Is This The Build Date?

[1madmanx]

My, mostly original, 1973 Thing still has all or a number of all of it's original stickers still attached to it. While doing some cleaning this weekend I noticed this, what I believe to be a final inspection sticker in the little curved indent in the trunk under the gas tank. Am I correct to "assume" this is the actual build date of my Thing (19 Mar 1973 - which happens to be a Monday)?

Thanks, Bud

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Bud (1Madmanx)
Wilmington, NC
'68 Meyers Manx Dune Buggy M1996F826S
'66 Kombi Bus
'73 Thing
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[Eric Goodman]

Hi Bud,

You should have a sticker on the inside of the body near the rear of the drivers door with your VIN and month of build to confirm.
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1970 Bug (Das Rod)
1973 Thing
www.vwthingregistry.com
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[1madmanx]

[Joe 20]

I'll bet it's close. Your sticker that's torn looks like it says 03/73 from what remains. Yes it could say 08 or whatever, but with that fecha(date) sticker and it being a Monday, I'd go with it. Cool find!

[1madmanx]

[Shoyrtt]

Very cool!

Also check the inside of your headlight bucket. One of my Things was built around 8/20/73:

[1madmanx]

[Deckard]

I think that is an inspection sticker, which might have been done by the Mexican equivalent of the DMV. My reasoning is that is has a ledge book number (Folio 19) EVT might be the initials of the inspector.

[Ron Domeck]

I have found the hand wrote like in the headlight bucket on the front firewall under the gas tank. I took a pic and put it back on after paint.

[1madmanx]

[SilverThing]

I know that VW used to advertise their quality control in the 60s with pictures of crushed beetles and descriptions of the numbers of inspectors throwing away parts. In 1969, VW claimed that every part got inspected 3 times and when you totaled up the inspections, each beetle got about 16,000 inspections from 1,104 different inspectors. Rejected parts averaged the equivalent of about 225 beetles per day.

My dad's 1964 Karmann Ghia Convertible has grease pencil marks all over the place from the inspectors (behind where the convertible top lays, behind the firewall tar-board, inside the insides of the fenders, etc).

It is fairly common to find fan shrouds with " I.O. " in white paint with a number also in white paint. I.O. stands for "In Ordnung" and was applied after the engine had been run on a test stand and passed. If we go off of what the factory advertised, everything was inspected before and after it went on the vehicle several times.

I imagine the little paper tag is a factory inspection of some sort. I won't speculate about whether it signifies the final factory inspection or not. Regardless, it is really cool and I wish mine was still present.
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"I like how everyone likes talking about Zeke's Thing yet he's the only one that's ever seen it." - Katie
"I've seen pictures..." - Jeremy