Oil Lines and Side Skirts

I posted a few weeks ago that I'd swapped out an oil line I found to be woefully sub-par (read: ready to pour hot oil all over my passenger rear wheel at any second). That repair had the added bonus of fixing an oil leak I've had ever since putting synthetic in last year. It was dropping a quart about every 700-800 miles, so not bad, but making things all oogy all over the back of my car, garage and the cars behind me (discovered that gem after my lovely wife followed me home one afternoon and I had to clean it all off the car I'd just cleaned that morning).

This left me deciding to rectify a POGE (Previous Owner Grand Engineering) "fix". My oil lines have so far been affixed to the car by super technical nylon fastening devices (otherwise known as Zip Ties). While this has proven to be functional for [at least] several thousand miles it's ugly, bobo and certainly not as Dr. Porsche ever intended one of his glorious creations to be seen wearing. I ordered the proper winged holders that are supposed to be there and also mounted the side skirts and rubber trim. (one of these days I'll get enough done that painting those still primered pieces become a priority).

Maybe now my fellow Southerners will stop assuming those pretty circles in front of the rear wheels are where the exhaust comes out. (I can't tell you how many time's I've been asked that)

Raising the next generation of the obsessed

Lesson #5,283

Don't ever replace (1) set of wheel bearings

.....she's not howling anymore at 75mph after doing the other side :)

Yeah Baby! Heated winter driving!!!

I still have some adjustments and work to do to this little project but I'm happy to report there little puffs of warm air coming out around my knees. I do live in way South Alabama where admittedly we don't have much of a cold problem but there were plenty of days last winter where just a tiny bit of warmth to cut the chill or defog the windshield would have been appreciated.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/595880-poormans-heat-exchanger.html I give all credit for this idea to that Pelicanite who exhibited his own setup using headers like mine with just the same goal. It's simple and not particularly pretty but sometimes the best ideas are :)

Come on cold weather.

It's a wonder these old things keep going down the road

I discovered this a few weeks ago while trying to isolate an annoying little leak. Call it a lack of attention or blissful ignorance that I've tinkered with this thing for a year and a half without noticing it, and it wasn't even moist but after I found it, coupled with my leak being at one end of the line it was time for a shiny new one.

Not nearly as much oil poured out as I thought would and the swap was easy. I did find my thermostat end was a tad "buggered" making me think that's the leak source and still needing to find a final solution. Oddly it came "buggered" as I've [obviously] not touched that line in my ownership but wasn't leaking till I made the mistake of running synthetic oil through about 6 months ago.

New line, including a proper Porsche part that holds the oil lines instead of a big washer and zip ties. One of these days I'll make a post exhibiting all the "creative solutions" found so far, but I'm hesitant to exhibit those as I feel like they speak as much about my lack of pre-inspection as their poor stewardship.

The continued saga of the Porsche Targa Top

If you have been following this, or read from the beginning you will have noted my obsession/location of/tinkering with a Saratoga Top

Not a small amount of this obsession spurred from acquiring my car with a Saratoga Top that never made it home as it failed and sailed off into the wild blue yonder, on the highway while my big collection of parts [later known as Glenda] was riding on a trailer to Alabama.

Well, fast-forward not quite a year after obtaining the object of my desire and I've gone and sold it. I best equate this experience to "the hot chick", you saw her from afar, man she was pretty, wouldn't it be nice to spend some time with her! So by some twist of fate you landed that beauty, but after living with her for a little while you started to see the realities of day to day life with her and the picture loses some gloss......you get the story.

A Saratoga Top is made of lightly tinted Lexan, this is particularly nice to look out of on a moonlit night (one that for some unknown reason you didn't want the top off for) but try hoping it gives you any respite from 100°+ Gulf Coastal summer sun and you might as well expect a 3 year old not to argue with you.

Secondly there's a storage issue, when I first got it I was proud to announce that "I have a '75, without a brake booster, a hardtop was designed to fit in the trunk" Well, in theory this is correct, in practice it's not so great. It JUST fits, it rests uncomfortably on top of the battery, and has a tenancy to wiggle into just the wrong place to want to unlatch the hood. The alternative is that it "will" fit behind the seats, problem here is that just like the trunk it just barely sits there, it rubs on the top corners and against the rear seatbacks (laying down). I lived in regular fear of harming this pretty thing irreparably.

