the other day i removed what i thought was some unnecessary wiring in my car. they were wires that, frankly, just didn't go anywhere i thought. then upon starting the car to drive to a local car show, the tach was dead, the oil pressure gauge was dead and the alternator light was glowing brighter that Rudolph's nose! oh no, what did i do? so a couple of hours over a couple of days, i started tracing continuity on all the wires of the dead instruments, etc. no problems found. took down the fuse panel to trace the wires and later noticed that S9 (number 9 fuse was blown).

#1) when S9 blows, instruments don't work

so i put everything back together, theory says it should run as before. new S9 fuse. test drive was fine. at the beginning of the drive while on the interstate, it "snowed" like a blizzard there was all this stuff flying out of the vents at the front of the dash. consistency something like sand but a bit like laundry powder. i figure it was some media used to blast the car in its restoration, man that stuff covered everything. after all this time, why did it come out now?

#2) car was "sand" blasted which goes along with a paper i have that the factory color was grey and the present color is Bahia Red.

i hooked up/replaced the cylinder head temp gauge and have questions about what readings i should be getting but that's going into another thread or will search past posts.

#3) car is ready for the ECC Sept 15th if i don't mess with it.

now i know that you more experienced 914er's probably knew the S9 thing, but maybe a new owner won't panic when all it is was a blown fuse.

#4) check the simple things first before you spend all that time tearing the car apart to try to find a fault that isn't there. but i didn't know about S9 so i'm not going to beat myself over it, i learned alot in the process.

That might have been some glass bead used for blasting, or something similar.

What is the paint code on the Karmann badge? There was no grey, silver perhaps. What 'paper' do you have?

the karmann badge is painted over and too mangled to read. i even tried the trick where you put the paper over the indentations and rub a pencil on it (like the detectives on TV). don't remember where i got the info but i got a paper that lists the vin, the dealer name (Heishmans) engine serial number (engine in car now is not original one, original was a 1.7. have a 2.0 in there now), retail delivery date (sept 73), port arrival date (sept 73), etc. it lists the body color as "Slate Gray Metallic" but i never heard of that color and was surprised when i first saw it. this paper could be connected to a "VIN Decoder". lists the "Unique Model Desc" as a "1973 P 473 534". to me that says 1973 type 47 year 73 but would be interested in the "534 meaning.