black paint, engine compartment/valances/rockers Options

[porbmw]

I know that, by and large, this has been discussed, here and there....but with some apparent gaps.

I'm going to see if I can summarize what I have garnered, mainly with direction from Steve Gaglione, who owns one of most pristine and unmolested 914s in existence.

My quest started with the engine compartment. I have done a complete bare metal paint on a previously painted car.

The color is done..and is getting wet sanded...but that leaves me to do all of the black....and that led to my contacting Steve.

Issue #1 The 2 uprights in the engine compartment... the ones that house the rubber bumpers on top, upon which the engine lid rests. The uprights are painted body color....until one gets to the top, where they are black.
Question...the top part of the bracket...is it a soft or a hard line, where it meets the upright part of the brace.
Answer...it is a soft line, about 1/16inch down from the flat top. Steve thinks they likely were hand painted, the line is not perfectly straight..he suggests spraying some flat black into a container, then with a 1/4 to 3/8 artist's brush painting it by hand
Question...color...as noted...flat.

Issue #2 Sheen of the engine lid that is below the mesh...Steve believes that it is the same as the uprights...flat.

Issue #3...Sheen of the mesh on the sides and the engine lid. Steve believes it has more of a gloss, perhaps Wurth Satin. I found this particularly interesting...in that it means there are 2 sheens of black paint in that area.

That lead me to the next query.

Issue #4....the front and rear valances and rocker panels. I will comment that I recently bought an almost pristine snowplow that appears to be unmolsted, barely used, with factory paint...it has a satin appearance, very little sheen. Steve's car has all factory original paint...he used a Meguiars' Swirl Remover and some Cleaner Wax on them way back in 2003, says they looked great....and not as much sheen as was put onto a 6 (powder coat) semi-gloss of about 65-70%. He concurs that they are closer to a satin than a semi gloss

Issue #5....texture. The snowplow I bought...and from my very vague 40 year old recollection, the 74 that I bought new and sold within the year....have essentially no texture....smooth.... Steve concurs..."a smooth texture but with some orange peel"

So..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif)

[Tom_T]

Yeah - I was thinking the same thing when I suggested the pix at that few/rare nailed topic to show what was on the unmolested 914s - so that we can overcome our "half-zymers" - where you recall half the sh!t half the time! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

He already has a bunch of Sahara pix there - if you haven't looked already, it's worth the reference.

In addition to Sahara - Steve also has the former factory photo 914-6 - Stenger I think it's called (should be a topic on here & 914club about it) - orange with wide black stripes (resto); and what IIRC is another original & pristine low mile 74 LE Cremescicle that Steve sold his Lotus Europa JPS to make room for it!!

I may have misunderstood where the "arms" you mentioned were. I was thinking of the engine lid's cross-arms/braces.

You can also PM to Pat Garvey the O&H moderator & he may have some good originality info, as well as Paul nuenveirzen (sp?) - both are also long time 914ers from back in the day & originality wanks par excellance! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I just did a repaint of the original Bosch wiper arms for our `88 Westy using Rustoleum & their Satin was a bit too shiny - even when I held it back 24"+ to get a "dusting" flat effect, so I ended up just dusting over their Satin with their Flat to take the sheen down to close to OE.

I think the Wurth Satin Black may be a bit flatter than the Rustoleum stuff.

FYI - also, Wurth used to make a Porsche Exhaust Gray which was perfect & Stoddard/356 NLA used to carry it, but apparently they stopped carrying it, or Wurth stopped making it. So it would be nice if Wurth & some vendors could get that back available again.

I know the 356, 550/718 & early "real" 911/912 guys still really want it, as well as us vintage middie folks! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Cheers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Tom
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