All this combined to leave me less than thrilled with it as a useable item, the only time I loved it was when my car was sitting parked and I could stare at how pretty it was. My 911 is not a showpiece, it's not a garage queen, I don't drive it daily, but I do drive it once or twice a week and my ultimate (and likely years long) goal is that it functions as a real car. Combine this with the fact that I tend to run on limited funds (unfortunately) and thus am not really in a position to hang something as nice (and valuable) like this on a wall, buy an additional top, and use it as an occasional change.

So I placed an ad on Pelican and within 30 minutes it was sold to a new admirer (there are a lot of admirers of this hot chick, I could probably have fetched 3 times more on evil-bay but I'm not that kinda guy). And I was able to procure a fairly nice example of the folding top Porsche found to be the best solution for about 30 years. It needs a little adjustment (what on my car doesn't) but so far it may not be quite as gorgeous but it's not nearly as demanding of my space and stress level and been a little easier to live with ;)

I so love my 911

We have had a very odd string of humidity & rain free [August] days down here on the Gulf Coast. I've been able to drive my toy to work 3 days in a row and not bother to put the top on it, worry it's going to get soaked and enjoy the drive without baking.

I came to my senses from my last post in that Glenda has a safe [fairly] permanent spot in the garage :D

The temptations we face

So I was taking my son for a haircut early this Saturday morning when what do I see by the side of the road? A 3.2 Carrera sitting in a popular spot for sell it yourselfers in a drug store parking lot. I stopped to take a peek around it and headed home. Half way there my curiosity got the better of me, I turned around and went back to call the owner. I've mentioned before I live in a small southern town, 911's are a very rare site and finding one for sale by the side of the road is quite odd.

Now in the interest of transparency I couldn't help but think for at least a few moments...."Hmm, G50, maybe it's A/C works (HA!), EFI"..... All for a few grand more than what mine might be worth. Then cooler heads and a wife's one raised eyebrow prevailed. By the time the owner returned my call I quickly thanked him for calling me back, apologized for wasting his time and hopes and explained exactly the above statement telling him I had a beloved '75.

That led to a chat for a few minutes (as Porsche owners are apt to do) where I eventually asked if he had the time and inclination I'd love to take his car for for a spin, I'd happily toss him my keys for a 5-10 minute experience in a car different from my own just to know what it felt like. He acted quite willing to acquiesce but we shall see.

I've put back away any thought of obtaining that particular car (several good reasons) but I'll report back if I actually do get the chance to hang out with the current owner and give it a spin.

dammit all to hell

I gleefully reported a while back about once again knowing how fast I was going. Apparently that was short lived. Driving to work the other day one second I was doing...umm the legal speed limit....and the next I was doing nothing.

I know why this is, I tried the cheaper, easier fix which apparently was also tried by the previous owner with the same results. I replaced only the cable, and not a whole cable & sheath. I noted when I installed it that the cable seemed a little bit long, I felt like I had to shove the last 5-6" into the sheath. I was afraid this would mean it would cause a problem and after a few hundred miles the new cable snapped :(

That's what I get for trying to do the easy(er) fix. Back to the drawing board.

Sorry Ossifer My old a$$ car's speedo doesn't work

Well, I can't use that one anymore :) I'd bought a replacement cable a while back but had yet to perform the contortions to replace it. As often happens once I was in there it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared.

On the passenger side nose of the tranny is a nut capturing the cable end. I got it loose in about 1 minute (after finding the damn thing and clearing the crud out of my eyes). Bend it down and pull and I come back with about 2" of cable after the pronged end, now we know why the speedo was dead. Switch to the front of the car and pull the rest of the cable out.

I made sure to run my hands through a bit of grease while threading the cable back in, re-tightened that bolt and attach the speedo end. Not more than 20 minutes later I've got a working indication of speed again.

