genuine ducktail? steel and fiberglass

[scuppernongwine]

I thought I'd ask the resident experts on their opinion whether this is a real RS ducktail. It's on my orange 73 911T although the tail appears to have been white at one time. I've done a fair bit of reading on these-most ducktails don't appear to have any numbers. Also, this one is made with an inner steel and outer fiberglass. It appears very well made-no sloppy fiberglass, etc. It appears that the latch has been crudely messed with at one time and the 2.4 badge has been put on there but everything else looks like the photos I've seen of factory ducktails. Whatcha think??

[scuppernongwine]

couple more upclose pics...

[motogman]

Interesting pics - thanks. I wish I could tell you more but I am interested in the answers you get.

Are there distingushing characteristics for the factory duck tails?

I will go look at mine more closely now...

[scuppernongwine]

Well, I've spent a couple of hours reading threads concerning duck tail decklids on this forum and several others. Just type in ducktail into the search and start reading. From what I gathered only fairly recently have there been steel/fiberglass ducktails. Also, the early ones were alloy. I'm hoping one of the real experts will chime in...

[scuppernongwine]

whoops, what I meant to say was that only recently have there been REPLICAS made of a steel inner frame and a fiberglass outer. if your decklid is an older one and it is steel and fiberglass it's probably real. post some pics....

[Harvey Weidman]

There was a company in SoCal making steel frame duck tails in 73. They were very nicely made. Not trying to rip people off, but just making a good product; probably better than the originals. I doubt if they made too many though because of the price. They were much more expensive then the fiber glass tails at the time (~150).
We stocked the all FG and the factory tails. Most thought the alloy frames wouldn't hold up with the extra weight of the duck tail, so they were tough to sell.
Keep in mind the duck tail was out of style and out designed by the whale tail for competition by 74. So a very narrow window of big interest, quickly tapering off sales.
H

[RSTarga]

My worry on this example is that the steel structure has rusted under the fiberglass. You'ld pretty much have to rip the top part off, repair the frame and then re fibre back onto the frame.

[scuppernongwine]

It's really just surface rust, not cancer like the inside edge of other decklids that I've had in the past. I would say carefully strip the inside paint, por 15 over the exposed surface rust, primer, and paint (after fixing the latch bar of course)

[budge96]

I believe I've read most of the 1974 and '75 Carrera's were optioned or came originally where legel with steel framed fiberglass ducks,the really expensive aluminum framed
fiberglass ducks were previously supplied to the earlier 1973 Carrera RS models again where legal ,even some european countries were cautious about that fiberglass blade
I guess if you backed up fast enough you could injure a pedestrian...Bert