911 T finish in trunk and engine bay

carreraplanes · 01-14-2005, 06:33 AM

Hi,

I've just joined this forum and was wondering if anybody could help me. I'm a UK resident who has just acquired a part restored viper green 2.2 '70 year model 911 T. This car was imported from Pasadena California having apparently been owned by a Doctor there for most of its life (until 1997). I'm currently welding up the front X member and subjecting it to a bare metal respray and restoration to original specification. The question I have for you is:

What colour should the car be in the trunk area and engine bay? Should it be the body colour (viper green) or matt black? Every imported US spec T that I have looked at seems to be matt black but when you scrape under that it reveals the original body colour. Is it that people tend to spray matt black on to tart the cars up or were they delivered like this??

Thanks in anticipation.....

Keith Miller

}{arlequin · }{arlequin's Garage

Not sure whether this will help you but my '73 Viper Green T is green in the trunk and the engine bay, but I don't know whether the previous owner scraped and repainted that area to make it so.

BTW, welcome to the board.

ps. you could check out some of the books on early cars and just follow their lead.

jpnovak · 01-14-2005, 07:15 AM

As far as I know the front boot and rear engine bay are as follows:

through 71 should be black over body color.
In 72 some cars had black and some had body color.
most 73s had body color
74+ had body color

I am not sure when they started painting the wheel wells and inner fenders body color. Both of my 71s are black. My 78 donor was body color.

john_colasante · 01-14-2005, 08:09 AM

Paul always answers this question. Where is he now?

pwd72s · 01-14-2005, 09:35 AM

Ask and ye shall receive. Prior to the '73 models, when all was body color, the trunk was done in a sort of "overspray" body color. Not a solid spray, but as if the hood was off when the gun was doing the fenders? Here's "the" pic of around the smuggler's box of my never repainted '72S:

That should give an idea of the original trunk finish...next up, if I can pull off my first attempt of posting 2 pics in the same post, will be the engine surround. Prior to '73, it was a semi gloss black, with flecks of body color showing through. This leads me to suspect that the area was shot in body color, then the semi-gloss black was brushed on.

Now, to further confuse things, keep in mind these are 1972 model pics. JP could be quite correct about '71...I'm not sure.

}{arlequin · }{arlequin's Garage

generally, i'd like the engine bay white.... shows off dirt and leaks much better. seems practical.

Scott Clarke · Scott Clarke's Garage

My '70E was black in both the luggage and engine compartments. There was some burgundy underneath the black, but it was not everywhere. I have stripped both to bare metal, so I'm quite sure that the compartments were originally black and the car originally Burgundy. My car is a Karman coupe, built late in '69.

304065 · 01-14-2005, 12:30 PM

Front= "overspray" body color
Back= thin black over body color--

1971 911T

sessa · 01-15-2005, 06:15 AM

My 70 S is black in the front and the back no signs of silver but it would be better covered then signal orange or viper green.

carreraplanes · 01-15-2005, 11:20 AM

Dear All,

Thanks to your responses to my posting I'm now clear on the finish for my '70 T - black over body colour. Seems that even with something as simple as this they kept changing it just fot the hell of it!

JP's obviously a guru on underbody matters - thank you!!!

PWD - your '72 S is drop dead gorgeous. Almost too good to drive!

Thanks again for all your help.

Keith