I require help with my research.
Typically, the VW badge was riveted to the right headlight bucket up to the end of 1974 and made its way to the right upper corner of the fuel tank bulkhead in 1975. Also, the body number was originally stamped into the rear trunk floor and made its was to a black riveted tag on the support below the right headlight bucket, as well as being found on the Karmann badge. At some point the body number base changed from xxy95zz to xxy90zz.

I require everyone to help with changeover VIN, and body number for each of the changes. Please add paint code and date code from the compliance decal as well.

mine has the plate on the tank bulkhead. 475900062
Car date 07-74
Body tag in the spare well on the right 3349508

My car date says 07/74.
The plate is up on the headlight bucket.
Then there is another plate below the other actually located in the spare tire well that says 284-9514. This number is also on the tag that has the paint code on it.
Paint code is L 32 K. Tag located on the front of the driver door jam.

Click to view attachmentMy late '74 LE (...1221) has the body tag down in the spare well on the right. Attached is a photo.

My 74 has the plate riveted to the right headlight bucket.
Compliance tag says 07/74
Paint Code L96B
Body Number in spare tire well 274-9561

Kev

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Dave,

The lastest VIN I have data on from the LE Registry with the chassis number in the rear trunk, not on a plate in the front trunk is car VIN 16556, 4/74, Chassis no 1429551.

The two LEs in the 21000 VIN range, have them in the front trunk, per Dave Os post above.

So the change must have happened between week 14 and 27.

Jeff, you are correct, but I did not expect that it might extend so early into 1974. We may need to get a lot of responses to nail this down. I guess my problem is that I rarely see late '74 cars, and few from 1975 or 1976.

The split between 9500 and 9000 base is in either week 36 or week 37.
The last 9500 body is near 4752903042 and the first 9000 body is near 4752901848; that is quite an overlap.

It will be interesting to see if any '74' bodies were used in 1975 or '75' bodies in 1974. The latter looks highly unlikely now.

Dave, here are my car's numbers / badges:

47.4.29.20436
06 / 74

2639549

L 65 K

LE has no little plate in the lower front trunk & I have no idea what those are; the Six has no little plate either. Here's the LE- VW plate on the light bucket & chasis stamped into the top of the right fender well.

LE VIN plate & Kharmann badge-

LE VIN sticker & trunk stamping, on right side in front of the tail light. The six has no VIN sticker & the trunk stamping is in the middle, in front of the lock.

That helps guys. Gustl's car moved the week back to 26.
Al, the early cars did not have the tag, only the rear trunk stamping. The stamping was in the center of the trunk in 1970. Decals either get lost during a repaint, or were not there for European cars. The windshield frame tag was not on European cars either.

This is cool stuff!

If I keep watching & retaining (yeah, right) this stuff I could become a 914 expert!

Or...not, because I'd have to crawl out of my little "early car" world.
Pat

ps - this post doesn't count

Dave- the six is a US car, has a windshield VIN plate, stamped in, not raised. Vin sticker is long, long gone. Karmann plate is typical six in that there is no chassis number, (131942 in the trunk), & barely says 15.

Dave I turned my 74 into a F-Prod car. I stripped it pretty completely. It has a tag in the spare tire area, but I can't read it as the fuel cell is now blocking it.
No #'s stamped in the trunk area, but this car had been crunched in the right rear and repaired before I bought it and the sheet metal in that area was replaced.

Does it have the black tag as shown in the photos above? Even the presence or absence of the black tag is important to know. We can learn quite a bit from that alone.

Yep, it had the black tag. Hope that helps!

My '74 VIN# 4742917230 has only two rivet holes in the support by the inner wheel well where the "black plate" once (I assume) resided . There are no stampings I can find in the rear trunk by the tailight.

My compliance sticker (which is Silver, not Black) dates this car as 04/74.

The Karman badge shows Chassis # 1659541 and shows L30E as the paint code.

The VW plate is also missing however, there are no rivet holes (or evidence of) in either the headlight bucket or the fuel tank bulkhead....and I have looked very carefully.

I do have some (poor) pictures I can e-mail you as I am too stupid to know how to post them here....

Hope this helps

Sean

Sean, send me the photos, and I'll post them.

VIN 4742916556 1429551 04/74 last known before use so far
VIN 4742917230 1659541 04/74 first known use so far

So we still have a two week / 700 car span to tie down.

What's your e-mail...
S.

Here's the data on my '74

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one more, and no #s in the rear trunk

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S/N: 4742915316 BUILD DATE: 3/74 BODY #: 1039507

Please be very specific in your replies. Check both front and rear trunks for the number. It should be in one of the two places. Please state which place you find it.

