I found this in my center tunnel a while back.

I could be wrong but, there's a couple of things that make me think this could be a factory "tool" (for lack of better word). It has multiple layers of Saturn/Chrome Yellow paint on it. Seems like it might have been used for pulling the tub from one area of the shop to another on a dolly. I can't find any body mounts that would line up though...

Has anyone ever seen one of these?

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Does that line up with the stock six motor mount somehow?
That would be a great place to pick up the back of a tub....

Rich

I don't think so.

It was in my 74 and Saturn/Chrome wasn't a six yellow but... stranger things have happened.

Would that line up with the bumper mounting holes where the dog bones go?

Possibly. The most logical place was the front apron where the latch mounts. There's a few M8 holes up there but... this is too wide for that.

I'll check the bumper but, I'm betting it's too wide for those as well.

The fasteners are 121mm on center. Too large for the bumper mounts.

Bet that made a noise!
Obviously it had about a million coats of paint on it, I think you guys are right on base with your guesses.
I wonder if they're still looking for it?

To me, it looks more like a heavy duty part of the industrial assembly line equipment, than an attachment tool used on the car itself - especially since they were on dollies & overhead trapezes to move them around the plant.

It could be something off of the dollies under the cars or trapezes carrying the shells in the pix below - even a close color!

Main Karmann Line Trapezes in similar yellow:

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Porsche Racing Dollies with 914-6/Racers (B&W) -

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Hans & Franz are still commiserating in the hof brau over being docked pay for losing it!

Here's another B&W of the main Karmann line with semi-complete cars on floor track dollies (possibly in the same yellow in parts) -

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What say the rest of you?

I say, if it was found in the center tunnel it was either left there early on during the welding process, in which case it was part of the spot welding line or it got there later during final assembly, in which case it was used somewhere around the interior of the car or was left there while someone had access to the interior.

In the first assembly-line pic above, there's no way someone would crawl up onto a hanging 914 and accidentally slip a tool inside the center tunnel.

So, my guess is either very early in the process during welding or fairly late in the process during final assembly.

Clearly, it's a tiny surface froster...

I'm doubtful this has anything to do with the facvtory, possibly not even a 914. Looking at the first photo this is clearly a bolt welded to a bent piece of rod.Hardly the craftsmanship we normally see form the factory. Looking at the 3rd pic there are NUMEROUS layers of paint, most, but not all are yellow. I can also see black and white layers in there. My guess is this is something some owner made at some point, maybe for this car, maybe unrelated. Have you actually determined the thread pitch to see if it is even metric ?

It is the rust crank handle. All 914s had them to crank in the amount of rust each car was to have. Rare find my friend.

I'm following you guys on all these points... but, here's the caveat to that:

It "is" saturn yellow. It precisely matches the factory paint in the frontal area. And, It has multiple layers of paint on it.

I'm thinking paint shop, just due to all of the layers of paint (that chip isn't all the way through!) and the fact that the color is the exact same color as the car

I've never been a part of the 914 assembly line or the VW paint line but I have been in quite a few automobile assembly plants... one of the bennies of being a Michigander. Sometimes cars would have to be pulled off the line to be repaired, sanded, resprayed etc.

Andy has a point though... how else would it get in the center tunnel? It came out through the shift console hole. It could get in there three ways:

Rear Opening
Shift Console
Front Opening by the Cluster

It was between the front opening and the shifter. It could have been pushed forward when the cables were installed. I found it while re-installing the brake line and everything else!

Maybe -- Unbolt it. Lunch bell or the final bell rings. Toss it in the cockpit and, like horseshoes, you have a ringer... it lands in the shifter hole (or most of it does). It takes a bumpy ride to the next station and falls completely in until the day I found it.

Or - it could be something from a bodyshop later in life. It just "looks right" if you know what I mean. All the layers of paint have me coming back to a paint area.

With a 121mm girth, it should leave some appearant clues as to where it was attached though.

I don't know about that... I've seen some pretty crude things from dem boys. Again... it smells right, which is why I saved it and brought it up here.



M8 x1.25

Is it just me or does it look similar to a GT door handle?

It's just you...

o.k. then one more wrench. It is COVERD in paint meaning it was not used to hang. Wahtever it did it was bolted on using nuts, painted over while the car was being shot, then removed after drying. Had it been used to hang there would be odd spots where there would be no paint or most likely some sign of an indention from the hanging apparatus.

