Original paint markings on lugs, Thought this was removed during pdi. Options

[914Next]

My recently purchased survivor has quite a few interesting original markings. One really surprising one is that all for wheels have green paint on every lug. Not just a little but rather a lot of paint on each one. I was of the understanding that this was put on at the factory to indicate wheels had been torqued correctly. I also thought the paint was removed during PDI inspection. If this was true it seems very odd that this would not have been removed during PDI and even more odd that it would not have been removed by the original owner over the 41 years he owned it. Have you seen other examples of this?

[orthobiz]

I would remove it. There is some green (cadmium?) under the silver plating on the original lugs but not this much.

Paul

[davep]

There is some green (cadmium?) under the silver plating on the original lugs but not this much.

Paul, not quite. The turquoise color often seen is the corrosion product of the copper layer of plating under the cadmium surface plating.

That is a awful lot of paint put on by the mechanic. This borders on the unsightly. For a concours car it may be okay provided that the judge understands the provenance. On the street, the average person would not think positively about it. A small green dot about 1/4" would be sufficient.

Were the black plastic caps for the bolts definitively used on the 1974 cars?

[Johny Blackstain]

[Were the black plastic caps for the bolts definitively used on the 1974 cars?

As far as I recall they were not, even on the limited editions. This however appears to be another debated issue & the general practice used now says use the plastic caps, so I do. Again, I have no recollection of the caps ever coming on my LE, which I've owned for 40 years now, but I'm sporting them now because everyone says they're supposed to be there. The only car I have any recollection of having the black plastic caps is my 75 Scirocco, & those caps look nothing like the caps that are on my LE, which are the exact same caps that came on the 78 Vanagon.