Stampings and markings Options

[TonyA]

I had these marks on the brake dust shield and on the trailing arms.
Should I replicate them on to my car? Looking for a concourse restoration. Makes sense to me that I should but I never know what is correct.

[Shivers]

Would you guys happen to know what these markings are? 0 and 45? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
They came off of my 1972. Thanks

[wonkipop]

Would you guys happen to know what these markings are? 0 and 45? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
They came off of my 1972. Thanks

there is a world topic on it here @Shivers

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=103430

my guess - and its a guess - is the markings are for the purpose of identifying the suspension subcomponent so it can be matched to the build sheet for the particular car on the karmann assembly line.

i've already worked out the white stamp markings on the engines and that research is in a topic in this originality section of 914 world. the numbers stamped on the engine sheet metal corresponded exactly to what the engine was. ie for a particular year, lets say 1974 it identified engine type and market car was for. all of the numbers have been found for all of the engines for all of the years for the USA market and also for some of the other markets, like domestic, europe and japan. its a VW marking system, not even karmann and porsche never used it. it was a VW wide system.

easy to understand why. all the type 4 engines were built at the hanover factory (dedicated to production of the type 2 bus and to all type 4 engines). the entire engine was assembled, test run and packed up at hanover. when finished it received the identifying stamp (or stamps). there were additional stamps on the engine besides the identity number. IO for instance. in order. same as an OK stamp used on some american manufacturer production lines. from hanover the engines were shipped out to the other factories where the production line for the particular model being made was.
in the case of 914s sent to karmann in osnabruk.

the manufacture of 914s involved at least two distinct stages.
both of which were static aisles with static workstations.
bodies were assembled up in the first aisle after the paiinted shells were delivered.
when complete they were wheeled down to the end of the aisle hooked up to an overhead cradle/conveyor and sent down the next aisle where the conveyer was stopped positioned over jig beds with all the drive train / suspension components were positioned on a flat bed. the flat bed was hoisted up to the overhead body and these components were fitted and fixed in.

so - you basically had to have all the correct components on that flat bed that corresponded to the particular car being built that had its body shell over head.
everything was laid out according to a build sheet which was usually stuck to the body somewhere. either door or windscreen. the assembly workers went off to the storage shelves or storage bins and brought together the right parts and placed them on the jig bed.

to do this they used the coded numbers on the stamped subcomponent.

i've got build sheets for VW 412s. the coded number stamped for the type 4 engines was on the build sheet. along with other coded numbers for other components.

my guess is the circle with the K in it and the square with the 1 in it likely correspond to the whole assembled rear trailing arm ccomponent which probably had the shock and the spring, along with brake disc and caliper etc bolted on. ready to go.
given you could have at least two types of rear set ups on the 4s at minimum (either boges or bilsteins) i'd guess thats what those stamps mean.

as to the cruder hand painted numbers. really not sure. but i suspect they got painted on later at a different stage.

but for sure the suspension subcomponent was a large sub assembly either put together elsewhere on the floor of the karmann factory or even entirely off site at a suppliers owne factory and sent to karmann where they would have been stockpiled in storage areas adjacent or near the assembly aisles in the production halls.