T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

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Jim Hohensee
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#16 Post by Jim Hohensee »

Joris, On my 1956 car it does have the brace on the battery floor. Another point of information is the bumper bracket holes are 30mm x 55mm on the driver side and 35mm x 60mm on the passenger side. This is exactly the same as on my 1958 coupe. Both cars definitely have original noses and neither show any evidence of any crash damage. Hope this helps.

Jim

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Joris Koning
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#17 Post by Joris Koning »

James Davies wrote:Joris, do you have a chassis number range during which this change took place? It may be a wide range, but it would be useful to state, so that people with cars within this chassis number range could weigh in.
Hi James, if #55942 indeed has an original front clip the change would be somewhere between #55820 - #55942
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Joris Koning
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#18 Post by Joris Koning »

Hi John, the T1's also had the brace. The floor was just different along with some other details. Justin has a fantastic thread on the T1/T2 changes on his site. High quality discussion. Thanks for measuring your bumper bracket holes. Sadly the ones on #5820 were enlarged at one point in time.

Picture of the early T1 battery box bottom with the drains. I believe most only had one drain, as such the Simonsen panel would have to be modified.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXilNwyBR3f ... n356panels
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Gary Thies
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#19 Post by Gary Thies »

Joris,
I have coupe number 55547, 1/56 production date, and has the short (60mm) distance you mentioned between the headlight and signal light....

Gary Thies
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Joris Koning
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#20 Post by Joris Koning »

Hi Gary,

Thanks for posting. Would you mind measuring the size of the bumper brackets holes in both you front and rear clip?

Thanks,

Joris
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David Nicholls
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#21 Post by David Nicholls »

Hello Joris

Hope this helps, #56209 April 1956 Coupe. Original nose.
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Joris Koning
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#22 Post by Joris Koning »

Thanks David, very interesting. Your car appears to have the earlier type location extending the range in April of '56. This would mean that #55492 had its nose changed which is entirely possible.
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#23 Post by Lutz Mueller »

Hi, I did some researching years ago on this topc since my car #56400 was involved in an accident and had a missing front clip. During Research I found another car very close to mine #56509 which has the turn Signal in the upper Position. This would move the change to mid May '56.

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James Davies
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#24 Post by James Davies »

Coupe 56583 also has the signal lights close to headlights.
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Joris Koning
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#25 Post by Joris Koning »

Thanks for posting James and Lutz. Two more data points. Jon who is doing the metal work on my '56 has changed the location of the openings to make the new RD front clip more correct. he is also adding the "chin detail"

While in the US last week for the LA shows a friend and I discussed the grill location. Key question is what made Porsche change the location? Anybody out there have a hypothesis? We ran through several but failed to come to a conclusion
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#26 Post by James Davies »

Glad to hear the RD clip is working for you Joris!

I believe the turn signal lights (and horn grills) were lowered when the US cars got the overrider bars in mid-1956? The bars were at the same height as the original location of the signal lights, so this was a visibility issue.

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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#27 Post by Mike DeJonge »

bought at LA swap meet early T1 and T2 partial nose parts
clearly visible are 4 differences
1 light location versus height, vertically
2. hole size for light
3.bolt hole locations for mounting light bezel
4. location of light horizontaly, early one is slightly inboard more
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Joris Koning
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#28 Post by Joris Koning »

Just a quick update. I think the difference between the early and late clips has been fairly well established now. Would still be interesting to see if we can get a better idea f the cut-off point.

Jon @ the metal surgeon has gone ahead and modified the new nose clip we got from RD. A lot of work but the end result is worth it. Still hope that one day one of the vendors will step up and offer early style noses.
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James Davies
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#29 Post by James Davies »

These early style noses were used from Oct 1952 through ~mid-1956. Coupe 56583 above is almost exactly half way through 1956 model year production, so I suspect about 35% of the 1956 calendar year cars had this nose. That means the total number of cars with this nose was:

1952 401
1953 1997
1954 2303
1955 2909
1956 4504*0.35

That's approximately 9200 Porsches with this nose!

Would be nice if this was reproduced, including the extended "chin" in the center (see photo below for the difference).
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James Davies
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Re: T0/1 versus T2 front clip documentation thread

#30 Post by James Davies »

There are 3 variants of this nose as far as I'm aware. All have the same shape. The only difference is the location of the turn signals and whether there are horn grills or not.

Oct-Nov 1952 (coupes 11779 to ~11958 at the most)
- inset turn signals of the same type and location as used earlier in 1952
- turn signals are small and pointy SWF units, not the beehives
- ignore the color of the turn signals below. The photo depicts a Swiss car (AMAG importer), and all these came with amber front lenses instead of the clear that the rest of the world got.
- chin
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 5.26.02 PM copy.png
Nov 1952 through May 1954 (at least coupes 11958 to 12083, 50001 to 52029
- clear beehives very slightly inset from headlight centerline
- same chin
1955 Monte Carlo 151 Marchal.jpg
May 1954 through ~May 1956 (coupes 52030 through at least 56583)
- same as the previous nose but with horn grills and frosted beehives
- still has chin
1956 Cumberland MD.png

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