67b Volkswagen 1600 TL

[johnboy]

The light and dark models that I showed earlier are both code 5's, the wheels are 10.5mm and both have the door braces. I do have others (somewhere) but I can't lay my hands on them at the moment so I will look out for them.

[mboxmike]

Thank you for the pictures of the two tire/hub variations. Does anyone have any further pics of the one with the solid wheel with hubbed center(early)? The ones I have all have the solid hub with an outer tire- I've been wondering what the other one looks like up close. Are there any other vehicles with that type of "hubcap"? Does the hubcap inlay into the solid tire or is it like a thin curved washer?
Thanks,
Mike

[kwakers]

The chrome hubcap lays into a recessed part of the black tire on these early first design wheels. The rear of this type tire shows completely flat and black in color with no signs of the chrome from the back side at all. The other model to use them much earlier is the number 8 Mustang introduced with them in November 1966, which used them for a longer period of time and are far more common to find today because of that. The #24 Rolls Royce was introduced in March of 1967 with the hub cap style wheels also, and are fairly common to find today.
These early variations with hubcap wheels on the 67 VW are quite difficult to find in ANY condition, they had to have been replaced by wheels and hubs very soon after the model was introduced in August of 1967. All of the above models were changed over at that point to hubs and tires, but interesting 'error pieces' with a mixture of both are very interesting to display as well. Also, some early wheels without their 'hubcaps' can be found on models as 'error' variations also, and I also display those with a smile on our shelves along with any other factory errors.
If you check on Nick's variation website linked above and search these 3 models, I am sure there is a good picture which shows the all black inside of these early design wheels very clearly. Cheers! kwakers

[yellowfoden]

Does anyone have any further pics of the one with the solid wheel with hubbed center(early)? The ones I have all have the solid hub with an outer tire- I've been wondering what the other one looks like up close. Are there any other vehicles with that type of "hubcap"? Thanks,Mike

Hello mboxmike,

If you look at page 6 of this thread I posted a pic of the hubcap version, the top pic with the vernier calipers jaws on the wheel. If the image appears dark just tilt your monitor a bit or save the image to your hard drive and zoom in on the wheels.

The second pic shows the hub version and apologies that a bit of black cotton is obscuring one chromed hub on wheel.

As Kwakers has mentioned if you look at Nicks RW 8 Mustang variation page the last two photos nicely shows these wheels and the differences.

[mboxmike]

Wow, thanks for the info. I just checked all my Rolls, Mustangs and VW's. Out of around 30 total including beaters I only found 2 Rolls beaters with that wheel type and 1 mustang in played with condition that I just got at the York toy show. The Mustang appears to be a Code 2 which I got with a silver based Corsair,a silver based Ferrari and a Studebaker with a dark blue slide- all loose and lightly played with. Great info and much appreciated.
-Mike

[DrJeep]

Very late to this, I know, but the arrival of a new VW 1600 made me compare it with the battered one I've had since 1974 or 1975 (a school playground exchange for a large glass marble). They're both code 6 - no wing braces or door studs - but the original is the brighter red and the new one is darker. Looking more closely at the original, the paint looks thicker and there's obviously a white undercoat. The darker one seems to have thinner paint and no undercoat. Perhaps this is already well known? I wonder why Lesney would undercoat some cars and not others?