Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle hood crest 60-63

Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle hood crest. 60-63

Original Vintage VW Wolfsburg Hood Crest "City Arms" - German 1960-1963 This hood crest is vintage and an original German made piece for Volkswagen and dates back to the 1950's. The shield is fire enameled cloisonne. The colors are vibrant. There are no chips or cracks in the enamel. All four fingers on the mounting tabs are present and in intact. The nickel plating on the backing plate is in EXCELLENT condition with very few blemishes. This piece is a German original vintage part and is therefore well over 50 years old.

A little on the history of these crests. VW had (has) the right to the Wolfsburg crest to allow and they did not (still don't) allow aftermarket manufacturers to use the VW crest. China was a wee bit too off the scene in those days to worry about copyright infringements. The crests were on the hoods of cars produced up until early 63 (a different design from 1958 on) The crests were stamped (NOT cast) and then the colors were probably hand filled. The finished product was then baked for the colors to fix. At the time VW was producing close to 2000 cars a day so the production of these was outsourced to KSP (K. Schwager Pforzheim), Lauer NBG (Nurnberg), and Lange. I have seen crests produced by a few other makers but I cannot recall their names. All I can say is that they would have to be officially licensed parts if VW put them on their cars. While the crests themselves are almost identical regardless of who produced them there are minute differences that are more time related. If you looked closely at the second line of bricks from the bottom on the castle itself you will find that the early castles had four bricks as opposed to three in the later models.

The tip of wolf's tail points left in the pre 55 crests and right in the later years. The waves at the bottom of the castle are thinner in the pre 55 crests and thicker in later years. There may be other differences that I am not aware of but the above mentioned few differences are easier to spot.