Coachbuilders for Porsche +/- on Value or Perception?

[Tom F.]

the tangible difference is the zinc coated metal used in parts of the post 1969 factory bodies. I have lived all my life in New England. I grew up with rust, I know rust. The partial zinc coated cars rust less, and not in such diabolical places, since the longitudinals received the zinc coating. (But not the outer rockers or door latch panels, sadly.)

[merbesfield]

I am restoring a 68 912 that was built at the Porsche factory. I purchased a stripped tub for some misc body parts. I can tell you that their was significant rust on both cars, but much less on the Porsche built body, which thankfully is the one I am restoring. One thing that was very different though was that the Karmann body had tons more spot welds on the various body parts vs. the one from Porsche was welded typically 1" or so apart. The difference was not minor. Maybe that day they were paid per spot weld. Some of the areas that were spot welded were so close together, that it was almost like a solid weld. The parts were either ground or cut off. There was no way to drill out that many spot welds. There would have been no metal left. I will try to remember to take some pics for reference.

[advtracing]

with the different coach builders employed did there contract extend to them having to stamp there own panels or were they supplied by porsche for them to build?
As if each stamped there own panels and there metal suppliers were suppling from different sources there could be a different make up / density to the metal or ones suppliers 0.8mm differs from another.
although this would still not make up 100lb difference it can add up over all.
Cars today vary , some are made from grade 4 metal ( in japan they even store the metal ingots in the harbour until needed)

early Russian lada's were bad rust traps as were 70/80's lancia's due to the poor metal quality and thickness

[304065]

Brad-
The Reuter cars got galvanized floor pans in '70, whereas the Karman cars did not. I have heard claims that there are other differences, but no one has ever been explicit about the matter. As for "outsourcing," the use of coach builders used to be the norm. Porsche didn't buy Reuter until the early '70s, and had not produced bodies of their own to any great degree prior to that acquisition.

-Scott

Porsche acquired the Reutter car body factory in 1963. The rest became ReCaro.

[304065]

After crwaling around in, on, over, through & under many of both types of 911s ( Porsche / Reuter and Karmann ) including a complete bare-metal disassembly and nut & bolt restoration of my own Karmann bodied '70 911 T I have found one single tangible, physical detail that is visibly different between the two coachbuilders:

Porsche/Reuter made cars have a metal brace connecting two brackets, one welded to the underside of the cowl, about midway between the wiper arm mountings, the other on the trunk floor below it. Obviously the purpose of this brace is to stabilize & prevent vibration of the cowl sheet metal, since the entire wiper mechanism is suspended from it

Karmann bodies do not have this brace, or perhaps I should claim in my best legalese, I have never seen a Karrman body equipped with this brace.

Please see the photo I took of a known Porsche / Reuter bodyied specimen, at Parade in Portland in '06. I have indicated the brace with a green arrow. This is the clearest photo I have of that detail. (The reason I took this photo is because I really loved all the detail in Jeff Smith's trunk compartment and I wanted a record of it to emulate his work later on in my machine).

If anyone can show additional specific details that varied between the two other than invoking the old double-secret "certain other differences", please, have at it. I'd love to see them.

Also, I don't believe that there is is a repeatable, consistent 100 lb. difference between the two types of bodies. God only knows how myths like that get started and why these rumors are propagated, but it simply isn't credible to claim that one is that much heavier than the other without being able able to point out where the extra weight resides & is hidden. I submit it's probably the result of comparing weights of dissimilar cars ( S v. T or E, sunroof v. no sunroof, AC v. none, modified cars, etc. inaccurate weighing methodolgy, etc). 100 pound, (approx. 44 kilos ) is a lot of weight, in fact, depending on the model & equipment, that's approx. 4-4.5 percent of the total car......where is it ??

JZG

Uhh, my Karmann- built 1971T shell has that brace installed.

[advtracing]

Uhh, my Karmann- built 1971T shell has that brace installed.

ummm my 72 T karmann built also has that ? although i had removed it prior to this photo