Gina Purcell
Oxford, UK
Model 911 SC
Year 1982
Acquired April 2014 Model 964 Carrera 4 Year 1989 Acquired September 2004
The primer is currently hardening on Steffi the SC.
The first part of the restoration process took place in a frenzy of activity from early November through to mid-december last year, reaching the planned drying hiatus during Christmas. While the ‘big’ stuff was completed, the ‘little’ stuff still continued to catch up – valances, bumpers and sill extensions still needed straightening, repairing, smoothing and priming. I decided to use this time to try and locate the rare brown headliner and matching vinyl dressing for the A and B pillars, despite Southbound Trimmers’ crushing bombshell that the headliner was no longer available when I ordered the carpet set from them.
I mentioned a ‘Plan B’ last month about the headliner. Riviera Autobody boss, Tyrone Fuller, felt confident that a result could be achieved by dye spraying a black headliner to try and emulate the original brown one, but I felt that would be too much of a compromise. Everything had to be OEM. I’m a persistent soul that rarely takes ‘no’ for an answer, so I set about contacting the Porsche world for help. Porsche product code 911 555 055 15 21S dark-brown headliner became my sole focus for a couple of weeks.
Initially, it was bad news. I had trimmers in the UK contacting specialist sources across Germany and America, but none was found. Eventually, I reached out to the DDK forum, and was surprised at how quickly my problem was solved! Take a bow, Garry Hall of Classic FX. He sourced a sample for me within days, so I drove down to Surrey with my sunroof headliner to see if it really did match. Bingo! The weight, colour and perforations were exactly to Porsche specification, so Classic FX got the job.
That only left the A and B pillar vinyl. Southbound’s Dave Nunn had previously shown me a sample of brown vinyl that might have been useable as a headliner, but recommended it was too thick and wouldn’t ‘hang’ correctly. However, on a return visit, it transpired it was exactly the correct spec vinyl in weight, grain and colour for trimming the pillars. I had my clean sweep of OEM interior materials! The various Porsche trimmers’ knowledge here in the UK is remarkable; that they can obtain the exact materials for my car, 36 years after they were manufactured in Germany, speaks volumes. I am deeply grateful to all!