Re: [DML] Re: Prototype

["Donald L. Ekhoff" <ekhoff@xxxx>]

Dear David, or anyone:

I am going on ancient memory here, but I remember that temporary body 
stamping tooling was made from Kirksite metal for an initial run of 
Stainless sheetmetal parts. As I remember the story, there was a 
despirate need for outer sheetmetal for parading the cars out in the 
world and the production stamping tools were behind schedule. I think I 
remember the production dies coming from Porsche Works. I have a very 
early production car and have suspected it could have some of these 
Kirksite parts as the finish detail looks different and hand worked in 
places. I also seem to remember a reference stating that the Kirksite 
tools were made in the USA and the resultant parts were much better than 
expected, to the point that it was questioned if they could be made to 
last quite a long time. I seem to remember the statement that " if we 
had known how good the Kirksite tools were we could have saved the money 
of expensive production tooling until maybe 10,000 units." As remote as 
it likely is, could these temporary tools still exist? Did any of these 
parts end up in the production cars, or even lots of these parts? Could 
changeover in styling of the hoods equate to changeover in basic 
tooling? Could the original manufacturer of them tool up for left front 
fenders on an economic basis? Maybe a question for James Esprey to explore?

Thanks in advance for any info,
Don Ekhoff





David Teitelbaum wrote:

> These "black" cars where probably assembled and disassembled several
> times for the workforce to learn on and for the designers to check fit
> and clearances. I would guess that most of the cars where finally
> disassembled and the parts were used in the first production cars.
> That is except for the plastic (or fiberglass?) body panels. Those
> panels seem to have disappeared into history. It would be great if
> someone could find a set of them!!!!!! Other parts that have
> disappeared forever are the foam blocks and other protective shipping
> that was put on the cars when they where sent to America. In that
> sense you could say the first cars were prototypes, they have the
> parts from the first 500 in them! IMHO that won't make them any more
> valuable, any car with a vin after 500 is a production car. Now even
> saying that, many of the early cars were never intended for the
> public. Just look at the vin chronology and you will see many cars
> were set aside for engineering, sales, promotion, executives, etc. You
> could argue that a particular car that was built for a particular
> person (especially a high profile person) may be worth more that one
> made for sale to the general public.
> David Teitelbaum
> vin 10757