I bought a 1972 Irish Green 914/4 1.7L a couple of months ago. The car has a brown interior with tan carpeting that is a all in need of replacement. Was the brown interior on this car a color originally offered as an option from the factory? I ask because every 1972 Irish Green 914 I've found pictures of has either a black or tan interior including the 914/6's. I'm not stuck on replacing a brown interior and probably am leaning towards black but the brown has kind of grown on me. I'm not a fan of the tan interior though.

Can anyone tell me how to find out if the dark brown was original? Is there a Vin# decoder chart available where I can find out what the interior color was from the factory?

You'll need to get a COA from PCNA (go to Porsche website's Classics area) to know what was originally in your car from the factory.

make sure to double check the interior color code number against the 1970 MY dealer materials at Bowlsby's website, cuz the PCNA staff regularly misinterprets options & color codes on older P-cars' COAs. It took me 3x to make them correct #31 to Beige for my 73, because they wanted to call it black, which is #11 - see below.

Jeff's website only has 1971 (no 70 MY) interior & paint dealer samples, but I think 71 was the same color choices & 401 was brown smooth & perforated (inserts) leatherette (or 400 Corduroy inserts) with 400 brown perlon or pile carpet:

http://www.bowlsby.net/914/Classic/PaintFabrics.htm

The 71 MY interior color codes are shown below & Brown was #21 or 22 - depending on which seat insert material was used:

Click to view attachment

You'll also need to know from your COA or the original window sticker or dealer invoice which options or Appearance Group of options were oriinally included, for the carpet type (pile was a separate option or in the App. Grp. for 70 & 71 MY).

COA Tip: if you have window sticker &/or new car dealer invoice, then Porsche gives a discount for that ($20 IIRC), plus PCA members get another $20 discount (as well as 20% off of parts/accys., 2 monthly magazines, events) - so joining PCA can actually save more than the $46/yr cost if you're buying a lot of stuff.

Hope this helps!
Tom
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Oh .... & .....

My 1972 is Irish Green. The COA lists the interior as...

"Russet Leatherette/21"

So per the chart above that would be "brown"

As to my car it came with a brown leatherette backpad when I bought it. The carpet was clearly not original, so due to the mystery past, I can't say what is original other than I am pretty sure about the Irish Green as being the orig color.

And as always...



Richard