Early bay - production start in July 1967?!

[AustroBus]

Hi guys,

so lately i really informed myself a lot about the very early bays (1968 VW Bus models) that had already been built in August 1967. I wanted to know more about the oldest baywindow buses around - and also know their manufacturing dates. Therefore i got in contact with a lot of very early bay owners and i even managed to find a guy in Germany - who was already working at VW factory in Hannover back in 1967.

The entire topic and all the insights soon brought much new knowledge to me. It turned out to be a quite extensive research. But now i finished it an wrote it down on my website.

So i figured out that the oldest bay - a single cab with VIN Nr. 38 - was already built on July 10th, 1967. Officially confirmed by the birth certificate.

Another thing that was new to me: Splitbus (T1) and earlybay (T2a) production ran side to side for some time. So in my opinion it might even be possible that there are very, very early bays around that are older than the youngest splitbus!
Even though i have no evidence yet, but i really think it is quite likely.

You might also want to know, that the m-plate just shows the "planned production date". And especially during the first few months of early bay production, this planned date did not match with the actual, much more reliable "date of build" - as the birth certificate states. So to sum it up - they had massive initial problems at the start of early bay serial production.

Another thing that i was interested in: VW factory holidays in summer 1967. When did they take place? How did they spend that time in the VW buildings?

And much more..



So if i got your attention now, then you might want to take a look at the full results of my research:

Topic overview on my website:
https://austrosplit.com/en/research-vintage-vw/1967-earlybay-production/

And all 5 subpages in chronologically written order:

- The oldest surviving bay #38
- Summer 1967: VW factory holiday: vacation locks, remodeling of the assembly lines & delays
- End of the splitbus era, start of earlybay production
- Production figures of the VW T2a (bay) in 1967: planned vs. actual numbers
- How many 1967-built buses survived? Is there a registry?

If you have any suggestions or new information, please let me know.
Also i am always very interested in receiving info about your 1967 built buses. As is am still continuing my "survivor list".

And as i am always learning something new, i will use this thread to provide further info for new topics.. like prototypes and other things..

Hope you enjoy a read,
Greets, Alex
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Blog website:www.austrosplit.com
1967 Deluxe VW Bus - Resto Thread

Barndoor Coachbuilder Topics:
"Hans Kohlruss & Co"

[dstimm]

Many double cabs were made in August of 1967.
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1979 Sage Green California Westy.

[AustroBus]

In general many bay window buses were built in August 1967 - not just double cabs.
I'd say about 12.000 buses in total, maybe a little less. But of course no all of them have been double cabs. Maybe there are just many double cabs around that have survived.
_________________
Blog website:www.austrosplit.com
1967 Deluxe VW Bus - Resto Thread

Barndoor Coachbuilder Topics:
"Hans Kohlruss & Co"

[AustroBus]

Interesting note:

A guy just contacted me. He owns one of the last ~ 350 split buses (1967 model) ever built. I won't put his VIN here, but the m-plate mentions a planned production date of July 12th, 1967. Side note: The oldest known surviving early bay (1968 model) was built on July 10th, 1967. I was in contact with its owner and he confirmed that this exact day is mentioned in the official birth certificate straight from Volkswagen.

So most likely there was an overlap in Split and bay production.

Back to the (late) split owner who contacted me. He claims that his '67 bus had some interesting details that weren't correct for the model year - such as '68 brake drums.

Now we are discussing. Maybe the factory didn't produce split bus parts anymore. But that doesn't make sense as spare parts are always needed - even a few years after the last model was released.

And other interesting hint is the destination code "UT" on his m-plate. It states that the bus was picked up by the first owner at the factory & meant for US-market.

So as i found out - in Summer 1967 Volkswagen had some delays and they couldn't always stick to the "planned production dates" which are stamped on the m-plate. So maybe they already had an appointment with the customer for the pick up. Maybe the suppliers had delays so VW didn't receive the right parts but wanted to stick to the schedule and so they just used what was there - the parts for the new 1968 model. Who knows. This is all just grey theory.

But has anyone ever noticed something similar on really old 07/1967 Split buses?

Of course i already had the thought that maybe a previous owner had just added the '68 break drums to his '67 bus - but he claims that this sure was original from factory.

Cheers,
Alex
_________________
Blog website:www.austrosplit.com
1967 Deluxe VW Bus - Resto Thread

Barndoor Coachbuilder Topics:
"Hans Kohlruss & Co"