I should note that I chose to leave the existing sheath in the car and thread in a new cable. Replacing the whole unit is not only a bit more $ but can be much more involved if it's never been out of the car. Time will tell if this was better or not, it was obvious that the cable & sheath had been replaced in the past and I wonder what caused it to fail....we shall see.

For now, "Yes officer, I was mildy ignoring the speed limit :)

Must....Have.....A....C....

So can't bring myself to leave my car sitting in the garage on the days where I'm not family commuting, even when the steam shower we Gulf Coast, Alabamians call air is reaching close to 100°. I'll make it through this summer, maybe even the next, but certainly see this old girl upgraded with at least a modicum of puffing cool air in the not so distant future.

On another note:

Must pay closer heed to the weatherman, I chose to blatantly ignore him last Friday and paid dearly for it. I had to brave 4 torrential downpours on the way home and discovered along the way my car is not the least bit water resistant & doesn't handle nearly as sure-footedly in the really wet stuff. I got her safely back to her garage, opened up everything and set a fan in there the rest of the day. Poor thing.

Happy 1st Anniversary Glenda

A year ago give or take a few days I carted home my very first 911, a 30 year dream car. I've screwed some things up, I've made a LOT of things a lot better, I've learned quite a bit. I'm sure I've got issues coming up to deal with and I still have what could amount to years of work to do on this car, but that's just fine.

At last count I've had 22± cars since turning 15, 4 of those have been pure toys (much like Glenda) Some have been (for a non-baller) fairly high performance. Out of that there have been exactly 3 that I haven't quickly worn off their "New Toy" draw. My beautiful 911 is proving to be everything I wanted out of it, it has style in spades, it's far from slow (there is after all a much MUCH younger sister for her in the garage wearing the same badge for comparison). I'm hoping to maintain a long-term relationship with her and not repeat 2 mistakes of the past (the rest have been merely cars, some are truly mistresses).

She needs a little paintwork and needs a few minor things fixed (although nothing that's been stopping me from enjoying my 70 mile commute once or twice a week) but damn if I still don't stop and stare for a couple seconds each time I go out to the garage/parking lot/etc...

The world is a funky and sometimes frustrating place, it's nice to enjoy some of the good things in life where you can find them :)

And I polished off (for the moment) the interior refurb

I got around to the passenger door, an overdue interior detail and cleaned up some of my electronics going on in the dash this weekend. The inside of my car is turning into a much nicer place to spend time. Even the lovely Mrs. was rather impressed with how it's looking :)

Next up we fix an oil cooler line drip and replace that long dead speedo cable

A major interior accomplishment

When I first got this car it came with a brand spanking new set of door panels. Unfortunately, it only came with 1 door handle/pull and door pockets that looked like hell (they are essentially made of some heavy duty cardboard). I thought, "no problem, those RS door panels are so cool". Well, it took all of a few weeks to figure out for a street driven toy those are a pain in the ass!

Fast forward about a year and today I've accomplished another Glenda Milestone :) (although I still have the passenger door to do). My interior is slowly beginning to not feel like such a parted out, junky car, place to drive.

OK, so I'll probably never make this into a Concours Show winner (I'll NEVER make this....) Given that, and my general shoestring budget I'm rather pleased with myself on my latest addition. I started out by whacking off the forward portions of the badly deformed pockets. Then I wet them down, re-forming them into a closer facsimile of their original shape with heavy weights and left them in the sun to dry. I cut up parts of an old floor mat (matched the carpet on the pocket) and glued it on the new, exposed front part.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty nice looking, and if it bugs me a year from now like the plain, nothing door panels did I'll nut-up and pay the $100-200 it will cost me for a decent, better pair. It's a LOT nicer to have a handle to pull and an armrest to put my arm on, and now my interior doesn't feel so much like a fake, wanna-be race car.

For the cause of documentation I should note that creating a 911's "door panel" from basically scratch is no easy (or cheap) task. Given that I am cheap/broke most of the time I couldn't bring myself to pay retail new prices for the dozens of small parts required to accomplish this. For example, just the screws, mounting blocks, hinges and door pull rods can easily add up to about $130. I won't even get into the prices of trying to buy door pockets, armrest lids or pull handles new. As it was I only sourced a set of handles & pocket lids and spent over $100 (I did get very nice examples and had been patiently looking so I got them for less than I'd seen others). So this wound up being a very patience trying task, including some on-line pleading (for the mounting hardware) and long term part gathering.

