A VW 39 heading for restoration after a museum fire

[Undis]

There are many more differences between a '38 and a '39 than between a '39 and a regular KdF Wagen. The VW38 was entirely hand-built where the '39 was put together with stamped panels. Also all the quirky differences of the '38 were not carried over to the '39. In other words it was a production ready car. I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse because as the VW38 panels were originally hand built it was relatively easy to replicate them for the VW38/06 by doing exactly that - making them by hand. In case of this '39 the guys will have to reproduce the stamped look or use actual KdF stuff as this would be the closest.

[PatterBon]

Did they still use the nitro cellulose paint that was used on the VW38? If i remember right, the paint took a really long time to cure and I could only imagine they had a different type of paint when the cars went into full blown production.
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[pastellgreen]

I have heared also that there was a point before war or during the war, where they switched over to Kunstharzlack (one-component synthetic resin). During the VW38 series, they had one body for experiments with dip coating, it was a beige car, they used Kunstharzlack for technical reasons (Kunstharz was based on Alkyd resin at that time). It was pretty much cheaper than nitropaint as on the 3806 and easier to handle with. I once met a german artwork restorer, she had written her dissertation on the paintsystems of early cars. During her research in archieves of Porsche, she has found out much about the paint systems of the early prototypes of KDF and Porsche. She told me that they used Kunstharz for the VW38 or 39 series at a very early point, as nitro would have been to much expensive and complictated for a series, even a small series. We also have to remember that at this time, they worked under hard time pressure.

[Maddel]

[pastellgreen]

I was wrong, it was not her dissertation but her diploma thesis. I don't know the title, but you may ask her. It's Gundula Tutt, she is well known as artwork restorer in the historical car scene, she is the first adress for doing real restorations on car painting, especially early cars from the motorsport area before WWII.

Her homepage: http://www.omnia-online.de/

[Maddel]

[pastellgreen]

So I was not wrong, it was her diss. Would have been too much work for only a thesis. From the content you see, this written piece is about the theme, we discuss here. As she knows me, I contact her and try to get a whole example.

[Undis]

This rare and very important photo was kindly provided by Frank Jung of the Reutter family archive through the Prototyp Museum Hamburg.

In the photo you can see the assembly of VW39 series car. It could even be car #3 for all we know. Picture was taken at the Reutter factory in 1939. PROTOTYP says: "We are just about to reproduce the very special unique rear hood only found on the VW39 cars and shown in this picture. Unfortunately ours was replaced one day."

Yes folks, just have a good look at it. Take it all in. There is plenty of stuff happening in this photo.

Photo courtesy of Reutter family archive and Prototyp Museum Hamburg.

[D-train]

That's fantastic!!
Such a bunch of dapper men. Is it known who they are?
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shiny paint doesnt make it worth any more

[splitjunkie]

A couple of things I notice are the splices in the upper A pillars and the roof is clamped on so it hadn't been welded on yet. .
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[Undis]

That’s right Chris about the splices on the A pillars. Of course on the post war, full production cars the roof including the windshield frame and rear window was pressed in one piece. Here they are clearly piecing it together from several parts.

I do think that at this stage in production Reutter was already using press dies for the panels. There must have been a limit in size they could press therefore larger and more complex panels were made in several pieces then welded together and hand finished. It certainly looks that way going by this particular photo.

Looking at the deck lid it looks very much like the VW38 one with its raised hump for the brake/licence plate light. Interestingly there seems to be a ridge across the raised section of the licence plate base. I wonder if this is something that will be flattened later as it makes no sense to have a ridge there. Perhaps it is the joint where the two sides of the deck lid were welded together. The upper lip of the deck lid also looks kind of large. My thinking is that the inner brace still has not been attached. Once that is done the lip will be partially folded over the inner brace and will reduce in size.

The front fenders look stamped. The headlight hole has not been cut out yet.

Speaking of headlights – look at the curious bowl type of object sitting in the trunk. That to me looks like a headlight bucket ready to be installed on the fender. Note the raised hump. That must be there to accommodate the wiring plug for the headlight. On later cars the bucket didn’t have this. There also is what looks like a metal wiring tube attached to the headlight bucket. Going by the orientation of this I’d say this is the left side bucket ready to be welded into the fender. Also I think I can see wrinkles on the headlight bucket – clearly a stamped item.

Such a great photo!

[ARG 62]

If those part were stamped... can´t they just find the mold, the matrix and stamp them again?

[Bruce]

The dies would have been scrapped 60+ years ago.
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[wcfvw69]

It's too bad VW didn't think to save all the body panel stamps over the years. Yes, it would of been a huge undertaking to store them all. It makes me wonder what happened to the body stamps VW of Mexico used to make the last beetles. I wonder if they were scrapped and melted down..
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[peter schepens]

[tisius]

[Martin Southwell]

Wow - Look at the 'Kipper' tie on the fellow with the white shirt! Along with the car, was this also a prototype?

[Grant Reiling]

[splitjunkie]

Here are some pictures from the period or right after the VW39

These pictures were cropped from pictures originally posted that showed other panels being pressed so these would have been before the factory had been finished.

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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[pastellgreen]

ESEM in Schwarzenberg is still there, today they are leaded via "KUKA", a well known enterprise in Germany factoring robots for the production.

I would like to know, what they have for panels, parts or machines on their attic!!!