International Vintage Volkswagen Forums

When did the Beetle door hinge change from the early "5-finger" door hinges to the common "3-finger"? April 1949?

My March 31st Split has the '3 finger' style door hinges...

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I think in the beginning/middle of 1946. My old november 1946 beetle has 3 fingers hings.
The 5 fingers hings are typical for kdf beetles and the very earlyst postwar beetles in
1945/46

A friend has an Apr 47 with the 5 finger doors.
Here's a pic:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22746410@N00/3265250877/ 

Interesting comments - yet confusing...

Bjorn Schewe also says early 46 was the changeover.

Axel and Bruce: How absolutely certain are you that your respective cars have the original hinges/doors on them?

It seems strange that there was paralell useages of old and new for a period of up to 2 years...

My unretored 1947 has 3 section hinges on the drivers door and 5 section hinges on the passenger door:?

Paralell usage for 1946/47 therefore seems to be the answer. Early days of production, and what was available was used to get the car built I'd think:wink:

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Maybe for a while in 46-47 there were two suppliers of hinges.