I had my shortened chassis spot blasted and stripped, and was priming it yesterday and noticed that the entire rear clip, from the torsion tube rearwards seemed to be one completely separate piece that the forward section and tunnel welds onto. Sort of knew this, but I was poking around and looking at the construction closely now that all of the mud and fudge was removed.
I noticed that the cast uprights for the shocks and rear body mounts carry a VW part number. As though the whole back end of the pan was a replaceable unit that could be ordered from the factory. That number was a standard TYPE I VW number, entirely separate from the number stamped into the back of the spine that matches the body tag and denotes the body style and year.
I was wondering if this rear suspension clip number couldn't be used as a valid VIN on tube frame cars, making them into a legal VW Type I. No specific body style, simply a Type I VW. When the VW was first introduced it was known as a Type I, and then the Type II and Type III, Beetle was a nickname attached to the car via advertisements at first. Maybe tube frame cars don't really need an assigned VIN, they already have a legal one stamped right onto the stock chassis piece that the frame was constructed around.
Possibly . . . ?
Make: VW
Model: Type I
Year: 19XX
Body style: Convertible
Color: Outstanding
Just wondering; it would make VW trikes a lot easier to register, maybe tube frame cars as well.
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