Tuesday, June 27, 2006

What Radio Did Herbie Have?

Ah, this is a good question. And unfortunately there is no right answer. In general the Sapphire 1 (or Sapphire I) seems to have appeared most often, but you'll find many different radios appeared in Herbie even in the same movie. It just wasn't a detail they were very careful with.

There are two great pages setup with information about the radios. First, Brian, setup this web page showing clips from all the classic movies:

Radios from Older Herbie Movies

Then for a pic of the radio from the latest Herbie Fully Loaded movie we can see this:


Which BTW I got from a great site that has detailed screen caps (screen shots, screen captures, whatever you want to call them) from all the movie DVDs. You can see all of that here: Herbie Movies This has been a great resource for checking on parts and colors to make sure my Herbie will be an accurate replica. BTW if you go to his site (lobousland) and click on Resto you can see his pictures of his Herbie restoration.

When looking through the movies for Herbie details, there's enough variations in Herbie between the movies you can kind of pick and choose what features you want yours to have. I'm trying mostly to stick with the way Herbie looked in the very first movie although may end up including a 200MPH speedometer as seen in Herbie Fully Loaded, simply because that sounds so cool.

BTW since we are talking about radios, I haven't dealt with this person before, but I've had multiple recommendations that if you are looking for a rebuilt VW radio, this is the place.

Monday, June 26, 2006

More parts to look at.

Ok it's been a while since my last post.

I decided it was time to start cataloging my extra parts. This covers the majority of extra parts that I have. Some of these are missing from my current vehicles and some of the items are duplicate parts. Many of them are not in very good shape.



Here we have two different sets of wipers. I'm still researching which ones are actually 1963 models since they look quite a bit different. I've actually read differing information about which ones are 1963 parts.




Wiper motor assembly.




Rubber seals for windows.




Side window glass.




Cut up section just in front of the passenger door. The previous owner was probably going to use this to repair some damage to the body. Not sure how usable it is. It does give me a chrome antenna mount.




Left rear fender, is a newer 1968 to 1972 part, so not too useful to us.



Right rear fender is also a newer 1968 to 1972 part.



Rear decklid with some annoying air vents punched in it.




Rear apron. This is a '65-'66 part for a decklid with a pushbutton catch. It can be made to work on a 1963 with the proper steel catch for the T-handle latch welded on.



Radio looks good. I wish it was a Sapphire I by Motorola.




Assorted parts. That mirror is actually in good shape, but I believe Herbie needs the circular one to be accurate.




Extra mirror and visor assembly. The mirror is ok on this one, but has lost a bit of chrome.




Left front fender.




Ok, that speedo has problems. How do you break a needle on a sealed gauge? Also, a 1963 should have a 90MPH speedometer. I have two extras shown below that go to 90.




Horn, most likely does NOT work, considering the looks.




Extra decklid hinges and springs.




Headlights. These are two different types of headlights, earlier and later. The earlier type have adjustment screws at 5 and 7 o'clock, and the later have them at 8 and 1 o'clock. The 1963 still used the older style, and it changed in 1964. This is something that shouldn't cause too much trouble and will look ok if installed.




Front apron. Note that it is missing all of the compression (press fit) bolts the fenders need to mount to. Somewhat annoying.




Bumper.




Another bumper.




Brand new box of rubber window seal for a Calif. style window. I won't be doing Calif. style windows.




More misc. parts here. I see some dash grills. Door handles. Ooo, plastic runners for the sunroof.




3 extra gas gauges. The round one perplexes me.




Two extra speedometers, which is nice to have. Notice the one still attached to the wiring harness looks pretty good. The other one has a broken needle. Again, how does a needle break off inside a sealed gauge? These two speedos go up to 90MPH which is correct for a 1963. The other speedo I have (which was shown in the car above) only goes up to 80MPH which means it is pre 1963. Those wipers are the same ones from above.


BTW thanks for all the input. I'm continuing to update this page as I get more information on the parts shown in the pictures. Thanks to Greg Carr (aka Dr. Herbie) who gave me a lot of the info. I've added. I'll talk more about Greg in another posting when we discuss Herbie graphics (for authentic stripes and numbers you'll need a set of Herbie Decals from Dr. Herbie.)