Since the Amphicar was made with no real regard to the "Year of the Car", and VIN's were assigned when a car was sold, many differences are found from car to car. Improvements in design and appearance were put into practice on the "next car built" rather than waiting for the next model year.

With this in mind, the following chart was put together to document some of the various features, and the year and VIN that they were implemented.

Please forward any information you have to me so that we all can get the benefit of this table.
NOTE: The list is in order by VIN.



VIN Year Prop
Shields		 Window
Frame		 Heater
Placement		 Dash Front
Shocks		 Rear ¼
Lips		 Bilge
Plug		 Fnt.
Bumper		 Owner
100062 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Gord Souter
100098 1962 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Gord Souter
100173 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Craig Parada
100239 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Mike Clark
100299 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Ken Chambers
100320 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Ken Chambers
100336 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Ken Chambers
100343 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Large 2 pc. Bill Capron
100350 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Karl Vacek
100525 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. GB Fisher
100542 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 2 pc. Marty & Caryl Peters
100844 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Ed Howard
100848 1962 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Gord Souter
100868 1965 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Mike Echemann
100938 1962 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Gord Souter
101027 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. John Bevins
101038 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Gord Souter
101128 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 2 pc. Bob Gutmann
101135 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 2 pc. Rick Fry
101537 1963 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Mike Baumgardner
101656 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 2 pc. David Derer
101663 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Paul Riesland
101688 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Mike Echemann
101710 1964 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 1 pc. Steve Behnke
101741 1967 Yes Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull No Small none Scott Moses
101808 1967 Yes Chrome Under Pnt UndrHull No Small 2 pc. Ed Price
101957 1964 No Pnt Under Pnt UndrHull Yes ?? 2 pc. John Bevins
103060 1967 No Chrome Side Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Ron Green
103127 1965 No Pnt Side Pnt ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Marc Schlemmer
103688 196? No Pnt Side Pnt UndrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Chris Skeeles
103702 1966 No Pnt Side Pnt UndrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Craig Taylor
103763 1965 No Pnt Under Pnt ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Earl and Nancy Zechiedrich
103934 1964 No Pnt Side Pnt UndrHull Yes ?? 2 pc. Brian Crombie
106521293 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Billy Kuntz
106521948 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Brendan O'Leary
106521981 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small none Al Heath
106521992 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Allan Woodcock
106521996 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Robert Wright
106522207 1967 No Pnt Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Greg Zinkosky
106522212 1966 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Mike Echemann
106522250 1967 Yes Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. John Bevins
106522293 1965 Yes Pnt Under Blk UndrHull No Small 2 pc. Debra Heath
106522294 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Mike Echemann
106522329 1965 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Al Heath
106522384 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. James G. Oliver
106522436 1968 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Mike Echemann
106522469 1966 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small ? Warren Kodosky
106522602 1966 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Mike Echemann
106522645 1967 No Chrome Under Blk UndrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Mike Bayman
106522744 1967 No Chrome Under Blk ThrHull Yes Small 2 pc. Mark Lellman
106523030 1967 No Chrome Large Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Mike Echemann
106523033 1967 No Chrome Side Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Gary & Joanne Wearley
106523218 1967 No Chrome Side Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Bill Connelly
106523422 1967 No Chrome Under Blk UndrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Pete Haslinger
106523764 1967 No Chrome Side Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Allan Woodcock
106524160 1967 No Chrome Side Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Mike Echemann
106524172 1967 No Chrome Side Blk UndrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Brian Crombie
106524184 1966 No Chrome Side Blk ThrHull Yes Large 2 pc. Mike Echemann


Definitions:

Year
Believe it or not, the model year of the Amphicars are sometimes not very clear. There is always the question...year built vs. year sold. (Some cars were dated when they were sold!) For the purpose of this chart, the year listed is the year stamped on the car VIN plate.

Prop Shields
These are the shields near the props, hanging down between the prop and quarter panel. Some cars have them, some do not.
Note: The Prop Shields are typically on early cars, but during a restoration these may have been removed.

Window Frame
Vent window frames are chromed on later cars, others are the same paint color as the rest of car.
Of course if a car with rusted, pitted chrome window frames has been repainted, it may have painted frames now.

Heater Placement
Heaters are sometimes below the gas tank in the trunk, instead of to the passenger side in the trunk above the right fender. The Amphicar Maintenance Manual claims the change to the "side" position came after VIN 103001, but this chart indicates otherwise.

Dash
Early models typically have dashes painted to match the car color, others have black-dappled painted dashes (typically later models)

Front Shocks
Later model cars have the through-the-hull type shock absorbers in the front instead of the under-the-hull variety.

Rear ¼ Lips
Later cars have a crimped "lip" or "nose" along the bottom of the rear quarter panel.
Note: Some car restorations have body work done in the rear quarter panels, and may not replace the "lip"

Bilge Plug
Some Amphis have a large brass bilge plug with a big O-ring around it, while others have a small, thread-in type bilge plug.

Front Bumper
The front bumper on some Amphis is one piece, while others are 2 chrome pieces (a left and a right) bolted together in the middle. According to the Amphicar Maintenance Manual, the two piece bumpers began on VIN 101188 for White and Blue cars, and VIN 101765 for Red and Green cars. Per the list above...either this is incorrect, or some of the cars have replacement bumpers.

Other items of interest

Late 1967 cars, sometimes called 1968's, may have the black dash treatment on the inside door and passenger frames above the door panels.

Early transmissions had smaller "flip lids" to add gear oil, as newer ones had larger filler holes with removable caps.

The hand brake cable is different on cars as well. The linkage and how the cable runs under the floorboard is different. According to the Amphicar Maintenance Manual, the change came after VIN 103001.

The rear seat on later cars do not have a "traditional" seat with a frame and springs like the earlier cars. Instead, they have more of a "cushion" type seat that could be used as a floatation device.

Some Amphicars (mainly right hand drive units) are known to have a fiberglass glovebox door.

98 right hand drive cars were produced. They have the VIN on the order of 2000xx.

The horn body is different on some cars. Most have vent slots in the sheet metal that run kind of "front to back" of the car along the lower rear of the housing. Some, however, have narrower slots running more "around" the lower portion of the housing...from left to right.

Later cars were fitted with Bilge Blowers to meet Coast Guard regulations. These blowers were only fitted to cars that were sold in the U.S. Typically these had 2 min. timers that prevented the car from being started until the timer tripped, allowing time for bilge fumes to be vented. Often, the owner would replace these with shorter times, maybe 30 second or 1 min. The cars did have an Emergency Start pushbutton that would bypass the timer for Emergency or "stop and go" driving.

Per the Amphicar Maintenance Manual, cars after VIN 103602 cannot turn on their marine light unless the propellers are engaged.

After VIN 103001, the shifting linkage is slightly improved. The shaft that runs from the 4 speed gear shift lever under the seat to the transmission was lengthened slightly, and a bracket was bolted to the transmission housing to support the shaft. This helped keep the whole works better aligned.

Here is a great chart that John Bevins put together with text right from the Amphicar Maintenance Manual. It has verbatim text from the book on some VIN info. Thanks John!




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