Question about factory primer Options

[Greg Silva]

I went to look at a factory 914/6 today, with a view toward buying it. The original color was signal orange, and at some point in its life it had been re-painted red (possibly Guard's Red). When I started scratching around in the engine compartment, I found a dark green on the firewall. Would that have been a primer coat, or is it possible the car has been re-painted more than once? Also, was the original battery location for a six the same as for a /4? The factory six (which comes with the car) was replaced in 1988 with a 2.7. The last time the car was registered was 1989. It hasn't been driven since then, and it's been about 3 years since it has even been started. I'd appreciate any thoughts, especially about the paint. Thanks.

[Bleyseng]

The only place I have found not to be the orginal paint color is the metal dash piece. That can be any color but the rest of the car was painted (dipped) at one time.
Geoff

[Greg Silva]

Geoff, thanks. Although the body panels line up pretty well, the car was "treated" to '74 bumpers, front and rear, at some point. There is also essentially no service history with it. I'm getting nervouser.

[tracks914]

When I bought my car it was white. After spraying off the black undercoating I was pleasantly surprised to find a fully intact metalic gold under body.(Nice but ugly colour) Complete from wheel wells to engine compartment, gold. As I started to refinish it I found, white paint (spray can crap), grey primer, white paint (body shop), red primer, metalic silver paint, grey primer, metalic gold paint (original), yellow epoxy primer(original), and then factory body filler. As it sits now, it has nothing but one coat of light green epoxy primer as I work on the rest of the body work.
Who knows what your could have?

[Gint]

Tell ya what Greg. I'll go out and sand a spot on the firewall of my /6 tomorrow. I need to strip the firewall anyway. I'lll get a shot of whatever I come up with.

[Greg Silva]

Mike, thanks. I'm on my way to work now and will be back tomorrow (Monday) afternoon. Thanks for the help.

[Lawrence]

Greg,

I don't want to sound like a smart-ass, but did you check the VIN? All factory 914/6s start with "914...."

Can you post the VIN? Maybe someone here would recognize it.

-Rusty

[krk]

Rusty's right. You can actually chase the vin further. I've forgotten the guy who keeps the database (I'll rummage -- someone may know off hand tho), but he tracks all forsale adds and it goes back a number of years. Both of mine were in it.

The battery location is the same in the /6 as the /4.

Can't say about the primer, tho the engine compartment should be body colored. It ain't in either of mine -- color changes can often be lazy and skip the engine area.

kim.

[Lawrence]

I have some of the information, on a CD somewhere. There are a couple of people chasing 914 VINs and collecting history on them. (Culled from ads in Pano, etc...)

-Rusty

[krk]

Found it. Dunno if he is still active on this or not.

kim.

-----Forwarded Message-----

From: Bob DiLeonardi
To: 914 <914@rennlist.org>
Subject: [914] History of Your 914-6
Date: 08 Apr 2002 01:03:41 -0400

Hi Folks:

I recently bought a factory 914-6. During the search process I benefited
from a free service offered by a fellow enthusiast. With his permission,
I am posting information about it here.

Larry Lee of New York has been collecting for many years data about
914-6s, when they are sold or advertised for sale. He searches magazines
(for example, every issue of Pano from 1970 to present) web sites and
other sources for ads for 914-6s for sale, and records information from
the ads (seller's name, location, miles and options on car, whatever is in
the ad). He has also attended various Porsche events and gathered
information that way.

By sending him the VIN of my car, he was able to search his database and
send me all the info he had on it. As a result, I was able to verify a
key part of my car's ownership history, including its California roots and
the price it sold for the last time it changed hands 15 years ago!

Some of you may already know about Larry's database, and I know there are
other sources of 914-6 data out there too, but I was amazed at the amount
of info Larry has.

Larry is willing to run VINs for any 914-6 owners or prospective owners.
Info on particular cars may or may not be in his database, but if you have
a -6 and are curious about its past, you may want to send him an email.

His email address is llee50@stny.rr.com Also feel free to contact me.

Hope this is of interest to somebody. Happy motoring.

--Bob D.
rdvnac@aol.com
rennlist 000815-2161
PCA Chicago Region

[Gint]

That would be Larry Lee.

"Larry Lee" llee50@stny.rr.com

I see I'm too late on this one. Larry sent me to old advertisements for my car. Great car and a fantastic resource.

[Lawrence]

Larry Lee. Yep, that's the guy.

His database is very comprehensive - and a valuable resource in anyone wanting to research a factory /6.

-Rusty

[krk]

Alrighty, back to the primer question.

I'm willing to bet almost a dollar that it's identical to the /4. Here goes the reasoning. I'm sure I've read in a couple of books that the bodies for the /6's were simply pulled of the line at Karmann and sent to Porshe for fitment of the rest of the bits. While possible, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to ship unprimed bodies around. The easiest thing to do would be to shunt them off after priming and stack them somewhere.

'Course, everything we see on our cars makes sense, right? Oh oh...

There are probably several places to look for misses on color changes. Here are a couple right out of the gate. (other can add their favorite of course (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) )

Inside the doors for overspray (look down thru the glass or roll the window down and peer in there) The originals were painted without glass in them.

Bottoms of doors.

The area around the gas tank. (and maybe under the rubber trunk seals front and back -- this one's not that hard tho -- really lazy painters)

Sides of the glove box.

Underneath the car -- if it ain't dirt or undercoated, there are several places where the body color shows up. (I'll need to look under mine :-))

As noted, the engine compartment is hard to do right.

kim.

[Gint]

And I never got around to sanding wome firewall today. And I'm not going back into the garage at this point (been out there since 10:00) Look for some pics tomorrow evening.

[Brad Roberts]

I have found grey primer under factory paint on sixes and 4's from the 70-72 era.


B

[Greg Silva]

Gents, thanks very much for the replies. I just now got home from work (after leaving yesterday a.m.), and am planning to visit the sites you provided for me. I'll have to make a call to get the VIN, but it does, indeed, start with 914 followed by a 0, so I reckon its a '70. Someone else also offered the opinion that Porsche may have used a zinc chromate primer, which might account for the possibility of the different color in the engine bay.
Also, thanks for the info regarding battery location. This one has been moved into the front trunk. The only noticable rust I have turned up was around the base of the sail panels, and a bit in the rear trunk. I spent about an hour and a half with it Saturday, primarily trying to find more rust. Opened the doors, closed 'em, jumped up and down on the door sills, opened and closed the doors again - no change in alignment. Checked the jack posts, long's, suspension mounting points, front trunk, behind the seats, below the original position of the battery tray, even tho I wasn't sure that was the correct location. Ever get that strange feeling that you HAD TO HAVE MISSED SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE?? I'll keep you guys updated