I've been working on blasting and stripping my silver metallic '73 chassis to bare metal, I've been paying attention to the factory paint as I work. I've noticed the paint inside the cockpit, fuel tank compartment, under the cowl, and engine bay is thin and not at all glossy. This is true even in areas that have been well protected from sun and rain so show no signs of fade or weathering. I'm thinking that on these 2-stage metallics, maybe the factory spayed the whole chassis with base coat but only bothered to spray clear on areas that would be visible. Anyone have any insight on this? Am I just making it up?

I'm just curious, it won't affect how I paint. I'll probably do single stage on those areas but if I did 2-stage, I don't think I could bring myself to spare the clear coat.

IMHO that's highly likely, since even the single stage colors in those areas tend to be somewhat thin & inconsistent coverage too.


Tom
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These cars were painted at Karmann.. so they were done to a price point... I would expect minimal coverage on non showing areas of the car

I wouldn't be surprised, my car is copper metallic, and recently repainted and the areasthat got a bit of overspray with out clear, or were missed, were dull like that as well. I would think you would want the clear for the extra protection of the metallic base coat no matter where it was, but factory cutting corners to save $$, not surprised.

I don't believe we started using 2 stage until the 80's. That dull look can be a result of application.

It's my understanding that metallic colors were 2 stage while all the solids were single stage even back in the 70s. Someone on the Samba claimed that VW started offering 2 stage metallic in 1969 and that included the 914, and someone on The Bird said Porsche offered the first clear coat metallic in 1968. The paint sticker on the left door jamb reads "two-coat-metallic" for the metallic colors. I guess two-coat doesn't necessarily mean a clear coat, but that makes the most sense to me. Anyone care to shine some light on this mystery?

A bit OT but the early VW/Porsche metallic paint was known for clear coat failures.
Weren't there lawsuits ?

I believe that the 1969 silver metallic was a two coat system; so starting in 1968 calendar year. The silver metallic went through many revisions over the years; most so than any color I know. Many of the metallics had code changes (formula changes) in the 1970's.

My silver metallic was reportly repainted because of clear coat failure.....the trunks and door jambs are still original paint.

Ahhh!
Another of the rare Ziebarted 914's. There aren't many of us left.

Along this note, I recently bought PPG paint to respray my metallic silver. The paint formulas for L 96 D are different between Porsche and VW.

HE's ALIVE......!

How have you been Pat? What are you up to these days?

To the question, I have this 1972 factory document which is also on my 914 Classics 'Rare Document' webpage: