drooman

Both #1 and #2 are missing their original pre-production interior rear cover "tool" tray. "Tool" is in quotes because this panel goes where the production tool tray eventually went, the pre-production cars had a tool roll/bag much like a 911 of the era.

Brian with car #21 was kind enough to loan me his original rear interior panel as I want to attempt to reproduce the correct part for my cars. This is a strange piece; the forward facing part looks very similar to the production tool tray:



The inside appears much like a factory tool tray, without the tool panel section in it, check out that "21" marking meaning this tray was with Brian's car from new.



It gets strange on side facing up, there's extra weird pieces

olmann

Good luck recreating! Especially the hold down fasteners. I’m missing one side.

It is interesting to note the 21. My car is VIN #21 but as we know it is the 11th car built. I haven’t torn the car down yet but have pulled the door panels and the are marked with #11.

So some parts are marked with the build number and some with the VIN number.

Jerry Feather

How do you plan to fabricate some duplicates of the one out of number 21? It looks like the body of it can be vacu-formed and the tabs and maybe "strange" items can be fabricated and glued on, or in? I am getting to the point of needing to form some more Cowl Covers, so it we could come up with the form I could put the form in for a couple of pulls for you on these. How close is the outer shell to the later ones? It doesn't look like too much trouble to make the form for the basic shell, if I had something to go by, like a later one. I have one or two of those, of course. The tabs and detail features along the top might require #21 to go by, or very good pictures with measurements. Do you think I could help?

drooman

Thank you Jerry... There may be another way on the black plastic pieces on the top. These were not fabricated for use in this application...these were existing parts off of another car / application that were modified to use at the last minute. Notice the details... these are complex parts full of features that have no use to how they are being used here, and were cut/ modified for use on this rear panel:

notice the hasty cutouts for the cam locks:


and the chopped/ trimmed outside curves:


Also notice the all of the complex features that have nothing to do with the application at hand:










They could have easily fabbed the main part of the panel with a wider top portion (like eventually went into production) but I think made a last minute design change and had access to these plastic parts. There's a left and a right, they have been cut off on the outsides so no telling how long they were. These were existing items from another application... the question is what are they, and where are they from. An interior trim piece from some 70s german car or truck? they had to have easy access to at least 12 sets, probably at the last minute.

The features suggest some sort of functionality to them as well, not just decorative trim.

drooman

They appear in every press car photo that shows that area of the car, the left panel was further chopped for rear wiper transmissions on some cars.

928cs

Interesting. Have you checked if this is not an early 924 modified part?

drooman

There are no markings or numbers on the pieces I have, those may have been cut off. It does not appear to be any Porsche part that I recognize. The intricate shapes of the features seem to indicate they were part of, or with, a moving part of some sort.

My friend said he thought it had the general look of a Mercedes Benz product from the era.

olmann

I have an early 924, built in ‘76, and nothing that resembles that piece is on the car.

I think I would agree on the Benz affiliation.

928cs

Mercedes SL R107 maybe ?

Jerry Feather

Let me know what your ultimate goal is for this panel for your cars and if I can help I'll be glad to try.

drooman

I appreciate your offer Jerry, I may take you up on it. I think there are a few options to recreate these:

1. For absolute dead-on accuracy:
For the forward facing piece an accurate reproduction of the dimensions and look (from the inside) should be made. Not too complex.
For the top pieces, find the original parts that with that were used on the top, and trim them in a similar manner.

2. For the right look, without dead on accuracy:
The forward facing piece already exists in the production early tool tray. an original tool tray could be cut up to get this piece. It could look correct on the outside AND have the option for a tool tray on the inside, or not.
For the top pieces, find the original parts that with that were used on the top, and trim them in a similar manner. Or, solidworks the top pieces paying attention to the top side appearance details (which are few) and ignore the many underside details (which are many) that serve to functionality to the part. Then source appropriate polywhatever material that is the right color (almost black) and C&C the pieces.

Another sub-project is sourcing the correct, or correct appearing, cam lock fasteners.

I'm going to start by trying to figure out where the original top panels came from. That would narrow down the process significantly.

drooman

By the way these are press car tool kit pictures

olmann

Those look like handles similar to something on a rear hatch to pull down or a cover to lift up.

They seem oddly familiar to me. I have looked over a number of mid 70’s VW, Audi and Benz photos. Nothing so far.

Jerry Feather

My inclination would be to design a fabricate just what they should have done in the first palce; but that is just me, and it would not meet your purpose of very much original, I suppose.

As to the fasteners, I think the cam lock or whatever it is might be aviation. Have a look in your Aircraft Spruce catalog for them.

Jerry Feather

I found the cam lock on the Aircraft Spruce web site and it looks very much like your's but with phillips slots. I can't figure out why both parts of the camlock are on the cover? Seems that one part of them ought to be on the car to match.