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Posted by: grasshopper Oct 26 2005, 07:17 PM

found this in someones ad in the classifieds

"Very rare early 73 that had vinyl trim around the windwhield frame."

I dont think that is correct.... was there ever such a thing????

Posted by: ArtechnikA Oct 26 2005, 07:22 PM

QUOTE (grasshopper @ Oct 26 2005, 09:17 PM)

"Very rare early 73 that had vinyl trim around the windwhield frame." I dont think that is correct.... was there ever such a thing????

no.

the very rare '73's had vinyl around the wind_s_hield frame.

Posted by: type47 Oct 26 2005, 07:30 PM

errrr, yes?

there is a picture in Dr Johnsons restoration guide that there are/were some with the vinyl on the windshield frame.

Posted by: Cap'n Krusty Oct 26 2005, 07:31 PM

They don't exist, IIRC. That makes them REALLY rare. The Cap'n

Posted by: grasshopper Oct 26 2005, 07:33 PM

QUOTE (Cap'n Krusty @ Oct 26 2005, 05:31 PM)

They don't exist, IIRC. That makes them REALLY rare. The Cap'n

Posted by: Aaron Cox Oct 26 2005, 07:36 PM

didnt bruce allert have vinyl on his A-pillars?

someone did. they DO exist. very rare... seen pictures.

Posted by: grasshopper Oct 26 2005, 07:36 PM

here's a pic


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Posted by: trekkor Oct 26 2005, 08:07 PM

Wasn't there a 914 GT with dark green vinyl all around....Jager car?


KT

Posted by: horizontally-opposed Oct 26 2005, 08:33 PM

Yep, my 1973 had this very rare and very nasty (IMHO) treatment. Makes the car look less like a convertible to my eye and more like a Z-28. The Pedrinis also had painted black backgrounds, though no way know if that was original.

I feel confident the vinyl was offered on a handful of 914s, both due to Brett Johnson's research as well as several noted 914 nuts within the Renegade 914 Club. Moreover, when I pulled the car apart for its first paint job in 1991, it was pretty obvious that the vinyl had been on since the car was new -- and that the original paint under there was just as "incomplete" as it was when I pulled the sail-panel vinyl... and not from paint pulling up with the vinyl.

Funniest thing about it is this: The sail-panel vinyl is sealed or trimmed at every interface with the rest of the car. The windshield trim didn't have any aluminum trim at the lower edges of the A pillars. It tucked into the three (or top two) windshield aluminum pieces and the rubber seal for the doors/forward edge of the top.

Thus, it looked like kind of a poor job because, after almost 20 years the edges curled up a bit... Just seemed a bit unfinished for Porsche -- or VW of those days.

The windshield vinyl was clearly on my 914 from the beginning, but I've always wanted the definitive answer as to whether the factory put it there or dealers did?

Posted by: sixnotfour Oct 26 2005, 08:40 PM

QUOTE

didnt bruce allert have vinyl on his A-pillars?

Yep , and its the same vinyl as the sail panels , On the RPUMKIN , I like it.
Not sure it would look good on every car.

Posted by: SirAndy Oct 26 2005, 10:00 PM

QUOTE (trekkor @ Oct 26 2005, 07:07 PM)

Wasn't there a 914 GT with dark green vinyl all around....Jager car?

nope, that was paint. "condagrün" to be precise ...

Andy

Posted by: smg914 Oct 26 2005, 10:03 PM

The very earliest 1973 914's came from the factory with black vinyl on the windshield pillar.


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Posted by: trekkor Oct 26 2005, 10:04 PM

Ah ha...

can I see the picture anyway?


KT

Posted by: Jake Raby Oct 26 2005, 10:08 PM

My 73 also had it....
It must have been on very early cars my engine number was only # GA XXXXX163

Posted by: SirAndy Oct 26 2005, 10:14 PM

QUOTE (trekkor @ Oct 26 2005, 09:04 PM)

can I see the picture anyway?

demanding, aren't we?

914.143.0178, at a race in Germany in 1972, car was originally build by
"Max-Moritz" in 1971 and was painted all "condagrün".

Ekkehard Schimpf (then owner and driver in the picture) bought it in
1972 and painted it "signal-orange" and added the Jägermeister decals,
but left the top and sail panels and a-pillars "condagrün" ...


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Posted by: smg914 Oct 26 2005, 10:16 PM

Another picture of a 914 (euro) with the windshield pillar vinyl.


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Posted by: trekkor Oct 26 2005, 10:20 PM

yummy




KT

Posted by: Andyrew Oct 26 2005, 11:44 PM

I think mine was either taken off durring a repaint, OR it was durring the inbetween time after the said windshield vinyl and before the adding of the reinforced doors.

