Original vs. Repro 901 Shift Knobs

[Cliff]

Here is a `NOS`4 speeder I bought recently. @ the bottom of the bore is a concave area...Any observations? Not super shinny all around.....Cliff

[jaudette3]

It looks original to me. Numbers are flattish, the "1" is the font we see on originals, and the bottom looks right.

JohnA

[BOYER73S]

I see OEM on Pelican but I do not see NOS? http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/...pg4.htm#item23

That reference is to an ad in the classifieds not the new products sold by Pelican

[mfitton]

Ok just to livin things up a little, here is another of my original knobs made in late 60's early 70's. It has the straight upper "5" but the "1" is more pointed, bottom rim is correct and inside shaft is correct. Comments please!

[Peanut]

I placed them (yours and Mike de Jong's earlier) side by side in Photoshop. They look pretty similar, or dare I say... the same? Maybe lighting had a bit to do. Not sure...

[Jay Laifman]

What about the earlier screw-on non-pattern knobs? Do you guys have similar guidance on what a real one is like and, perhaps more importantly, finding one?

[210bhp]

My (limited) investigation also show that the silver characters on a repro stand on top of the black background (by varying amounts) whereas the originals do not.

Regards
Mike

[Bantam]

A few photos of an original 915 knob for reference.

[210bhp]

Tim

That looks spot on to the originals I have seen. Notice how the characters have a 'beach' effect at their edges rather than a sharp finish. It's the same with the 901's.

Regards
Mike

[mfitton]

Based on what I have seen, Tim's 915 above and my 901 above both known to be originals leads me to believe that there was more than one manufacturer of these knobs back in the day. If you look at the "1's" on both they are totally different. Only other answer is that Porsche switched Mfg. for the later 915 knobs.