During world war 2, starting in 38 or there abouts, F. Porsche and his VW company, started building the"Strength thru Joy" car. People got stamps and stamp books to save up and buy one of these first VW's. But the war came and this was cancelled. Instead they built the Kubelwagen and the Shwimwagen. These were essentially German Jeeps. 22,000 Kubel's were built and you see them in war movies. One gets trashed by a tank in one of the Indiana Jones movies. The later reproduction you know as the "Thing" or Safari.
Also at the same time an amphibious, 4 wheel drive VW called the Schwimwagen was also produced. Roughly 30,000. These machines all had the 3 spoke wheel found in most snow tracs. After the war when VW went back to producing cars, the first few years had the 3 spoke stering wheel. When VW up graded to a more modern wheel Westermaskiner bought up the remainder of these. They started going on to ST4's about the time they quit going on to VW automobiles.
I used to 'Show' my ST4's at Vintage VW meets. There dozens of VW Fans would imediately recognize the vintage stering wheel. They are a bit of a collectors item, and are much older than the Snow Trac machines themselves. Today a horn button for one of these stering wheels usually fetches over a hundred dollars. A nice wheel with the horn button may bring upwards of 800$. I've seen some entire machines(ST4's) that I wouldn't give that much for the whole machine!
Also included in the bizare colection of "hand me down" and left-overs that went on many of the machines are the following parts manufactured long before the machines were ever built: 52 bug tail light, used well into the 60's on ST4's, a pre 60's Porsche turn signal switch which upon close inspection reveals a small lamp in the switch that blinks when the turn signals are flashing, 56 VW Bus wing window knobs, and a dipstick oil temperature sender. At a single VW Vintage Meet at least a hundred VW enthusiasts would point these features out to me. I later found pictures that substantiated their claims.
One item in perticular that is the wrong year part is the brake slave cylenders. They were originally used for some VW Truck, discontinued, then applied and manufacture started back up in 74. It took quite awhile to track down how MY 63 ST4 and some earlier ones ended up with a part for a car manufactured 11 years later! I went to my local VW place and ordered the cylender and the parts guy said it was for a 74? how can this be? the machine was built in 63? And now you know" the rest of the story".
Also at the same time an amphibious, 4 wheel drive VW called the Schwimwagen was also produced. Roughly 30,000. These machines all had the 3 spoke wheel found in most snow tracs. After the war when VW went back to producing cars, the first few years had the 3 spoke stering wheel. When VW up graded to a more modern wheel Westermaskiner bought up the remainder of these. They started going on to ST4's about the time they quit going on to VW automobiles.
I used to 'Show' my ST4's at Vintage VW meets. There dozens of VW Fans would imediately recognize the vintage stering wheel. They are a bit of a collectors item, and are much older than the Snow Trac machines themselves. Today a horn button for one of these stering wheels usually fetches over a hundred dollars. A nice wheel with the horn button may bring upwards of 800$. I've seen some entire machines(ST4's) that I wouldn't give that much for the whole machine!
Also included in the bizare colection of "hand me down" and left-overs that went on many of the machines are the following parts manufactured long before the machines were ever built: 52 bug tail light, used well into the 60's on ST4's, a pre 60's Porsche turn signal switch which upon close inspection reveals a small lamp in the switch that blinks when the turn signals are flashing, 56 VW Bus wing window knobs, and a dipstick oil temperature sender. At a single VW Vintage Meet at least a hundred VW enthusiasts would point these features out to me. I later found pictures that substantiated their claims.
One item in perticular that is the wrong year part is the brake slave cylenders. They were originally used for some VW Truck, discontinued, then applied and manufacture started back up in 74. It took quite awhile to track down how MY 63 ST4 and some earlier ones ended up with a part for a car manufactured 11 years later! I went to my local VW place and ordered the cylender and the parts guy said it was for a 74? how can this be? the machine was built in 63? And now you know" the rest of the story".
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