Andrew

Posted by: mudfoot76 Oct 27 2005, 07:32 AM

My car has the A-pilar vinyl too. The story behind it is these were originally slated for Germany, but US sales had picked up to the point that Porsche decided to send them to the USA. These were supposedly the first 1000 cars of the '73 my production


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Posted by: Ray Warren Oct 27 2005, 07:55 AM

My car has it too.
I was going to take it off when I had it painted but because it is
so rare I left it on.
I made some chrome strips out of the old strips from the bottom of the side
panel trim. (thanks to Brad for that tip).






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Posted by: horizontally-opposed Oct 27 2005, 10:12 AM

QUOTE (mudfoot76 @ Oct 27 2005, 05:32 AM)

These were supposedly the first 1000 cars of the '73 my production

Interesting... my car's VIN is 4732900193.

Love the original factory ads...GREAT stuff!!!

The only thing I am curious about is how unfinished the treatment was...surprising considering the quality elsewhere on the car.

Posted by: rdauenhauer Oct 27 2005, 11:02 AM

QUOTE

914.143.0178, at a race in Germany in 1972, car was originally build by "Max-Moritz" in 1971 and was painted all "condagrün".

Notice the Shelby wheels on that car....

Posted by: Thomas J Bliznik Oct 27 2005, 07:30 PM

Here's an original (untouched) early 1973 I looked at this summer. Notice how it's finished off on the end. This car was serial # 250.

Steve, I thought it was the first 500 cars that had this vinyl trim on the windshield post???

Tom


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Posted by: swl Oct 27 2005, 07:54 PM

Beginning to look like extremely rare - isn't.


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Posted by: Thomas J Bliznik Oct 27 2005, 08:15 PM

Here's another picture of that early 73 car. I forgot to mention the vinyle was unfinished at the end. It was just trimed and glued. Notice in the first picture how it was curling up as it aged.

Tom


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Posted by: smg914 Oct 27 2005, 09:56 PM

Quote: Steve, I thought it was the first 500 cars that had this vinyl trim on the windshield post??? Tom

No, it's my understanding that it was closer to the first thousand '73 914's.

Posted by: plymouth37 Oct 29 2005, 05:28 PM

I have heard the first 1000 too. interesting option though.

Posted by: grasshopper Oct 29 2005, 05:53 PM

cool, i kinda like the look of those...mabey im just weird

Posted by: MecGen Oct 29 2005, 06:16 PM

Hey Guys
You know.... my 73, has it, and the PO swears that it had it always. He strippped the origional paint, and reported a similar

QUOTE

Moreover, when I pulled the car apart for its first paint job in 1991, it was pretty obvious that the vinyl had been on since the car was new -- and that the original paint under there was just as "incomplete" as it was when I pulled the sail-panel vinyl... and not from paint pulling up with the vinyl.

and now you guys made me pull the regis.

#735

Watcha think...does it answer or ask more questions ?
My vote goes for the "first 735", actually I have living proof only 735 were made....
That makes mine the last vinal "A" pilar in the world...any offers?...re$erve @ 20K

Who can prove me wrong?

+Karma

Posted by: Gustl Oct 30 2005, 01:53 AM

my guess is, that there isn't any "nice" number like "the first 500" or "the first 1000" or so

the DGVWPB says: at the beginning of MY '73 there was the idea to do a black vinyl A-pillar, but because of problems at the gluing process they deciced to let it be after a short time

(Andy might provide a better translation )

Posted by: redshift Oct 30 2005, 02:40 AM

Great. 119,000 914s, and we have pictures of every one that had pillar vinyl.

Anyone have pics of my cars?


M

Posted by: swl Oct 30 2005, 05:45 AM

QUOTE (Gustl @ Oct 29 2005, 11:53 PM)

my guess is, that there isn't any "nice" number like "the first 500" or "the first 1000" or so

There is something in the VIN that identifies it though. George Hussey knew immediately that my car had that option.

Posted by: davep Oct 30 2005, 07:05 AM

QUOTE (swl @ Oct 30 2005, 03:45 AM)

There is something in the VIN that identifies it though. George Hussey knew immediately that my car had that option.

There is nothing 'in' the VIN. Only that is it is in the first 1000 of the 73 MY, then it probably had it.

To answer a previous question, if the paint is incomplete under the vinyl, then it was intended to have the vinyl installed on the production line. No way that it was a dealer option. I don't ever recall finding a part # for it either, however I haven't looked in 15 years or so.

Posted by: VegasRacer Nov 16 2005, 05:37 PM

Here is an original Black and White factory photo that shows another one.


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Posted by: bondo Nov 16 2005, 06:07 PM

I noticed that in all the photos here that are detailed enough, the 914s have the early chrome windshield washer nozzles. At what point did those go black? (the 2 73s I have had had black ones)

Posted by: Aaron Cox Nov 16 2005, 06:12 PM

earyl 73 = silver (which im looking for a set )
late 73 black

Posted by: shelby/914 Nov 16 2005, 10:00 PM

One of our local 914 group has the remains of one in his side yard that he parted out. Still has the windshield frame with vinyl. Will see if he can post more info or a pix.

