Garnish rails

[Chuck House]

Thanks for all the additional information.

Only one question is left: As I have a red interior, the garnish rails should be red as well. However, a darker red. Does anyone have pictures of that darker red or, even better, a color nr. which will be close to original? Or maybe a mixing ratio of one particular red with brown/black?

Thanks again!

Here are a couple of photos of an original red interior on a T2 (except the dash has been recovered). Note the garnish rails are just a shade darker than the vinyl, although it's a little difficult to tell in the photos. Sorry, I don't have a color number. You might try John Willhoit. He has many forumlas and will spray a test panel for a small fee.

[Cliff Murray]

Chuck
Your laced trim is exactly like mine.









If you look at the picture of the coupe, that you posted below the Speedster, you get the same "feel" with my car. About 10 years ago, Bob Campbell was advertising an unrestored blue Speedster(from Texas I think) that appeared to have my color seats with an all dark dash. I can't remember seeing any Speedsters like your picture with two tone dashes, but it does make sense.

I have kept all of my original interior trim if doubt arises about originality however I think each owner should make their car the way that it pleases them. After all, I still have crappy chrome repro wheels on mine!

[Will Scheidegger]

I have an early T5 (October 1959). My interior panels look like this:

However, when I google for images of "porsche 356 T5 door panel" I only get vinyl covered garnish rails. As I don't see any evidence that my garnish rails should not be original, would you agree that this is most likely the way it came from the factory and that only later T5 garnish rails were covered with vinyl ?

Thanks!

[Chuck House]

Will,

T5 cars had painted garnish rails with the exception of Roadsters, which were vinyl covered.

[Jim Hohensee]

I have a 1958 sunroof coupe that I have been working on and have been examining the garnish rails. The exterior color of the car is ruby red and according to the COA had an oatmeal color interior. The original interior looks more like tan to me. On the backside of the garnish rails the original color looks like a much darker red or almost maroon. The dash cover was missing so I don't know what color it was. The gray color in the photo is some silver overspray from the previous owner.

[Chuck House]

Jim,

If you read the first part of this (old) thread, it summarizes that the garnish rail color is tied to the dash color and Porsche didn't like to use light color upholstery for the dash, likely to reduce glare. As your car is ruby red and your interior tan (light), your car almost certainly had a red dash and used the dark red garnish rails which were normally used in a red interior but in your case were used to match the dash color and compliment the exterior color. Note the dark red garnish rails in the photo at the top of the page.

[Will Scheidegger]

T5 cars had painted garnish rails with the exception of Roadsters, which were vinyl covered.

Thanks, Chuck! That's what I thought.
I guess Google cannot tell T5s and T6s apart – or most T5 door panels must have been restored incorrectly...