Rear Reflector Ok to leave it or should I ditch it. Options

[rick 918-S]

OK, The Raspberry car had a rear reflector on the tail light panel. It's a 73.

Were these ever dealer installed? I'm thinking like the Dealer installed radios, luggage racks and Amco Consules.

Will the concours weenies ding me at the PCA judged shows?

Keep it or ditch the thing

[Tom_T]

IIRC you'll have either 4 or 6 holes to patch where the reflector mounted. So it may be too painful to go back in there later to punch holes back through all your work!

Rick, dealers back in the day were happy to accommodate whatever a customer wanted added to their Porsches - at a cost of course! Others had a local body shop or Indy shop do it for them, or some added it themselves.

I think if Pat Garvey were to weigh-in here, he'd say to ditch it & that you'd get gigged by the CW police.

However, when I took the Zone 8 Concours Judging class last March (mostly to figure out CW/originality issues like this), I found out that they don't even judge period/vehicle/model correctness & originality at the local CdE show. They only are basically judging to who can clean their cars the best in every imaginable & unimaginable nook & cranny!

Of course this can vary from zone to zone & by judge/teams.

Where it apparently does come in is definitely at Parade level (national) & to a lesser extent as a tie-breaker type point gig at regional/zone level CdE events.

If it were me, then I'd go back to the stock look.
.... esp.since you're sticking with the raspberry color as it's OE paint IIRC - the reflector tends to get "lost" on red & some dark 914s, being the same color/tone.

However, if you do decide to keep a reflector, then I'd suggest using the original aftermarket one specifically designed for the 914 (either the original one used in perfect cond. or one of AA's repros of it - Bowlsby's website has a pic under accessories subsection fyi). I say that because they are the proper height to match the 914 taillights, plus you done see a half-cut reflector on each side where the re-purposed 911 reflector has to be cut down to fit. At least then it will have the period correct & correct for the 914 reflector as a "personalization" item.

That's all just IMHO - others may disagree.

Steve G. with Sahara Beige in "The Few, the rare...." nailed thread in O&H might be a good person to ask as well. Then there's also the PCA Concours Chair whom you can email from the PCA if you want more specifics.

Hope this helps! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)