Strange 1967 Porsche 912

[Johnlips]

Here is a car I recently bought from the 95 year old original owner. It is a 1967 912 in it's original paint and showing no signs of accident damage. It has every hallmark of a 1967 and the VIN checks out ok as a '67. However it does have 1968 fenders on it which appear to be original having original paint.
The owner told me that the fenders haven't been changed and the only thing not original to the car are the "deep six" Fuchs and the highback seats which his son installed back in the '70's for safety (the seats).
The VIN falls within the last 31 '67's built 463173/463204. QUESTION- Would the factory have used '68 fenders on a late '67. I can not figure any other explanation other than they were changed early in the cars life and painted, thus the consistent patina of the original paint.
Here's a pic of the car when I found it. I will try and upload a picture tonight after it cleaned it up.

[Bullethead]

A very late '67 with '68 fenders is entirely plausible... more likely than any other explanation, short of accident damage.

If none is visible you have a nice find. Congrats on the purchase, please post updates as you get it back on the road.

[StephenAcworth]

Welcome to the Board and +1 what Bullethead said...

[Norm01]

I was under the impression 67 & 68 fenders were the same. Can someone elaborate the difference(s).

[davep]

If you pull the headlights and look in the buckets, the last 3 digits of the VIN may be there. Since it has a Karmann body, check for the Karmann # under the access panel in front of the rear seats; it should be on the top left side under the carpet, and should not match the VIN but may be close.

[Cliff]

Here is a picture of a `67 (red) & `68 (blue). Up thru `67 both frt & rear fenders have a wide fender lip thru -out the fender opening. The `68 only fenders have a narrowing fender lip, top center of the wheel housing, this is to accommodate the wider 5.5 wheels of that year.The narrowing seems to be hand cut off of a regular `67 type fender as they are kinda crudely done. `69-`73 everything changed.....Cliff

[CarmelSkip]

68 (USA) would also have holes for mounting the side mounted reflectors near the turn signal light, yes?

[Unobtanium-inc]

My money is on an accident repair very early in the car's life. There's not any reason they would have run out of '67 fenders or brought the '68 fenders onto the line before summer break. We usually see earlier parts stuck on cars rather than the opposite. Porsche seemed to want to clear the parts bins to a certain level before they moved onto the new stuff. This wasn't always the case, of course, so who knows. -- Matt

[ibmiked]

I agree with Matt. It isn't likely they would have run out of '67 fenders since they would need to have produced a certain excess to stock in the parts departments at Stuttgart and all over the world.

Cheers,
Mike

[Harvey Weidman]

There was no "excess"... The 68 fender immediately superseded the >67 fender. They may have in fact run short.
Some forensics will quickly solve the question.
H