Wolfsburg Factory Reconditioned cars

[Blue Baron]

We've touched on this subject, but I've never read a discussion of the factory reconditioning line. (Forgive me if it's been covered before.)

After the war, the British set up reconditioning lines for Jeep and Humber engines at the Wolfsburg factory, and once Beetle production commenced, the factory set up a dedicated line for refurbishing the VWs of the occupation forces. This wasn't a small operation, and amounted to an additional production battery.

Used and damaged cars were triaged, disassembled and rebuilt using new and reconditioned parts. This would explain why so many early cars seem to have unanswered questions, such as mismatched bodies and pans. It was not uncommon for the factory to install a new body on a used chassis if the original body was beyond repair.

In the book, "Volkswagen: Rise from the Ashes of War," Simon Parkinson shows photos of this old line, along with an interesting photo of the 10,000th factory reconditioned car. The photo is on the lower left cover of the book, (it's also inside the book, but I won't post it in respect to copyright) and shows two British officers standing with the 10,000th reconditioned car as comes of the line. The British left Wolfsburg in Sept. '49, and the car has grooved bumpers, so we can deduce that the photo was taken sometime in 1949.

Assuming 10,000 cars were refurbished, and total new car production was around 100,000 cars by '49, that would mean one out of every ten VWs was remanufactured by the factory! And with 10,000 cars rebuilt, we can also assume some cars may have been reconditioned two, or even three times! Not only this, but there's a chance a few KdF cars may also have fallen into the factory's web and have been rebuilt! Even Ivan Hirst's own car was purchased used and refurbished on this line.

According to Parkinson's book, before the British left Wolfsburg, the reconditioning line was shut down, and the bulk of Control Commission for Germany (CCG) cars were sold off to dealers to boost their used car inventories. It would be interesting to know if there were any records kept regarding the factory rebuilt cars.
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We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.

Heinz Nordhoff

[johnshenry]

Cool stuff. Might certainly explain a lot .......
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[Patty B.]

THAT is such need information!!!!
'Never put that kind of two and two together before!!

[Ivan Fuller]

They started CKD assembly in New Zealand mid 50's using content from Germany Australia & local. It is well documented that the dealers crash repair shops would strip the vehicles and send them to the assembly plant for "factory repair". Photos exist of this over here. I was just talking to a guy just last weekend who remembers sending bent floorpans away for straightening/replacement frame heads etc to be fitted at the assembly plant. Wonder if this concept continued in Germany after 49 & other countries?

[RichOakley]

[DDub]

I don't think I ever heard this before. Henry Ford did this with the Model T's, putting newer better parts on old cars. This would explain cars with newer parts that SEEM original.

[Blue Baron]

Another interesting fact from the book is that the Experimental Shop was located next door to the remanufacturing line, and all the interesting customs, such as the Radclyffe Roadster and the first postwar cabriolet, were likely sourced from the remanufactured pool and were not based on new cars. This would explain why these cars seem to be very early postwar or even KdF-era cars.

I recommend this book. It picks up where the Barber book leaves off.
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We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.

Heinz Nordhoff

[vw57drvr]

Wow. Some of these books are upward of 150.00 new. Even the barber book used is 50.
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60 Rock Grey Vert

[Bart Dunn]

[vw57drvr]

Cool. Ive been looking at Amazon, but about 50 for the Barber, and 25 for the other is about as cheap as Ive seen. Funny, my last name is Dunn also.
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60 Rock Grey Vert

[erioco]

A great post and thread! Thanks


Yes this has been touched on before, but I don't think anyone has ever looked at the totals before, nor done the math.

I wonder if the refurb project ran as late as 49, I get the feeling from the book that it might be closer to early/mid 48/, which would put the % closer to 20 %. (Mind you one has to exclude the 20 cars shipped to the Russians. I hear that one has shown up in Austria a while back.)

With any final number given, the % cars refurbished is staggeringly high, and you realize that few knew how to drive these somewhat tail happy things. And as you say, some were very probably repeat offenders, both cars and drivers.

It would be good to research when the refurb lines were stopped and what the yearly numbers were versus the yearly new car's numbers. That would clear up many questions about 'authenticity' of the early vehicles at least up until 1947/48. It is obvious that the early REME cars can not be held to the same standards as later cars. This would go for engines as well since they were rebuilding at least 25K engines and there is a mention of around 100,000 new engines being built. With the real problems in the early engines, coupled with those who drove the cars too hard and blew them up.

Eric
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Radclyffe Roadster Replica proj based on an April 47 chassis

[splitjunkie]

[Blue Baron]

Very sneaky, splitjunkie. The book's a good read and $25 isn't a bad price.

[Richard Hartel]

I think my 1947 is one of these factory reconditioned vehicles. Once we started tearing it down we found some original factory replacement parts with factory primer on them under three coats of paint. The front panel behind the spare tire where the body number was SUPPOSED to be stamped has the section for the body number but it was NEVER stamped. Also on the tunnel stamped into the tunnel close to the welded in ID plate is another number that was hand stamped. I have never seen this before so if someone has a copy of this book Volkswagen Beetle: Rise from the Ashes of War and could look up if there was any additional stamping I would appreciate it. My birth cert says delivered to the US Army in December 1947.

Thank you.

[Seb67]

[Split50]

Reminded me of this photo in the Cool Vintage Photo thread.
I had to look through 50 pages to find it.

Tim

The Volkswagen Factory in the City of Wolfsburg: Scrap Yard for Damaged VW-Beetles (1947)
Photo by Germin (Gerd Mingram).

[GeoffP]

great photo!

[johnshenry]

[ARB]

There is a lot of people just drooling over all those........

[Seb67]

Thats also a lot of bad driving!
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1964 Type 1