by looking at this picture, who can tell me the year, month of production and vehicle id number range?Click to view attachment

Sail panel dealer installed actualy not sure on vintage

I do not believe I have ever seen that heavily grained material on a factory build. But I guess anything could happen.

nope

wrong

this car came in last night for restoration from indianna. Pretty original car except for the left front fender having been replaced, the rest of the paint was original. Upon seeing the car from a bit of a distance and seeing the sail vinyl, I told him that I could guess the year, the month of production, and the first two digits of the serial number after the 47-29. He did not believe it, but I was dead on the money.

I have had several cars like this one and they all followed the formula

All right Doc, we are on pins and needles......

I first saw this anomaly on a very very original 24,000 mile car I purchased. Upon getting the 914 I actually thought "why in the world would someone replace the side vinyl on such a low mile original car?" THEN in the subsequent years I saw it more and more establishing a pattern. Every car that had it was the same sequence, like other anomalies during different years. This is absolute factory side vinyl in an obvious very different pattern than all of the rest of the production

Since Karmann built these cars along with several other car models, they used what was on the shelf that day. According to production records they were also building BMW 3.0 CS from 1971-1975. Might be a source of the vinyl in question.

914114

ok here is the info:
around id number 4762903700 the factory must have run out of side vinyl for the last 300 or so cars, switched to this rough grained vinyl. I have seen this many times over the years, and it never fails that it is a 3700 and up serial number so will have the rough grain

1971 is my guess
Goes along with the one year only elephant hyde interior

Personally I like the pattern better than the small sandpaper version. Gives more depth to the side. In the 70's when I did vinyl tops that would have been the Levant pattern. Mostly used on Ford products

I think our 71 1.7 falls into that category. the pattern looks real familiar.
But, that was almost 40 years ago.

Click to view attachment

Looks like the vinyl I used to have on my car.

I have seen this before, but it was on a 72. Had to check on which car it was, but figured it was a non factory option as they did come naked.

I call BS that is not a 1976...its the sam charter 914-6...look at the trim .....or its the first and the last had it ??

strange you only have a weird pic...

How about this clear picture of the texture on the vinyl

Does anyone know of a source for it?

that is the best pic of the late 76

Mine is pretty damn late-4063! I took off the sail vinyl as it was ripped and curled at the edges and wouldn't stay glued.

here is a basically a "survivor" 74 in marathon blue I just did some rust repair to ...
Note the vinyl

My '76 914 number 3947 has the heavily textured vinyl sails.


Click to view attachment

We should come up with a term for this Later than Late Targa vinyl texture. ALL 914 peculiarities/distinguishments have a term. Hell Hole. Silver dot. BRB's. Grasshopper. Hot Dog muffler. Steelies. How about:

"Elephant Hide"
"Rough Nauga"
"Dry Lake Bed"

"Whatchu want?"
"You know the skin that's like, on your elbow?"
"Say no more, fam."

Alligator Skin

Yes, looks like what was on my Nov 75 production car. Was pretty weatherbeaten when I replaced it with a sail panel kit. I noticed the slight difference when I installed it, didn’t think much about it.

As far as the targa vinyl goes, I don’t think it had the same grain, but I’d have to look at it to be sure

In the vintage Land Rover world, we call that texture of vinyl "elephant hide". I have an extra used driver's side piece. See the classifieds if interested.

Click to view attachment