Volkswagen Beetle - detail differences

[Dungrange]

It was my understanding that the Volkswagen Beetle was produced from 1938 through to 2003 and that the body shell was unchanged throughout this period.  However the Oxford Diecast model of a Volkswagen Beetle appears in their catalogue as 1950 – 1970.  Are there any differences over time that limits the model to this time period (apart from the number plates)?  I’m looking for more models of 1:76 scale cars suitable for the early 21st century (ie those produced from circa 1993 – 2003) and wonder if this would be suitable with new number plates?

 

Regards

 

David

[RANGERS]

The Beetle had at least five variations on the basic body shell whilst the original (air cooled model) was in production in Germany between 1946 and 1979. Production continued in Mexico, Brazil and S Africa after that with further variances on the basic design.

 

The Oxford model represents a mid period version with sloping headlights and the smaller back window in production from about 1958 until 1967. They're still relatively common considering their age but they are different to anything sold in the UK after 1967.

[SRman]

Differences through the years include changes to the rear window (probably the most obvious evolution!), bonnet and boot (or engine hatch and boot, or ... oh heck! You know what I mean! ), bumpers, wing shapes, head and tail lights, cooling grilles, indicators and sidelights (early examples had those dreadful semaphore indicators), and late examples even had larger, curved windscreens. These are the visible changes. There were many mechanical changes too.

[PatB]

The Beetle underwent many, many detail changes over its long production life. However, the main, cosmetic changes that would be noticed in 1:76 are:

 

Very early cars had large sloping headlamps, tiny tail lamps and a small, two-piece rear window. Wheels had a large, 5-stud pattern covered with high, domed hubcaps. Very rare now and I don't recall ever seeing one on the road, even in the early 80s when I started noticing such things.

 

In the mid-50s the two piece rear window was replaced with an equally small, but one-piece oval window. Rest of the car remained broadly unchanged.

 

c1958 the rear window again changed to a larger, rectangular one. Round about now the rear light clusters got bigger and incorporated amber indicatiors.

 

Basic shape then remained pretty constant until 1967-8 when most of the outer panels were completely retooled and the car got 12V electrics rather than the original 6V. All the windows got bigger and the pillars slimmer. Headlamps shrank and were mounted upright with chrome surrounds, bumpers got bigger and squarer, tail lamps grew again and at least some variants got grills in the engine lid to feed the larger engine. Hubcaps became noticeably flatter and wheels were perforated around the edge. A fuel filler hatch appeared in the front quarter panel ahead of the RH door.

 

Next big change was the 1302/1303 which had new front suspension necessitating a subtle reshape of the nose. Tail light clusters became huge and round. 1303 had the curved windscreen mentioned upthread.

 

AFAIK the Mexican Beetles were basically the '68 onwards cars and not the 1302/1303.

 

As mentioned, there are myriad detail variations but most can be reasonably ignored in 1:76. the shape changes noted, though, will be istantly spotted by Beetle buffs. Oxford's description of 1950-1970 doesn't really fit any of the production dates that I know of but could refer to the likely lifespan of an early split-window.

[surfsup]

Differences through the years include changes to the rear window (probably the most obvious evolution!), bonnet and boot (or engine hatch and boot, or ... oh heck! You know what I mean! ), bumpers, wing shapes, head and tail lights, cooling grilles, indicators and sidelights (early examples had those dreadful semaphore indicators), and late examples even had larger, curved windscreens. These are the visible changes. There were many mechanical changes too.

There were a few changes other the years of the Beetle, certainly from the very first few designed by Dr Ferdinand Porsche (then designated as T60) to the more revised designs until the last of the Air Cooled Beetles in 2003. In brief (I could go very much into depth but it's late, and i'm tired!)

 

 

The very first Beetles really were originally designated the KDF-Wagen for the German People before the outbreak of what became the Second World War. This meant that several refinements were made to turn the car into what we know as the Beetle shape today and spawned the Beetles curious cousins of the Volkswagen Schwimmwagen & Type 82 Kübelwagen (later to become Type181 or Thing!). During the period of the war very few Beetles were released for Civilian use - The Military Beetles even impressed other allied forces due to their versatility (rear engine, air cooled so suitable for many climates) which led to an order (in part thanks to the Morgenthau Plan to rid Germany of war and reconstruct Industries, and the town of what was originally named KDF-Stadt (later renamed to Wolfsburg after a local 14th centaury castle) falling under the duress of the British Army). Major Ivan Hurst of REME* was tasked with taking on the Factory and the returning of the factory to being capable of producing the car, initially out of spare parts and through the limited materials available. Major Ivan Hurst and his REME team initially ran the factory from July 1945 until the appointment of former GM company Opel Director Heinz Nordhoff who was appointed General Manager on January the 1st 1948. In 1949 the company control was passed on by the British Army to the Lower state of Saxony. Nordhoff's first two decisions were of the One Model policy - invented by Henry Ford - The second was in keeping the shape and basics of the Beetle, although did set upon a rolling program of refinements leading to the Beetles constant evolution.

 

Moving on a few years, and the first Export beetle was produced - This came with what's now known as the Sloping Headlamps, and two part Oval rear windscreen with 'popes nose' licence plate light cover,and the first Cabriolets to be bodied by Wilhelm Karmann.

 

1953 saw the central partition on the rear oval window removed taking it's appearance from double d to the Oval shape, as well as engine air intake sizes being reduced and minor changes to the engine cover. Otherwise known as Split Window Beetle.

 

1958 & 1961 saw the first stages of change to the Beetle - 1958 saw the replacement of the Oval with the familiar one today, whilst 1961 saw the changes of the rear lights from smaller oval shaped rear light to slightly larger shape.

 

1961 also saw the first productions of the Volkswagen Type3 - Type 1 was the Beetle with it's now at this point 1200CC engine, Type 2 was the Ben Pon influenced Transporter, Type3 was the first of the ending of the one car policy with a new promising body for the future but with a 1500 CC Flat Four engine and improved backbone chassis. Born out of this was the Notchback, Fastback and Sqaureback aka Variant (the first use of the Variant badge for the VAG, now in use as the Golf Estate!)

 

1965 saw the Beetles windscreen and side windows size increase, whilst the pillars were made slightly narrower.

 

1966 saw separation and increasing into the Volkswagen range - the present beetle became the 1200, Born was the 1300 - essentially a 1200 with improved gearbox and the crank from the 1500 allowing the engine stroke to increase from 64 to 69mm.

 

1967 Saw the introduction of the 1500 Beetle - the engine from the 1300 with enlarged 83mm bores producing that extra amount of power. Again, little revision to the car's external appearance until...

 

1970 And the arrival of the 1302 Beetle. Built as a response to critism of the Beetles small luggage capacity, this saw the arrival of the more curvaceous bonnet and front panels. The 1302 also saw the arrival and subsequent use of MacPherson struts to replace the original transverse torsion bars. One option of the 1302 was front bumper mounted indicator lights rather than having them on top of the front wings - as per the previous generations of Beetle.

 

1973 Then arrived and so did the 1303 Beetle. Much the same underneath as the 1302, But complete with the (to me less attractive) Curvey Windscreen! Reduced bonnet size, wider rear wings and engine cover, and a much larger rear lights, colloquially known in the VW world as Elephants Feet due to their size.

 

Sadly, it all started to turn for the fate of the Beetle by this point, as after many attempts at trying including the impressive and attractive Volkswagen K70 and Type 4 (produced from '68 to 74), Despite passing the 15,007,034th car production car in 1972, the immanent arrival of the watercooled Golf saw Volkswagen start to scale back production due to financial losses occurred by the cost of the Arab/Israeli war and dramatic rise in the cost of Oil.

 

1974 Saw the ending of the production of the Beetle in Wolfsburg, and replacement by the new Golf. Beetle production remained in Germany at VWs sister plant at Emden - built to serve the expanding North American Export Market - US Spec Volkswagens included what became known as Towel Rail Bumpers, until 1979, and in 1980 the last German manufactured Beetle rolled off the production line in the Osnabrück factory of Karmann.

 

Since 1980, the last Air Cooled Beetles were produced from the intial 1200 Design in Puebla, Mexico, until July 2003 when the last Air Cooled Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line, some 60 + years later from the initial designs of Ferdinand Porsche.

 

I could go through more of the changes of the beetle with you, but I think it's time to head off to the land of nod for tonight. I'll give you some pictures tomorrow!

 

For now, here are some links to Volkswagen Heritages website, it might give some illustration to the changes of the Beetles components.

 

http://www.vwheritage.com/vw_act_page.render_pageID_188.htm?startRow=1&startPage=1&maxDisplayRows=15&dcCfcSortSelect=PopularitySort|asc&dcCfcBrandFilter=excluded&dcCfcOriginFilter=excluded&dcCfcPriceFilterLow=excluded&dcCfcPriceFilterHigh=excluded&searchText=&classicSearchText=&classicSearchType=

 

 

Rich

 

*Hence the forever Volkswagen Connection to the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Aaah, the beetle.

