Correct finish for air box clips, Air box clip finish Options

[TonyA]

What is the correct finish on the AIR box clips? Cad plated or black paint?

[StarBear]

Tony; No more avatar for you?
Not sure what a sid box is.

[TonyA]

Sorry.... AIR box

[TonyA]

Sorry.... AIR box

[mepstein]

I’ve only seen cad plated. Actually, can’t remember what was on my 75 but at least early cars were yellow plating.

[StarBear]

Don’t know. Seems to be for 2.0; not on a 1.8.

[TonyA]

Don’t know. Seems to be for 2.0; not on a 1.8.

It doesn’t matter what size engine. This is the fresh air box in the frunk.

[StarBear]

Oh , fresh air box. Thought you meant intake air box. Will check and let you know.

[StarBear]

Here are mine. 74; original and unmolested. A sort of dark brushed nickel finish?

[wonkipop]

mine is a match for starbear's.

like his car is orignal. the box has never been out. even when i converted to right hand drive. it stayed in position un-molested.
car is 01/74 1.8. late jan. a few weeks before the first of the LEs went down the line.







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and a few more examples from the L jet files.

this one is a march 74.



this one is a may 74.



looks like they are the same as starbear and my cars. this covers the time span the LEs were produced. feb 74 until whenever it was. april or may?


EDIT - i had time to go out and have a close look at the car.

the silver finish is i believe aged cadmium where the cadmium has all but disappeared or oxidised (silver metal with white powderish spots). similar to the front struts plates these day. i can remember when the front strut plates were still cadmium plated back in 89 when i got the car. these days, 35 years later the cadmium has all turned to silver/white splotches too. i think i can just see traces of the cadmium finish on some of the clips. so i would go for cadmium as what my car had.

[wonkipop]

@TonyA - cold wet saturday down here so i did a bit of a trawl through all the L jet data i have to my misfortune compiled concerning 74 MY cars.

this could be a rabbit hole. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

what i think i am finding is that early on the 74 cars in the main have cadmium.
i have a couple of examples i can definitely trust.

this was an amazing well preserved 2.0 L and highly original and unrestored.
you can just make out the clips are cadmium plated. a little deteriorated and aged.
production date = oct 73. its a 2.0



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i took another look at my 74 1.8. yep definitely once was cadmium. looks silver now, like just metal, but you can see its oxidised cadmium. i suspect @StarBear 's is too.
his car is super sano. so he has probably cleaned the oxidised material off??? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
an entirely worthy activity as its filling up his wine cellar with tasty beverages.
mine is jan 25th 74 build. starbears is a nov 73 build.

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but i got these two examples on file which were very original cars.
both 74 1.8s.

this one is may 74 build. and its definitely painted black clips.
and i reckon its trustworthy.




this one is june 74 build. same again, black painted.
and its also trustworthy.



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i have discovered down the rabbit hole of L jet research that the progressive changes start in earnest for 74 MY about the time the L jets start coming down the production line from Nov 73. and there is quite a few changes but they do not happen at one time.
its a sequence right through to the end of production. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i'm wondering.
ok one theory is they randomly use black clips and cadmium.
is that a rigorous observation? ie you wreck or see enough 914s you see both but are the dates being noted down.
or the other theory is they stop using cadmium clips and go to black painted some time between jan 25 74 and may 74.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
they certainly do a change on the airbox during that period when they switch from a carboard hose out of the air box to a black plastic hose. i do have that date approximately pegged somewhere in the L jet files. and its i think during the LE production run so some LEs might have cardboard and some black plastic.

for instance i notice when you look in the factory workshop manual they illustrations are of a very early car. probably 1970. and they don't even use clips. its screwed together by the looks of it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

@JeffBowlsby would know maybe about this one on LE cars.

its real nut case minutia stuff. i guess how accurate do you want to be?

but it could be another one of those oh o moments for 74s maybe?
did they actually do a change from cadmium to black paint somewhere in there during or around the time of the LE production run.
or was heinrich reaching for the cadmium box when the black paint box was empty???

