Edgy01

So that I don't have to dig into all my old catalogs,--what year did Porsche start painting the targa rollbar black?

Roc Doc

I painted mine in 1993! (My car is a 76 and it was brushed SS.)

blake

My '78 SC was painted. It may have started with the SCs...

-Blake

Roc Doc

Ok, so who's got a '77 that can chime in?

gecc

'78 was a split year for coupes and targas. Early cars had a ss roll bar trim and bright trim (head light trim rings, window frames, etc.) Late cars had black trim and body color head light trim rings

GothingNC

I thought the 74 and 75 Carrera came with the black Targa bar?

John

Breedoni

Went to the factory in Sept '76 and they had both Al and Black roll bars on the assembly line ready to be installed--I've got photos somewhere.

theiceman

maybe they just hadn't been painted yet

Actually I have an early 78 with brightwork around all the windows and doors. i think the Targa bar was paitned black after and someone removed the brightwork from the front and rear window to match. The rest is all still there though ..

Ed Hughes

I was just talking to a friend who had a '77 a number of years ago, it was black.

I do know a very brief period in July of 1984 where they went back to unfinished. Briefly.

mck911

I was under the impression that starting in 74 it was an option.

Edgy01

Perhaps (like so much at Porsche) you could pay more to have it painted. I have catalogs from the 70s that show the targa rollbars all in SS - not painted. But the catalogs are not that thorough. They don't picture Targas with the blacked out chrome in any of them so I suspect that if you ordered a Targa in those days and ordered the no chrome look, you got a painted rollbar.