Targa Top Latch Tweekage

This is trivial, but maybe some might find it a morsel of help.....

Recently my driver's side top latch didn't want to let go when asked, it started with a little stick and a minor bop would make it let go.  Last week I tried to take the top off and spent 20 minutes trying to gently coerce the side that is spring loaded but moves very little to release.

So this weekend I took the latch off of the top and fixed it.  I had to remove the vinyl cover (the middle button piece will go back on, the latch handle "rosette" I happen to have accidentally ordered thinking it was something else so I can put a new one on (not sure those are reuseable).  I found that there is a little plunger that pushes the spring loaded latch by several mm when unlocking.  That plunger's tab had somehow bent back enough to not really be engaging anymore.

A little tweak with a small screwdriver, a little clean and some fresh lithium grease and it's working perfectly once again.

Sorry, I was bent on fixing this little thing and didn't snap any detail pictures of it like I normally do.

Painted Wheel Cap Crests

Yesterday I had a rare opportunity of doing whatever I wanted to with my day.  I started with cleaning Glenda....which turned into jacking her up to take off the wheels to clean and polish them.....which included cleaning the wheel wells, then the top and underside of the engine.  As I was cleaning the wheels I decided to finally do a little detail work on the center caps I'd pondered for a while.

Several hours and a little testors enamel later I have painted logos :-)

Seems I don't bother updating my blog when I'm out enjoying the subject of said blog :-)

It's been about 3 months since I buttoned her back up, since then I've put a little more than 1,000 miles on the [working] odometer.  This old girl never ever ceases to bring a smile to my face every single time I turn the key, wring her out to 6k+rpm (that happens a lot), walk away in a parking lot or in the garage.  We are quickly approaching this being the longest term [automotive] relationship I've ever had.

Gas Gauge:
When I started driving again my gas gauge wasn't working, I'd put the old, formerly working, one in my new tank early this year when I rebuilt the motor.  I took it out and cleaned the contacts.  After I re-installed it the damn thing would give me a hint as to the level in the tank but it was amid a constant "happy dance".  The needle would top out at the current level of fuel in the tank but it would constantly bounce between there and the bottom as the fluid sloshed in the tank.  I grew used to it and now have the backup of my actually working trip odometer, I make it a point to top off the tank every 200 miles even though it's only a bit more than half empty.  (Getting ~17-18mpg if anyone is interested).

Lo and Behold I noticed earlier this week the happy dance has stopped, I didn't do anything, it just kinda cured itself.  Note to self:  one more chink in the "these cars want to be driven" chain.

Butt Warmers:
Holy cow what a wonderful thing!  Granted it doesn't get very cold around here, and I coupled that addition with new rubber and some fiberglassed old holes which made my car actually cease the constant breeze inside.  These changes have made her perfectly comfortable with the top on and windows up all the way down into the 40's (instead of alternating sitting on the frozen hand).

Worry not, I always have bits of work to do and I'll pick back up when I feel like getting around to them.  Lately I've been basking in the glory of a very nice, constantly complimented noisy old beast that roars to life every time I ask and has a sumptuous place to enjoy inside while driving like an insane person.

For now my project efforts have reverted back to radio controlled flying objects (hence the Sobamaflyer)

Calm the inner Vampire

I have a long standing preference for uber-dark windows on my cars, I hadn't yet had these tinted because 1) the top is off 90% of the time so it seems a little silly and 2) I couldn't decide if they "belonged" on a classic car.

In the end I said the hell with it, I like them that way, it's my car and it will block at least some of the sun from roasting me.  I ultimately had to leave my car with my long-standing (8-10 cars so far) tint guru for 2 days to get the job done.  I did kid him that I assumed he was pulling a Ferris Beuller-esc parking garage attendant and keeping it to joy ride.  It took the poor guy 4 tries to do the back window but he ultimately got it and it turned out fantastic.

I had the windshield done in 35%, sides in 15% and the back in 5%.  Many won't like it, I think it's bad a$$.