The addition of knee pads (finally) and an ash tray doesn't hurt at all either, that's been a sorer spot for me than anything else to look at for a long while now (just looked awful having the unfinished metal hanging there under the dash).

Note to self

Stop posting questions on Pelican before you run through all the usual suspects all by yourself, you sound like an idiot.

This most often happens during the week while Glenda sits tucked into the garage and I find myself pondering why the latest crazy abnormality is happening. Generally ends up being something simple.

Most recently a shudder I thought was a botched rear alignment was actually a barely loose spark plug, not bad enough to cause big issues but asking her for power above 3k rpm was just rough. My home alignment was surprisingly close by the way (considering my undoubtedly worn rubber bushings can't be keeping things in military spec :)

"New" Wheels

Before:

After:

I also managed to finally take off the front hub and replace a buggered lugnut so now there are 5 holding the wheel on instead of 4 :)

Ooooo, Porsche Nirvana

Thanks to Pelicanparts I have found something I've been missing for the better part of 10 years since moving to Alabama (and building houses, and starting a family and....). I used to be very active in VW clubs once upon a time and the camaraderie and the activities (not to mention hands-on help for these old cars) is a wonderful part of the vintage car equation.

From this thread: I was invited to join the Magnolia Region PCA at an American Cancer Society charity event. This resulted in a whole host of firsts for me. I spent the last week or 2 on little fixes and detailing, I couldn't introduce Glenda to new folks at less than her, admittedly far shy of perfect, best.

I started out early on the quiet Saturday morning, a touch of fog in the cool air and a blast down the highway for about 50 miles to Ocean Springs, MS.

There, I met up with a contingent of folks ready for a good day. I was the only one without water cooling my engine, but I didn't hold that against them :). We proceeded up the highway in a 8 or 9 car high speed parade. We wound up in Carriere, MS, just a bit north of New Orleans. The event was held in the expansive yard of it's gracious host, there were about 50 cars sitting in the beautiful sunshine under the massive old Oak Trees, most of them w/ a Porsche Crest but a healthy contingent of some really cool iron (Aluminum, Carbon Fiber, Etc).

As you can see, I was in car heaven. I missed having my little man there but 2.5 hours (one way) in the noisy, open topped old car I knew would be too much for him to handle.

Observations:

My car is certainly roadworthy for more than 30 miles from home, although I highlighted several new issues (an oil leak that's getting worse & a new vibration that may or may not have come from my work on the front hub last week). I also found that I could keep up with faster cars just fine, I need to trust old Glenda a bit more :)

6 Cylinders are better than 5

Stupid Admission of the day:

I tackled my first valve adjustment on the 911 this weekend, it resulted in cursing, hacked up fingers and was not wholly the most pleasant thing I've done on this car. Half way through I was really starting to consider taking the engine out to do the job properly.

But....I got it done, refilled her with the slick stuff and started up. Took my lovely wife out to dinner in it and something was just not right. This was aggravating on several levels, the least of which was that something that should have improved what was running fairly well had somehow turned worse. I couldn't get the car to rev past 3500rpm w/o stuttering and arguing with me and even cruising at 2500 there was hesitation and stumbling.

So laying awake later that night I wondered to myself "did I mix up a plug wire"? When I got up the next morning I opened up the boot and the first thing I see is the wire for #1 laying half out of the recess....DAMMMIIIITTTT!! Re-affix that one and test the other 5 and magically my little beast is back to smoothly snarling, may be a little smoother with more torque and may be in my head from the hassle but count one more experience under my belt :)

Porsche Pics

Yes, I love the melodious symphony a few feet behind my head, but sometimes you want a little Dave Matthews to accompany a the Flat-6 Percussion Section back there.

