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Peter T. Samba Member
Joined: October 09, 2006 Posts: 259 Location: Long Island, New York
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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So did anybody find out if VW kept records of rebuilt beetles? |
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yeshua4me Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2008 Posts: 47 Location: Orange (East)
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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i could never make sense of my vin. I asked a couple years ago but most people said that I was reading it wring. It is "-1-0666565." I wonder if this thread explains my VIN? |
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yeshua4me Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2008 Posts: 47 Location: Orange (East)
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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yeshua4me wrote: |
i could never make sense of my vin. I asked a couple years ago but most people said that I was reading it wring. It is "-1-0666565." I wonder if this thread explains my VIN? |
And the hyphen placement is correct and as stated. |
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mandraks Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004 Posts: 7047 Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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yeshua4me wrote: |
i could never make sense of my vin. I asked a couple years ago but most people said that I was reading it wring. It is "-1-0666565." I wonder if this thread explains my VIN? |
if your car is a june 54 oval it makes perfect sense? _________________ regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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EverettB Administrator
Joined: April 11, 2000 Posts: 69802 Location: Phoenix Metro
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Blue Baron VW Aficionado
Joined: June 16, 2006 Posts: 24037 Location: Southeast USA
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Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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Better image of photo from page 3. |
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Blue Baron VW Aficionado
Joined: June 16, 2006 Posts: 24037 Location: Southeast USA
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2015 1:03 am Post subject: |
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Here is a new photo of apparent BOAR cars from the early '50s. (British Army on the Rhine) Looks like the Brits really liked sunroofs.
_________________ We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.
Heinz Nordhoff |
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mandraks Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004 Posts: 7047 Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2015 8:42 am Post subject: |
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Blue Baron wrote: |
Here is a new photo of apparent BOAR cars from the early '50s. (British Army on the Rhine) Looks like the Brits really liked sunroofs.
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not much use to them back home, but in the rhine valley (the mildest climate in all of germany) very handy. _________________ regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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Mike Sal Samba Member
Joined: May 28, 2014 Posts: 195 Location: Southern Illinois
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 5:23 pm Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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My old boss was one of the band of brothers guys (not easy company) during the war & pulled occupation duty in several places in Germany after the war. He told us that he hated the beetle because people would take them out on the autobahn & run them wide open, resulting in horrific crashes. He thought the cars were rolling death traps
Mike S |
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Bruce Samba Member
Joined: May 16, 2003 Posts: 17285 Location: Left coast, Canada
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:00 pm Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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Mike Sal wrote: |
He thought the cars were rolling death traps |
Every car back then was a rolling death trap at 60mph. _________________
overheard at the portland Swap Meet... wrote: |
..... a steering wheel made from a mastadon tusk..... |
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René R. Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2015 Posts: 1710 Location: No. Calif.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 12:36 pm Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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Quote: |
Every car back then was a rolling death trap at 60mph. |
As this Consumer Reports VIDEO demonstrates. _________________ Gone but not forgotten: 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1966) - another 1950 Hoffman split (restored in 1996) |
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Blue Baron VW Aficionado
Joined: June 16, 2006 Posts: 24037 Location: Southeast USA
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Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:38 am Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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Some interesting facts on the factory reconditioning line (2 R.E.M.E. Auxiliary Workshops, fourth line), courtesy of Karl Ludvigsen's book, Battle for the Beetle:
A mid-1947 review offered these statistics:
* The workshop occupied 16% of the factory floor space.
* It employed 8% of the factory workforce.
* It overhauled 250 Volkswagens per month.
* It overhauled 800 VW engines per month.
* It overhauled 450 engines for other British Army vehicles.
By these statistics, the workshop could overhauling up to 3,000 VWs per year, at a time when the factory was building roughly 10,000 new VWs per year! No wonder the 10,000th overhauled VW rolled off the line in 1949!
According to Ludvigsen:
"The Works received the class 5 hard cases among the Beetles needing repair, the ones whose over-enthusiastic drivers, reveling in the agile handling of these little cars, had spun, rolled, or crashed their charges. Unrepairable cars were simply stripped, their usable parts cannibalized to keep others going."
Eventually, the overhaul line would be phased out and form the basis of the service department. _________________ We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.
