[T3] T3 Body plate

["Dave Hall" <dave@hallvw.clara.co.uk>]

Hi Greg and all,
I'm sorry you haven't found the plate I mentioned.
I've not got a pre-70 model to check, but all the long-nose ones
I've seen here and in Holland, Germany etc have the small metal
plate.  The metal plate is on the right hand end (front is front,
but I don't normally view this from the luggage space!) of the same
cross panel the aluminium chassis plate is rivetted to.  Look at the
chassis plate and reach out with your left hand; you should be able
to touch the body plate if it's there; it is painted the same as
body colour.
Unless the light of day has let it re-appear, or there is evidence
of its having been removed and not replaced following a repaint or
accident damage, I'm as puzzled as you.  I know Type 3s were
assembled in Australia and South Africa, so would probably not have
this plate, but I haven't heard of US ones having a different
factory, which would be a logical explanation for the different
manufacturing practice.

There are other curious things about this plate; cars made in the
first week or two of August often don't have the '3' for week 35 or
whatever, just a dash (-5).  I have found this on 3 cars so far, and
the low series number shows they are early cars in the model-year.

The paint code sticker is often missing, and the test label is even
rarer - there's sometimes just the bulge where it was.  I have one
blank and one filled in on my two T3s, but it's barely readable.

Hopefully we'll get feedback, and work out the answer to this
puzzle.

Dave.
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Merritt <gregm@vwtype3.org>
To: type3@vwtype3.org <type3@vwtype3.org>
Date: 21 August 1998 04:44
Subject: Re: [T3] recycling a '71 Squareback


>At 12:04 AM +0100 8/21/98, Dave Hall wrote:
>>...They gave me the clue about the body
>>plate numbers being able to date the car; 2 of the scrap ones and
my
>>Variant (Squareback) were made on successive days in the same week
>>18; days 1, 2 and 3!  That checked with the Fastback's body plate,
>>whose production week and month I had discovered from a piece of
>>paper under the carpet.  (see www.hallvw.clara.net/dating.htm if
>>this doesn't make much sense!)
>
>
>Dave,
>
> I'm replying via the list so that we might get more feedback.
>
> I visited the dating page you mention above, and was shocked to
see
>the picture of the "production plate."  Never seen one of those
before!  I
>grabbed a flashlight and popped open the front trunks of my '69 &
my '71.
>
> No production plates.  A chassis plate, yes, just like the one on
>your Web page, located on the same piece of body metal as the hood
latch
>mechanism, but no production plate on either car.  On the right
hand side
>(front is front) of the car, in the spare tire well up against the
inner
>fender area, is a sticker on each car indicating the color and
paint code:
>"togaweiss L 90 C" and "shantunggelb X XX X," and underneath this
silver
>sticker is a little piece of paper that appears to be an inspection
>sticker.  It says "Pruefer" ("inspector" in German, I believe) and
"Dat."
>(abbreviation for date?).  On the '69 I can read "Schwartz" filled
in
>(rubber stamp?) for the inspector, but the date line is either
empty or
>(more likely) faded or washed away.  Can't read anything on the
weathered
>'71.
>
> On the spare tire/gas tank dividing wall I found a numeral "2"
>stamped on the '69 on the right side (front is front), stamped from
the
>spare tire side.  Strangely, on the '71, there's also a numeral
"2" -- but
>on the opposite side of the car and stamped from the opposite side
of the
>plate!
>
> Could the production plate be a U.K. thing?  Who else has a
chassis
>plate?  They seem to be ubiquitous on the cars that Dave's seen;
I've never
>seen one here in the U.S.  (I have, though, seen the info behind
the seat
>on a Type 2 as you describe.)
>
>Puzzled,
>-Greg
>'69 & '71 Squarebacks
>'63 Beetle
>
>
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