Aircooled VW South Africa

I've noticed that my Beetle's tail lights look different to the ones I'm seeing on the net.
Mine sit on top of an extra moulding but the ones I'm seeing are mounted straight on to the body? Is this a mod?


With extra moulding




Without moulding

different year.............different style


the earlier the car the smaller the tail lights !!!

look at splits and ovals compared to the 70s bugs !

Yeah I understand the newer models have a bigger light but I have not seen a restored / custom bug similar to my year with the extra moulding under the light.

You are also missing the fact that the pictures you added are showing tail lights of 2 different models. The top one shows the post 67 lights, and the 2nd one the bigger "elephants feet" tail lights....
The latter were either on a base, or fitted sunken into the fenders of some 'S' models and 1302 / 1303 models...

Muds

KolorGuild wrote:Yeah I understand the newer models have a bigger light but I have not seen a restored / custom bug similar to my year with the extra moulding under the light.

99% if not all of late model beetles in SA (with your lights) come with the tail lights mounted on the tail light base... unless some genius (foolishly frenches them lower into the fender, but the base would still need to be used... you just would not see it from the top....

How many beetles do you guys have there in Benoni Boetie?... 2?

Muds

Nah the top one is my car, and I know it's the 'Elephant feet' tail lights. It's the only pic I had on hand for comparison.
But thanks for the info. I haven't really made a mission to look at the tail lights of beetles in the area, and the one's I'm finding online have no base.

Regarding Beetle "elephant's foot" taillights:

The base between the elephant's foot light and the fender is a SA only feature. German and other overseas Beetles had a different rear fender design, which incorporates the elephant's feet lights. VWSA probably didn't want to invest in new tooling for rear fenders, so they instead designed an "adaptor" to allow elephant's foot lights to fit early style fenders.

These are the facts; most of what is written above is not correct (sorry guys).

Thanks.

Now taking what you just said into account, one cannot remove those bases and mount the existing light to a normal fender? Do I have to get hold of the fenders with the recessed area for the light (ie. German or international fenders)?

KolorGuild wrote: Thanks.

Now taking what you just said into account, one cannot remove those bases and mount the existing light to a normal fender? Do I have to get hold of the fenders with the recessed area for the light (ie. German or international fenders)?

I'm sure a competent sheet metal worker could do the necessary to graft the lights directly into the fender. I believe the overseas style late rear fenders are available in SA, as well as aftermarket elephant foot lights that are an even lower profile than the originals. Maybe try Goldwagen.

But why change? Keep it proudly souff efrican

Meh.

Ive seen a bug with those fenders...but they are shaped much differantly to our fenders...