Some rare old pictures too. Some guy on the samba let me have them. he said he had more, but I am still waiting.
In this picture the bay with the banner has a jig for a roof screw template craned over it and the guy is drilling pre set holes for the roof fixing. the next guy along is probably sealing or putting rivets in or just simply attaching the roof hinges and then the next chap puts the roof on. someone else fixes the screws and so on. A production line broken down into the simplest of processes. It would probably be too labour intensive to hand build like that these days.
Loving the trailer pics - Essens and, my personal favourites, Bremens. Those unpainted ones half way up the line with two little windows on the sides, look to be about 5' tall - I wonder which ones they are, maybe hearses of some sort? If so, that'd make a grand extra bedroom for the kids etc
I was the guy on the Samba that originally posted all this and these amazing pics of the factory in the early days through the early Bays. Funny poptop 2 I don't recall saying you could have them. Maybe you should refresh me? Regardless - I had purchased a 125th year Westfalia book that has the company's history 125 years prior up to the 1968-69 - as thats when it came out. Lots of amazing shots on the factory and its trailer making efforts, its main claim to fame. I bought it with the intent to share on the internet as there seems so little info on the company, its history or any pics of factory life. Its good to see it here, enjoyed. The thread I started in 2013 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=539958&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 On a lesser note they also made Unimog Cabs and vw fridolin.
So you complain about poptop plagiarising your original thread but I guess you didn't get the book's author's permission to put his content on the net?
