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Steve
on my (June /July 73) E the paint tag is for Karosseriewerk Weinsberg with Glasurit paint
see attached
Attachment 590890
when I first found out about this years ago I remember being told that by that time "lots" of cars were being painted there an then shipped to the factory for completion
I can imagine it was handy for Porsche to have a paint facility they could use to help manage peaks and troughs in paint shop demand . From a senior operations executive’s sales and operations planning perspective it would be useful to have a proven third party paint facility who could provide capacity on a reasonably flexible contract basis. Clearly not just 73 although with my professional background I imagine the Carrara RS homologation programme landing with a quantity of 500 later than usual model refresh cycle that and having what any automotive operations person would regard as sheer madness with its double build to game the FiA tally it wouldve been very handy to have such a facility. Also with exception of Ferry’s personal green RS metallic paint was not allowed on RS mainly due to the extra weight of the paint in that finish on a completed chassis that had to be certified as meeting 900kg target also due to concerns on the quality of metallic finish for a car with plastic / thinner panels ( some of which had modifications to shell) that had to be sold to regular customers not just racers if I was in his shoes i might’ve been tempted to send send all the damn things there for paint when thought to be just 500 to be made in a hurry by original date of January 73. Wonder how much of what you refer to as being sent there was a consequence of the perturbations from the RS initial rather complicated programme and its unexpected tripling volume? Probably took a while before the operations executive could get this back to the level of control they’d feel comfortable with :)
I have some glasurit paint chips for the Porsche range colours (not shown) and a few bits of glasurit literature from that era:
Attachment 590923
Attachment 590924
My 72 bill RS which as you know is 500er series paint tag is has 9 therefore was factory painted glasusrit finish colour 908 GPW and glasurit confirmed the wheels on my RS being one of the just over 200 original RS whose buyers specified the blue combination were finished in Mexico blue — a colour that wasn’t used for bodywork until the following model year
Steve
the legendary manual…excellent..which edition do you have?
The very early is going back to the 30ies. very interesting, but nerdy literature.
I do have the late 60ies edition..having already the alcyd paint developement explained.
At this time Glasurit was already in the hands of BASF, which bought the company in 65.
It was the first move from raw material industry to take over end user production facilitiies.
Dupont later took over Herberts indirectly, as he sold first in the early 70ies to Hoechst in Frankfurt..
emulsions and coatings are a very tricky and high profitable business in that era.
For quite a time period I was working in the field of imaging creating devices,
producing and selling analog x ray films..
so I had the coating guys around..;)
The one I have is 69 so around mid long-hood
era Attachment 590928
References BASF Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (German for ''Baden Aniline** and Soda Factory''
the other booklet is dated 1974. It is from the company GIP* abbreviation for general industrial paints in England which is why they spell “colours” correctly ;)
While on the subject of linguistics…. My negligible German language skills are not up to reading something so technical and without many pictures but it would be rude not to have a copy of this reference on my shelf being a long-term owner of a factory painted RS using glasurit — my son’s long-term girlfriend is Austrian so she might get a call if I’m stuck on Google translate …poor thing .. ha ha. Not sure if they did English language edition of the book on that era.
Steve
PS “In the mid-70s, GIP* sold the "Glasso" trademark and the parrot [not a Norwegian Blue] back to BASF. Until then, BASF could not sell its international vehicle refinishing brand in the UK. The refinishing division used the name GIPFAST. The Perivale plant developed a systems of moveable tanks floating on an air cushion, which gave then a number of advantages on floor space and mobility. This process system seems to have been re-invented in the USA and Germany in the late 1990s. As the factory at Perivale was developed the surrounding area had become part of the London urban expansion and the factory became entirely surrounded by residential property. It was unable to expand and there were growing pressures on the site from the residential community [plus the value of the land for new houses]. In 1987 Hoechst bought the General Industrial Paints refinishing business. The other paint interests were sold off mainly to ICI, particularly the can coatings.”
Coincidentally I once did a strategic review of ICI at group-level based in their Millbank HQ near Houses of Parliament in Westminster that included the paints division. I remember I went to Slough near Windsor which is one of the paints centres and big plants in Teeside but dont recall hearing anything about this glasurit business connection even though I would’ve owned the 73 RS at the time so would have noted name if cropped-up. Probably old news and a small part of ICI global business by that time.
The connections between BASF and innovations in England go back in long time in history of the company: “The discovery in 1857 by William Henry Perkin that aniline** could be used to make intense colouring agents had led to the commercial production of synthetic dyes in England from aniline extracted from coal tar. BASF recruited Heinrich Caro, a German chemist with experience of the dyestuff industry in England, to be the first head of research. Caro developed a synthesis for alizarin (a natural pigment in madder), and applied for a British patent on 25 June 1869. Coincidentally, Perkin applied for a virtually identical patent on 26 June 1869, and the two companies came to a mutual commercial agreement about the process.”
thought i would add my paint tag to this thread. it is the 3rd example of a tag with a missing hyphen. interestingly, all 3 examples are from '72 model year.
Bill it’s not only missing a hyphens it’s missing a whole car unless your hot rod has wooden chassis like a British Morgan ;)
Hugh, Is the stamping font ( curly 2 etc) different when facility disgust is 8 vs 9 … if so possibly stamped at other paint facility not at Porsche factory ?Quote:
Originally Posted by HughH
haha that's great - definitely not a great photo either (blurry). i did look for weight savings in building the hotrod, but a wooden chassis was not considered :)Quote:
Originally Posted by 911MRP
Steve
i think that you are seeing a mark as a part of the 2
That said I think my stamping looks deeper and wider than some others but that may be only because it has been cleaned off at some stage with something abrasive and there is a dark color still around the font
Also if you look at the two 1's they look different but one has been stamped harder than the other by the look of it although I am not sure how that happens as I would have thought all the numbers were contained in one gang for stamping
here is a very big blow up of that photo
Attachment 591020
Just discovered this thread. Fascinating information. And interesting to know my 911 was painted at the Weinsberg facility.
Paint tag on my ‘72S. Apologies for poorly lit photo - taken in my garage tonight.
Attachment 591194