[T3] Texas VW Classic

[Jim Adney]

On 25 Mar 2014 at 12:31, Gary Forsmo wrote:

> Questions:
> 1.)  Do most of the original VW Type 3 parts begin with the numerals 311?
> 2.)  Do some of the parts which begin with 111 also fit our Type 3's?

The answers are yes and yes. You can get a more complete explanation 
at:

http://www.vwtype3.org/info-part-numbers.txt

The only thing I would add, would be that the part number was 
assigned using the model Type that the part was originally conceived 
for. Most of the time this was the car that the part was first used 
in, but ISTR that there are a very few exceptions where a certain 
part, originally conceived as being for a Type 3, ended up going into 
another Type first, or maybe never made it into a Type 3.

So, Type 3 parts usually start with 311 (or 361, 341, etc) but there 
are lots of parts that were originally designed for Beetles, 111 or 
113, that ended up on Type 3s. Likewise, but much less often seen, 
are parts with Type 2 and Type 4 part numbers.

If you find a part number starting with 3, then it is AMOST certain 
that it was used in a Type 3 at some time. Unfortunately, there is no 
way to tell, by looking at the part number alone, whether a given 
part would be correct for your '69. For that, you also need the parts 
book or the microfilm. A Type 3 parts book, in decent condition, 
might be something to look for at the Texas VW Classic.

VW switched from printed parts books to microfilm in late '73 or 
early '74. The parts books had to be updated with replacement pages 
in order to be up to date. Every dealer had a set of these books for 
Types 1, 2, 3, and 4. Once the parts books were made obsolete, VW 
issued complete new microfilm sets every 6 months and the dealers 
threw away the old sets, or passed them on to interested shops. In 
general, each Type is covered in 1 microfilm sheet, but Beetles took 
2 sheets because of their much longer history.

The microfilm itself has been made obsolete by the modern computer. 
VW now distributes the data on CDs or DVDs. I don't know how often 
these get updated, but VW is pretty proprietary about them, so copies 
are hard to get. For us, however, they are not very useful, because 
so many of our parts are now obsolete. Once VW considers a part 
obsolete and NLA, it no longer appears in the VW data. The part may 
show up in an illustration, but it just gets dashs in the part # and 
description columns.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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