1974 Carrera Coupe - RHD, UK car

[Ferry Man]

The ducktail had evidently led an eventful life over the last 40 years.
There were many layers of paint.
In fact when Andy had helped me in bonding on the new frame he commented that there were several kilos to be saved by stripping the existing paint.
For a fibreglass tail it wasn’t as light as it once was....

[Ferry Man]

There's plenty of colours in the history of the ducktail.
Several whites, black, even a metallic blue in there.

[Ferry Man]

Once all the layers of paint were sanded off the lightweight fibreglass began to reveal its former self.
You can start to see the light through the matting.
More paint was removed after these shots, there was a lot of work needed to prep the tail.

[Ferry Man]

Chesterton's did observe that the ducktail didn't fit well. They felt it would require a bit of work to fit.

And so it proved to be.
Early911 toiled to make the lid fit.
They battled with the gaps, repaired the repairs and smoothed the surfaces for paint.

Nick apologised for how much I'd be billed.
I sympathised saying "it's taken a good few hours, eh?"
He replied wearily "it's taken a good few days"......

[Ferry Man]

The ducktail was sanded. Filled. And sanded. Filled. And sanded.

[Ferry Man]

And then sanded some more.

[Ferry Man]

But eventually it was perfect and ready for primer.

[Ferry Man]

[Ferry Man]

Before we leave the ducktail for a while it's worth a few words about the badging on the rear of a 1974 Carrera.

[Ferry Man]

badging on the rear of a 1974 Carrera.

Where do we start?
Let’s just say that there’s much confusion over the placement and type of badging on the duck tail. And I believe many restorers get it wrong.

Most 1974 Carreras these days are fitted with ducktails and many of those are configured with a metal badge. I don't believe that to be correct.

Below is a nice car but the ducktail has a metal badge fitted.
It should be a decal.

[Ferry Man]

The reasons for the difficulty in knowing what is original are probably as follows.
The ducktail was only used on two models.
It featured on the 1973 RS – you probably knew that – and on the ’74 Carrera.

In both instances Porsche were coy about affixing metal badges, they used decals on the fibreglass and didn’t drill the lids.
Now, someone will come forward and tell me of an RS with a metal badge but – on the whole – the metal badges affixed from the reverse were used solely on the metal lids.

On the 1973 RS the placement of the badges is illustrated by this superbly restored UK car.
You’ll note the individual metal P O R S C H E letters are replaced with a sticker and the ‘Carrera RS’ nomenclature is placed on the underside of the duck, to the right hand side.

[Ferry Man]

But on the 1974 cars Porsche moved their name onto the reflector panel.
So no P O R S C H E graphics were required on the lid.

Also it’s worth mentioning that the ’74 Carrera was never called an ‘RS’.
In fact nothing enrages the RS purist quite like a ’74 car badged accordingly.

This car is incorrect, it shouldn't say 'RS' on the 1974 Carrera.
It should not have an offset RS decal on the underside of the spoiler.

[Ferry Man]

no P O R S C H E graphics were required on the lid.

It should not have an offset RS decal on the underside of the spoiler.

That left Porsche with just the simple tag line ‘Carrera’ to stick on the lid.
So they placed it in the middle, where it looks best. And on the fibreglass ducktails they used a decal.

This is correct:

[Ferry Man]

Another incorrect example:

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Also wrong (lacking any decal at all):