Heinz Nordhoff |
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KTPhil Samba Member
Joined: April 06, 2006 Posts: 33991 Location: Conejo Valley, CA
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Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:14 am Post subject: |
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"That'll buff out." |
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exotic plants Samba Member
Joined: January 30, 2006 Posts: 298 Location: God's Zoo
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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Are these photos of the same place?
Or are all of the photos in this thread of the same place? _________________ 1956 Beetle - Jungle Green.
Parts needed to complete:
Front driver side fender.
Rear driver side fender.
Cash waiting.
------------------------------------------------------------ |
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splitjunkie Samba Member
Joined: April 04, 2006 Posts: 4091
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:19 pm Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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They are all taken at the VW factory. The building you see in the background of the second picture is the back of the VW factory. _________________ Chris
You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld |
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Blue Baron VW Aficionado
Joined: June 16, 2006 Posts: 24037 Location: Southeast USA
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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Chris is right. This photo is looking at the factory from the northwest corner. (The skylights on the roof face the north.) I believe
the building on the left was the factory guest house, which became the residence quarters for the British custodians. _________________ We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.
Heinz Nordhoff |
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exotic plants Samba Member
Joined: January 30, 2006 Posts: 298 Location: God's Zoo
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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splitjunkie wrote: |
They are all taken at the VW factory. The building you see in the background of the second picture is the back of the VW factory. |
Blue Baron wrote: |
Chris is right. This photo is looking at the factory from the northwest corner. (The skylights on the roof face the north.) I believe
the building on the left was the factory guest house, which became the residence quarters for the British custodians. |
Thanks this helped me understand a bit better. _________________ 1956 Beetle - Jungle Green.
Parts needed to complete:
Front driver side fender.
Rear driver side fender.
Cash waiting.
------------------------------------------------------------ |
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splitjunkie Samba Member
Joined: April 04, 2006 Posts: 4091
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 7:32 am Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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The cars would have been located in the lower left of this picture. You can see the same end of the factory building as the old picture.
Depending on which side you consider the front of the factory the location is probably more correctly should be referred to as the side of the factory.
I consider the front of the factory to be the side that faces the canal. _________________ Chris
You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld |
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rod_vw Samba Member
Joined: December 20, 2006 Posts: 416 Location: Shropshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 8:58 am Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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Don't be too fooled into believing that all reconditioned cars were the result of accident damage or neglectful driving.
We discovered during the restoration of our '46 that the welding in the fold of the 'B' post that secures the inner panel had not been sufficiently hot to actually weld! This would of course reduced the torsional stiffness of the body considerably.
At the same time it was obvious that there were appallingly welded joints (gas welding) between the rear luggage area and inner wheel arches and the engine bay firewall. These welds must surely have been done post production line and the damage may have been caused by flexing of the body which had broken the original spot welds.
There was no evidence of accident damage at the rear of the car to account for this situation.
I doubt that we will never know the real situation with the factory and REME in the late 40s but I do know that Simon Parkinson had very much free run of the archives at Wolfsburg when doing the research for his book.
Just as a matter if interest Simon still drives the Oval that his father bought new in 1956 to a few shows in England. _________________ Rod,
Please visit http://www.historicvws.org.uk
https://www.facebook.com/historicvwclub/
1946 Beetle (Back on the road after over 50 years! Last major outing - Hessisch Oldendorf 2022)
2016 T6 Selfbuild Camper and a LWB MAN TGE in build. |
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Blue Baron VW Aficionado
Joined: June 16, 2006 Posts: 24037 Location: Southeast USA
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Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:01 am Post subject: Re: Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars |
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These cars were constructed provisionally right after the war. An unrestored '46 that I examined had many of the panels gas
welded rather than spot welded. They really were hand assembled and gnashed together.
Could some of the cars have been rebuilt because they were literally falling apart? Who knows. What is known by the statistics
is that about one out of nine cars was remanufactured, and the earlier the car, the better the odds.
This photo represents about one week's remanufacturing.
This car represents a BER (beyond economical repair) car on the dismantling line.
This photo shows the remanufacturing line. Note the dismantling line in the background, along with the ubiquitous gas welders.
Also note the grease penciled numbers on the tunnels of the remanufactured chassis. This could be a clue to establishing the
remanufactured cars.
_________________ We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.
Heinz Nordhoff
Last edited by Blue Baron on Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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