Here's a message from my other buddy in Canada...
Scott, your answer is right. Any year standard Beetle body can be put on any year standard Beetle pan. A 1938 body will fit on a 2003 pan and vice-versa.
The only hitch that can occur is the rear body mount under the rear fender above the spring plate. On early cars (up to 67?), the body mount is a couple inches lower than later cars. When they went to IRS, they discovered that the trailing arms hit the shock tower, so they changed the shape of the shock tower to clear the TAs, which causes the body mount to be higher. When you put an early body on a late pan, you have to cut that mount off and reposition it higher up (around 2")
When I installed a 2001 Mexican body onto a 74 German pan, I expected to have to modify the rear body mount since Mexico never had IRS, so I assumed they still had the early type swing axle shock towers. When I got into the project, I learned that the Mexican cars use IRS shock towers.
Hope this helps! What is your current project? What are you trying to do?
Scott Faivre