i dunno. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

right. i'm just going to go outside now and kill myself.
cause this is the nut case stuff that 356 guys got into.
except......... my sense of humour is still intact. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[StarBear]

@wonkipop
Thorough, logical, and documented well, yet again. You’re the best! A bit demented, but what would we do without you?
Opening the wine tonight. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[wonkipop]

@wonkipop
Thorough, logical, and documented well, yet again. You’re the best! A bit demented, but what would we do without you?
Opening the wine tonight. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

dunno about well documented. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) def demented. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
its jeff bowlsby's fault. he got us to look at those emissions stickers and confounded us with his very reasonable view that an EC-B was a california spec car when you and i knew it wasn't but we couldn't demonstrate that.

80 examples later the original questions got answers but a pandora's box was created when it came to other things. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

the 74s are interesting thats for sure. even the humble 1.8.
the LE is straight after that first solid production run of 1.8s for three months so there are some answers there for LE cars..........and some times there isn't. but a lot of what we have found backs up what jeff has found looking at LEs. i guess the answer to clips on air boxes is.......who really knows. and does it matter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

to be truthful my real interest in it is not to do with restoring cars accurately.
so long as cars go and drive i reckon thats the main thing.
tracking technology and manufacturing techniques is what makes me curious.
you need original examples to do that.
people have generally forgotten that VW at that time (less so porsche) were pushing it with stuff like introducing plastics into car components. the main example of that was the plastic fuel tank in the european passat of........1974. you are getting things like plastic air cleaners, plastic inlet hoses etc. and a lot of it appears first in VWs before other manufacturers copy --- not surprising, germans were leaders in chemical engineering in industry in that era. reason for that?
WW2. germans had to invent synthetic versions of just about everything. even petrol.....and they just kept going.

i confess to a demented interest in L jets.
its why i bought mine all those years ago.
i knew it was the first car to get the system.
(though through this exercise have learned its actually the second, its the 1.8 engine that gets it first).
and L jet is modern fuel injection. period. thats where it starts.
D jet is fascinating but ultimately a copy of good old american know how and can do, but L jet is the native german system and their bit of original thinking. typically germanic too. minimalist when compared to D jet.


oh - and the main reason. the 914 is piech's car. his first engineering design project.
by all accounts he kept his cousin out of it.
and piech was a genius. the rest of his career proved it. he got the grandfather's genes?
........he was beyond demented. i think he was crazy. (or what normal people call crazy).
almost a bond villain. but look at what he did when it came to cars.
i consider him an architect. at least what an architect should be but mostly are not anymore.

Steve - you may recall the 80s? it was all butzi porsche this and butzi porsche that.
and 911s were the real porsche. etc. so forth. and 914s were just some mongrel thing.
a car that did not have a real designer. etc.
and now we know the truth. its a real porsche all right.

if i was going to rebuild a second 914 (and i am not) i would consider making drop out side stripes for it that read P I E C H E instead of p o r s c h e.

[StarBear]

@wonkipop
@jeffbowlsby
Indeed, indeed! It’s all Jeff’s fault!
Like the idea of the alternate stripe!
No - I don’t recall much of the late 70s and early 80s; too busy traveling for work, drinking and chasing p*$$y to spend much time on my car, much less others. Then met wife, married, then son in 1989. Settled down real fast!
At the car show earlier this week one visitor was quite impressed that 914s had BOTH fuel injection and 4-wheel disc brakes!
Ok, @tonyA I think we’ve hijacked your thread enough…. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[wonkipop]

@StarBear (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) its completely Jeff's fault. 100%. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

returning to topic.
the only way you could tell is looking closely at clips.
if you think they are original to car then they will hold the clue.
cadmium plated clips would look silver with traces of oxidation powdering.
black painted would likely still be black or have traces of black paint.

[TonyA]

Wow thanks for all the responses. I like restoring correct but I really like figuring out why the original engineers specified certain finishes on certain parts. So the clips were probably black but the cad sure looks good.

[mepstein]

I think price drove a lot of the changes on the later cars. Plastic instead of metal. Black paint instead of plated parts, foam steering wheels, etc.