56 vert Jimmy Sprinkles

[esde]

I've been uploading pictures of this car for a while and answering many questions, but haven't found the time to start a thread till now.. so this will be a barrage of pictures.
This is not a car I really ever thought I would own, but somehow that's how things happened and I couldn't be happier. I met the owners when they bought a 65 tin top westy that was stored at my business, and we became friends. Dan came over to help install the glass in this zwitter project https://tinyurl.com/34epear4 and he drove this car over. It was the first time I had ever seen it in person and I was amazed at how clean and original it was.
Here it is at first look

Now obviously the exterior has been resprayed and the seat covers arent correct, but how often do you see a nice oval vert that hasn't been restored?
I floated the idea that if he ever thought to sell it, we should talk. At some point over several months, he decided 3 red cars (beetle, bus, and 914) were too many red cars, and a deal was made...
I picked the car up in January and stashed it in my shop to install some seat belts, and wait for nice weather to bring it home (and to tell my wife )

Here it is in the shop, literally the first real inspection I gave it

So, after a good hard look, the bad: it has aftermarket bumpers, an incorrect top, a non original motor (maybe, maybe not though), exterior respray, and it was hit once in the passenger rear corner. The right rear fender has been replaced, and this buckling is the only damage from the hit

There is some previous rust that was repaired in the front of the driver heater channel and rear crossmembers under the back seat. Not great repairs, but adequate and certainly fine to keep the car in it's original driver state. I did get the original right rear fender, which is excellent by todays standards, and the original bumpers which are pitted (but are nice enough to be re plated)
The good: It is all there, and it all works. Everything fits and the car is wonderful to drive. It starts right up, pops out of third if you don't baby it, gets smiles everywhere, and my family loves it.
All the weird vert stuff, like the hinge covers and the vert mirror, has all survived.
Here are all the pics I have of it and some of what's been done since I got it:
First trip over the bridge into Philly. Almost made 55 going uphill on the bridge!

Posing outside at my shop

I decided to dig into the front and rear brakes. Turning all 4 drums got a nice steady pedal with no pulsing. While the wheels were off I found:
3 of the 4 trim rings are dated 55

under the white and black spray paint on the wheel centers was some beige.

I decided to try out what might be the correct wheel color and had a rattle can mixed to match

Pretty happy with the results
I had traded an original theater poster for the Great Escape for this gas can, and it's a much better match than the empi tool kit

Replaced the original passenger mirror for this one from WCM, which I can almost see out of

And with the magnolia tree in full bloom

We packed it up and dragged it to Flanders All Air Cooled Gathering. This was the first time my wife and both kids came with me, and camped. We had an excellent time, though a little cold. I met a ton of people that wanted to talk about the car, which was great. Learned a bunch too

The picture of dad c comes to every show

morning dew

my kids. The westy in the background belongs to Dan and Kari, who I got the car from
56cabrio pointed out a few late 55 things to look out for, like these snowflake light brackets with the tabs turned up

and the lenses with no part number

Here is where it's stashed now, next to my ratty rusty 65 bus "the Bavarian"

The replacement top is well installed and has worn well. I'm being very careful with it. The 56 dated NJ plates have been registered with the car!
You can see the chrome on the drivers side window frames is trashed and has been painted silver. One of the things I hope to do in the next several years is have all the chrome replated. Yes I know it's $$$

small tear in the top

Amazing, for the age of the thing

Passenger visor has been swapped but I have a correct one to put in

Here you can see the paint difference between the original interior paint and the exterior

Which leads me to the color. I believe it's L259 Pelican red, which was apparently an option as any of the Ghia colors could have been sprayed at Karman coachwork. Theres no crayon mark under the rear window to confirm and I haven't ordered a birth cert for it yet.
Here's another Pelican red vert, this is an early 55, thats in in Massachusetts

And then to the interior, it was black and red which I have not been. able to find any documentation of. But here it is
Door panels: note the textured red piping.

Here is a pic of the seats before they were recovered. They look good int he pics, but I was assured they had deteriorated in a weird way. It seems the vinyl was extremely brittle and delicate, but the surface had gotten soft and slimy. I have a few scraps of the fabric in an envelope, but it's been misplaced somewhere here in the house..
Hard to see in this pic, but red seating and back surface, black sides and seat backs, red piping

I'm searching for the right red piping, and will have correct seat covers made as the originals. Thats on the list for next year
Supposedly the engine was swapped for another at some point. BUT, this is a 56 engine number, and it has the correct 56 wavy top pump... could it be correct?
The engine number is off a few months from the body number, but with the cars going to Karmann.. how close are the body numbers to engine numbers with the
coach built cars?

And lastly, but of most importance, meet the original owner Jimmy Sprinkles.