It seems to me that woobn8r may have some panels replaced since there is no evidence of the VW AG Made in Germany tag anywhere including rivet holes for it.

My VIN 4742915759 body # 1149545 so we have proof here that the tags started after week 11. Sorry Jon, better look for trunk floor replacement?

Here is my body number stamping, note that it is in front of the right taillight (and the bolt for the rear bumper) and next to the rear sway-bar reinforcement:

alright dave...took a better look, and found it...it is very hard to see because the metal back there in that section is a bit deformed....you can read XX39507 ... the first two numbers are right on the worst part of the metal, but the numbers match...Im gonna see if I can clean the area up a bit...will take pics -JON

Dave,
I got your note. Betty's vin is 4742917597. The build date on her car is 4/74. We don't have the door jamb sticker, we lost it in the fire. And I can't check the rear trunk, the panel was replaced when the body work was done.


Here is the tag in the front trunk (sorry for the Andy style picts).



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And here is the body tag.


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Hope that helps narrow down your search.

Thanks Clay, that does indeed prove the use of the tag early in week 18.

Jon, yes the digits can be very hard to see. They were not done with any great precision, and are never as clear as the VIN in the front fender. Almost any accident in that corner will wrinkle the metal, then a bit of bondo and it is well hidden. Thankfully yours still exists.

I just need Dan to confirm, one way or the other, the presence of the tag in his front trunk. We may also need to find a few cars in week 15 and 17.

Lets not forget, we still have to start to nail down the change from base 9500 to base 9000 in the period of week 36 and week 37. These are the closest I have:
4752903042 3559575
4752901848 3749146

Dave I sent you another pic as requested....
I am confused....I had a friend (Porsche bodyman of 20+ years) look at the panels and here's the consensus....

there is no evidence of panel replacement...we looked for at scenarios from a headlight bucket to an entire front clip. The paint is consistant. The seams are consistant...nothing looks out of place save, the missing rivet holes...

IF there has been any panel replacement...

a ) it is a "TOP Quality" job...possibly done at the factory (possibly if the chassis was damaged prior to paint and assembly ).
b ) If done after production, it must have been shortly after... as the patina and condition are homogenious...it is unlikely panels have been replaced as the quality, care and attention to detail would have taken so much time in this generally "unseen area" for this type of repair, it would cost an inordinate amount of time and money. An industry acceptable repair (even for a PORSCHE) would be detectable.

However unlikely it seems that panels might have been replaced....it IS possible.

Sean

Sean has provided the following photos. I have no idea why there is no rivet holes for the VW badge on the headlight bucket unless it was replaced by a 1975 bucket.

closeup shows no holes in bucket, but holes for the body tag.

other info

Here is a car that was on Ebay( I have been keeping track)

4752902336 3929161 L64K, don't have the date..

Well, Dan (shelby/914) confirms he has the number stamped in the rear trunk. Also, Sean (woobn8r) is pretty confident his should have the tag in the front. So it seems we have it nailed down to midweek 16. So we need to concentrate on that week for the first part of the challenge.

VIN 4742916989 1629515 04/74 last known before use so far
VIN 4742917230 1659541 04/74 first known use so far

took some pics (finally) of the tags in different locations. '74









-JON

It has been only 13 years, but it is time to resurrect this thread so that new people can add new information. Two things that we are looking for: 1) VIN & Karmann # on the tag in the front trunk when it first appeared, or the last use of the rear trunk stamping. The Karmann # is also on the paint tag. 2) VIN & Karmann # on the tag in the front trunk when it changed from the base 9500 to base 9000. Paint tag and compliance decal photos also very useful. Do you have a CoA or window sticker? I need them also.

So, no response in the last year, but I am forever hopeful. Do not forget that this is important documentation for your car. I would really like to get more data points to narrow the gaps down.
Dave

@davep

don't know if this assists with your research.
had this on file from 1.8 research/survey we did late last year.

vin 4742916808
k# 1529514
k# is stamped in rear trunk.
no k# plate in front trunk.

it is a white 74 1.8. i picked up details from a bat advertisement.


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member @L-JET914 has chassis # 16877 built the day after.
if you pm L jet he might be able to give you info on his.
L jet turned out to be more than a bit of a sleuth with some amazing stuff from CARB archives.

@davep

have you tried to pm member oakpark. has 16905.
oakpark is still alive and around i believe, he contacted both StarBear and i over tune up stickers not that long ago.

front yard mechanic has 17131 according to vin register. he is active on the site and can be pm'd.

