TAIL LIGHT - RUNNING. LIGHT

[James Davies]

Tom, none of the parts you show in the pictures are for Porsche. Other, later cars, likely.

[Donald Zingg]

Tom
Does this question pertain to your 1954 Cabriolet chassis #60428?
If so, your car originally had 4 beehive lights on the tail panel.
Stoddard NLA sells a reasonably close replacement for the original units - - - -
https://www.stoddard.com/nla63100800-64 ... 0-nla.html

Their listing does not mention a bulb configuration, but I think it has a dual pole socket.

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[Spencer Harris]

Thanks Spencer! That's a nice data point. Do the single pole light fixtures have deeper sockets than those on your '53?

Too late to check that now! I have three sets of beehive fixtures plus a few extras I accumulated along the way. When I tested the bulb holders the results were kind of spotty, so I replaced them all with new bulb holders after nickel plating the fixtures. I'll be using LED bulbs from Jules, so I don't think there will be a clearance issue. If needed, it's fairly simple to reposition the holder within the fixture.
viewtopic.php?p=398781#p398781

My '53 lenses were a mixture of pebbled lenses: one stamped "1", one stamped "2" and two with no numbers, so I have no confidence in the originality of the fixtures anyway.

[Tom Kaiser]

Donald

Thanks , i have all the parts including the correct numbered bezel . I only wanted to know more details i was not sure off.

What is still unclear to me :

Alan Hall stated that his bulbholders were non offset on a 53 !

when did they changed from BA 15 d to BAY 15 d (offset pins) ???

[Brett Johnson]

Those chassis numbers supplied by Porsche should be considered relative since the light units were a final assembly item.

Final assembly at Porsche Werk II ?
Didn't Reutter supply the P-car bodies with electrical components installed and hooked up?
And Porsche installed suspension, steering, brakes, wheels, transaxle, engine and related hardware - - -
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I look at two phases of 356 construction. I should probably call them pre-paint and post-paint. The only time that the chassis were in chassis number order was at the time the chassis was produced. After that and certainly after paint the numbers were not in order and as assembly and other finishing/testing steps were made, they get more and more out of order.

So a change made early in the manufacturing process can actually be in defined by the chassis number, while those later in the process chassis numbers become relative -- even though Porsche documentation often lists them -- as in the case of the light change mentioned. This is also true with the numbers on the chassis number list recored for year end vs. model end. Many times they are a random (often round) number in the range invoiced around that time. I have a detailed example I wrote about regarding 1964 calendar year end for 911s, but this isn't a 911 place.

[Jack Stenner]

Hi James. Do you happen to have a date for that photo? The car on the far left looks suspiciously like a custom "dark brown metallic"...the special order color of my car

[James Davies]

Jack, I'm pretty certain this is early 1954, as there's other color photos taken by the same photographer (I think) showing the 1954 interior mirror on coupes. The 1954 colors were introduced around ~Feb 1954 I believe, so coupes in the range ~51800 plus. Assuming both things,then this photo shows cars that are Graphite metallic and Turkish red (or possibly Pascha red).

[Jack Stenner]

Jack, I'm pretty certain this is early 1954, as there's other color photos taken by the same photographer (I think) showing the 1954 interior mirror on coupes. The 1954 colors were introduced around ~Feb 1954 I believe, so coupes in the range ~51800 plus. Assuming both things,then this photo shows cars that are Graphite metallic and Turkish red (or possibly Pascha red).

Ah, okay. Too good to be true! (my production completion date is 14 Dec.)
Thanks!
Jack

[Spencer Harris]

Jack, I'm pretty certain this is early 1954, as there's other color photos taken by the same photographer (I think) showing the 1954 interior mirror on coupes. The 1954 colors were introduced around ~Feb 1954 I believe, so coupes in the range ~51800 plus. Assuming both things,then this photo shows cars that are Graphite metallic and Turkish red (or possibly Pascha red).

Maybe a 1954 photo, but these must be MY53 coupes (note: no cutout for horn grills). The '55 parts manual shows grills were first installed in coupe no. 52030 ('54 coupe built in '54). According to Brett's chassis number tables, there were nearly 800 MY53 coupes built in CY54 up to chassis 52029, and the pictured cars were likely among them.
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