My car came to me with nothing in the audio dept. [Obama] Let me be clear...[/obama] What I've added here isn't top of the line, it's not ground breaking, it's going to shake the car apart with some massive bass beat....(I'll stop now). But the cool part is that (1) it is solid state (so it doesn't care that my car rides inches above the pavement and transmits each pebble to your ass) (2) If you squint, it looks at first glance like an old 2-knob radio (my attempt at keeping my classic car's vintage flair) (3) It was pretty darn cheap and now I have a bit of tunes while sitting in traffic or blasting down the highway (yes, I can actually hear it over the Flowmaster).

For anyone that cares, it's a Boss 755DBI, it's got bluetooth (streams music wonderfully from my phone), usb input and has an iPod dock. I don't even have an AM/FM antenna hooked to it at the moment.

Saratoga Top Tech

I'm following up with my solutions for mounting my cool new top to my car....

This first picture shows the top with the roller-style latches it came with, sitting next to the front bar from the earlier style top with it's latches:



I quickly ditched plan A of retrofitting my older style latches (and I was still worried about separation. Taking a cue from a couple of the new fiberglass top's mounting systems I decided to mount from the front aligmnent pin locations.





So I drilled through the Lexan and now have a carriage bolt snugged up on the top threaded through the captured bolt in the fiberglass support. It's not exactly elegant (but neither is the rest of my poor franken-Porsche) and it seems to be working very well.





Mounted in the car, I'll try to find something a little nicer, like a knob


Gratuitous shots on the test run:


So far I've put about 50 miles on the car w/ the top in place, a good portion of that was on the highway between 70 and 80mph. There is no lift or gap at the front whatsoever (and I have and old, much less than perfect front seal. There is wind noise but I have no frame of reference to know if it's more or less than a good (or bad) folding top.

So, while I reserve the right to update, revise or cry, in the future I'm hoping maybe I've posed a possible solution for some to make some of these aging, cool accessories continue to be functional.

The whole little family went out for dinner in the 911 this weekend, it was a crystal clear, starry night. I'm not sure why but my wife mentioned later the same thing I was thinking, the view out the top is just plain cool! No, it's not any different than having the top off completely but in early January when it's 40° outside and she would have otherwise been left in the garage, it's an oh so cool addition.

Santa was Guuuud to Glenda

Time for a little update. I got a new job (woo hoo, thank god!) so I haven't done a whole lot more than drive the toy, but I have gotten to do that at least once a week lately which is fun.

So new additions, she now wears a shiny new pair of mirrors and a hood badge from family. I had a little bonus $ so I gave her a radio & speakers (there's a future post on it's own as I'm trying to accomplish something cool and re-do my doors). And the wonderful Mrs, she granted Glenda [da ta da daaa] TOP $$$$! Finally no more 35° mornings in the open air, or forced to leave it in the garage if there is the slightest chance of rain.

What I got was a vintage Saratoga Top, a Lexan replacement Targa top for 911s that was manufactured by the Saratoga company in the 70s and 80s. Anyone reading from the start might remember I was all excited that my car had one of these on it when I agreed to buy it, but I lost it somewhere in New Jersey. Being a glutton for punishment and just plain digging this funky accessory I was jumping out of my seat when I came across a slightly mis-labeled Craigslist ad, the seller didn't really know what this was. We struck a deal and I proceeded to wait about a month and still couldn't get him to take the time to ship it to me (he didn't yet have funds so I was perturbed, not worried). I posted for help on the 911 forum and within a day a generous fellow 911 owner had it on the way to me.

The top itself is in great shape! I got an amazing, steal of a deal. It's seals look brand new, came w/ a really cool felt lined storage bag, and even little suction cupped sun-blockers. The story is some friend had his 911 stolen in Mexico many years ago and somehow this ended up in his attic and now he wanted rid of it.

The challenge: It came off an '87 and has a Saratoga's version of roller latches, I need it to fit on my '75. I do have a front bar w/ latches from an earlier Saratoga. At this point my plan is to drill through the top Lexan, replacing the front locating pins with bolts anchored from the top, bolted under the header bar (much like the couple of new FG offerings around mount). It won't be quite as smooth and pretty but hopefully will be solid and avoid this one delaminating like they seem to want to do.

I will followup in the coming posts with 1) Saratoga Top Installation 2) Radio Install and 3) Door Panel refurbishment.