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 :)