What color was original plated hardware on a 1970 Porsche 914-6? Silver or gold? If you look at photos of cars in their current condition, or even hardware for sale, it is quite a mixture. I’ve seen some threads on hardware and kits, but they seem to be focused on personal preferences rather than what was original.
It was a much easier decision on the 356! I don’t think there was gold anything on that car, unless your name was Harry Pellow. He reportedly had a penchant for plating 356 engine hardware with gold colored cad.
There is a thread on the Early 911S Registry forum that sounds pretty convincing and applicable to all Porsche’s regardless of model.
- Sometime in 1966 the transition from clear (silver) to yellow was made
- Zinc was used rather than cadmium plating
- Chromate or phosphate was used (giving it a yellow tint) in order to improve resistance to ‘white rust’
- These were driven by DIN standards, not unique to Porsche
So that would suggest that all 914 and 914-6 hardware would have had zinc with yellow chromate finish. I guess we’re going for the gold baby. What a difference 10 years makes (i.e. between our 1960 356 and 1970 914-6).
