Factory repaint?

[drmrfi]

I´m stripping my ´73 targa for total body resto and repaint.
Both "birth certificate" from Porsche and paint tag state Signal Yellow (5210/114) as original paint.
However it seems that the first coat of paint is gloss (doesn´t look like typical primer but rather like proper top coat) in lighter shade of yellow, presumably Light Yellow (6210/117).
This is clearly showing in several places (under paint tag on left a-pillar, front slam panel, front screen frame and dashboard area, possibly elsewhere too).
On top of the gloss light yellow there´s Signal Yellow; both covered by satin black (with factory crayon body number on) in the dashboard area.

The only logical explanation to me seems that factory has first painted the bodyshell in Light Yellow and then for some reason repainted it in Signal Yellow.
Any other suggestions?

[JPlonghood]

Ironic. I just looked over a targa shell that the COA calls out Light Yellow per the chassis number and yet the entire body has what looks to be the original paint under gray primer - and it is Signal Orange.

[Bobs 67S]

Just to add to the conversation, some of the early Signal Red cars have a layer of orange under the final color. There was talk of Porsche having trouble getting to the desired colors so the factory paint shop fix was to under paint in a tint of the final color.

Could it have been yellow was a hard color to get-to?

Ferry Porsche had a blue 911 with some pre-production fiberglass parts and it needed to be repainted because the fiberglass and metal accepted the paint differently. In hindsight it looks like painting in the "old school" pigments could be a real bear.

[W6CZ]

Yellow is a very difficult color to get to cover - it is pretty transparent - in my experience.

[jan]

yellow and red is very transparent , and i know that all red Ferrari had pink primer where all others had grey primer.

And fiberglass can be difficult to get same shade as metal, thats espesially fiberglass in the "old days" now its better , but aware that all fiberglass "live"and will twist and will be not look straight after short time

[Rennman]

This solved my mystery. My tangrine Trans Am car had signal yellow under the orange paint. The COA was tangerine and all of the body numbers were correct on that car. I had speculated that it was already painted yellow, an orange car order was taken and the tub reshot. Another interesting paint bit, the brown Jennings 67S had red oxide primer under that paint. The doorjambs and under the lids were so dry with overspray that Porsche obviously had a tough time painting that car.

Don

[endo911rs]

My original paint signal yellow targa had a yellow base primer...looked like light yellow. I suspect that there were difficulties getting the colors to lay down correctly and that is why there was a base coat layed down.

[orange911]

I have talked with a painter about my light yellow and he is advising me to put an initial layer of white to brighten the yellow. Ideas about how the lt yellow cars started out.