Hello everyone, this is my first post, and the topic pretty much says it all. I have a black 914 from 1974 and I want to know if its original color was black without having to scrape any off but I cant seem to find the plate with the paint code on it. All the plates I have found are all in german and I cant read it. I guess to make a long explination short, where exactly is the panel with the paint code located so that I can figure out what color my car was when manufactured for a better restoration.

you can find it at the driver's side A-pillar

it looks like this one, from my '74:

Click to view attachment

the lower line is the colour code

black would be: L04I

this pic might show you the location better:

Thanks that was a great help! As it would happen she IS a natural black! With a little more research it turns out that the only natural black 914's were special orders, so I am VERY happy with this find.

oooops ... I forgot something





... from far, far away

Black was the base color for the LE's, as in bumblebee, which were only made in 74. They all fall in a certain vin range. What are the last 4 of your vin #? What kind of wheels are on the car?

The VIN is 4742908610. The wheels that are on it arnt the ones it came with I think tough, I beleave the last owner took the ones from mine and put them on a diffrent 914. Annoyingly enough I cant seem to upload pics but there the same kind of wheels as the one in this pic http://www.pwr-tech.com/preowned_car24.html

4742908610

Is too early to be a LE car, the LE range starts much later that year ...



Oh, and:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=13637

Oh well, black by itself was still a special order color according to a restoration book I found. Thanks for all your help everyone!

Not special order per se - but rather one of the paints as an extra charge option, including all of the metallics - which were 3-stage paints (base-color-clear), & black was extra cost due to the difficulty in getting black to lay & look right (as compared to the other non-metallic colors, as the painters on here can attest to) - so same extra charge for it.

Either way thats pretty nice. I plan on restoring her to right off the line