On unrelated notes:
I've finished the back seats, installed my munchkin's rear 3-point belt, added in the fire extinguisher and this weekend cleaned and lubed up the steering U-Joints as a previous tightness in steering was getting worse (hoping that was it, I'll find out shortly).  Otherwise I've actually gotten to drive her several days in between some constant rain we have had here for months.  You may expect my blog posts to become more infrequent now that I can be out enjoying the subject of said blog :)

[insert angels] Aaaaahhhhhhhhh [/shut up angels]

I am officially tired of this project, thankfully it is 97% done and complete enough as of a few hours ago that I shall resume enjoying my road-going plaything and tackle that last 3% as I feel like it (since it's includes items not particularly necessary to show it off to the world).

I finished up the doors over the last 2 days, fiddly pains in the butt is an understatement but boy did it make a difference once there was no more yellow showing.

I gave her a bath after everything just a couple dribbles on the seats which I'll call a victory in a car like this, my top is also still need to be restored but that's going to have to wait for a while until my bank account recovers from the last 2 months of interior work.

I've spent the last 8 weeks, 2-3 nights/wk for 2-3 hours, at least one weekend day and usually a bit of both working on this.  I still have to install my Gate Shifter, finish covering 1 rear seat back and install those with my son's rear seatbelt and wire in the seat heaters.

I even sourced the silly little snaps on a tab that are supposed to hold the trunk carpet in place, it actually looks like it's supposed to in there now :).

And last but not least a little addition to the nose, it's purely for the delight of my 4 year old.  Don't worry, the proper badge is carefully stored for when the passing fancy goes away.

Sealed up like a virgin at a revival

I shall reiterate for the dozenth time that I'm no expert, and my car is never going to win any concours shows but little victories like this one really make me smile.

My top still probably (woefully) needs to be rebuilt, however I've added new seals to it's sides and tweaked the new seals on the car and it until I now have it sealed up fairly well.  There are still gaps between the top material and windshield header but I believe that's where Mr. Dan comes in at Cars Inc and my top becomes the 2nd item I farm out so it's done by a pro.

Last night I set about adjusting my windows and vent frames so that they met up with the sides and top better and after an hour of fiddling (with one side) I have what you see here.  Where once one could easily see daylight (let alone the water it let in if left out in the rain) in plenty of spots I now have a nice tight seal around 98% of the window.

I've been sent (2) .pdf documents/service bulletins as issued by Porsche regarding sealing and fitment and if anyone is in need of them feel free to drop me a line and I'll share them.  They were quite helpful in finding the adjustment points.

I popped a cap in dat a$$

so each and every tank of gas that I've put in this car so far has gone like this:

Pull up to the pump, remember to cut the non-power steered wheel all the way to the left, now feel your way up to the top of the wheel well, push the rubber boot around the fuel neck out of the way and tug down on the spring loaded door release.  This isn't entirely comfortable, nor necessarily clean.  Oh yeah, don't forget you are cranked all the way to the left, better not to hit the extremely flammable pumping device or bang up your pretty car on those cold, heartless bollards.

Yesterday that all changed.  I was able to buy a brand new cable and knob to put where once there was none at all to the left of the steering wheel.  Now problem one was that I couldn't get the damn wire to come out under the claw no matter how I tried.  So I took the cotter pin out of the claw creating problem 2, how to get that infernal little mother &&^%% thing back together.

Well a search produced this which was incredibly helpful and ultimately saved the day.  Although I feel like his diagram regarding the spring direction is backwards, I don't have quite as much spring as there once was....but it's operating so it's staying this way until it isn't.

The final challenge was the cable stay, I didn't have one, never got anyone to respond to a WTB and couldn't seem to track down a part no.  I'm sure it's out there, and if my solution fails I'll make more efforts to find it as this simple, pull a knob and the gas flap magically jumps up is quite intoxicating.

I ultimately turned to my model aircraft supplies, found what is actually a tiny prop saver which fit perfectly.

Wind in my hair.....not in my face

I was able to enlist the help of the resident hottie this morning to [re]install my windshield.  It was actually as incredibly easy to put in as it was to take it out.  Scary, because of the opportunity to turn a nice large piece of glass into a bucket full of trash in very short order, but ultimately easily accomplished.

After reading about it in several places (and waiting for said lovely Mrs.) I placed a nylon cord/rope (~1/8" thick) in the groove, starting in the middle at the bottom and ending at the top middle, overlapped by ~4".  I then went and grabbed the Astroglide.  My reading from more experienced than myself indicated either this or dish soap, my recent experience with soap getting rubber seals in place led me to feel it dried out too quickly, lets say experience with the other product leads me to feel there's a bit more "working time" available :)

So I lubed up the inner-most lip of the seal (which will slip over the body lip) and also the window channel and the body seam on the car.  We lined it up in the hole nice and even at which time I got in the car and started tugging on the cord slow and steady while she pushed in along where I was working.

