someone wrote on the dash, signature under the vinyl? Options

[worn]

I was replacing the foam and dash vinyl when I realized that the squiggles on the metal were letters in cursive writing. This is just to the left of the instrument area.

It looks to me like someone in the factory signed the car. Was that at all common? When I put the new foam on, I tried to glue around the letters.

[Chaznaster]

I had the same on my 74. I think the word is Elfenbein - or elephant bone (ivory) in English. My dash (unlike the rest of the car) was painted ivory/off white.

[SirAndy]

I think the word is Elfenbein

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I'm reading it as Elfenbein as well. "h. elfenbein" to be exact.

Probably a Light Ivory (Hellelfenbein) dash ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[worn]

I think the word is Elfenbein

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I'm reading it as Elfenbein as well. "h. elfenbein" to be exact.

Probably a Light Ivory (Hellelfenbein) dash ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Hmmmm. Maybe this German stuff is paying off. The dash was painted ivory and installed in a silver car. They were close to the end of the model by the time the '76 was made in November of '75. Then they put on some tar/rubber sound deadener, glue foam and vinyl, so what difference did it make what color the dash was.
Do you think they wrote the color on the dash to indicate the name of the paint color for the whole car? What is the point of matching dash color to the car when you then write all over the dash paint?
Maybe someone knows, but the days are gone. Thanks folks.

[wonkipop]

I think the word is Elfenbein

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I'm reading it as Elfenbein as well. "h. elfenbein" to be exact.

Probably a Light Ivory (Hellelfenbein) dash ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Hmmmm. Maybe this German stuff is paying off. The dash was painted ivory and installed in a silver car. They were close to the end of the model by the time the '76 was made in November of '75. Then they put on some tar/rubber sound deadener, glue foam and vinyl, so what difference did it make what color the dash was.
Do you think they wrote the color on the dash to indicate the name of the paint color for the whole car? What is the point of matching dash color to the car when you then write all over the dash paint?
Maybe someone knows, but the days are gone. Thanks folks.

i'm guessing they just painted batches of dash pressings with whatever was in the spray guns at the end of the day. blew the guns out to clean them and in german post war fashion put every drop of paint to use - reduced waste. then racked and stacked the pressings.

its possible that early on in production they were actually painting the dash pressing the matching body color and they may have even been doing a better job at actually painting them. dunno. never looked over very early cars.

by the time they got a few years down the track with production they rationalised and cost cut. its a pretty thin pass of blue metallic on my dash frame. and elsewhere in the car its a pretty thin pass of phoenix red in areas you can't see. ie up under front cowl where the fresh air fan box is and also up under the interior of the body where the dash itself fits.

the scrawl gets written on the dash by someone pulling them out of the racks and assigning them to cars for the day or the weeks production.

but i agree the notation of car color to the dash seems a bit redundant.
given its got the VW production number also written there with a build sheet to go with the number that already notes the cars color.

only thing i can think of is the person assigning the dash pressing to the build is doing a visual to make a judgement on whether the visible areas underneath don't constitute too big a color clash. maybe some dashes got painted a bit more fully on the underside than mine. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) like say if you had a lot of ravenna green paint on the dash underside in a red car might make a new owner raise an eyebrow if they happened to stick their head under there to change a fuse or something. and then there was a quality inspector who ok-ed the selections for the batches that had been pulled from the rack.

mine looks passable like its meant to be that way given that its basically mostly undercoat color on the underside. for some reason they painted to the top areas under the vinyl more fully. possibly in anticipation of condensation in the foam under vinyl or if the car got rained on with the top off and moisture penetrated the joint between the two top vinyl parts of dash? dunno. of course on top of that they shot or brush painted the areas with knobs etc black.

i'm guessing all the crayon notation go written on that painted raw dash pressing that got pulled off a shelf before anything else happened. and that the dash likely went into the cars as either a near fully assembled item or maybe close to fully assembled.