DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

oh dear me that won't do..



Those screw heads aren't lined up....tut tut...

See you in Germany..?

Jp

Good point - thanks for the tip. Will have to go over and check the torque settings on all of those too....

Looking forward to Germany, see you in the airport lounge?

R

Just sent you a pm
Jp

Jeez is this not finished yet?

Ferryman has built an entire car from scratch in 4 weeks....

OK, so it's been a little while with no updates. There could be a lot of excuses. Some of which are just not plausible.

1) Demanding family

2) Really important exec who has no time for mere fripparies such as early 911s. (that's on the 'not plausible' pile)

3) Weather's been a bit hot

4) The Ashes has been very engaging

5) Had to go to Zuffenhausen and drink beer with people

Truth is so much more prosaic. Yes I've been busy, and life has a habit of allowing you to put off stuff that you really should get on with, but to be honest, the whole project got a bit on top of me. It all got a bit intimidating.

You see, when maestros like Barry and Darren & Rich were working on my car and turning it into something beautiful and really have a total mastery of their subject, it all looks like (and was) stonking along. And then it turns up back at yours and you are the one who is making it work....or not.... as it was in my case

And I had a fantastic shell, and a big pile of parts (that Alan and co had expertly refirbished) and I really had no plan about how it was going to magically materialise back into the car I loved so much. How it was going to go back together and indeed whether I had any kind of ability with a spanner and wrench.

So a crisis of confidence then. And a big downer on the project. When you look at the restos on the threads, it all seems effortless, we all know it isn't, but it seems so. And it kind of puts a bit of pressure on....well it did for me anyway.

So as James said (and I paraphrase) "Just get the bloody suspension on" and with many words of encouragement from others....I took a week off work and dedicated this week to 'getting sh!t done'. Kind of a 'p!ss or get off the pot' moment.

And you know what? It's been a great week. Loads done. Real progress and I'm feeling back on top of the project. The car is back to being mine. I have greasy finger prints all over it, a stone chip on the wing where a bit of mortar fell off the roof, it nearly fell off the stands when I was compressing the rear suspension to get the rear shock on, and I got a shout out on Radio 6 Music who were doing a feature on geeks. So I texted in about K-bolts on the wings, copper-slip and 32 degree ride heights. They said that it was unlikely anyone was going to out-geek me. Very chuffed with that.

Want to see some pictures?

Yes we do. Geek

Bits you need to put the rear suspension back on. Making sure that your torsion bars are put in the right way and on the right side. The end of the bar has an L or an R stamped into it. And those letters need to face out. Then you have the confidence that your torsion is not going to tort in the wong direction. And your car will flow seamlessly over all the lumps and bumps.



And banana arms with all the hubs and stuff on them are chuffing heavy and when you're trying to wedge them in the bracket on the outside of the torsion bar you need a bit of help. A jack is your friend ......



But after spending a big bunch of time putting it on and then measuring your spring plate angles and realising that they're 7 degrees to low (I do like the slammed look, but these were 12 degrees lower than the book recommends...prob a bit too much) and therefore having to do it all over again, it looked like this. I put the rear suspension on!



Obviously I won't be asking anyone to join me in the car until it's been well checked over by professionals. But this felt good.

And the great thing about having time, as I did this week, was being able to flip from one job to another until I kind of had a rhythm in place....it's a game of two halves at the moment

1) Putting on stuff that's been fully refirbished

2) Cleaning and fixing stuff that isn't

And a third half which is organising things, working out what you need (and making a note of it the minute you realise you don't have it - I tend to get distracted; for example by a really great song on the radio, or some random request from the kids to help them build a railway in the garage or asking how long it takes to prove dough for pitta bread or something and then you've forgotten that you need the rubber inserts for the front drop-link covers and you can't finish off the front suspension til you get them....)

So, some cleaned and restored bits....







Which reminds me; can't find one of my check straps....sure it will turn up....but must make a note of that....

Sorting your bolts and stuff is really, really theraputic.....thats 20mm, 25mm and 30mm M8 across the top. With a 'randoms' space too.





And the windscreen wiper thingy went from this:



To this: Amazing what a bit of rattle can hammerite, some judicious masking and some vigorous rubbing can do.

I had time for boring stuff.....check out these bad boys. Yes, you're looking at the grommets around the oil pipes through the wing closer. And they are difficult to get in. Does life get more exciting than this?



Actually, it does, last week, I went here for a work trip to talk about stuff with them. I think they might take me on as lead 'grommet sizer & refirbisher'

And I had time for bling...





And yes, I found myself polishing the bezels of the switches with my dremel....and being really excited by the resulting shinyness...



This is what happens when you get grease all over the lens of your new phone.



It should have looked like this, but I kind of like the grease effect. You can keep your instagram....

But this one kind of sums it up for me.

To put the handbrake on you have to sort the handbrake cables, the heater cables, the hand throttle lever, which means the throttle cable has to be in and you need to link the hand brake warning wire in place. It kind of means that you're putting sh!t back together when you have this in.

It's been a good week.

Lovely work. I was at Woking last week, too. Chicken burrito with rice - it was not bad.

Nice one Richard

Richard this is wonderful stuff.
I had always assumed that you must be another super spanner as you had managed previously so well. I guess that with your recent experience you are now in the expert category. I find it all very inspiring.
It is going to be a fabulous car.