Did all 1968 911S come with an elephant hide dash face, door panels and seat inserts?

[jaldeguer]

Hello,

I'm wondering if all the 1968 911S come with matching elephant hide seats, dash face and door panels? Did some come with basket weave? Or did some have mixed patterns like elephant hide face with basket weave seats?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jay


@aircooledph on Instagram

[jaldeguer]

Hello,

I'm wondering if all the 1968 911S come with matching elephant hide seats, dash face and door panels? Did some come with basket weave? Or did some have mixed patterns like elephant hide face with basket weave seats?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jay


@aircooledph on Instagram

[Milou]

Hi Jay,

I beleive that the model 68 started with Elephant Hide until they ran out of material and replaced it with basketweave fabric. No one really knows why, but possibly because the elephant hide texture wasn't as desirable as the basketweave. I have seen cars with all elephant hide (including seats) and others mixed. It seems that some cars had elephant hide dash and door panels with basket weave seats.

Hope it helps,

Milou

[MikeyC]

ohh, great question, Jay, I do love a good '1968' discussion (although not sure why it's posted in the 'parts for sale' section). Anyhow, my '68 S (polo red with black vinyl interior) has elephant hide dash face and door panels, and basketweave seats.

Incidently, door panels are tatty, need replacing, and I believe the only type now available as authentic reproductions (correct heat-seaming of the inlays), are with basketweave. If anyone has evidence of basketweave door panels used on '68S from the factory, or availability now of good elephant hide '68 door panels?

[mrar]

68's ( 8/67 build , light ivory/red int) I have has black elephant hide dash face, red basket weave seats and door panels factory.

[jaldeguer]

Dear Milou,

Thanks for enlightening me on the '68 interiors. Very helpful info. First time I've heard about elephant hide slowly being phased out in the latter production. Does it follow that there were less elephant hide interiors in later '68 cars and basket weave used on the dash of 911s?

Regards.

[Milou]

Yes, my 1968 911S is chassis 0009 and has elephant hide, but I've seen later 911S from 1968 with basket weave, no one knows for sure the cutting date (mine was build early August 67), but yes some original 1968 911S came with the basket weave!

[Peanut]

From my learning here and elsewhere, Early 68Ss had elephant hide, but later cars got basket weave. Not sure when changeover happened. My very early S (7/67) has elephant hide dash, doors, but vinyl seats with Pepita inserts. I've not seen elephant hide on dash, and basket weave on doors.

Scott

[MikeyC]

Thanks Scott. Mine was an 8/67 build (='early' I would assume), yet an elephant hide/basketweave mixture, as is mrar's above, albeit across different parts. Is it possible that the changeover/mixture at the factory may not just have been date related, but possibly down to availability of the right trim versions of the respective dash/door panels/seats in the right colours ('68 being a 'bitser' year)? Probably needs a bigger sample size of original factory cars than our few responses above....(apologies if I'm going over old ground discussed here already).

[Peanut]

Interesting... perhaps you can post some photos? What VIN is your car? While this may have been discussed, finding it would be more work than perhaps worthwhile. "Soterik" (Eric Linden) here or some of the other resident experts can chime in hopefully if the thread stays alive. My car lived in the UK for quite some time, as the previous long-term owner split time between US and UK.

Scott