'58/'59 Beetle Discussion

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Can you tell if the front fenders are originals?

Peter

[bsvwoc]

Anything not look original???

Cheers,

Peter

[AlteWagen]

[mario_0609]

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My cars interior. My B/C also says it came with option 128 Wide White wall tires. Many early factory parking lot photos show black cars with with walls.

Cheers,
Peter
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[spectre6000]

My antenna was located at about the same spot, but it was a different kind. I'll be closing those holes and relocating it to a more appropriate place and more appropriate style when I get to that point (shouldn't be more than a month or so).

What kind of fuel gauge does it have? The VDO ones like found in the later bugs shouldn't fit in a '58 for sure, or early '59. There were some gauges that did fit, but the regular one was not one of them.

Also, is that a chrome bezel around the heater vent? Tell me that wasn't factory... I really don't want to track one of those down... It's square in the rust zone

A lot of things that would make it entirely original are the sorts of things that you have to be able to poke around for (wire tubes, rear fender pressings between the bolt holes, mechanical/chassis stuff, etc.). It looks original at 20 feet from what has been discussed here.
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Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[stale air]

[mario_0609]

[AlteWagen]

[bsvwoc]

This image is from the Oval era and you can clearly see wide white tires on the cars.
My bug came with the attenna shown in the photo.It was detached and the hole was filled in by the PO but you could detect the original spot so when I found the radio I wanted I replaced the original attenna.

The car doesn't have a fuel guage it an original VDO 6 volt clock.

Fianlly the heater outlets had chrome trim rings originally, along with the reserve tap leaver.
Wolfsburg West sells reproductions, but those in the photos are the original VW.

Any other 1958 -59 Questions?

Cheers,
Peter

[bsvwoc]

A few other photos of the trunk area. This car was undercoated at the dealership leaving a black overspray over the trunk area. I was originally going to restore the trunk area but I may preserve it as part of the cars history.
I also added a closer photo of the dash area.

Cheers,
Peter

[stale air]

The 2" white walls, were also available, but in my opinion are mostly seen on early 60's vw's.

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WANTED: Henry Veale Santa Rosa plate frames
WANTED: Brittsan Motors Fresno plate frames
WANTED: Any Georgia plate frames

[DM409]

Here is a picture of my Moms '59 in '59. The original spare was still around until recently. The whitewall measured about 1-1/4" iirc.

We're restoring this very car right now. Great Thread!

[AlteWagen]

I stand corrected. I will say I do like the look of the 1 1/2 WW the best.

[mario_0609]

Great Picture DM409, and so great that you still have this 59! Do you know the exact date of production? If you say you are now restoring it - do you happen to still have the front fenders and could you post pictures of them? By this we could narrow down the time when they changed their design...
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cheers, Mario

* 22 Oct. '58 export bug
* 27 June 72 Westfalia Camper

[DM409]

I do have the fenders. Good thinking. And thanks for the reminder that I need to get them cleaned up and painted before they rot away.
The VIN # is 2478484. June '59 numbers I think, so would be a later car.

[spectre6000]

!!!! That's exactly the kind of fenders we need photos of! Can you take several more photos at some of the angles seen above? It doesn't get much later in '59 than June, and if the flares are still there it confirms/disproves the flare's presence until '60 when the tubes disappeared and confirms/disproves their disappearance mid-way through '59.

I'm geeking out here...

WE NEED A COMPREHENSIVE FENDER THREAD!!!

On another note:

My '59 has two ribs, but not the number and not the "Made in Western Germany" plaque. Where the number would be is just stamped hashing.
_________________
Jason Hopper

-'58 German Market Deluxe Beetle (in progress)
-'84 M1009 CUCV
-'81 K10
"Buy the best, cry once." -Gene Berg
"A cheap man will always buy the cheapest thing available, and then buys another one hoping for a better result, and then spends the rest of his life in misery complaining about it. A thrifty man will buy a good part once and never think about it again." -RockCrusher
"Don't feed the Shitty Parts Monster!" -Me

[mario_0609]

[bsvwoc]

I beleive I remember reading the body number stamping ended in 1958.
The "made in Germany" tag ended in 1959.
The rib stamings were changed sometime in the 1959 model.

Attached is a photo of my cars engine.
It's a factory rebuit engine installed in approx. 1965. Not everything is 1958 correct if you look closely but it is part of the cars hertiage.

Early in the cars life there was a serious electrical meltdown that I discovered when I removed the original harness. The harness was partically melted near the interior light. Approx. 1/2 was not working so the PO ran a new harness along the floor and up the heater vent near the dash. It was done neatly and serviced the car for many years.
I saved the damamged part of the harness along with PO new harness if your interested in seeing photos?
My car also had an unusual wiring tube on it's front fenders. The PO fabricated a tube from plummers copper pipe and painted the pipe to match the car.
The PO was either a plummer or electrician by trade!

Cheers,
Peter

[spectre6000]