I have a few of these and I noticed that there are three different colors. Light gray, dark gray and black. Does anyone know what is correct for which years. My 76, 914 has the dark gray color. Early cars have black and Jeff Bowslby's website says 1974 LE cars " Light grey headlight relay covers" Can anyone else shed more light on this?

CORRECTION:

OKAY - NEVERMIND! Tom was having a "Senior Moment"!

I was thinking of "Headlight Surrounds" (covers) - so my info below applies to that.

I must've missed the "relay covers" in my quick reading of the OP.

My early 73 2L 8/31/72 build date (Chassis Code) has original black Headlight RELAY Covers (sorry, but mine are in storage as I've stripped the trunk already for resto work, so no pic).

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Cheers!
Tom
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FOR PLASTIC HEADLIGHT SURROUND COLORS:

PM to double check grey with Jeff Bowlsby on here. He's the LE guru!

70-73 were ivory or off-white - not black.

74-76 were black.


More info here, & other what by what year at he other sections:

www.p914.com/p914_lenses.htm

dot com seems to be down right now, as is dot net.

try here for now:

http://www.p914.org/p914_lenses.htm

http://www.p914.org/

.... but it shows headlights as incomplete for .org - so yo may have to wait for .com

He has p914 at .com, .net, & .org for just this problem (.net is also not working now).


Tom
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The covers were light grey during a period in 1974. My belief is that it was not an important consideration, and the supplier made the change without authorization. If there was a later change in late 1975, I was not aware of it. It would be useful to get a high resolution photo of the three varieties.

I'm not aware of any change in 1975 either Dave.

All the one's that I saw at the dealers & the 3-4 75-76 MY that I test drove before buying my 73 all had black surrounds FWIW.


Tom
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CORRECTION - FOR PLASTIC HEADLIGHT SURROUND COLORS:

Unless you have owned it since new &/or can confirm with the original owner, then it probably was originally black.

That said, the 76 MY ones were all built up to Dec. 1975 & tried to use up parts to finish off before closing down the 914 line at Karmann, e.g.: if there were some LE grey ones still lying around.

Frankly, I'd not heard of the grey on the 74 LEs, until Jeff's info, but then I'd not really paid attention do details on them back in the day, since I wasn't looking at them as much, my being a blue car guy.

Another thing that I seem to recall, was an aftermarket replacement surround in a primer gray color plastic, so that owners could paint them in body color & have the same "show through" from the base color, as you would on the rest of the car in grey primer. IIRC, the old Performance Products Porsche parts house here in SoCal was one that carried them, but I don't have access now to my old catalogues from them to look.

If you're not sure if your 76 originally had grey ones, & want to use one set of your colors for it, then I'd suggest using the black ones. You can also look around for period 76 sales brochures & ads in color pix, to see if it sheds any light for you.


Tom
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Originals on a 1970 …….