That said we can rule out ALL threaded areas, and focus on through holes in the car. Also consider if this was part of the original painting process, whever this part was will have a small ring wihtout paint on it

I wonder how they moved the chassis along the paint line?

You bring up some interesting points. I think it was used to pull the car... either by hand (fit is right) or a chain.

One more thing Scotty... the backside was never painted.

Possibly a crude go/no-go gauge to get the spacing of something just right that a factory worker built to make their job easier?

What is the spacing on the hood to hinge bolts? Possibly used to bolt the hood in place during the painting process? Maybe for one factory worker to be able to install the hood by themselves?

Since it was bolted on, It had to have easy acces to remove the nuts quickly. Since it was found inside, maybe a handle for aligning/hanging/opening and closing the doors before and during paint. Plenty of through holes on the inside of the door with easy access to remove the nuts. Then removed after paint? The threads aren't gummed up with paint so it had to be covered on that side.

I was just thinking the same thing... I'll go check the doors.

I think you got it!

Check these out:

Bottom toward the front edge:
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Closest to the front edge:
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On the front edge:
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This would make it much easier to position the door into it's proper place. When done, the worker is sortof inside the car. Bolts would come off and the handle accidently made it's way into my center tunnel.

Thoughts?

Does anyone have factory painted door they could check for positioning? Two of the lower holes that have the clearish plastic seats in them should show signs where this was bolted in.

The way those paint layers "hang" looks so right in pic #1 above
What a rare find!

Yeah, but why go to all of the trouble to bolt it to the door, later unbolt it, and recycle it to the start of the paint line again when there are already so many convenient hand holds in the inner door structure? Not very efficient from a manufacturing operations perspective.

Where ever it was used is going to have to be pretty unique: Clearly there must be access to the fasteners from the backside to install and remove this thing, but they would have to be in spot that didn't get any paint. Painting over threads would have made it tough to remove.

My money says this wasn't used on the cars at all, but was part of the equipment used for assembly or transport. If used on the cars I would expect to see more color variations in the layers of paint. Only one color says it was on a piece of equipment that got repainted the same color over and over to tidy up just before any senior level executive came to visit the plant.

I would bet if you did a little sanding in that chip area, you would find several layers of different colors. The only reason it's still yellow is because of the obviuos, it was the last paint color shot on the line before it was lost.

I would think if it were part of the main equipment it would have been welded rather than bolted and it wouldn't be a piece of rod steel welded to two M8 bolts.

It looks more like a worker had a idea of "if I had a handle right here it would probably be easier" tool. I've had the Fab shop that builds our machines create drill jigs and welding jigs for repeat-ability and then thrown away when not needed.

It may not have even used the nuts. The doors aren't "that" heavy just awkward, and, if this is how it was used, it may have just been stuck in the holes and the weight of the doors vs. the angle of the handle would have created enough pressue on the threads to hold it in there. The fact that you can see some paint on the base of the fastener just under the head would alude to this. Those holes are by a press formed edge so they would be fairly strong.

Open and closing the door whle painting?

considering the location, how about the metal dashboard assembly?
A handle to put that in place?

Rich

Eric,

When I first saw that, it immediately reminded me of the old metal steps cast into the old concrete silos - (farm boy background) I don't mean to say that it is from a silo, just that it looks like it was used as a step or handle on some type of equipment.
I don't think it was used in a repetitive fashion, i.e., to help align the doors, because the threads are still in good shape. If that were used to repeatedly insert into holes, the threads would rapidly degrade. If they had used a tool like that for the door, it would most likely be smooth with possibly a hole for a cotter key or something similar.
That thing was attached to something and then painted over several times while it was attached to the structure.
Maybe someone is just messing with you?

that actually makes the most sense. I have seen the bottoms of enough doors to tell that the factory runs, run downhill meaning the dors were painted in a mounted position. The doors were also painted after assembly, as I'm sure most of us know, there is no paint under the hinges, and the bolt heads quite often have paint running onto the hinge.

Cool find whatever it turns out to be

That seems to make most sense...

The doors were obviously mounted to the car *before* painting. There's no paint under the door hinges and the bolts are painted in body color.

I think the opening/closing the door while painting is a very good guess. That way, you don't actually need to bolt it down, no weight on it so to speak.