TheSamba.com :: View topic - Beetles with Multi-Colored body parts

Mon Jul 27, 2020 4:24 pm

The chipped paint on the hinge screws and the chisel marks on the hinges suggest to me that door was replaced.

Mon Jul 27, 2020 4:45 pm

I'm not here to convence anyone, it's obvious to me the door on jchaidez's car came from the factory wearing Ruby Red paint. Whether it came off another car is irrelevant, that is two colors of factory applied original paint we're looking at and fits the topic to a tee.

I will never believe that someone after sale painted the door, even with factory supplied paint as no one in the field can match the finish application so that it fades identically.

Here's a pic of my OG Ruby Red 66 for reference. Notice they all fade to a dull red color nothing like original L456...

Sat Feb 27, 2021 7:40 am

Another fine example spotted in the Classifieds...

Sun Feb 28, 2021 12:26 am

61SNRF wrote: Another fine example spotted in the Classifieds...

thought it was the same car up for resale but this one from a page back is a sunroof.

61SNRF wrote: Found this example while browsing the Classifieds...
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2376802
Note paint on left front fender worn through revealing Java Green under OG Black...

Seems like these oddity's are more commonly seen '65-> as paint quality from this era seemed to drop off.

Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:37 am

Remarkably similar! :o

Mon Jan 10, 2022 8:12 pm

Here is a production video that shows the different color fender lineup

https://youtu.be/4Co6WgO9r3c?t=636

Mon Jan 10, 2022 9:04 pm

Here’s my ‘65. It was originally black, looks like it was painted a bunch of times before it sat in a field for 25 years. I’m leaving it as is.

Tue Jan 11, 2022 8:11 am

I found this photo on FB it is supposly where cars with defects were repaired. A lot of the cars are ragtops so that confuses me, but some of the cars are missing the front trunk cover and a fender or two. The poster of this photo said it was a line where cars damaged at the factory were brought up to spec. I can also make out a few door card and tail lights in the parts stacked in the photo. It was on FB so it has to be true....right :D .

Sun Mar 10, 2024 4:44 pm

Nice photo Big Bill, thank you!
Saw this one today at Hot VWs Drag Day in Irwindale Ca.
OG L620 blue 1970 with L20 Clementine showing through on the left rear fender.

Edit: fixed photo link

Tue Mar 12, 2024 2:43 pm

Here's your smoking gun, folks. These bodies were plucked from the assembly line by inspectors. Parts substitutions were made and they were popped
right back on the line. Note the shelves of single fenders in the background.

It makes sense that the repainted parts would then go right back on the shelves.

Tue Mar 12, 2024 3:25 pm

Here's another interesting photo, this time from the 1950s.

Here we have freshly painted bodies, with the rejects apparently being repaired in the background.

Tue Mar 12, 2024 3:26 pm

AlteWagen wrote: Here is a production video that shows the different color fender lineup

https://youtu.be/4Co6WgO9r3c?t=636

Those are most likely for the spare parts pool. You could buy pre-painted fenders from the dealer. They could also be for in house replacement of rejected fenders found during assembly, or a combination of both.

Tue Mar 12, 2024 3:51 pm

Blue Baron wrote: Here's your smoking gun, folks. These bodies were plucked from the assembly line by inspectors. Parts substitutions were made and they were popped
right back on the line. Note the shelves of single fenders in the background.

It makes sense that the repainted parts would then go right back on the shelves.

Interesting photo, but not really conclusive on what the fenders are meant for. The portion of video that Altewagen posted, although from the late 60's shows individual fenders coming off the same line as body shells. You could buy pre-painted fenders from the dealer so they would have gotten painted in the factory, on the same line as the body shells. So the fenders on the shelves could be for the spare parts program, for in house replacements on the assembly line, or both.

I'm sure VW had people doing the statistics over time for how many of any given color spare fenders they would need, but it would never be exact. Black might have had the highest reject rate since it shows defects much more than other colors, or they could have just made some number of each color based on the numbers of cars they made for each color.

One thing to ponder is, what would VW do when a body came off the line with paint defects to the basic shell itself? Would they strip the bolt on parts, put them back into circulation for spares for the line and spare parts program, or would they repaint the entire shell or just certain panels, keeping the original bolt ons with the shell?

Obviously, VW wasn't scrapping body parts and body shells just for paint defects. I suspect repainting parts for the assembly line was/is common practice in the industry.

It is obvious though, that VW did recycle and repaint rejected body parts for internal use on the line, and perhaps for the spare parts program. But it is also obvious that owners, body shops, and probably even dealers sometimes bought parts from junkyards and repainted them to match. So you can't automatically assume that it came from the factory that way just because you have a different color peeking through the top coat.

Tue Mar 12, 2024 5:06 pm

Thanks for the photos and comments guys, all good info!

Myself and my friend also saw an original paint beryl green '62 driving up the freeway recently with two of these fenders showing through, one on the right front and on the right rear, sadly could not get a picture of it as we rolled by.

One day I'd like to have any one of these parts just to hang on the wall as a conversation piece. Anyone knowing of one for sale please let me know :)

Tue Mar 12, 2024 5:32 pm

splitjunkie wrote: Interesting photo, but not really conclusive on what the fenders are meant for ... the fenders on the shelves could be for the spare parts program, for in house replacements on the assembly line, or both. The bodies were painted with all four fenders attached by long spacers. Here we see bodies being pulled from production, at least one body with a fender removed, and replacements on shelves in the background. While not 100% conclusive, it would seem the best evidence so far in support of 61SNRF's theory.

Tue Mar 12, 2024 7:31 pm

Blue Baron wrote: splitjunkie wrote: Interesting photo, but not really conclusive on what the fenders are meant for ... the fenders on the shelves could be for the spare parts program, for in house replacements on the assembly line, or both. The bodies were painted with all four fenders attached by long spacers. Here we see bodies being pulled from production, at least one body with a fender removed, and replacements on shelves in the background. While not 100% conclusive, it would seem the best evidence so far in support of 61SNRF's theory.

I am aware of how they were painted and I get that there is at least one shell missing a fender indicating a QC failure awaiting a replacement. My point is that they pre-painted fenders for the spare parts program so some of those are most likely for that use. I'm not sure how popular it was, but dealers could buy a prepainted fenders instead of having their body shop paint it. Some probably were for replacements on the assembly line, but I am not buying that all of those are for that one purpose.

Tue Mar 12, 2024 8:30 pm

But would those replacement parts be stacked on the production floor, or shipped out directly to distributors? (I haven't heard of pre-painted factory parts being available from a dealer, at least not in North America. All NOS parts I've seen are in primer. This would require distributors to stock fenders, doors and lids in every color rather than simply letting dealers paint them. It's a great idea, but I'm not sure it would get past the bean counters.)

Fun topic!
atye wrote:

Wed Mar 13, 2024 5:46 am

I posted this way back on page 6, but thought I would throw this back in the mix, due to the conversation above...

stale air wrote:

Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:33 am

Here is a pic of late fenders from page 7

VWoA had an amazing parts network, my guess would be a few central hubs that would stock then ship to individual dealers when parts were ordered. It is correct that many dealers did paint primered replacement parts and you can tell. Most of the time the paint color or type does not match and fades/cracks quickly. Unfortunate really as genuine factory paint was still available but Im sure price drove the quality.

Thu May 08, 2025 10:43 pm

Gulf blue under original black on my old 1961 ragtop that was built November of 1960.