Slotted Screws on Door Panels?

[William Block]

Brett Johnson in his Porsche 356 -- A Restorer's Guide to Authenticity (available a www.BLOCKS-BOOKS.com stated that only the painted metal garnish rails had Phillips screws, the rest slotted. The reason was to prevent the screw driver from slipping and scratching the (only) painted surface.
bill

[Chuck House]

T1s definitely had phillips screws on the entire door panel, as did most '55 model year cars. There was a period in late preA and early A production where both slotted and phillips were used for interior trim pieces, depending on location.

The little aluminum trim plates for the Speedster side curtain post receptacles were only on very early production Speedsters (Dean's was #126). These did not have the chrome receptacles we are used to seeing on later cars and the posts on the side curtains themselves were slightly different. Don Zingg did an excellent write up in the Registry some years back about oddities of the '54 production Speedsters which cover this. He may have a better idea of when these trim plates were deleted and the later receptacles appeared but I believe it was a few hundred cars into initial production.

[Craig Richter]

Actually, it was uncertainty more than procrastination that kept me from changing 172's post receptacles. After picking around on my black-painted receptacles, it was obvious they had never been chrome, so I just didn't know what to do. Reliable answers weren't coming, and I missed Don Zingg's write up. So now I will do some homework, hopefully find more pictures, then make up some trim plates to see how they look. Thanks, Chuck.

[Chuck House]

Craig,

Don Zingg's articles about early Speedsters are in Volume 20, Number 2 and Number 3. You can access them online through the website here:
https://porsche356-production-paperclip ... 1396814806 (go to page 12)
and here: https://porsche356-production-paperclip ... 1396814807 (go to page 18).

Here are a couple of photos of my mostly unrestored early Speedster (#160). You’ll notice the phillips on the door panels but the side curtain trim has slotted screws. The trim plates are bare aluminum, not chrome and would not be that difficult to make. Sorry if this is straying off topic too much on this thread but thought this would be helpful.

[Craig Richter]

Perfect! Thanks again, Chuck. And yes, to Bob DiCorpo, please indulge us a bit for the hi-jack. These topics do sometimes stray around, but that's how the good info finds a home.

[Jeffrey Gamble]

A little off topic and no joke, their is available Metric screw drivers
02cent.