My 'new longer-term project' ...

[murph2309]

Fantastic build.....what happened, what happened? I''d be seriously pi55ed off with that!

This reminds me of another build - More ST than the real STs....

http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums ... olive+tart

Such a quality project Andy - congrats.

R

[Lightweight_911]

Fantastic build.....what happened, what happened? I''d be seriously pi55ed off with that!

This reminds me of another build - More ST than the real STs....

http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums ... olive+tart

Such a quality project Andy - congrats.

R

Thanks Richard - I'm flattered to be mentioned in the same sentence - but Tom Callahan's car is at the pinnacle of early 911 build's as far as I'm concerned (closely followed by Mike Moore's).

[Darren65]

Andy,

I suspect you have resolved your seat issue (and you just continue to tease!), if not there is a very experienced car trimmer near me called Tony Coburn who's been around for decades and has worked on some very special machinery (including I'm told Nick Mason's 250GTO!).

He's also Porsche mad - Shout if you would like contact details.

Darren

[Lightweight_911]

So, on with the story of the seats ...

Since I'd run out of ideas/people/places in my attempts to source some original fabric, I decided to take a slightly different approach.

Several of the restored 904's that I'd checked out featured seats which had been re-upholstered in a blue fabric that looked as though it might be a little easier to track down, so I started searching again.

One of the excuses that the trimmer had given for adding the (unwanted) stitching was that the material had no 'give' - so the new fabric had to be able to 'stretch' a little.

Eventually I found some fabric which seemed to fit the bill so I sent off for some samples.

The material was sold specifically for upholstering hard-wearing areas (ideal) & was described as being 'water & stain repellant' - again, sounds good ...

... what I hadn't read in the small print was that it was targetted for the seating in residential care homes, etc where the occupants might suffer from incontinence !

Consequently, the fabric had an impervious (latex) backing to prevent moisture penetration.

However the (fabric) samples looked good & it turned out to be very easy to peel the backing off in one piece leaving a material which seemed to meet the requirements.

It wasn't available without the backing (& I couldn't find it anywhere else) so I ordered 3 metres.

The material arrived a few days later & I set about peeling off the latex backing - like with the sample, the backing came off in one sheet but .... left a white latex/glue residue over the entire surface.





I experimented with a small area & found that it could be scraped off (slowly) with my thumbnail without causing any damage, so I laid it out on the floor & set about removing the residue ...

- this was the result after about 4 hours (approx 1.5m x 1m):





The whole job took me ~12 hours !!!

I decided to give the trimmer another chance (he does some very impressive work on a whole range of classic sportscars, racers, custom 'rods' etc & has been in business in the same location for 30+ years) so took the seats & fabric to him.

This time he followed my instructions & the seats turned out 'OK' - I'm still not happy with the fabric & will still keep looking, but these won't look too out of place in the meantime :







Definitely an area to be revisited ...


.

[Mike]

great seats Andy, but you're not getting any younger, think you should have have kept that latex backing!
and seems to me that this seat is adjustable, though the wheels must play havoc with the headroom.....

[Lightweight_911]

Andy,

I suspect you have resolved your seat issue (and you just continue to tease!), if not there is a very experienced car trimmer near me called Tony Coburn who's been around for decades and has worked on some very special machinery (including I'm told Nick Mason's 250GTO!).

He's also Porsche mad - Shout if you would like contact details.

Darren

Sorry, Darren - I'd overlooked your suggestion.

I know of Tony & Julia Coburn from my long association with Alfas but I hadn't thought of approaching them & didn't realise Tony was a Porsche fan - thanks.

[Lightweight_911]

great seats Andy, but you're not getting any younger, think you should have have kept that latex backing!

Maybe I should have - it's a long drive down to Sicily !

[roy mawbey]

Andy,

What a car, I just love it

Roy

[Lightweight_911]

I had another piece of luck a few weeks ago in tracking down one more item on my 'wanted' list ...

I have been trying for the past 12 months or so to find out what rear reflectors were originally fitted to Factory 904 cars (sad or what ?) - each car that I'd looked at had a diiferent type fitted.

Finally, whilst checking out the 904's at the recent Rennsport Reunion I was able to find 3 cars - one of which was unrestored - all with the same version of rear reflector.

More searching turned up a matching NOS reflector in Germany & it arrived at the end of last week :

Here's an original :





& here's my NOS (but a bit dirty/scuffed - just what I wanted !) version:







- & with the rubber surround removed:





Just need to find another one now !

[Lightweight_911]

Andy,

What a car, I just love it

Roy

Thanks Roy.


M&W are able to supply suitable instruments to suit the customer's power train & personal preferences - but, again, I had a few 'ideas'.

Since I have quite a good relationship with the people at North Hollywood Speedo in the US, I asked them if they would make me a set of suitable gauges. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't want everything to look 'too new' so I asked Hartmut at NHS if they could use some secondhand parts in the gauges - e.g chrome bezels, needles, etc.

Understandably, companies who offer restoration/renovation/refurbishment services are reluctant to supply 'substandard' parts & consequently the gauges looked suitably excellent when they arrived.

Not to be outdone, I visited NHS when I was over in California & picked up a selection of old/used chrome bezels ... which, on my return, I swapped for the perfect, new chrome bezels which were on the gauges !

I also took the opportunity to set the odometer to 21,250 km - which I felt was the sort of distance an original 904 might have covered since 1964/'65 ...

[Darren65]

I have been trying for the past 12 months or so to find out what rear reflectors were originally fitted to Factory 904 cars - Just need to find another one now !

Hope it's doesn't take another 12 months!!! - can't wait that long to see the project finished.

Attention to detail is breath taking, simply outstanding work

Darren

[Mike]

Great stuff Andy, love the work with the dials and sourcing the reflector's, a real bonus finding that one,
best of luck for the other. It should be our mantra, 'the devils in the detail'.......

[JB-L]

Hats off to you Sir, I love your patinated approach! Well done that man!

Personally I hate seeing a car being built /restored beyond how it would have been in it's day, even better to build it how it would be if used.

Excellent.

[Darren65]

Bump - just in case you forgot you had a thread to update

[JB-L]

I know it's been the festive season, but surely there must be an update?