Swallowtail VIN information
The information on this page is unverified info about early VIN number Rabbits from 1974 through early 1976
Any additions or omissions should be brought to my attention at Dan@swallowtail.info.
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Here's some info from Stijn:
Originally, it looked like THIS was the case....
According to my info (which I don't vouch for):
MODELyear
'74
01.04.1974 175 3000 001 untill
31.08.1974 175 3050 508 = 50,508 produced
MODELyear
'75
01.09.1974 175 3050 509 untill
31.08.1975 175 3500 000 = 449,491
If you look
at manufacturingdate and ignore modelyears, you'd come to:
'74 198,795
'75 454,353
And then he came back and corrected himself with this:
I notice you put one of my posts up as info, about cutoff years and modelyear '74 '75 and stuff...Well I have to admit I was wrong there. There was never a '74 model car, it started right out as the 1975 modelyear my bad.
So it looks like THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A 1974 model year Rabbit!
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Here's some borrowed from a post on the Vortex by grasshopperdrag:
Just to
enter this topic.
My car is the met. green in the original post (SE-VW
174)
It has Vin 175 308 9336 which translates to appr. built
on 8. oct.74, it was first registered 8.nov. 74.
Even over here they are getting rare by now and a 175 302....vin is well...very
early, probably less than a dozen may be older and survived till today.
There may be less than 10 earlier cars than mine here in
Basically 74 and 75 are the same by vin so its up to the following numbers:
as to the end of each month
175 300 0001 launch
175 300 1591 apr 74
175 300 6115 may 74
175 301 9592 jun 74
175 302 5867 jul 74
175 305 0508 aug 74
175 307 9117 sep 74
175 312 8042 oct 74
175 316 8641 nov 74
175 319 8795 dec 74
175 322 7399 jan 75
175 325 5600 feb 75
175 328 7383 mar 75
175 333 6184 apr 75
175 339 4111 may 75
175 341 3115 jun 75
175 350 0000 internally final number (though not nesserally reached)
That hood release officially is a NA rabbit part, i know cause i ordered 4 of
them about 3 years ago through an american dealer. later was available through the museum
The solid hatch strut may be a base model item. my car
came with hydraulic, swapped it for the solid from a feb 75 car.
Still have to find the foam hood item.
Very early 74s came with a different bolt pattern on the tail lamps. After that
was changed to the pattern used till the end of the MK1 cabby the aftermarket
equipped their lamps and tail panels with 5 bolts / mounting holes to cover all
years.
Ironically in-pro was spoiled by this when they got their prototyps of the just
released clear tails, those came from
The original part no. for the74 grill corner was 147 853 655 and 656.
Those 147 no.s later where changed to the more common 171 probably with the
introduction of the later version.
A small remain of this is the black plastic rim fitted to todays black tinted
cross-equipped in-pro headlamp.
Another part that identifies very early 74s is a small hook located on the
inner wing where it meets the a-post to position the wing upon assembly at the
factory.
About LHD and RHD dashes:
the 74 LHD dash is a one piece item with a soft touch surface similar in feel
to the MK2 GTI item.
As the RHD cars where only introduced as late as 76 you may have to accept the
later `cheap` feel plastic version.
One piece refers to the cluster suround that is an integral part of the rest of
the dash on 74s. Later cars used a seperate frame around the cluster.
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175 300
0001 launch -April 1974
175 300 1591 (end of) apr 74
175 300 6115 may 74
175 301 9592 jun 74
175 302 5867 jul 74
175 302 9644 - Neil Saphakkul
175 306 0509 - Stijn Koning's 74
175 305 0508 aug 74
175 306 3162 - Thomas Palubitzi - September 19th 1974
This car is from the March
2003 issue of VW Scene International, and he is on our site!
175 307 2098 - Michael Schertle's Marinogelb 2 door 03 Oct, 1974
175 307 9117 sep 74
175 308 9336 -grasshopperdrag - October 8, 1974
175 312 8042 oct 74
176 313 2690 - Frank - Vortex User ID 76 Swallowtail
175 314 3693 - Sean Kramer
175 316 3621 - Hilko Koopman's resto
175 316 8641 nov 74
175 317 3125 December 1974 (in a junkyard in PA - see Gallery)
175 319 8795 dec 74
175 322 7399 jan 75
175 325 5600 feb 75
175 327 4428- Christian DuFour
175 328 7383 mar 75
175 330 5840 - Mark Spicer
175 331 6827 - Jim Freeman
175 331 7483 - Sandor Nagy
175 333 6184 apr 75
175 335 0123 - Troy Wiltbank
175 335 0223 - Mike Swartz
175 335 5033 - Michael Schertle's Marinogelb 4 door 30 May, 1975
175 339 3438 May 1975 (In a junkyard in PA - see Gallery)
175 339 4111 may 75
175 339 4413 - Steve Scott - June 1975
175 341 3115 jun 75
175 341 6488 - Peter Zwanepoel's blue 4 door
175 342 0223 - Nate Pierce
175 344 9801 - Stijn Konings
175 350 0000 internally final number for 1975's
176 302 6933 - Dan Reid - September 19th 1975
176 303 1124 October 1975 (in a junkyard in PA - see Gallery)
176 308 8667 Nov. 1975 (In a junkyard in PA - see Gallery)
176 313 0607 - Cashe Pawlik - December 1975
176 316 4271- Dupp's old car. Now lives in Oregon