Hey guys and gals, we are trying to figure out when Porsche changed from plastic rivets on the outer rocker covers to metal rivets. If you have untampered covers, please let us know. Build date/model year and if they are plastic or metal.

Thanks for the help.

Tod

I thought stock was always plastic.

Early cars were metal, later cars were plastic. Don't know the exact switch date ...
Andy

all plastic. Were white through mid 73 when the thresholds and strips were changed to black and then black all the way until 12/76. Many many dealers removed the rockers and lazily installed aluminum (for example on an ac car before it was delivered to the new owner.) Bottom line ALWAYS plastic. Always

Aha. Hmmmm. I see ...
Andy

We have several original cars that have alluminum rivets it the rockers.
2 74's, 1 73 early, and a 76. Pat Garvery said his 72 came with white plastic. George, what would be the reason for taking the rocker panel covers off a non AC car prior to sale? George those original gems you have in your show room, the outer rocker cover rivets are all plastic on all of those?

Hi Tod,
You contacted me on my personal email about this & to my knowledge George @ AA is correct. George probally sells them???

Tom

Was unclear to a few us, being some one owner cars had the metal ones in there from when they were purchased at the dealership.

You said 'rocker' covers right Tod? I call these the lower side valences only becasue I don't really know what a 'rocker' is that needs covering...

Here is a photo of my BB (2/74 build date) with a known original aluminum rivet. I have seen many cars this way, so maybe I am misunderstanding what you are referring to. The black plastic threshold plate has black plastic rivets, also original, never removed. I acquired the car from the original owner and he assured me the lower side valences had never been removed in all the years he owned it.

Jeff, that's exactly it. Thankyou for posting a picture. It's worth a 1000 words. That's where the confussion comes in with them.

I would side with George on this one since I have never seen aluminum rivets used.

Total speculation here... Might the LE models have metal rivets? Was there any special dealer prep work for the LE models which might have resulted in dealers using generic metal rivets vs. the plastic ones?



Richard

My 74 looked the same as Jeff Bowlsby's photo! I had to drill them out to clean up the "original" dirt from behind them!!

My my wifes '74 LE had metal rivets as well.

Tod, I spoke to you earlier about this issue, but my '74 rocker covers are original and have the aluminum rivets. I can get a pic soon if it helps.

My '75 had aluminum rivets, and I'm 99% sure that the rocker panels had never been removed before I bought it, although they should have been!