Orange foam heater tubes

[TailHappyTorquelessWonder]

I like the discussion / research. Something else popped up in my head.

Along the gas filler there is a foam insulation as well. I don’t have a picture of mine at hand but it’s about 4” outside diameter and the filler neck goes through it. Mines are orange (like the engine bay tubes) unlike the black one pictured. Do you think those started white as well?

Attachment 591255
Foam gasket for filler neck.
Richard

It wasn’t white from the start, so no comparison needed.
And yes it ages too, that’s why it needs replacement sometimes.
E.g. my car had still and the original tubes and the original foam on the filler neck, quite well preserved in the Swedisch climate.
Oxidation does not mean you have to replace it every few years. If that were the case our cars would all have dissolved by now.
Let’s keep the discussion on a serious level please. I know it’s carnaval.

[TailHappyTorquelessWonder]

factory tour dated feb 67

These are the most valid kind of pictures.

While brochures might have been “photoshopped”, although I believe no one would turn an orange tube into a white one in that process, we can agree that factory tour pictures are not…?

The only thing that interests me, is how the parts looked like when they were in the factory baskets or on the factory racks at the moment they were put in the cars.

At least for the first half year of MY67 production I have a bunch of pictures telling me it was white and nothing else.

[preS]

It wasn’t white from the start, so no comparison needed.
And yes it ages too, that’s why it needs replacement sometimes.
E.g. my car had still and the original tubes and the original foam on the filler neck, quite well preserved in the Swedisch climate.
Oxidation does not mean you have to replace it every few years. If that were the case our cars would all have dissolved by now.
Let’s keep the discussion on a serious level please. I know it’s carnaval.

If Oxidation turns them orange, then within a few years you would have “incorrect” orange tubes and in order to be correct white (no pun intended) you would have to replace them?

Bottomline to me. If you restore a car to original, original parts come first. Even used ones go over reproduction. Since both John and Claudius unused tubes have turned orange, you can loosely conclude that all original tubes are orange by now? So if you restore to an original car original tubes are higher in picking order then reproduction white? At least that is how I approach it. Can’t beat original and date stamps.
Btw if you see white tubes in a car today there is a high chance it are not original tubes?

Richard

[68S_SK2]

We're going round in circles here now....

The tubes were white since MJ 1967 starting in autumn 1966 when the car left the Porsche factory (we have no proven documents for the time period before that date). These original white tubes got orange during the last 55 plus years.

If you want a car looking like it left the factory on it's birthday, you should have white tubes.
You could also say, my car is 55+ years old and and there are undoubtedly signs of aging, hence your tubes are orange.

It's only a point of view, both versions are correct in my eyes.

The tubes on my car are original aged orange tubes and there is some patina with the 55 year age.

Enjoy your cars, have fun!

Claudius

[super9064]

Here one more picture with the white tubes next to the fuel pump (not the arrow):
Attachment 591089

The tubes were white originally and changed to orange during the time caused by temperature/fuel/aging/chemical reaction, I'm very sure.
Claudius

I don’t think a black and “white” photo is convincing evidence that they were white 🤣

[68S_SK2]

Hello Rob,
Please read the thread, you will find a plenty of color pictures with the white tubes.

In case anyone thinks that the color images shown in this thread have faded over time or photoshoped and the white color in these pictures is not original: Why should only the white tubes shown in these color pictures be faded/photoshoped and the other different colors not? Otherwise the red cars in the color pictures should be orange now or?

For all who do not trust the color pictures, please have a look at the b/w pictures.

And if you are not convinced after that, then you have to call Dr. Emmett „Doc“ Brown and visit the Porsche factory in the mid-sixties - But please take me with you, please! And for sure, I won't come back!

I will have fun at the Carnevale now, hopefully I'll meet Doc!

Claudius

[super9064]

I would be hesitant to rely on 60 year old photos, the colors just aren’t stable and there’s the question of developing techniques. That said Porsche was a small company that produced hand built cars, they used what was on the shelf. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that there were some white ones. I had the orange ones on my 68L and 68S, I don’t think they turned colors because I removed them because they were damaged, it was obvious that it was orange through and through. Oxidation first works on the surface, I will be convinced when someone shows me a picture of one that is orange on the outside and white in the middle.

[StephenAcworth]

I agree ... wholeheartedly

I don’t think a black and “white” photo is convincing evidence that they were white ��

[68S_SK2]

I would be hesitant to rely on 60 year old photos, the colors just aren’t stable and there’s the question of developing techniques. That said Porsche was a small company that produced hand built cars, they used what was on the shelf. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that there were some white ones. I had the orange ones on my 68L and 68S, I don’t think they turned colors because I removed them because they were damaged, it was obvious that it was orange through and through. Oxidation first works on the surface, I will be convinced when someone shows me a picture of one that is orange on the outside and white in the middle.

Here is my explanation why the foam is now completely orange:
The foam for the tubes is a so-called open-cell foam. The bubbles inside are not closed. Air can be blown through, easily from cut side, not so easy from outside and inside. Even when the heater is not in use, air diffusion through the porosity of the tube still occurs when the heat tunnel is activated.
You can test this very easily: take your spare orange tube to your mouth and exhale your breath into the cut end side (not the inner tube) and the outer wall of the tube. You will see that in both cases the air flows through the tube. For this reason, oxidation starts simultaneously from the outside, inside and the cut face. The chemical process of oxidation after more than 50 years is complete, for more than 30 to 40 years the foam tube has been 100% orange inside and out.
The timeline for the chemical oxidation process would be longer for closed cell foam.
Next you could say that the heat channel doesn't work with an open cell foam. There is now a physical aspect that works. The air will only flow through the tube under pressure, there is a calculated air loss for this type of foam.
I actually don't know why Porsche used an open cell foam for this application. One explanation could be that closed cell foam was not manufactured in the mid 1960's as it is/could be technically more difficult to manufacture or more expensive. The next possibility is that the foam tubes that we know of were closed cell in the mid 1960's and lost their closed cell structure with age.

Here is my most famous b/w non-Porsche picture: What is white, what is black! Please tell me!
Enjoy!



I'm dressed now for Carneval, I have to go.
Claudius