hey! well, I figure this belongs here, as it does have to do with whether the "factory" did something or not ....

well, I removed the original sail vinyl (original, as far as I know), and on the passenger side sail, there is a lack of paint....the driver side is fully painted.... the problem is the upper sail, because the majority of it is painted fine, but then the paint fades to almost nothing....

now the question: is it possible that it came like this, or was there a repair along the road???

PASS. SIDE SAIL



DRIVER SIDE SAIL


thanks so much
-JON

Jon,
I suspect a repair was made along the way. before I had mine repainted in '79, I took off the vinyl, expecting to see a shortcut in painting underneath. Nope, it was fully painted. I could have left the new vinyl off, because the paint underneath was perfect.

Yeah, I think your panel have had repair in the past.

Pat

hmm...the paint matches the body fine....and it just fades up...no line seperating new/old paint, etc....interesting....thanks pat! -JON

The factory did it that way. I've seen it on countless cars, but not all cars. It depends on the prerogative of the man with the spray gun that day.

Well Mark - you've undoubtedly seen more 914's "in the flesh" than I, but I have never seen that effect on a fatory painted 914. I would assume that the painters had no idea as to whether or not a 914 was going to be equipped with app grp options, & would have been told to paint them all the same.

Pat

i tend to ....

Are you suggesting the holes for the aluminum sail panel trim were drilled AFTER paint? I doubt that. I think some of the painters had a big enough brain to see those holes and think, "Warum sollte ich es malen, wenn es bedeckt werden wird?"

I agree with Mark. I have seen others where the sail was not fully painted. I also agree that the holes had to be drilled before painting.

My 70 had the original vinyl on it, and once I pulled it off the top of the rollbar had thinner paint just like Jon's. It looked almost like just tack coat on the top.

I think this is perplexing, from several standpoints. Could this be a thread similar to the paint stampings on sheetmetal?

Some of you guys have seen more 914's up-close & personal than I, so I'll have to defer to your sightings.

But, when I peeled off the vinyl in '79 on mine & cleaned up the adhesive remains, it looked so nice that I almost left the vinyl off.

Another thing. After 6 months on the wait list for a 240Z, which was delivered in the wrong color (was told to take it or leave it-I left it) I went directly to the Porsche/Audi dealer that I bought my 914 from. Told them I wanted Irish Green with appearance group. They had a non-app grp Irish Green & said "no problem", "we'll just swap the parts from another 914, which meant they'd have to drill holes for the sail panel trim (which I didn't even know about then). Told them NO & asked when the next app grp car was coming in. Told me 2 weeks, but it would be Bahia Red (this was June '72 - the 2 liter cars were in production).

I finally said OK to red & was overjoyed when it came in. After a couple of weeks of driving & cleaning, I noted that the tires were the wrong size and the wheels were 4 1/2 inch (my COA calls for the correct wheels & tires). Pissed off, I went to them & bitched. They finally owned up to swapping the wheels & tires from my 914 to another! Told them to fix the situation, or I'd take them to court. Took them a while (& who knows what poor sap got the wrong wheels/tires on his 914) & they replaced them - then wanted to charge me labor!

Told them I'd take them to court! No charge for labor & they threw in a Bursch exhaust (cool in '72!). Ask me sometime what the Bursch exhaust did to my rear pan!

So, if you think car dealers are bad people today - they're nice guys compared to those of the '60's & '70's. They were truely slime then.
Didn't matter what they were selling either. Porsche had no corner on gentillity, because it didn't exist.

Still, interesting to hear these paint comment.
Pat

My 70 -6 that was the same color as Jon's exhibited the same behavior as show in the pics and it is as Mark described as well.

I'm puzzled by the paint inconsictancies in the paintwork. Agree that there must have been an indicator to the painter as to whether a 914 was app grp or not - guess the lower trim holes might be the giveaway, but the thin paint on the app grp cars (& not all have it) means they spent MORE on paint for the non-app grp cars!

However, production methodology was pretty universaaly crude during that period & it shouldn't surprise me. Bet that today they wouldn't even offer vinyl sail panels or roll bar top. At least the paint would be consistent.
Pat

Here's a close up of the top of my Canary yellow -6.



Here's the top cleaned of all the glue along with the new paint on the sail panels. You can see the contrasting colors easily in this example.

same with my 76.....

Looks like Jon's drivers side was repainted at one time.

Mine have a check mark on the sails...I'll take a pic

Yup. Body damage....

yea, i do believe that, because there is slight repair work that can be seen underneath the driverside rear fender.....looks like good work though.... --JON

My yellow 73 was the same way, I was suprised to find it this way; Daker yellow fading into a lighter yellow all the way accross the top of the bar. Mike

i see a trend here.

so far, only YELLOW cars seem to be lacking paint under the vinyl ...
Andy

I don't think it was just yellow cars, the fender I just replaced on this white car came from a green 76 car, when I removed the vinyl it got much lighter at the top. So it's not just yellow cars.

My 74 Alaska Blue Metallic is shy of paint under the vinyl as well.

Pic of my sails markings and lack of paint. I did respray the sails lightly as there was almost no paint and I wanted some protection under the vinyl which I haven't put on yet.
Also a shot of one of the headlite buckets with the number 5 marked there which means ????

Guys,
Once again I'll say that I worked at Fisher Body Pontiac from mid 60's to it's close in 82. During that time I worked in the trim shop for GTO etc. Why there isn't paint on the quarter sails is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I know that sounds silly but, think about it. If I remember what the cost per car was $.05 x 100,500 =$$$$$$$ or more! Besides who would know that the paint wasn't there? Not any of you, until now. We, once had a plant manager put a $1.00 bill in 5 or 6 cars we were working on and said, " you have to stop giving GM's money away" buy not dropping bolts, to much glue. or paint that isn't called for. When you find no paint on the under body it's not because a worker forgot, it's about Money. The numbers and check marks are most likely inspectors marks. They show because of light paint where it was felt no one would see. Sorry for the long post.
Gary

I find it hard to believe that Porsche (or VW) had the low standards that GM had.

GM was/is established (as is Ford), and the buyers of those cars don't give a hoot about every surface being painted - they are throw away cars ( I own one & accept it for what it is). On the other hand, after owning 8 VW's, 2 Audi's, and only 4 Porsches, I've yet to see a factory prepped can that had minimal paint in "hidden" areas. Even my wife's '97 Passat GLX, which she loves and I hate, has topside quality paint in every orrifice (the only good thing I can say about it).

I don't think you can compare the US "quality" paintwork to the ROW.

Porsche cares about their bottom line as well. Just because it's a 'luxury' car company, doesn't mean they're willing to throw away money on paint that's unnecessary.

i've parted 3 and they all where like that