I got one side down around the corner just at the dash and started back at the top working around to the same spot on the other side.  Then I carefully did along the dash, making sure the rubber wasn't left sitting on the flap of the dash but on the inside of the body seam.

Overall it worked incredibly easily, the seal just folds out replacing what was metal a moment ago with rubber.  I'm going to add a bit of sealant to the corners per recommendations I've read but will try to avoid using silicon if possible.

I remain convinced that there is close to nothing on these old girls that can't be done by a reasonably mechanically inclined home mechanic once you get the nerve up to try it for the first time.

Project status:
I've got to work on my targa top's fitment, new rubber on it as well as it's mating surfaces has it sitting kinda crazy and the window's & vents need to be aligned.  Once that's done I can assemble the door panels and put her back on the road while I tweak plenty of little odds and ends.

Maybe my tranny will make the needle rise

Another not so fun task done, not sure why I was procrastinating though as it took me all of 1/2 hour to do.  You may remember I replaced the inner cable (reusing the sheath) a while back and didn't make it a day before the new one snapped inside like the one before it.

So this time I'm trying replacing the whole thing as a unit, call me persistent and optimistic (not to mention my fresh looking speedometer should do something more than idly look pretty).

I tied a bit of cord around the end that attaches to the speedo, undid the connection at the transmission and gently worked it back until I saw string.  Then I reversed bringing the new cable & sheath back up through the tunnel to the frunk.

The PO seemed to have excess crammed into the tunnel right before the exit to the transmission and this is where the first cable snapped, it's not however where the new one I added broke.  So I have no idea at this point and I'm just trying to route it as straight and kink free as possible and hope it works this time.

New Carpet

Mmmm, Sliverknit :)

The center section isn't tacked down, I'm going to put some strategic velcro so it can be taken up for access to the shifter.  This stuff is light years more plush and nicer feeling than the domestic pile that was here before.

Incremental Post: Thoughts on seat recovering

I'm not quite ready for the "look at my awesome, cowhides" post yet but I'm learning some stuff I thought I'd pass along.  I used this post on Pelican as one jumping off point in tearing open my seats to recover them in leather.  I read through dozens but that one is pretty comprehensive and I don't plan to reiterate all of what's in there.

As is often the case with me, the 2nd time I do one of these tasks it becomes a LOT easier, quicker & the quality of work rises.  I did the driver's side first, it took me 2+ evenings to carefully disassemble that first one, taking lots of pictures, trying to note all the little nuances of the tucks, hogrings & tabs, not to mention I tried to remove the covers so they could be reused (they are in nice shape really).  I then spent 8-9 hours on a Saturday cleaning & painting the frame and placing the new leather cover on it.

I steamed all the foam (thankfully it's also in pretty nice shape) and covered the bolsters with new batting.  I found out after I'd already glued on the backrest insert leather to it's foam (first) that it's nearly impossible to get the hogrings on the bar directly under the headrest.... but I got it. I also feel like it's better not to glue the center sections to the foam (I didn't do much as I wanted them to breathe) as it seems to cause spots to bunch where you don't want them to and might otherwise even themselves out.

The result from the first seat is about 90% pleasing, it's far better than a botched job we actually paid for by an upholstery shop a while back.  There are some wrinkles in it, and you can see (just a little) the batting under the bolsters.  It does feel incredible to sit in.  I was told I could take the steamer to it and get some wrinkles out, a google search indicates that it just might work so I'm going to try it before I take that first seat back apart to redo it with my new-found experience.

I went at the passenger seat yesterday, I had the backrest apart and recovered in about 2 hours.  This time I did not use the "plastic bag trick".  My seats have a slicker covering on the backside of the headrest (which may not be on all?) but a bit of smoothing and rubbing and coaxing had the cover over it very nice and smooth without the plastic bag.  I attached the hogrings right under that headrest first, then worked my way down both side bolsters (no added batting this time) and it's tight and smooth and looks better than the first.  Finally I placed the new seat heater in the insert tacking it down in 1 spot only with glue, using no glue on the spot where your back touches this time, only on the back side, also attached with the outward bent staples.

