geolab

Preparing the car for an all rust out, full repaint, I removed all the windscreens, windows, everything.
At neon light, I realized there was some kind of scripts, barely visible, on the rear firewall between passenger back seats and engine. (first picture)
Tried flash photo, without flash, etc, and could barely de-script.
today I taped an infra-red filter on the lense, and found a smiley, with the paint
color code 92U, and S for the model I presume, and a 1997 SMILEY ?
wonder if other cars have this, but honestly, found it great that the guys who worked
on these cars had a sense of humour.
1- day no flash
2- flash at night
3- infra-red filter

993inNC

My daughter loves doing that kind of thing to houses I build. I'm sure whomever did that figured it would never be seen again. Shows they at least, like their job And at a time when the company was in real trouble.........probably had no idea.....?

jmiller10012

Too funny - I was at Porsche Stevens Creek in San Jose last night shooting the breeze with a Technician - got a great tutorial on what it takes to maintain and service the 991 and the new Boxster. He was commenting that on almost all 993s and 997s (don't know why he left out the 996), you can find some personalized message in the paint from the factory. On 993s, it's usually in the rear engine bay or rear deck metal; in 997s it's usually in the tail light assembly opening (on the painted metal).

Mike in Chi

Geo and Jim

That is very cool. Had never heard that before.

Thanks for the posts.

Hmmmm... I wonder if my Polar Silver Cab has a message... probably "Wow, this one is really fast!"

JPP

Great discovery! I wonder how many people working on these cars knew about it ..? I'd bet it was a well kept secret ;-)

JPP

BTW .. looks like your really stripping the car down past what 'normal' paint work would require .. are you replacing the headliner and carpet as well or just peeled back temporarily to get to the 'fade' lines ..?

Reddy Kilowatt

Crazy Germans.

Mike J

That's very cool and funnyl! Thanks! That infra-red filter worked like a charm.

TravisB

It has no mouth..how do you know it's smiling??

geolab

I smiled back, so....it must be

geolab

headliner cannot be replaced without removing front and rear windscreens. Whilst mine are out, the headliner is perfect still, so just peeled back.
sneak peek pictures

Elonash

You're really a detail killer Geo, don't you need any assistant to help ? I don't need lot of food and can sleep on a chair

JPP

^^^ Wow. Are you doing that work yourself? Serious skillz man .....

Luftd993

I can see why you were asking about a metal nibbler a while ago. I never imagined you would use it on the 993. I thought for a moment that you had been using Photoshop. Truly brilliant if you are doing all this yourself.
I’m keenly waiting for your windscreen removal and fitting write up. I’m comfortable with doing a bare metal re-spray but the glass removal is holding me back.
Please keep those pictures coming.

Cemoto

The inside of my door panels have the signature of the maker.