My recently purchased survivor has quite a few interesting original markings. One really surprising one is that all for wheels have green paint on every lug. Not just a little but rather a lot of paint on each one. I was of the understanding that this was put on at the factory to indicate wheels had been torqued correctly. I also thought the paint was removed during PDI inspection. If this was true it seems very odd that this would not have been removed during PDI and even more odd that it would not have been removed by the original owner over the 41 years he owned it. Have you seen other examples of this?

Its not factory green paint. Put on as part of recall campaign BO. See here for details.

Whoever painted yours went a bit crazy...

http://bowlsby.net/914/Classic/Recalls.htm

Wow...thanks for the info. Very interesting. Seems even more odd then that it would have been left on by the dealer or original owner. Any view as to whether I should leave it on from a history perspective? I love learning about things like this. Thanks for the info.

Your 914 sounds pretty original, I would leave the green marks.

I would remove it. There is some green (cadmium?) under the silver plating on the original lugs but not this much.

Paul

Thanks. Its definitely paint since the wheels are in excellent condition and some of the green paint is slopped onto the wheel itself in a couple of places. I plan to leave it on. It's a bit of the cars history. Also has the HO recall replacement battery cover on it in excellent condition.

I'd ditch it. Too much to explain & try to prove to a judge who "may not" be totally knowledgeable. Serves no purpose anyway

GASP! That coming from you Pat? That is historical fabric... granted looks ugly...but the 914 was known for paint drips, orange peel and other anomalies. This is a remnant of the dealership having their hands on the car, very few cars have this.

Yes, I understand that some may not like it but I enjoy the fact that somehow the dealer an original owner never saw fit to remove this paint. So odd that it makes me just want to leave it as a part of the cars history.

If you're going to keep the markings, I'd use disposable plastic bags over the lug nut/inside the lug wrench to protect the green paint when you take the wheels on & off. It's what I do with my six to keep my lugs black & prevent paint chipping.

That's a great idea! Thanks for the tip. I'm taking the wheels off today to do a bit of cleaning. Will do that.

Paul, not quite. The turquoise color often seen is the corrosion product of the copper layer of plating under the cadmium surface plating.

That is a awful lot of paint put on by the mechanic. This borders on the unsightly. For a concours car it may be okay provided that the judge understands the provenance. On the street, the average person would not think positively about it. A small green dot about 1/4" would be sufficient.

Were the black plastic caps for the bolts definitively used on the 1974 cars?

As far as I recall they were not, even on the limited editions. This however appears to be another debated issue & the general practice used now says use the plastic caps, so I do. Again, I have no recollection of the caps ever coming on my LE, which I've owned for 40 years now, but I'm sporting them now because everyone says they're supposed to be there. The only car I have any recollection of having the black plastic caps is my 75 Scirocco, & those caps look nothing like the caps that are on my LE, which are the exact same caps that came on the 78 Vanagon.