License Plate Light and script

[Dr Oliver Strobel]

I think so, too. Thanks Vic.

[Spencer Harris]

I'm a little confused because I thought the whole time that my 50014 should not have a 1500 script. According to the Reutter certificate, it’s a DEC./1952. The Kardex shows any delivery date to MAHAG, Muenchen. So there must have been a 1500 script, right?

Does your rear center panel have holes for an engine script below the Porsche script?

Rear Badge.JPG (214.89 KiB) Viewed 1521 times

[Mark Todorovich]

I am going to hijack this a little my April 52 Seems to be very transitional. Body Bumper , bent window. the new wiring harness seems to be exact to the 51-52 schematic I have. Due to some small discrepancies I think it should be 52-53. The wiper activator is electric not the cable that is on later .
The reason i hijacked is that it seems on the earlier schematic the shinedown light is wired as a third brake light. In the later schematic it is a backup light with the switch being in the tunnel and activated by moving the shifter lever into reverse. On the earlier one was the lense on the shinedown light red?
PS I have the pewter Porsche script. It doesn't fit in the same holes so i haven't switched yet
Mark

pam52bday.JPG (2.38 MiB) Viewed 1506 times

[James Davies]

Mark, your car would not have had a 1500 script. Too early. All period photos of 1952 model year cars (and earlier) show no engine scripts.

And your license light should have a red lens and be wired as a brake light. It is not a 3rd brake light. It is the only brake light. Recall that the Hella rectangular lights are the rear running lights (surrounded by a reflector). The pointy round ones lights are single-pole and are turn signal blinkers (you have later SWF beehive lights installed in this location).

There is no white backup light on the 1950 to 1952 model year cars. Only with the introduction of the beehives did the cars get a white backup light.

And of course with the replacement of the rectangular Hella running lights (surrounded by a reflector) with the beehives, Porsche had to add a reflector to the back, hence the separate SWF reflectors mounted below the beehives on 1953+ cars.

All cars had electric wiper switches up through ~April 1954. The 1950-52 cars used a Bosch wiper motor, and the 1953 model year cars used an SWF wiper motor with completely new linkage, though again, electrically switched.

[Spencer Harris]

PS I have the pewter Porsche script. It doesn't fit in the same holes so i haven't switched yet

Early cars (coupes 5001-51585: 1950 through late 1953) would've had seven-pin hollow rivet Porsche insignias (illus no. 23). Later cars had the five-pin solid rivets with the spring bar and clips (illus no. 31) with the punched holes corresponding to the five solid rivets. When your car was repainted it's possible a five-pin insignia was installed with individual spring clips to secure the badge. It has always struck me that the hollow rivet insignias were a one-time-only install!

Hollow vs. Full Rivets - 55 Parts Manual.JPG (265.86 KiB) Viewed 1499 times

56 workshop Porsche insignia B29.jpg (141.97 KiB) Viewed 1499 times

[James Davies]

I'm a little confused because I thought the whole time that my 50014 should not have a 1500 script. According to the Reutter certificate, it’s a DEC./1952. The Kardex shows any delivery date to MAHAG, Muenchen. So there must have been a 1500 script, right?

Agree that your car might have had it. It's a bit fuzzy, because clearly there's no clean chassis-number-order answer.

11787 no
11809 1500 SUPER, but no PORSCHE (period photos)
11816 no
11822 no
11830 no
11832 no
11841 no
11872 no
11892 no
11958 no
11968 no
12004 yes
12006 no
12010 no
12026 no
12062 yes
12062 no
12071 yes
50001 no
50021 yes PORSCHE, 1500 SUPER
50038 yes PORSCHE, 1500 SUPER
50045 yes
50054 yes
50143 yes
50153 yes

[James Davies]

And I think the relevant variables might be:

- Kardex date. These are not chassis number order
- 1500 SUPER vs 1500. Perhaps Supers got them first.
- Typ 527 vs Typ 546? It seems that by the time 1500 scripts started appearing, they had already completely switched to Typ 546 motors
- Hoffman vs rest of world? Most of these stuff was initiated by Hoffman. He was the driving force.

[Mark Todorovich]

James , the bee hives on the 52 are stoddard reproductions. Below are the originals I have. Rechromed the rims , not sure whether the lenses came from 52 or speedster.

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EAA01A9F-619C-490F-BF5C-7C152EF90E90.jpeg (776.92 KiB) Viewed 1461 times

Any ideas for polishing the lenses?
Does anyone make a red lense for the shine down light?

[Matt Lantz]

11787 no
11809 1500 SUPER, but no PORSCHE (period photos)
11816 no
11822 no
11830 no
11832 no
11841 no
11872 no
11892 no
11958 no
11968 no
12004 yes
12006 no
12010 no
12026 no
12062 yes
12062 no
12071 yes
50001 no
50021 yes PORSCHE, 1500 SUPER
50038 yes PORSCHE, 1500 SUPER
50045 yes
50054 yes
50143 yes
50153 yes

Hi James, I have some updates for your list.

12005 = Yes (a friends car, currently has the 1500 script, no idea if it was added later but has one now)
12010 = Yes (this is my car and the holes for the 1500 script were filled in with body filler in 1998. I looked up in the panel and saw the filler coming through the body and opened them up again)

The person that filled the holes in my car 12010 also restored 12006, I would bet that car has its holes filled for the 1500 badge as well, just a guess though.

12005, 12006, 12010 were all US-delivered cars.

[Greg Newton]

I had always wondered when the Engine script started. I did once believe that it was the beginning of the Model 53 production, however it was evidently intermittent in period photos. Thank you James, that's a great little list of cars that do and don't have the script from your records.
50058 (January 14 of '53) has the 1500 engine script, although it was filled at some stage after it was converted to electric drive in 1957.