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Year Confirmation
bugsandoil - February 19th, 2012 at 05:34 PM

Can someone confirm that this Chassis number is a 1968 1500 bug please.

118 570 662

AA003 - February 19th, 2012 at 05:44 PM

It's a '68 Beetle built after January 1 1968 and before August.

bugsandoil - February 19th, 2012 at 06:00 PM

Thanks so much,..:tu:

Phil74Camper - February 20th, 2012 at 06:46 AM

Unless it was an Australian CKD-assembled Beetle (made from German stamped parts) - in which case it could have been made any time from about June 1968 to the first few months of 1969.

Australians didn't see the '68 model until March 1968. For the first few months they were all fully imported, then from June the manuals were CKD assembled. The semi-autos remained fully imported.

The August-June model year / build year thing only applies to Wolfsburg-built cars, not to Australian assembled cars.

Yes the third digit '8' is the model year, but not necessarily when it was built.

AA003 - February 20th, 2012 at 07:11 AM

With that VIN I would say that it's an early imported one.

bugsandoil - February 21st, 2012 at 06:35 PM

Thanks everyone.
I assumed that it was a CKD.
I didn't realize that the first 1500's were fully imported.
I thought it was only the semi auto's.

Is there anything on the car I can look for that would determine if it was a CKD or fully imported?

AA003 - February 21st, 2012 at 06:43 PM

Colour.

bugsandoil - February 21st, 2012 at 06:46 PM

Zenith Blue

AA003 - February 21st, 2012 at 07:50 PM

Imported

bugsandoil - February 21st, 2012 at 08:52 PM

I'm not really sure the reason why,..

But that makes me so happy.

Good to know,..

Is it Wolfsburg where it would of come from?

AA003 - February 22nd, 2012 at 04:39 AM

Wolfsburg.

Australian assembled cars had different colours.

bugsandoil - February 22nd, 2012 at 05:39 AM

That's excellant.

We visited Wolfsburg last year, toured the factory etc,...

The history of the place is amazing,..

It's nice to think my car came from there.

Phil74Camper - February 22nd, 2012 at 06:52 AM

VW also made Beetles for export in the Emden factory, starting from 1964, but I think they were only LHD models (built mostly for the US market). 2.3 million Beetles were made at Emden. The last German Beetle was built at Emden in 1978 and can still be seen in the foyer. Today Emden makes the Passat, 230,000 a year.

The reason the Aussie '68s were imported initially was that it took a few months to demolish and remove all the maunfacturing equipment from the Clayton factory after the Deluxe Aussie '67s came to an end. The giant presses, and all the tools, dies and jigs were removed and sold off. The lines had to be reconfigured for assembly of German CKD kits, so it took a few months to get organised. They also had to set up to assemble Datsun 1200 and 1600 kits too, and also Mercedes trucks. So in the meantime they imported cars from Germany. Type 3s and Kombis too.