Dash grill - pad/felt factory?

[harrymarlin]

I just took off the grill from my dash, and noticed there is a pad/felt behind the mesh. Is that factory, and, if so, does anyone know what color it is supposed to be (One I have is black, the other is red)?

As well, if anyone happens to have one they are willing to sell, I'm looking for a 2057037-0701 BENDIX speaker - the 6" speaker listed as the speaker # for the Beetle in the Sapphire VI photofacts document (have a wanted ad out for it in the classifieds).

Thanks for your help!

-Harry

[stale air]

The factory would use whatever scraps they had laying around to back the grills, to help prevent wind, etc from coming through the grills, and into the occupant area. On the 58/59's you would usually see a tar board style insert, while on the later 60ish and up you would, like I said see various interior door panel scraps in various color combos.
Whatever combo you have, would be from the factory, and correct in your car.

As a side note, the mesh grills from the factory would originally have been flocked from the factory. Over the years though, most of them have lost their flocking.

As far as the speaker goes, I cant help ya there, but in case you cant find the bendix, I have bought the one linked below, its vw stamped, and I am plenty happy with it.


https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2090315
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[harrymarlin]

Wow - I'm really surprised, when churning out 3K cars a day, the factory would just be scrounging for scraps to put behind the grill (seems like it would potentially show down the assembly).

So, your thought is that this is something from an interior panel? By looking at it, can you tell what interior panel this might be from?

Was the flocking on both sides of the mesh, or just the side facing the interior of the car?

Thanks for your reply and for the link - it's neat seeing a new VW stamped speaker!

-Harry

[Eric&Barb]

No scrounging was required. VW had an interior production branch of the factory, and when cutting out interior panels there would be scraps left over. Someone realized that and as the old saying goes, "Waste not, want not.", saving VW money too boot. From then on the interior branch would just punch (at the the same time) the previously considered scraps to be used.

Have worked at several manufactures, and even the USAF that offer a bonus or a percentage of the savings for one year to be kicked back to the person that came up with the idea.

Say one saves one cent per VW, and one million VWs are built in one year.

1,000,000 multiplied by .01 = $10.000

Say VW would give 10% to the idea person, that comes to $1,000.00.......

Same can be seen with the spare tire tool roll. At first they were constructed strictly out of canvas. Later when vinyl interiors were mostly standard, tool rolls made of seat material were used more and more.
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[harrymarlin]

Fascinating! Looking closer at these backings, they both look like the kind of vinyl you might see on the side panels, so I can totally see that as happening. But why would they put in one red and one black?

Now I just need to clean off the mesh and reflock the front of them to fully restore!

Thanks for all of the information - really cool!

-Harry

[Eric&Barb]