I'll report more as I get further along with them.

The importance of good rubbers

As part of this overall refresh I've ordered lots of brand new weather seal/rubber.  First, WOW, what a difference some new, pliable, black seals make visually.  I've marveled many times over the years how it is seemingly insignificant things that detract from any finished product, they don't fully register on glancing inspection of a whole, but when they are done right said finished product just looks "right"  (Dirty door jambs or wheel wells in an otherwise clean car, a rough edge on a piece of home molding from a careless cut or an old blade, edging undone on a fresh mowed lawn, etc...).

I exhibited previously the shabby state mine were in so I won't clutter up with them, but they were dried out, chewed up, mis-matched and generally awful (lets not mention they didn't remotely keep wind, let alone water out of my car).

A few notes/things I've learned:

1)  You don't seem to need to coat an entire channel with weatherstrip adhesive to keep the rubber there, in fact it may be a really bad idea.  There were at least 2 seals that poured water all over the place when I took them off after the car had been sitting dry in the garage for a couple of weeks (at least).  (For the record I did this, glued what I had on 3 years ago so I'm not blaming a PO for it).

I glued each bit of rubber on the ends, the middle and at any bend points and it seems to be sitting there just fine.  I will of course gladly do one of my too frequent "I'm a dumb-ass posts" if future use proves this folly.  Remember to put a thin coat on both the rubber & the attachment surface, count to ten and then stick that sucker.

2)  Although door rubber is listed as "fits L or R" there does seem to be an upside down and a right side up.  Of course IIIII figured this out after I began gluing a piece on and it looked funny so I went to investigating.  There are drain holes (which face down ;-) ) and the profile of it stands proud of the body, grabbing up more toward the door, when it's installed correctly.





3)  Door topper/window squeegee rubber installation is just a mother-flocking biaaatch not matter how you do it.  I used liberal amounts of car wash soap and worked the first one up the channel from one end to the other and I believe I now know how a little lady Chihuahua in love w/ a Great Dane must feel.  The other I placed one side in the channel and pressed the rubber in 1/8" at a time for the length of it with a jewelers screwdriver, this took 3 sessions over a few hours with breaks so my hand locked in a Kung-Fu Grip could recover.  Sucks, get over it, get it done :)

I now have nice clean sealing surfaces that might actually say no to water and air, my door shuts with this wonderful new (to me) sound and the windows don't rattle around in it anymore.  It's the little things in life, don't judge me.

edit 2013-08-21:  After a few days of topless use I have discovered that the seal on the front of the targa bar needs to be glued down more.  I had it only on the corners but top on and off and highway speeds had it coming up.  I have glued it a few inches around each little screw indentation (so 4 or 5 spots along it's top length) and will note if this didn't fix the problem

Changing Sides

My little project is certainly coming together (a munchkin a few states away for a week seems to add a BUNCH of time to one's day).

I began this task having read it worked but somewhat unbelieving....Changing vinyl from black to light cream?  But the results are incredible!  One of the few new items that came in the pile of parts I now call a car were nice new Appbiz door panels (they have a really nice, proprietary backing material).  I must give credit, I spoke to Bob the owner of Appbiz at length before beginning this project as I planned to order my carpet from him, he was the one that identified what I had as a set of his panels.  He was also the one that suggested dying them instead of having me purchase a new set from him (at quite a bit more $) in the color I was changing to.

So I cleaned these things 3 times with liberal amounts of Simple Green, after they dried in the sun I cleaned them again twice with alcohol.  The first picture shows the first coat of SEM Vinyl Dye in "Santa-Fe" which by the chart I'd ordered with actual sprayed swatches matched the color of my Leather/Vinyl.  (Note:  I got the company that did my leather covers to send me 2 yards of matching vinyl, it takes REALLY close inspection to tell them apart...and they don't smell as awesome....but they match very well)

Here, I placed my freshly created rear side panels (more on those in a min) next to the not black anymore door panels for a comparison, not too shabby.








I temporarily hung the door panel on the door and placed my nice new door tops on top just because I couldn't take the suspense anymore.









