oval is if one blade is longer than the other?

Thanks, Neil

Got my 58 finished. Made an effort to make sure all the 58 only details were right. I found a NOS pair of 58 wiper arms/blades in the end :D

Here it is:

Tue Jul 09, 2024 6:01 pm

Wow, that's glorious ! nice to see you retained the 36HP and so on .

Wed Jul 24, 2024 9:17 am

Busstom wrote:
If you're not aware, KlassicFab is no longer making VW parts, Gerson had transitioned to vintage Japanese car panels.

Where did you hear that? His site still has VW bug, bus and type 3 parts listed on their site. Not a Japanese part to be found.

He has stopped selling bug fenders though. He said early on that they were way more work that he originally thought they would be, especially the fronts.

Tue Aug 20, 2024 10:30 am

After getting curious about fuel pumps, I'm trying to guesstimate when they changed from the shorter outlet spout to the taller one (before the addition of the extra filter screen) I came across a beautiful July 57 which has an all original engine. It had the taller outlet fuel pump with case date 20-6-27, and Fuel pump 3181447. Another friend has a long spout version with serial number 3156534 which is 24,913 earlier. It looks like they were making about 16,000 beetles a month, (plus busses) so I'd estimate these taller neck fuel pumps were at least on June 57 beetles, maybe up to December 1958.
There's a question though, as progressive refinements says there's a change in June 1958 to a longer output.... I've seen quite a few of the longer neck versions, and it would be hard to believe it's only a five month production which goes against another post about no change from wavy top to the built in filter version.

my59 wrote: outoftheoffice wrote: [b]Fuel Pumps! Here is how I see the dating:

36 horse fuel pump: July 1955 - August 1958

36 Horse Fuel Pump: August 1958 - August 1960

The shop manual specifies fuel pumps have filters from chassis 2193349, engine 2675068., which puts in in Nov/Dec '58.
Is the photo of the '59 pump a Brazilian replacement?

Tue Aug 20, 2024 11:32 am

splitjunkie wrote: Busstom wrote:
If you're not aware, KlassicFab is no longer making VW parts, Gerson had transitioned to vintage Japanese car panels.

Where did you hear that? His site still has VW bug, bus and type 3 parts listed on their site. Not a Japanese part to be found.

He has stopped selling bug fenders though. He said early on that they were way more work that he originally thought they would be, especially the fronts.

I spoke to Gerson personally. I first mentioned it here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=792000

He's selling off VW inventory and then tooling to follow, here is his Japanese car parts site, same location and phone number, just different DBA: https://kfvintagejdm.com/

Sat Aug 31, 2024 11:29 am

[quote="pdxeuro"]Hi all - I have May 1959 Bug that was coming along nicely until the new Klassic Fab rear fenders were bolted on and did not align. A few questions:

1) anyone else had this issue with Klassic Fab rear fenders for our years? Looks like they stopped selling them on their site (I got them about 2 years ago. If you had them, what was your solution (add in metal to lengthen them a bit?)

2) Since OG rear fenders are as rare as rocking horse poo, what other sources have you found? I see Wolfsburg West now sells $1000 (each!) rear fenders for our year. Do they fit perfect? Is it worth it? Any other sources? I see Kafer Nostalgie has front but no rears.

3) I know you will say/ask - what do you plan to do with the car? I do want it to be OG stock, however will someone stick their head in the wheel well at a show and say the car is shi*t because of this one detail? I will however always know and second guess it.

Love to hear your thoughts on this topic! Thanks in advance

————————-

Like you I used the rear Klassik fab fenders when I restored my 59 beetle. I found them locally from a seller who no longer needed them for his project and who sold them at a great discount. My metal guy had no issues with fitment, and told me they didn’t need any work to fit correctly. Something to note is that I also had my rear apron replaced at the same time (I used an apron produced by Autocraft engineering out of the UK.) You may want to check to see if your rear apron was replaced at some point by a PO given they may have made changes to accommodate your older fenders, and hence the current fitment issues with the new fenders.

As for other options, the fenders sold by WW are produced by Dr. Hörtig out of Germany. My friends in Europe tell me these fenders fit like a glove and are amazing quality. I plan to use them on a future project. The samba link is here:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2629895

There are rumors that BBT will start selling period correct rear fenders soon. I have a pair of their Silverweld front fenders on my 59 (the car didn’t come with original fenders) and found the quality and fitment to be excellent. The front fenders can be purchased via CIP1. Perhaps their future rear fenders will be the same quality.

Other excellent sheet metal options include:

Wolf Parts

https://wolfparts.com/

Restoration Panels

http://restorationpanels.com/

And….

Autocraft Enginnering

https://www.autocrafteng.co.uk/

There is also a new sheet metal provider on the Samba called DKB Metal, but I have never used their sheet metal and don’t anything about the company or quality.

https://dkbmetal.com/

Best of luck with the project and keep us updated on the restoration.

Sun Oct 06, 2024 3:01 am

aug 57 new colours

aug 58 gute fahrt magazine table showing breakdown of colours as a % of production - domestic, foreign, total

Sun Oct 06, 2024 6:12 am

finster wrote: aug 57 new colours

Very cool information. Loving my '58 Coral sedan even more now lol.. didn't expect it to be such a small percentage though.

Sun Oct 06, 2024 9:15 am

Curiosity got to me and I had to find a translation for the sign wordage... may not be totally accurate, but not remotely what I was expecting...

