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Thu Oct 15, 2020 7:36 am

Anyone else ever seen a factory VW test car birth certificate?
Wonder how many VW did?

Kuhner

Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:14 am

very interesting, do you know any more of its history...?
hopefully the testing was not like this:-

Sun Oct 18, 2020 7:24 am

No history at all. The car was Americanized at one time, turn signals, bumpers, speedo. Semaphores were never removed just disabled.
When I restored the car the only clue was the door latches. It appeared they were changed at some time. The body where the latches are,had been cut out and changed. Even the Diaganol bracing was cut and changed. Both sides were cut and brazed both sides identical.
I know from 55 to 56 the latches and handles were changed, maybe they changed. The car is a low serial number for 56 the first 2000.

Thu Oct 22, 2020 9:15 am

kuhner wrote: No history at all. The car was Americanized at one time, turn signals, bumpers, speedo. Semaphores were never removed just disabled.
When I restored the car the only clue was the door latches. It appeared they were changed at some time. The body where the latches are,had been cut out and changed. Even the Diaganol bracing was cut and changed. Both sides were cut and brazed both sides identical.
I know from 55 to 56 the latches and handles were changed, maybe they changed. The car is a low serial number for 56 the first 2000.

… and my 11/52 Zwitter had 1957-style latches too - So I converted them back to the Zwitter style, on the posts and hung 1954 doors - that was a lotta' work - z

Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:02 pm

I doubt the car was used for any crash testing. Most likely was used by R and D to do reliability testing on various parts and then sold at a discount when they were done with it. VW wouldn't have sold a wrecked and repaired vehicle due to the liability. Those mods using brazing would have to have been done after it was sold. VW wouldn't have used such an amateur approach when they had access to every tool imaginable.

Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:35 pm

The non-adjustable strikers are unique to 1956 and some early 1957 models before the adjustable strikers became standard in December 1956. I had a September 1956-built '57 that had adjustable strikers, so I'm guessing U.S. market VWs got adjustable strikers from the start of the model year.

The '56-only strikers had a tendency for the "wedge" to fall out, so they were frequently upgraded to the adjustable type.