Australian production numbers

The 54 up for auction at Shannons got me thinking about CKD production in Australia and production data from The Samba / Progressive Refinements etc.

Did the Australian CKD production align with the German production? Were the chassis numbers stamped on the ID plate and transmission tunnel when they were still components, and then the whole lot shipped over here and assembled. So say for this car with a chassis number that indicates November 54 production, would it have been fabricated up to CKD form in November 54 and arrived here off the ship and actually been assembled a few weeks/months later? - or was it completed here in November 54?

What about engine numbers? Would we have just been sent a production run of motors, and they be slotted into the cars at random - or were engines allocated to cars in Germany and production have to pick the correct motor for the correct chassis when they were assembled?

When were the first cars assembled by MKA? When were the last cars assembled from CKDs? My 58 doesn't have an MKA prefix to the body number, it has a C prefix - but my 56 & 57 do have the MKA prefix. I didn't think full production started in Australia until the early 60's?

Is all this covered in that 'History of Volkswagens in Australia' book that I should get?

I recommend the book the forgotten history of Australian Volkswagens

its very good...

as its very difficult to find out about VW Australasia

My father has a late 1960 beetle with blinkers etc and it was made in Western Germany
but they were being assembled from CKD kits back in the early 50s..
VWs were made in Australia during the 60s with a very high local content..
CKD production started again in 1968 after a shipment of German beetles in early 1968...

Lee

That makes sense. My 58 was a mid May production car, and it was delivered in September. I had thought that it may have sat on the lot for a while, but if yours had a similar delay, then it must be that the production date is ex-factory.

A local VW mechanic went thru the Clayton factory in the 60s..

they were making Beetles, type 3s, type 2s, and Datsun 1600 [P510]
and Mercedes trucks...

Lee