VW - the forever young one
He is loyal to himself and his friends -
and is still constantly being updated in terms of technology and equipment
according to the laws of progress

Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:46 pm

1958 Floor Pans

I have a 1958 ragtop euro beetle I pulled out of a barn a few years ago when I lived in Austria. I’m finally getting around to figuring what the car needs in terms of parts and metal/body work, and had a question regarding floor pans. The driver side pan is in great shape, but the passenger side has seen it better days. The battery tray area to the back of the seat was replaced poorly and I’m not sure it can be repaired. In the event the pan needs to be replaced, will the contours and shape of the WW pan match the original driver side pan? Or is it better to just replace both? I don’t want two different looking pan halves. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

Sun Mar 23, 2025 4:52 pm

Been awhile since I logged onto The Samba!

I recently started going through some iCloud Photos and came across pictures of my old 1959 that I sold a couple of years ago. Some of you might have seen it online (some photos were posted earlier in this thread), or have read about it in VW Trends a couple of years ago.

Anyways, I sold it to a much older gentleman who has basically no online footprint, and after coming across these pictures I figured I should come post them on here for archive purposes. Even though I’m only 35 years old, I can imagine and hope that TheSamba will outlive me, so I want these pictures hosted on here and not buried in my iCloud.

It’s a 1959 with a really cool story: It was won at the NY Auto show back in 1959, driven 11 years until it was parked in 1970, pulled out in 2018, mechanically brought back to life and driven since then. I drove it up in the NJ area and then down to NC where it remained with me until I sold it and shipped it to California.

I will create a thread specifically for the car so that I don’t photo dump in here, and once it’s live I’ll post the link on here.

Worth noting:

- 1959 Capri Blue sunroof sold (won in a raffle) in the United States
- One of the earliest 1959’s that probably still exists. I’ve spent A LOT of time researching to find one that’s earlier, and have come up empty handed.
- Built one of the first days in August of 1958, I believe on the 5th
- Engine is original to the car and was the 341st engine produced for ALL 1959 model year VWs (Beetle, Bus, Ghia).

As found in 2018:

Cheers!

Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:58 am

finster wrote: aug 57 new colours

aug 58 gute fahrt magazine table showing breakdown of colours as a % of production - domestic, foreign, total

Are there any other charts like this one for other years? Super neat to see the breakdown of the colors used.

Thu Apr 17, 2025 8:01 am

So I have been narrowing down the paint codes for my 58 Coral sedan, and the wheel colours seems to have some conflicts.

According to this thread, the correct inner wheel colour is L83 Silver White, but every piece of documentation (I have found) says the correct color is L277 Silver Beige.

There is very little original paint on my rims to view, the several coats of other colours on top do not give up their secrets readily. I would probably call the colour underneath everything closer to a white than beige

What have you done on your wheels. Did anyone ever get L277 matched closely to another more common colour?

Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:13 pm

Darryldh wrote: What have you done on your wheels. Did anyone ever get L277 matched closely to another more common colour?

I'm not a native speaker and perhaps don't get your question well. If you want silver beige paint, WW sells it in rattle cans. Also, it is the same colour for seat frames at many model years.

Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:54 pm

pastellgreen wrote: If you want silver beige paint, WW sells it in rattle cans. Also, it is the same colour for seat frames at many model years.

Actually, WW sells L471 Stone Beige, which is correct for 58-59 seat frames and steering column, and they sell L82 Silver White... but they do not sell L277 Silver Beige.

I am just wondering why this forum decided L82 was the inner rim colour. Perhaps the answer is as simple as WW offers it for sale.

Fri Apr 18, 2025 4:59 am

Darryldh wrote: pastellgreen wrote: If you want silver beige paint, WW sells it in rattle cans. Also, it is the same colour for seat frames at many model years.

Actually, WW sells L471 Stone Beige, which is correct for 58-59 seat frames and steering column, and they sell L82 Silver White... but they do not sell L277 Silver Beige.

I am just wondering why this forum decided L82 was the inner rim colour. Perhaps the answer is as simple as WW offers it for sale.

I'm sorry, I haven't checked carefully enough: WW sells silver beige L466... that is the one for seat frames. It was only the name of the colour I focused on. mea culpa. I don't know why it was necessary vor VW using the same name for colours in different formulas.

Fri Apr 18, 2025 7:42 am

Darryldh wrote: So I have been narrowing down the paint codes for my 58 Coral sedan, and the wheel colours seems to have some conflicts.

According to this thread, the correct inner wheel colour is L83 Silver White, but every piece of documentation (I have found) says the correct color is L277 Silver Beige.

There is very little original paint on my rims to view, the several coats of other colours on top do not give up their secrets readily. I would probably call the colour underneath everything closer to a white than beige

What have you done on your wheels. Did anyone ever get L277 matched closely to another more common colour?

I also show that L277 is the correct color for Coral. I found this, it may help you.

Btw, If you contact https://templepaints.com/home they should be able to put some in a rattle can for you, if thats the route you want to go.

Fri Apr 18, 2025 2:52 pm

stale air wrote: Btw, If you contact https://templepaints.com/home they should be able to put some in a rattle can for you, if thats the route you want to go.

That would be nice, but they refuse to ship outside the US.

Fri Apr 18, 2025 3:05 pm

Darryldh wrote: stale air wrote: Btw, If you contact https://templepaints.com/home they should be able to put some in a rattle can for you, if thats the route you want to go.

That would be nice, but they refuse to ship outside the US.

Have any friends in the US who could be the middle man?