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John Jaranson, Thank you very much for your informative and useful information on pressing and stamping for car bodies. This really explains a lot about why, for example, Beetles fully manufactured in Australia and Brazil retained the small windows years after production in Germany had changed to bigger windows from August 1964 for the1965 models. Australian Beetles retained the small windows until full manufacture ceased in September 1968 and Brazilian Beetles retained the small windows until full manufacture there ceased as late as July 1996! Clearly, it was economical to keep those dies going as long as possible where production volumes were not as great as in Germany. Yet, I would love to know the full story as to why VW produced different dies for their Brazilian Type 3 range compared to the German ones. I would have thought that for reasons of economy they would have been the same. I have a suspicion that the Brazilian-shaped Type 3 bodies were planned for a mid-model face lift in Germany either for the1968 or 1969 model years and that something made the factory delay the face-lift until the 1970 model year with the introduction of the longnose Type 3 vehicles. Then, rather than discard expensive dies, those made for the aborted1968-1969 facelift were shipped off to Brazil for use there. One reason for this hunch of mine is that initially all the tools and dies made up in Germany for use in Type 3 production in Brazil were actually lost in a shipwreck in the Bay of Biscay on their way to Brazil and to this day lie at the bottom of the Atlantic. VW in Germany then had to quickly send replacement dies out to Brazil and it was those replacement dies which were used in Brazil to manufacture a car which looks so similar to the EA97 prototype which is on display in the VW Museum at Wolfsburg. What shape those dies lost in the shipwreck were only the people at VW in Wolfsburg and Sao Bernado do Campo will know. Does anyone out there on the Type 3 list know more? Thank you, John Jaranson, anyway. Simon Glen Toowoomba, Australia. JaransonT3@aol.com wrote: > Steel stamping dies are typically good for 100,000 to 750,000 "hits" between > refurbishment depending on the complexity of the dies and the depth of draw. > The die will last for millions of hits with refurbishment. I suspect that > the mexican beetles are still using dies from the sixties that have just been > continually refurbished over the years. I doubt that the beetle could still > be made profitably with the added cost of new dies. > > For very high volume (F-150,Taurus, etc) programs, making three die sets is > not atypical. One is a back-up, two are rotated in-service. The other thing > to consider is that most stampings require at last 3 dies: rough draw/shape, > final draw/shape, and trim. Complex stamping like door inner panels and > bodysides can require up to 7 dies to make one part. Multiply that by the 2 > or 3 sets of dies and the 80-120 major stamping that make up and body and the > $500k to $1M per die and the investment numbers for a new car body add up > very quickly. > > Later, > John Jaranson > '71 FI Auto Fasty (Jane) > http://hometown.aol.com/jaransonT3 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org