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

yep, its a slog.


it is an interesting change.
suggests to me that management for the 914 project (porsche at that point?) were looking for flexibility in terms of assigning a build order number to the body shells?

stamping numbers into the shell itself implies to me a number was already assigned in advance of the shell being made to a particular build spec, ie 1.8 or 2.0 with whatever was required of the order, but it was in advance of the build. as if production was behind demand.

but perhaps they went on during 74 to build up an excess of production potential in surplus to demand/sales and needed to hold back until they knew what they were fulfilling as an order or mix of model specs?

I just got around to logging into the website after a while. Saw the notification that @wonkipop mentioned me here. What kind of information did you need?

I logged on to find Dave with a similar question to ask and ran across this thread while searching the 1975 model year chassis numbers for cars made in Sept/Oct of 1974.

Years ago I started a small database on these cars and never got back to it until now.

Here is another to add on the base change from 9500 to 9000 chassis numbers.

VIN Number: 4752901849
Engine Number: EV Conversion
Chassis Number: 3749284
Build Date: 09/74
Paint Code/Color: L64K - Forest Green

Notice that the 5th digit (3rd from end) in the Chassis Number is a "2" which I have found to be quite rare. I am trying to determine the reason for a 2 or a 3 in this position of the Chassis Numbers on certain 914s. Almost all of the ones I have found with a 1, 2, or 3 were made in the 37th week (2nd week of Sept) of 1974 on '75 MY 914s. I have found a few examples of this ranging from week 36 to week 41, but most are in week 37. I plan to start a new thread on this subject with a few examples to get things started to see what the explanation might be for the anomalies in the Chassis Numbers in these weeks other than there were 284 cars made that day which seems unlikely. I found another example with a Chassis Number of 3719361 and I also don't think they made 361 cars on a Monday, lol.

I have some more information and theories that I will share in the new thread which I will post a link to here since it is a related subject. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from some of you with knowledge on this matter. Cheers, MC

found something of interest for you mate.
i posted it up in the other thread you left your comments on in the garage section.

this is a week 37 of 1974 beetle cab (75MY) built at karmann.



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https://www.gocars.org/for-sale-view-38210/...s-indiana-46268

most beetles from karmann i dug up were using 3 as 5th letter during 75 MY.
then i found this one. so maybe using 2 and 3?
(i did find one using 0 from week 42 but the tag looked suspect).

so as you say, whats a 914 doing using 2 (and its the same week!)

you are on to something.
not sure what.
but something happened that week.

EDIT
did some further crosschecking for you as i don't know beetles kgs etc well.
i took a look at the vin plates on those beetles.
the one above is definitely a 75MY. 155 for first three numbers of vin.
it was built in aug 74.

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.

yes, i think your suggestion of sharing the line with beetle cabriolets in late 74 for 75 MY could be the reason.

you can find all those factory photos showing that kgs and vw cabs came down the line together in earlier years.

in the 60s it looked karmann put three types through all mixed togehter inclluding type 3 ghias.

what photos there are of 914 production seem to show them having their own separate production line. photos i mention probably at an early period of the model life?

the production figures from 73 to 75 tell an interesting story.
hard to know if figures around are MY figures or calendar year, but the general indications tell enough.
all three models go into serious decline. kg stops in 74 MY.
for 75 there is only 7925 914s (def cal year number) and 5,327 vw cabs.
914 numbers half of 74 and cab numbers similar halving.

a smart company would have rationalised the lines and space in the factory.

need more historic info on what karmann did in terms of their factory after mid 74,
but probably either shifted cabs over to section where they made 914s or vise versa and started setting up new production line for the water cooled vw scirroco?

whatever is going on that @MCShack has picked up on is after summer break of 74 and the end of kg production.

info i came across said 500,000 scirocco mk 1 s made from 74 to 81.
= av 70,000 per year.
seriously more production volume than any previous karmann vw model.
about 3 to 4 times best 914 numbers or cab numbers.
think best vw cab numbers were 18,000. less than best 914 numbers.
would have needed a good amount of factory space and probably two shifts a day maybe to pump out the sciroccos? big changes at factory.

definitely the reason for ending 914 production at end of 75 calendar year was expanding the production line to gear up for scirocco production for USA market which came after introduction in europe for 75 MY, 74 calendar year.

folks talk of 924 as successor to 914. only if you take a USA/porsche perspective.
in europe makes more sense to see the scirocco as the 914 successor?

sciroccos early on used same seven digit PKN number (referred to here as karmann body number) system as beetles 914s etc. with a particular 5th digit assigned to them?

I will supply the information for my 74 1.8L. I will get the last photo you request tomorrow. I need to unbury the car lol.

Perhaps there are Karmann aficionados with much greater knowledge about the production lines than what we do. I have no idea where to find such people, and my online time these days is very limited. Most of that time is dedicated to providing Kardex and my CoA equivalents. Dave