Some questions after reading Johnson's Book on 914 Authenticity Options

[doug_b_928]

Last night I read through Johnson's "A Restorer's Guide to Authenticity" (1999). I have a 73 1.7 that was built in August of 72 and it is #663. It is a Canadian car and has the appearance group package. When I bought it in '85 it still had the vinyl on the window frame, but all vinyl was removed for a respray in about '88 (At the time I didn't know that this was a rare feature). Reading through the book in reference to my car has raised some questions with which I'm hoping you'll be able to help:

1. P.6--It appears that the appearance group did not include any particular wheels. That is, in 73 with appearance group the standard steel wheels (5.5") would have come with the car unless ordered with optional wheels, correct?

2. P. 58--the rear trunk compartment light--mine has been deleted. I don't have a pic and the car is 2 hours away in winter storage, but a small plate has been placed in the hole. Did any cars come with this light deleted, or was this likely someone's solution to replacing the light?

3. P. 61--only the US 73 2.0 litre cars received 150mph speedos. My car has a 150mph speedo with roughly 86,000 miles. My sense is that those miles are accurate for the car. Did some Canadian 1.7 cars come with the 150mph speedo?

4. P. 74--although the book says that the defroster lever reverted to the original and a defrost warning light was added in mid-73, my car has these. But, the cover never had a light under it and was just sitting on/glued to the "carpet" that the PO had put in. Does anyone have a pic of this defrost light in operation? Any pic of how it mounts? My car didn't come with the 3 gauge optional console. The pic in the book shows the light mounted to a raised console, but my car only had carpet on top of the tunnel by where the defrost lever is. So, how should this light be mounted? Is it just somehow affixed to the top of the tunnel through the carpet?

5. P. 77--my car has the early style chrome VW window cranks, which the book says were used through 72. Were early 73's (built in 72) equipped with these window cranks, or should mine have the all black plastic one? The book is ambiguous on this because it doesn't seem to distinguish model year from build year.

TIA for any clarification,

Doug