Reconstruction of the 1937 W30/26

[fossil]

That´s an interesting pic! The headlights sit in a sort of tube. This tube is inserted into the fender. But what I see for the first time here: There seems to be a sort of frame around the insertion hole in the fender. Could be a rubber profile.
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Greetings from Germany
Thorsten

[Undis]

The headlight housing is in a form of a tube, yes. I think the housing itself is welded to the fender but the seam is not hidden or blended in but instead left as is thus forming a kind of a lip around where the housing sits. I've seen similar type of finishing on other cars.
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[pastellgreen]

I'm curious and looking forward the solution for the roof gutter.

[splitjunkie]

For reference, this is one of the replicas that VW had made. It is on display at the Autostadt museum right next to the factory in Wolfsburg. This will give you an idea of how much more accurate the rebody of this chassis is to the previous replicas. Not even in the same ballpark.

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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[Jacks]

[cyberdyne systems 101]

[splitjunkie]

Over all the car is pretty terrible from a authenticity standpoint. It doesn't look half bad from the side, but front and back the wrong windshield shape, wrong front and rear hatch stick out like a sore thumb. By far the worst is the fenders. They are not anywhere close to the correct shape. If they would just fix that detail, the car would look much better.
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[VW_Jimbo]

[olo]

Is the front windscreen top edge on original b/w photo slightly more curved than the blue car and the reconstruction? Or just photo angle distortion?

[Two Glove Boxes]

Most impressive work Undis !!!
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1951 Split Standard Hoffman Build

1960 Dove Blue Double Cab Patina Build

Two Glove Boxes

DLK

[splitjunkie]

[cyberdyne systems 101]

[Undis]

Yes, the Autostadt W30 is full of mistakes. This becomes even more obvious as we witness the build of the Grundmann team/René Große recreation.

Having said that, I don't want to be too harsh on it as well. After all we don't know how much reference material the builder had to go on. And we don't know what was the brief given to him by the VW museum. Likely they did not want a historically correct example but something that looks the part to most people. We see some examples of that philosophy in the museum's collection.

What the HO team is doing is unprecedented. It already showed when they did the VW38/06. Now with the W30 it's the same story. Lots of nerdy details that in some cases will not even be visible once the car is finished. But we all will know they're there.

But going back to the Autostadt W30, here is a small except from an article that was published in the German magazine VW Speed. Some rare images of the car under construction. I must say that without the fenders it doesn't look too bad.

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[cyberdyne systems 101]

You make some good points Undis, I totally can get why you wouldn't worry about details you can't see, but if you are going to the bother of making a replica for VW no less, you'd think they would get the outside details better, such as the curve of the front opening hatch, windscreen, front lights, shape where the horn mounts, the horn itself and particularly the fenders (wings).

All in all its a good representation of the W30, it's mostly the fenders that spoil it. I'm just so glad we are having the closest thing to a real body being made right now, mated to an original chassis.

If the earlier replica's were much better, it makes you wonder if this one would have been built, so in a way maybe it's good they were built not so accurate so we can have this one done properly, so it has the rightful place on the original chassis.
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When I think of something to say - I'll be the first to know

56' Oval
71' Westy

[splitjunkie]

I suspect this car would still be built for one reason alone. It is based on the chassis backbone of an actual VW30 and as was hinted early on, I am assuming other parts of the drive train.
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[allsidius]

[finster]

[oldovaldriver]

I don't buy the idea that VW didn't intend for their replica to be correct. They built their car from scratch, just like Undis. If they had gone an easier route, like modifying a production beetle, I'd understand that the lines and proportions were off. But they built a wooden body buck and hand-hammered all the panels, supposedly by projecting and analyzing the museum's archival photographs. They had all the resources in the world. I think they just weren't careful and screwed up.

For many of us it was a huge disappointment. But looking back, I'm not surprised. Unlike passionate enthusiasts, like Undis, the VW Museum often shows the culture of a corporate bureaucracy--assignments are handed down, completed, and judged against a dispassionate rubric. The VW hierarchy probably saw their replica as success. It was splashed across magazine covers and got lots of press, and, as many have said, the public probably didn't notice the inaccuracies.

But as someone in the museum field myself, I think accuracy matters. I myself would like to see an accurate replica close up--to better understand the original VW program and the car's development. It's not just the obvious design features that count, like the suicide doors or the rearward view through the cooling vents. It's also important to see how early prototypes compare to finished products in subtler ways. Were the first cars smaller, sleeker, or more aerodynamic? Did practical concessions, or the rationalization for production, improve or degrade the final design? These aspects are important too, and only an accurate replica can speak to them.

Here are some photos I took in the museum in 2002. We were very hopeful then! This is a rough translation of the museum label:

"Wooden body buck for the VW30: In 1999, the firm Werner Zinke from Zwoelnitz in Sachsen constructed this model. It served as the basis for body working for the VW30. The sheet metal took its shape by hand beating over the model. The VW30 body is almost complete, needing only minor finish work for the finished car to be admired in the museum by the middle of next year. The weight of this wooden model is two tons, including the steel undercarriage."

Paul Rubenson

[Undis]

[Undis]