My first car, 3791 WJ, a 1959 version, larger rear window, semaphore indicators converted to flashing bulbs on rubber bases on each wing, no fuel gauge just a change over lever when you spluttered to a halt, got it wrong a couple of times when I first got the car! Crash gearbox which made me perfect the lost art of double de-clutching, and, due to it having to be split in half to change the clutch cost me nearly £200 in 1972, a fortune back then. Heater flaps controlled by a form of bowden cable diverting warm/hot air directly from the exhaust, which rusted in the fully open position making a summer drive a somewhat sauna ish experience, I remember coming back from a days shed bashing in Manchester in the middle of winter with the heater on maximum and the windows fully open!

Jumpers for goalposts etc.

 

Mike.

[SRman]

If I recall correctly, you had to remember with that reserve fuel tank to leave the changeover lever open when you refilled it but to close the lever to run, otherwise you could run out completely and embarrassingly in the middle of nowhere! Friends of mine had their 1958 model beetle well into the 1980s, with one engine rebuild and a repaint.

Another old school friend in Queensland went on to become a VW mechanic and was breeding the things under his house!!

[PhilJ W]

There is a 1/72 scale plastic kit of the early beetle available from MW kits.

[edcayton]

Two suggestions for Beetle models-try VW main dealers as they have various VW models, and try the "tourist tat" shops in (especially) Newquay. Newquay is VW heaven and the shops are rammed with keyrings, pencil sharpeners etc, some of which are remarkably accurate models.

 

Ed

[Enterprisingwestern]

If I recall correctly, you had to remember with that reserve fuel tank to leave the changeover lever open when you refilled it but to close the lever to run, otherwise you could run out completely and embarrassingly in the middle of nowhere!

 

Been there, got the T shirt!!

Derbyshire can be astonishingly quiet!!

 

Mike.

[surfsup]

I forgot to mention last night that in the life of the beetle, it's reckoned that Volkswagen made something like 20,000 changes from original to the things we see today. Oh and 1967 saw the end of the sloping headlamps replaced with the flat rounded headlamps we see today. Other changes to the Beetles exteriors over the years came the addition of the small side air intakes directly behind the side window, optional sun roof / soft tops (phased out around '67), a small strip of trim along the side, the Wolfsburg Castle badge (phased out in the early 60s I think), changes to the size of the VW Badge on both the hubcaps and the bonnet, a vast array of option extras including 'Swedish gravel guards' which go on either side of the wheel arches next to the running boards, rear boot lid reg plate covers, changes to the sizes of the front wing mounted indicator lights, horn grills on the early beetles, and different bumpers / overrider configurations. So the Beetle has certainly changed a fair bit!

[BernardTPM]

Incidentally, the Beetle was first introduced into the U.K. market in July 1953 (one-piece oval rear screen by that date). Source - Measham used car price guide, April 1958.

[Michael Delamar]

for those who know their beetles, ive posted this a few times before, my uncles beetle, note the reg year (L) 1973 and the style of wings, bonnet, headlamps, side air panels filled in etc, this car had a lot of work to convert it to an earlier style and its not an easy job of swapping panels, all of the work he done himself and was concourse standard. The engine bay was immaculate.

 

[Michael Delamar]

me sitting inside during its build which I used to help with. It took him a long time as can be seen by the difference in age of me in the 2 shots. I was 16 in the other shot. about 10 in this one.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dungrange]

Thanks for all of the replies in such a short space of time.  In summary, the answer to my question would seem to be no, I can't just change the number plates and claim it was one of the last models produced.

 

As mentioned, there are myriad detail variations but most can be reasonably ignored in 1:76. the shape changes noted, though, will be istantly spotted by Beetle buffs. Oxford's description of 1950-1970 doesn't really fit any of the production dates that I know of but could refer to the likely lifespan of an early split-window.

 

The oxford description of period is always a year that is a multiple of 10, so I would assume that the 1950 - 1970 description implies a version first produced in the 1950s and either still in production in the 1970s or very common in that decade.  In this case it is probably supposed to represent the 1958 model through to the 1302 model introduced in 1970.  I will have to have a closer look at the model compared to everyone's comments but perhaps is really is just a little too old for my purposes.

 

Thanks

 

David