Posted by: Gustl Nov 16 2005, 11:39 PM

QUOTE (VegasRacer @ Nov 17 2005, 12:37 AM)

Here is an original Black and White factory photo that shows another one.

funny, that's exactely the photo I purchased on eBay yesterday

Posted by: smg914 Nov 17 2005, 09:32 AM

QUOTE (Aaron Cox @ Nov 16 2005, 04:12 PM)

earyl 73 = silver (which im looking for a set ) late 73 black

If thats the case, the change must have been made in very very late '73 because I've never seen black ones on a '73 and I've had a few late ones myself.
I think the change came along in '74 along with all the other changes/additions for the '74 model year. For this kind of information (not just washer jets) we have to rely on the oldtimers that have been involved with 914's since they were new. Today we can't assume just because someone has a late '73 914 with black windshield washer jets that they are original. We're talking about a 33 year old cars and who knows what changes all the PO's have done in that time period.

Posted by: 914Sixer Nov 17 2005, 09:32 AM

I had a early 73 Zgreen car with the covered posts in the 90's. I think in Dr Johnsons book it says the 1000 cars in 73 had this treatment.

Posted by: Dead Air Nov 17 2005, 10:26 AM

QUOTE (Aaron Cox @ Nov 16 2005, 04:12 PM)

earyl 73 = silver (which im looking for a set ) late 73 black

[QUOTE]

I've got one black and one chrome

Ok,

Look at all the black front bumpers vs. chrome rear.
What's the story on that?

Posted by: TC/914 Nov 17 2005, 10:37 AM

Hey,

That vinyl windshield pillar trim is a great idea for hiding rust and rot. My car has a ton of it on the rear sail planes and I was planning on filling the holes with expandable foam and extending the vinyl down an inch or so to hide it. Now I can do the same with the rot at the base of the windshiled post and still keep the "factory" look.

Cool idea !

Posted by: Larmo63 Apr 8 2018, 11:18 PM

My car is #1012 and has surviving original black vinyl A pillar trim.

But, it has black squirters. Go figure, probably not original.

Posted by: SirAndy Apr 8 2018, 11:54 PM

Holy mother of thread necromancy!

Posted by: Matty900 Apr 9 2018, 01:43 AM

The that is one of the options on the 914S

Posted by: Mikey914 Apr 9 2018, 03:09 AM

The S I looked at did not have it. It was supposedly original paint with about 100k on it. It also had a door that was originally purple on the passenger side that had been repainted so who knows.

Posted by: doug_b_928 Apr 9 2018, 04:09 AM

Lawrence, can you please post some close-up pics of your a-pilllar vinyl, especially the area at the base where it is trimmed. My car (#662) came with it but I had it removed and don’t have any good pics of exactly how it was.

Posted by: Mikey914 Apr 9 2018, 04:40 AM

I've got the material if you need some let me know, it's actually all the way up and over , coming down the other side.

Posted by: doug_b_928 Apr 9 2018, 04:48 AM

Mark, do you actually have it pre-cut for this piece?

Posted by: Larmo63 Apr 9 2018, 11:28 AM

Yes, it's the whole enchilada, I imagine that it takes a good bit of vinyl to do it all the way around the windshield. The reason I dug this thread up is I had a "discussion" with someone on the Facebook page last night who doubted this was factory. I told him to do some research.

Posted by: Larmo63 Apr 9 2018, 11:29 AM

Posted by: doug_b_928 Apr 9 2018, 12:14 PM

Thanks Lawrence.

Posted by: halmil Apr 9 2018, 12:26 PM

My very early 73 also has this feature

Posted by: Mikey914 Apr 9 2018, 12:39 PM

I haven't done so, but could easily be done.

Posted by: doug_b_928 Apr 9 2018, 12:45 PM

Excellent, we can add that to the resto kit when the time comes.

Posted by: dr914@autoatlanta.com Apr 9 2018, 01:54 PM

the 914 1.7 before serial number 4732901000 had the vinyl around the windshield frame, give or take a few cars around that one thousand serial number

We have duplicated a kit for any one who whats to restore their car to the correct factory look. The complete vinyl top was very popular in the early 70s that is why vwporsche did the front windshield pillar

Posted by: burton73 Apr 9 2018, 03:41 PM

I think Porsche was going for the landau top look. I had a 67 Cougar XR7 in 1971 with a landau top. Car in light metallic blue with blue top. I have owned 3 Cars of the years from Road and Track. 2013 Tesla, 67 Cougar, and my 914 1970


Bob B

Posted by: Mikey914 Apr 9 2018, 08:13 PM

Looks like these would be $36, so just let me know.
Mark