The Official 356Talk Forum

Can someone please inform what years Porsche installed the 2 and 4 cut out Seat pan bottoms?

There must be someone or some resource with this information....????

Are we talking about this stamping in the photo below? Is that a two cutout?

That would be the later two-hole pan. The early cars had 4 holes. Not sure of the cut-off dates.

Mike

anyone one with a photo of the early 4-hole seat pan? -- probably T-5 and earlier?

Mike Wilson wrote:That would be the later two-hole pan. The early cars had 4 holes. Not sure of the cut-off dates.

Mike

T2 356A and T5 356B are virtually the same. T6 ( from Sept 1961, 62 YM) are different and not interchangeable with T5 and earlier. Brad's picture is of T6 pans.
Just a side note. 911 and 912s through 1968 (SWB) have seat pans that look virtually identical to T6 356B/C pans but are a bit wider and the seat adjuster knobs don't screw on like the 356 ones.

I have been doing some further investigation on this and what I found on some cars is the 4 hole pans used in 1957 and the two hole pans used in 1959. That said I’m thinking that a transition would have occurred some time between. I have no data on the 1958 cars yet.

John Roidt wrote:I have been doing some further investigation on this and what I found on some cars is the 4 hole pans used in 1957 and the two hole pans used in 1959. That said I’m thinking that a transition would have occurred some time between. I have no data on the 1958 cars yet.

All seat pans (other than Speedsters) made before T2 cars were made out of wood. T2s were the first pans stamped out of steel. It has been my experience that the wooden seat bottoms are much sturdier and longer lasting than the T2 and T5 pans. T1 and earlier cars had "fat" seats and T2 and later had "thin" seats. T2 and T5 seat pans didn't get any paint on the inside of the pans, only on the outside. T6 pans got painted on both the inside and the outside. Care to guess which pans have lasted the longest? Now you know why it is tough to find T2/T5 seat pans and it is pretty easy to find T6 seat pans.

Regards

Jim

Thanks for the investigative work, Jim. Much appreciated!

Mike