VW Badge location & body numbers, Challenge to determine beginning & end Options

[wonkipop]

@cholland_

thats pretty interesting - the sirocco plate with 2 as fifth number.

thats week 41 of 1974 which is about 3-4 weeks after those 914s with the 2 and 3 in the PKN plate that @MCShack and @DaveP have picked up on.

it must be a very early production sirocco you have?

[cholland_]

@cholland_
it must be a very early production sirocco you have?

Yep, it's 11,186 of 58,942 for 1975. Currently a somewhat mechanically butchered survivor, but will get a full rebuild one day - sometime in the next 10 or 20 years going by my usual timelines.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-7029-1653654567.1.jpg)

[wonkipop]

@cholland_
- hang on to that car mate. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

apart from a handful of factory assessment cars of which probably about 1 survives - none of those down here in upside down world. they are very pretty cars.

[L-Jet914]

Thanks for the data point. I have a list of 250 cars to query the owners of. However it is slow going, and I have to track each one to know where I am at.
Dave

Alrighty finally got around to taking photos of the information you're looking for. My 74 1.8 build month 4/74 (4/10/74 to be exact per a post on how to decode the body tag). Build plate on riveted to right headlight bucket, vin stamping on right fender, chassis number stamped on right rear corner of trunk floor pan.

[wonkipop]

It would appear then that the 914 shared the Karmann line with Beetles, and the Karmann build # could be for either model. What we need to do then is to gather more examples of the Karmann tag numbers, VIN, DOT labels and paint codes and see how they fit. My guess is that they mesh.

stumbled on a VW historical film on you tube.
got some stills.
also got the confirmation date on when scirrocos started production at osnabruck - production commences feb 04 1974.
(this is from VWs own website - where you can download annual reports going back over the years).

film stills show scirroco coming down karmann production line with a 914 and a ghia cabriolet. ghias cease production with end of 74 model year at june 74. so the film had to have been shot between feb 04 74 and june/july 74 during that 5 -6 month period.
these would have been the very first scirrocos sold as 74 model years (mainly in german domestic market at that point).

so for the first 6 months of calendar year 1974 things must have been pretty cramped at karmann factory. 914s, karmann ghias, beetle cabriolets and the new scirrocos were all coming down the line together! they would have been making space for the scirroco line and the 914s must have gone across to be built alongside not only beetle cabs but also the last of the ghias.

the date the 914s get the VW production number rivetted in the front trunk is likely the moment when the line was shifted across and scirrocos took over the old 914 production aisles in the factory.







of interest in relation to 914 production for 74 MY.
approx 7,500 2.0 cars are produced in a batch from aug to late oct 1973.
only 2.0s were produced during that period.
from there approx 6,500 1.8 L-Jet cars are produced in a batch from late oct 1973 to early Feb 1974. only 1.8s were produced during that period.
from early Feb 1974 to the end of June/beginning of July 1974 a further run of 7000 74 MY cars were produced. these were a mix of 1.8s and 2.0s including the limited editions.
2/3 of 914 1974 MY production was accomplished in the first 6 months of 74 production.
the remaining 1/3 of total were produced in the second six months.
they were definitely making space for scirroco production and stockpiling the 914s before the scirroco line started up.