reflection

[Loren]

I would remove the reflectors on the bumper. It looks like they might obscure the tail lights from certain angles, not good for cell talking drivers behind your car. If you are really concerned about people seeing your car/lights you might consider getting a pair of OG VW back up lights with red lenses, attach them to the same bumper bolts (keep them as close to the top of the fender as you can) and wire them to the rear lights. Maybe you could run some red led strips around the license plate and rear windows too! After seeing what happened to Manny's 58 Coram Rug Works bus more light might help.

[Wiggy]

[52HoffmanSplit]

[D. Haviland]

Those big reflectors and repro brackets should go right into the garbage
As for the hippie rug. That woman of yours has great decorating skills.

Dave

[Brezelwerks]

Less is more perhaps.

Seems you are trying to make the best out of what those those traffic safety laws did to your poor fenders during the day.

If it were me, I'd punt this idea of preserving the car's so-called euro-originality and provenance, as the car didn't leave the factory that way, nor was the car even originally first registered that way.

Instead I'd return the car to its original spec, remove the bodgery, and fill the holes and blend in. Come next spring you'll forget all about what someone once did to this car in the name of "safety". Besides, all you would be doing is adding to the cars' so-called provenance for someone else 30-40 years from now, only the car will look 10x better.

That said, driving on the roads today you do have to recognize that when a split is braking very few people will know that from behind, which is why I added the set of Bosch period brake lights to my bumper, and all I ever got were compliments on how nice they looked on the car:

I'd suggest mocking up a bit, take off the reflectors and beehive brake lights, and attach the beehives to the bumper mount brackets, stand back and see how that would look once the fenders were reworked. Brake lights at least are going to contribute alot further to retaining the car's provenance over time, only I think they will look 10x nicer that way than on the fender.

Good luck in your decision.

[Mats W]

[johan_l]

If talking traffic safety, I have had a thought of mounting bright brake-lights and direction indicators behind the cooling intake under the rear window. That way they stay as hidden as possible.

I agree that it is a problem what to preserve. If doing a total resto of the car, which does not seem needed in this case, I'd say junk the extra lights and reflectors. In this case, I'd say stick with what was mounted as that is a nice historical touch - especeially if more "belgian specific" things are present.

That said, on my oval, I replaced the rear lights to stock units with glass snowflakes and removed front fender mounted direction indicators - without doing something else to the car - it still has the original paint, interior and so on. But now I'm leaning to at least put back the fender mounted indicators AND also reactivate direction indicators in rear snowflakes, as my car must have had that setup before the rear lights were exchanged as it has the euro 1960-61 only direction switch, in US I think this switch was introduced 1956 when semaphores dissappeared?

But all of the above is a matter of if the rest of the car has it's "history" preserved but mostly the owners taste...
_________________
Johan, Sweden
1960 Karmann-Ghia coupé
1957 Oval window
Bastard Split window <-- Translate

[Zwitterkafer]

I love the license plate, and the oil-drip catch boot mat. But this is about reflectors, so IMO the big ones on the bumper have to go. If there is a serious need to reflectorize, why not <shudder> run reflective red tape in the bumper groove?
_________________
"Criticism comes easier than Craftsmanship"
- Zeuxius, 400 BC

[p horvath]

[KäferKrieger]

whatev gets the apron home .
_________________
I contend that we thinking people should,
"Round-up all religious humans and put them on one island together.
An island where they can permanently sort out their indifferences & insecurities once and for all."

[piet&som]

@P Horvath : in my memory, this picture was taken on a meeting in the vicinity of Charleroi Belgium about 15 - 20 years ago.
This was a real all original beauty you stumble upon once in a while.
Unfortunetly I've never seen that split again.
(BTW I just knew you were gonna say that!)
Regards, Peter

[p horvath]

very cool peter. any more photos?
i bought the car back around 2001 from xavier mente and sold it a few years later.
i saw it again in 2004 at the classic in ca. the new owner just sold it back to me in 2010.
it is in the same condition as in your photos except for a new muffler and new tires.

[p horvath]

[52brezelfenster]

Paul, I wrestled with a similar situation on my old azure belgian 52, later owned by Kev.

It was a beautiful original car, the original owners had replaced the split taillights with later model lights. I removed them and there were extra holes left in the fender.

I found a painter who was an expert in blending and making new paint look old and patina'd. He welded the extra holes up, blended the taillight areas with new paint, it turned out really nice and was hard to tell those areas were ever touched up. I think the secret sauce was using a flattening agent in the paint to dumb down the sheen.

We did the same thing on the front fenders which had blinkers mounted on the top. We re-undercoated the underside of the fenders so you couldn't tell they were ever worked on.

The car looked 10x better with these changes, it was a good decision and I would do it again.

[p horvath]

dustin,i think your car and mine have build dates only weeks apart. i never knew you had the fenders welded up and repainted. i will most likely go that route, and use the vintage lights from the fenders as extra brake lights on the bumper brackets.

[52brezelfenster]

[Wiggy]

[Blue Baron]

My car has bulbholders for dual-filament bulbs, so I have combined taillight and brake light in the stock housing. (Plus the popes nose brake light.) It may not be OG, but neither is an extra set of lights on the bumper.
_________________
We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.

Heinz Nordhoff

[banana split]

[piet&som]