After he passed, his kids sold the car to a local collector, who traded it to Dan for a BMW motorcycle, and then I bought it. I'm pretty sure this car was originally housed just 11-12 miles from my house, so it's always been local. There's more to the story, which I'll fill in w my next post. I'm waiting on more old pics and to confirm some of the back story before posting it.
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[56Cabrio]

Very cool post and what a beautiful vert you have Seth. Maybe our cars could have been built on the same day, that would be neat. Another thing I forgot to mention, all my windows have the 1955 big sekurit logos.
Jimmy Sprinkles, what a cool name. It sounds like a name my grandfather would have been friends with on Sullivan street in Greenwich Village.
Thanks for sharing.
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1956 Rag Top owned since 1988
1956 Convertible owned since 2000
1963 Hard Top

RIP Dad 4/20/1951 - 2/4/2023

[finster]

nice car! the number plate is great and the name jimmy sprinkles is perfect - it reminds me of grayson perry's teddy bear called alan measles
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"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[stale air]

Beautiful vert! Congrats, cars like that dont pop up very often.
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[grailoc]

welcome to the oval vert club you will enjoy it.
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My 59 low light ghia: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=452128
My 56 beetle convertible: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7796259
My 60 SO23 westy: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=341539
My oldspeed 36hp autotechnik express build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=670827
My garage build: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199438

[EverettB]

Awesome find and super nice car.

I think of that fuel pump as 1955 but maybe it went into the '56 model year?
I may have missed where you said what month/year the car is...

You said the engine # is a few months off from the body # but do you mean the VIN #? They should be pretty close and I think that's true even for Karmann-built cars. If you want to post up the VIN # and engine # we can verify things for you.

The door panel trim sort of looks like early Barndoor Deluxe seat or middle seat kick panel beading if that helps. I don't know if your original seat beading is textured or smooth but later Barndoor Deluxe seat beading are smooth, like my '55 Bus:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=684344
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[VW_Jimbo]

Seth, that car is AWESOME! You lucky F’r! Did I read that right, the headliner is OG? Damn!

This will be fun to watch!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[aa390392]

Very good story, my Inca red car is very much like yours, never fully restored, but much needed maintenance has been done, new rubber, newly chromed window frames, new door cards, new top, heater channels repaired. Then enjoy, I drive mine at every opportunity. And love the Inca color, it is magnificent at sunset…

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.
getting grumpy & less tolerant!


55 ragtop
56 delux sedan
56 Kabriolet

[esde]

So the car is titled as a 56, but the vin number puts it as August of 55. The engine number 1577753 indicates October 56.
I'm not sure where on Samba convertible body numbers are listed? I found some posts discussing body numbers and build dates, and if they are correct my body number falls somewhere in August/ September 55.
56cabrio, how close to mine is your car?
_________________
modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[AlteWagen]

absolutely beautiful! Cant wait to see the new seat covers.

So interesting, Ive never seen the made in western germany tag riveted on before. Usually the VIN tag is riveted and the MIWG tag is screwed. It looks like you have the large head screws for your VIN tag like mine and a few other vert owners.
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[aa390392]

My body # under front bonnet 15-25929
Eng# 1-0993706
Chassis # 1-1015501
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.
getting grumpy & less tolerant!


55 ragtop
56 delux sedan
56 Kabriolet

[VWGlassee]

Wauw, that is a beauty!

[kaieric]

[56Cabrio]

Seth it looks like our cars are 462 cars apart, very cool.
My body number is 15-24586. So if you kinda do the math Karmann made something like 6868 convertibles in 1956, divide that by 260 working days in a year ( Mon-Friday) it comes out to like 27 cars a day. My vert BC says it was built on Aug 9, 1955. I’m going to say your vert is Aug 31,1955. If I’m right I should play the Lotto
Not Safari Izzy posted his 1956 has a body number of 15-26486 exactly 1,900 away from mine with a build date of Nov 18th 1955.
Strange thing is my vin puts my car in July 1955.

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1956 Rag Top owned since 1988
1956 Convertible owned since 2000
1963 Hard Top

RIP Dad 4/20/1951 - 2/4/2023

[esde]

[56Cabrio]

Seth does your convertible have a smooth gas tank?

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1956 Rag Top owned since 1988
1956 Convertible owned since 2000
1963 Hard Top

RIP Dad 4/20/1951 - 2/4/2023

[esde]

[esde]

Found a few more pics. I had pulled the fuse box in an effort to brighten some lights and make the wipers sort of work. Nice that it had the original paper label..
Cleaned and reinstalled, and it made a minimal difference.

While my intention is to leave this car original, I have ordered some LED kits for the rear snowflakes from Chip B. It's a safety thing like seatbelts, so I'm ok with it.
_________________
modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[kaieric]

[56Cabrio]