DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Any updates on if she's road worthy yet.......

A quick update.

The car is with my man Johnny who is preparing parts of the shell that I'd like finished to a better standard. I'll take some pics on Wednesday when I'm up to see him. Most of the shell has already been done to a very high standard but the floors need protective painting inside and out and there is some work to be done around the rear torsion bars where previous owners have jacked the car up - a tad messy - pics will follow.

So I've taken to doing some other areas while the car isn't with me. Firstly the dash top. I couldn't live with the cracked speaker grille so though I'd strip it in preparation recovering it. I'm only going to recover the part that has the speaker grille - nothing wrong with the rest of it.


Taking it apart was straightforwards but I was amazed at the condition of the scrim foam underneath and managed to get it apart in one piece - tempted to reuse this but is very discoloured where exposed to the speaker grille holes. Also took my time and managed not to break any of the metal tabs. No just need to get some vinyl from Garry to make good.



Also going to restore the gauges myself - had the last set done by Palo Alto and came back better than new but think I can get good results myself. Time will tell......

Would be interested to know the process you take to restore your gauges, would like to attempt to have a go at restoring my own gauges, my preference would be a light restoration not a gleaming brand new look....

looking forward to more updates

Mark

MarkIII wrote:Would be interested to know the process you take to restore your gauges, would like to attempt to have a go at restoring my own gauges, my preference would be a light restoration not a gleaming brand new look....

looking forward to more updates

Mark

I'm after the same look - stay posted...

MarkIII wrote:Would be interested to know the process you take to restore your gauges, would like to attempt to have a go at restoring my own gauges, my preference would be a light restoration not a gleaming brand new look....

looking forward to more updates

Mark

I have restored my gauges myself also - and with great effect.

Essentially, so long as the guage face itself does not require painting I found you get a significant improvement with DIY and improvisation.

Mine had intact but blemished chrome, rusty black inner rings and filthy glass. A couple of the indicator tell tales had yellowed and on the fuel / oil gauge the generator and handbrake warning lights had cracked as per the photo..



Taking them apart is simple but time consuming - there is a good write up on pelican about this http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticle ... repair.htm. Essentially it involves careful prising of the outer ring until just enough clearance exists for this to be removed then everything comes apart.

I cleaned the glass, sanded down the matt black inner bezels and re painted then with matt black paint and gently dusted the instrument faces - they were remarkably well preserved. I used a little solvent on the needle to take a few marks off. The coloured inserts for the indicator tell tales and other warning lights were a little more tricky. I had been in touch with some of the usual restorers to see if they could source bits but in the end found some theatre lighting gels in the correct colour for the indicators and some frosted perspex (from some of the wife's filing boxes) to make new filters for the handbrake and generator lights...





Sorry not the best photos - they don't capture the pre resto roughness and post resto improvement. They are much improved however and I think most would be happy with the result.

Nice - I read the pelicanparts restoration and used that info to do my first set on my 65 race car and they came up very well. I've now sourced some new chrome bezels as the ones I have are poor and no matter how hard you try you end up dinging the edges when removing the old ones. I also want to improve on the restoration of the cases and metal work (although not seen) as well as talking the warning light issue as you've done. Yours cam up very nicely indeed.

There are only three areas where some form of fabrication will be required - you'll see that as the previous owner used the car for motorsport that they've not been too clever when jacking the car up for wheel changes and the area below the rear torsion bars has been flattened considerably on both sides. First plan is to cut out the affected areas then either repair the metal and weld back in place again but if past repair because of corrosion / metal thickness then we'll made new panels and butt weld them in.





The other area is on one side of the rear slam panel where it looks like there has been a botched repair to a previous collision. It looks very like the bumper over rider has caused the damage and pushed back the metal work in that area and also the tail light bucket. Plan after stripping back the paint will be to cut out the damage and make new. Once these areas have been addressed then the floor bottoms and rear inner panels will be painted.

New chrome bezels arrived today - should make a big difference to the gauge refurb.

Dash recovering includes punching 725 3.5mm holes in the vinyl - oh what fun!!


.....but it turned out OK.

Where did you get the chrome bezels from. I had my instruments restored by VDO about 20 years ago and they could not find all the correct sized bezels. I've also just done a dash, the hole punching went better than I thought!

Richard M Knight wrote:Where did you get the chrome bezels from. I had my instruments restored by VDO about 20 years ago and they could not find all the correct sized bezels. I've also just done a dash, the hole punching went better than I thought!

Yes I've never seen them for sale before but got a set of a guy in Hungary, to be fair they're not quite right - the dimension of the internal lip it to long and the bezel return edge is too rounded compared to the Porsche one that is squarer - IMO just not good enough to use. He has offered to make me some more with the correct internal dimensions and if he can I'll forgive the roundness of the top return edge. I'll post pics when I get the new ones and also contact details.

Dash covered tonight - not quite the same vinyl as the rest of it but 48 years of ageing might have something to do with it - but I'm pleased nonetheless. Will let the adhesive harden fully - it might need a tweek here or there - do that tomorrow.

Dropped the engine and transmission out to prep the areas underneath for priming and painting. Very little corrosion as can be seen but coating the exposed metal with Fertan to convert and stop any minor rust issues. Will weld up any small holes created by previous owners - such massive difference in this shell compared to the 66 RHD rust bucket I also have!!!

Good metal under the rear seats.



As is metalwork under parcel shelf and rear left inner guard - all with a quick coat of Fertan.

That was/is a great car!

tackled the RHS torsion bar area and cut out the damaged section looking to repair and re-weld it back into place or make new if needed. Treated the bare metal work in this area then will close up and tackle the other side.