I picked up a early standard beetle,can anyone tell me what year model i have, 5787989
cheers shane.

sounds like a 63/64

Yeah i was thinking around that,did standards come with different options ???

no ites earlier 61 or so

what fuel tank does it have are there semiphores

No semaphores and it has the flat tank,no seat belts the flipper windows are not chrome,no glove box only half the head linning the rest painted,but has the chrome strip on the bonnet and it looks like the genuine bonnet,and has a fuel gauge that looks genuine,i thought standards didnt have the gauge or bonnet strip ???

Yes it's a 1964 model, as per Lee's numbers above.

However - the 1 Aug to 31 July dates applies to GERMAN-BUILT Beetles. Ours were manufactured in Melbourne. The Wolfsburg HO assigned a 'block' of chassis numbers to the Australian factory, which were only used by Australia and ensured that the same number wasn't used by another VW factory. This was a common practice in the 1960s - VW was building Beetles in several different German factories, as well as in Belgium, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria and Australia. Each had to be given their own 'block' of chassis numbers in the numerical sequence.

What that means is that while it has a German 1964 chassis number, it could have rolled off the Clayton line a little later than those dates.

Modern (post 1980) cars don't have this problem - each VW factory around the world have their own letter code in the VIN - 'W' for Wolfsburg, 'M' for Mexico, 'U' for South Africa etc etc.

Have a look at each of your five wheels, under the hubcap. There will be a little date stamp in between the bolt holes. Also look at the back of the speedo - these have date stamps too.