Reading this:

http://www.clubvw.org.au/Australian%20VW%20history%201.htm 

It was part of the Graham Lee's collection at Wisemans a few years ago, was 4 sale, don't know if it sold.

Found some photos
In the line up, it is the 4th from right.

Below is the newspaper ad for the 1946 Army auction, which I think I have posted before.

Grahame Lees found the surviving car in Tasmania (on one of the Bass Strait islands, either King or Flinders Island, I'm not sure), and brought it back to Sydney.

He displayed it at the '60th Birthday of the VW Beetle' show at Panthers, Penrith, on Sunday 24 May 1998. I remember seeing it there; it was basically in derelect condition and was little more than a bent shell. I have searched for my photos of that day but I can't find them. Was anyone else there that day?

Phil, slightly off topic but a quick question for you

do u know much about the Haenel split?

reason i ask is a bloke i worked with ages ago did his time as a panel beater way back when and the panel shop he was at used to do alot of the PMG splitties and bugs so he was abit of a vw nut himself

anyway he told me about this bug that was around at the time it was a split window and the lady that owned it brought it in from german and converted it to RHD herself using junkyard parts, craig said the speedo was still on the wrong side
she removed the passenger seat so she could put her groceries on the floor and her son rode in the backseat
she apperently had gypsy style homemade curtains on the back windows to

he told me that story about 10 years ago but i have no reason to doubt it but just reading about the Haenel split it sounds all to similar just wondering if it was the same bug

Thanks Dave, I know I used to have similar photos of the Penrith day but I've lost them. Good old photo prints - I used to have shoe boxes full of them. I also remember Graham's story about how he picked up that house-paint white spilt too, from an eccentric in the UK. It's a shame that he sold off most or all of his collection.

Joel it doesn't sound to me like that lady's split window is the Haenel's. VW Australia documented the Haenel's car pretty well when they took ownership of it in 1961; the Haenels were the only private owners of that car. Apparently Therese Haenel bought the 1946 VW in Europe in 1949, from a British Army officer, and brought the car out to Australia when she migrated the same year. Her husband Ted had been interred in Australia during the war, and when the war was over and he was released, he decided to stay. He wired to Therese (in Germany) to join him, and make a new post-war life here. He was apparently quite surprised when Therese arrived with a VW - the first privately-owned VW to ever reach Australia. They settled in western Victoria, raised a family and drove the VW every day.

When VW Australia was looking to celebrate the 100,000th Australian-built VW in 1961, they wanted to track down the oldest VW in Australia. After an advertising campaign, they found the Haenels and their 1946 VW in Victoria. The Haenels were invited to Clayton to watch the 100,000th VW come off the production line, in a ceremony that also featured the founder of the Clayton VW plant, Baron von Oertzen (he also started VW South Africa), and the then Victorian premier, Sir Henry Bolte. The Haenels were given that 100,000th VW, a brand new white Beetle, in exchange for their 1946.

VW Australia used the '46 for promotion and advertising for a number of years. LNC Industries took ownership of the car in 1968 when they secured the Australian VW franchise. After that, it's not so clear. I remember the car being on display at Lanock Motors St Leonards for a number of years. After that it was on display at Greens Motorcade museum at Leppington, although still owned by LNC then.

Originally the Haenel's VW was black, but at some stage it was 'renovated' or 'restored', and was painted a light blueish grey. I think it was always left-hand drive. It was black when I saw it at Lanock Motors in the '70s, but by the time it was at Greens Motorcade it was light grey. Greens Motorcade eventually went out of business, as did LNC Industries, and the Haenel's VW was sold to Gilltrap's Car Museum at the Gold Coast. That museum was quite good; at one stage they also had 'Genevieve', the 1904 Darracq from the 1953 British movie, as well as one of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film cars (both are now back in the UK).

At some stage in the late 1980s, the Haenel's VW was sold again and finished up at the York Car Museum in Western Australia. I happened to visit in 1987 and came across the VW completely by accident; I had no idea it was there. The York museum is the home of the Peter Briggs collection. He also set up a car museum in Fremantle and the Haenel's VW was moved there for a while, but it closed last year and the VW was moved back to York. It is still there today, and available for inspection by visitors (together with the 100+ other great cars). The museum's curator is Peter Harbin - I have spoken to him and he is quite a nice bloke. (08) 9641 1288. The York Museum website is http://www.yorkwa.com.au/Motor.Museum/index.htm 

cheers for that Phil

Thanks for the information Phil, sounds like a sad end to a rare car.

The 1946 while at Greens Motorcade museum


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Thank you to all of you for the pictures and information,

re the 1946 should these have chrome bumpers or simply painted in the same colour as the car?

I am guessing that this car would have originally left the factory in the dull British Army Green.

I would have thought they would be painted but the car in the first picture has chrome bumpers and overiders and thats a 1945 model.

The ad for the army disposals shows a car with chrome bumpers.

The hubcaps would be painted ones though. Chrome was in very short supply after WW2 and it would make sense to paint these parts.

There where some nice vee dubs in that shed.

Rose and others, you wouldn't happen to know the year of the split window raptop?


thank you.

Des,

I don't know for sure the year of that split ragtop, but my guess would be April 1950.

This is based on:
Hub caps with the large VW logo finished May 1949.
W deck with the triangular pressing ended July 1949 This car hasn't got it, so it must have been made after July 1949.
The grooved bumpers with the flared overriders came in after June 1949. The flared overriders stopped in 1951.
The rear lights are hard to see, but they look like they have the little chrome rings, so they would be 1949. Without the chrome ring could be 1950-Oct 1952.
The running board chrome strips are a furphy
The windows in the doors don't appear to have the cutouts, so that makes it prior to April 1950.
Sunroofs only became available in April 1950.
Crotch coolers were introduced in Jan 1951, and this car doesn't appear to have them.
Side trim was introduced in June 1949.

A few SWAGs made, so I stand to be corrected... (Sunroof could be grafted in, windows could have been changed etc etc)
Reference was 'The 1949-1959 VW Beetle' Bob Wilson. Some on TheSamba claim it has errors, but I think it is a dman good start if you want pictures and you don't want to wade through "Progressive Refinements"

Yes always difficult to tell after so many years, when so many things could have been changed. But I think you've got it pretty close.

I haven't seen the Bob Wilson book, but I can also recommend The Beetle Chronicles by Hans Rudiger Etzold. It was originally printed in German as 'Kafer - Eine Dokumentation' but an English version was produced, edited by Robin Wager (former editor of Safer Motoring). Has extremely detailed model change information. Now out of print, but old copies can be found on Ebay or Amazon

Doesn't apply to Aussie Beetles 1962-67, of course.

Thanks to both of you,

still trying to understand and learn all the little differences that appeared through the years.

Purple ragtop is owned by The Fonx, (Melburgluft), have seen this in the flesh..... Very sweeeeet