Tuesday, January 27, 2015

First inbound parts of 2015

Found an early bumper bracket set among a few other miscellaneous parts while I was looking for parts to start making some progress on the cars.  I seem to have quite a bit of luck finding rare-ish parts that I don't need but near no luck when I'm looking for more common parts.

311 707 133
Bracket - Bumper (front)
up to Chassis No, 64 915

311 707 339
Bracket - Bumper (rear)
up to Chassis No, 64 915



Friday, January 2, 2015

Type 3 door hinges

Thanks to a few other Type 3 people, I was able to locate and make sense of the odd lot of hinge configurations I've seen floating around.

The "A" hinge is an original 3 bolt door hinge.  This covers all Notchbacks and Variant up to early 1966.  These hinges are 'corner specific'-meaning that there's a unique hinge for each corner of the car.

The "B" hinge is a conversion hinge which allows the later 2 bolt door hinges to be used on the platforms listed above.

The "C" hinge is an original 2 bolt door hinge.  Covers Variant/Squreback and Fastback from 66 until the end of production.

The "D" hinge is a conversion hinge that allows the use of an early door on a later car.  This hinge would be used on an early 66 and earlier Variant door or a Notchback door on a 66 and later Variant/Squareback or Fastback.  Like the "A" hinge, these are 'corner specific' with four different part numbers (one for each corner).

It's a little more complex than it needs to be because Volkswagen often updated/changed parts mid-production vs. waiting for a new production year.  Very common on 66 and earlier cars actually.

I'm left to wonder why they didn't just keep the door hinge design the same and eliminate 50% of these designs.

The full story can be found here: http://www.neil.us/type3/doors/

A quick search in the classifieds turns up quite a few of the "D" hinges.