Rear side panels:

In that same collection of parts I had a lonely, warped to all hell, rear side panel covered in tattered black vinyl.  When I tried to source new rear sides all I found avail looked just like that one and every one of them wanted $100-$150 for the set (which would have had to be recovered or dyed)


.  This spurned a defiant fit of ingenuity [you can read stubborn cheap-ass if you like].  So I went and got some 1/8" masonite, some batting, my handy new power stapler loaded w/ teensy 1/4" staples and my 3m-74 glue I've been using with nice success on the carpeting install.

I took off the black vinyl, found a layer of what I believe to be Camel or Tan vinyl under it, stripped that off, flattened out the sad little core as best I could and traced it out twice on the masonite.  I did make sure to keep the "shiny side" out the back hoping this side has the tiniest bit of moisture resistance and the "fuzzy side" would grip the glued material better.

Then I covered both of these with glued down batting, next came the vinyl.  I started in the middle top and bottom stretching hard and stapling them down.  Then 1 staple on each side in the same way, then I filled in starting in the middles and stretching as I went.  I finished up by gluing the edges outside the staples for just one added bit of finish.

Overall these were really easy and I probably have $50 in the pair of them.





Which leads me to B-Pillar covers:

Please recall what I had done to the back of my lovely German mistress in deference to lack of funds but refusing to be completely ratty.  I'd covered the entire exposed rear from B-pillar to shining B-pillar in black speaker box carpet that did a reasonable job of mimicking what was then on the floor.  To be honest I wasn't entirely sure just what was SUPPOSED to be on those ends until recently when I went asking for pictures from folks w/ less molested 911 Targas.

Well the answer was a strip of vinyl that matched whatever color the side panels were.  So I proceed to tape off the area all around, put a bit of my new favorite cushy material on and cover with fresh new vinyl.  Voila.

Dash as Eye Candy

I managed to put my newly fresh gauges in the dash yesterday as well as assembling and installing my new [to me] 930S steering wheel.  The dash isn't "done" but it is coming together nicely

Gauge Rehab, Check

So with a monsoon outside I decided to check off one of my projects that could be done inside the cool and dry a/c.  My gauges weren't awful but they were all "patina'd" to say the least.  Scratches, dirty cloudy insides, 2 of them had plexi faces where the others had glass and those were all scratched up.  Also my odometer hasn't worked as long as I've owned it and since replacing my gas tank my gas gauge shows full all the time.  Time for some of those pretty faces to be nicer to stare at and actually do their intended function.

I started with the Speedo/Odo.  Carefully took the bezel off as described in the tech articles and with lots of apprehension freed it's guts from the canister.


I found that I had going the [reportedly] most common failure of the Odo, the pot metal gear was spinning on the shaft instead of turning #s.  So I managed to slip it out, crimp it just a bit and put everything back together.  While I was at it I went ahead and reset the clock to the 1,200 miles that my engine rebuild has on it.  I have no clue how many miles are on the car, don't even have any real surety that the odo is the original (did they have 150mph speedos for the '75?) so the figure on the odo might as well have a correlation to SOMETHING.



After cleaning up my speedo, repainting the inside ring/glass holder and replacing the scratched plexi with a new glass face I reinstalled the original bezel, carefully reseating everything and using a small punch to bend back down that bezel.  Looked pretty good.  I'd bought new aluminum bezels from Rennline simply because they were purty intending to add them to all the newness.  The instructions have you simply place this lovely jewelry over the stock bezels attaching them with some thin double sided tape.  That didn't so much work for me, there's a big visual gap between the glass and the aluminum bezel that I knew was going to drive me bonkers.

I tested out and the new bezels would happily replace the stock black ones with a bit of engineering to attach them and be flush with the glass.  I went ahead and took the other 4 gauges fully apart, cleaned them all up, replaced the glass in the tach and then reassembled them attaching the new bezels to the cans with clear silicon.  They seem firmly [enough] attached, if they prove me wrong in time I'll up the ante on the gluing but the results are way too beautiful to go back to the original attachment method.



For the record my clock doesn't work, I took it apart as well but didn't really figure out why it does what it does.  The motor spins, it seems to tighten some gear till it does a little pop (that I've heard for years now) but doesn't move the mechanism.  I decided [for now] to let that one go as not really on my give a damn list. I'm excited about knowing how fast I'm going, how far I've traveled and that they all look like they belong in my quickly improving 911 again.