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 :)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
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
Sunday, May 1, 2011
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 :)
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 :)
Sunday, April 17, 2011
"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 :)
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 :)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
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 :)
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 :)
Monday, March 21, 2011
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 :)
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 :)
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