70 S, RHD, Signal Orange, UK->Australia->UK

[ian cox]

Hi Richard,
A much, much better place to start that with mine.

[Tp81]

Richard, the car looks really good in comparison to the shell I started with, I like the idea of keeping as much of the original metal as possible. This wasn't really an option with some of the panels on mine.

Cheers

Tom

[aston]

Hi Richard... it's annoying when you see repairs already made that have to be redone.. I had a few of those.

Will be interesting to compare new panel lists..

[inaglasshouse]

Thanks Tom, thanks Ian, good to hear from you. I'm liking the progress on your resto, Tom!

Hi Richard... it's annoying when you see repairs already made that have to be redone.. I had a few of those.
Will be interesting to compare new panel lists..

Hi Kieron,
I know what you mean about previous repairs. And in some cases the work on mine is pretty good, which ratchets up the pain. Feels a bit self-indulgent to rework those bits, and doubtless many would say it's a waste of time and money.

But I look at it this way:
For a long time these cars were more-or-less worthless. It's hardly surprising that over the past 40+ years some repairs were done expediently (with as little disassembly as possible) or minimally, or plain badly, to keep the car on the road. I'm glad they were done, because without the historic patches maybe the car wouldn't have survived to this point.
Now we are where we are. These cars are quite rare and really special, and I feel a bit of a personal responsibility to do the job properly. The wallet is going to take quite a battering anyway during this restoration, and on my shell the marginal cost of re-doing the previous work is a small percentage.
This way I know it's all been done right, because I've seen it and I have pictures of each repair in bare metal - peace of mind. And obviously the structure is the one part that we _never_ want to have to do again - anything that bolts on can be relatively easily revisited later if needed.

Man maths!

Will ping you an email about panels when I know the list.

Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

My slot with Barry is gradually approaching, so I'd better make a bit of progress on readying the shell for blasting.

This weekend it was engine and gearbox out, using the "gently lower them onto trolleys and lift the car off" method.
I realise this is not much of an achievement - the engine was only back in the shell for transit from Australia, so I had no issues of disconnecting linkages, fuel lines, electrics etc. But still the first time I've ever done it, so I felt unjustifiably pleased to have done it myself, without dropping anything heavy. And indeed without bending the selector shaft where it comes through the hole in the rear bulkhead.

[inaglasshouse]

I've put the shell on its dolly ready to remove the suspension etc:


Those of a nostalgic persuasion might recognise the DDK Heritage Dolly, as used by many a DDK-er of yore.
Some reprobate has left it covered in Bahama yellow paint. I believe he considered painting it 47 other colours before settling on this:


Provenance is everything, of course. The DDK Heritage Dolly has mystical ancient markings:

... so at least I know it's been welded up by someone who knows what they're doing.
Hopefully the car won't fall on my head.

Thanks Jamie for the dolly (and delivery service).
Cheers, Richard.

[Barry]

Excellent! Nice to see the old thing still out and about. Must be nearly ten years old now.

All credit to Atlas Handling who supplied the casters at the time (still available on e-bay as a set). They have taken some real punishment over the years including being blasted, painted, left outside and generally abused.

Good to see the progress Richard, you have mail .

[Tp81]

Looking forward to watching this take shape.

My own car has been on the go for nearly two years now. Can't believe how time has passed, I really need to get a push on.

[inaglasshouse]

Like Tom says...

Can't believe how time has passed, I really need to get a push on.

I'll be pushing on fairly soon.
My car should go to Barry in September - there's just one enigmatic character ahead of me. He is flying under the radar, not posting every detail to DDK...

In the meantime, in case anyone remembers who I am and what my car's supposed to be like, I'll do a few posts answering the question "what have you been doing for 2 years while failing to make any visible progress on your resto project?"
Which is a more polite version of what my non-car friends say when they come round and see the car in the same old state:



DDK-ers who stop by don't tend to ask where the 2 years went.

[inaglasshouse]

What have you been doing for 2 years?

Item 1: Thinking of a Name

I don't name cars. But my daughter (now 11 years old) can't resist.

This one is, apparently, called "Night Bug"

Midnight blue, looks like a smooth squashed beetle.
I guess.

This one is, apparently, called "Buzz"

1969 car, the year of Apollo 11, so named after Buzz Aldrin.
Also has no soundproofing, so does tend to be a bit loud.
You could quibble over whether that noise is actually a buzz, but anyway. I learned a while back not to enter into debate with my daughters unless absolutely necessary.

And the car to which this thread relates, the 70 S, which came from Australia and will be back to its original colour of Signal Orange in due course, is, apparently, called...
"Orange Bruce"

...Badum-tissshhh.

[inaglasshouse]

What have you been doing for 2 years?

Item 2: Researching History

Most of the credit for this goes to the previous owner in Australia, who bought the car as a resto project. He was kind enough to share what he'd found out. Thanks!
Here's what I know so far:

Porsche Cars Australia and Porsche Cars Great Britain have confirmed that it was delivered as a Signal Orange right hand drive 911S in the UK. Production completion date was 1 December 1969.
Ian at Porsche Club GB has it in his records. According to him it was first registered as CLK 92H, with the LK signifying London.

As previously mentioned, three Signal Orange UK S-es were registered early in the 70 model year. Mine has supplying dealer "Porsche Cars GB" on the CoA. Demonstrators and press cars? The other two are fully restored.

DVLA says that my car has not been registered here in the UK since 1983.
Australian Customs say they have been tracking incoming cars by chassis number since 1989 and it must have been imported to Australia prior to that as it does not show up in their system.
So it seems likely the car originally travelled from the UK to Australia around 1983.

Starting at the other end of its life (2010), the car was sold by Exclusive Cars in Perth (Tasmania) to a private buyer shortly before the PO bought it.
It was last registered in Tasmania as SI2687 in 2006.
The car was brought to Tasmania from Melbourne, having been bought at a Fowles auction around 2001, after which it sat for some time in the workshop of Berry Motors (VolvWreck) before being transported to Tasmania. By that time it was in the red 'wide body' guise.

It was last registered in Victoria on 22 February 2001 as NMH695. Porsche Cars Melbourne say it went through their workshop in the mid 1990s, although they no longer have detailed records from that time.

To get some pics into an otherwise colourless post, here are the two sister cars.

First one, owned by a DDK-er who has helped me out on many occasions - thanks!
This one has a chassis number about 40 below mine, and an engine number about 50 below. We've also compared "build" numbers, all seems in order...


Second one. I don't know the owner - if you're reading, drop me a line.
This car is one chassis number below mine. Perhaps they were nose-to-tail on the production line.
Photographed by me at Hedingham.


If anyone has any history of my car based on the registrations I mention above...
UK 1969-1983?: CLK 92H
Victoria, Australia 1983?-2001: NMH695
Tasmania, Australia 2001-2010: SI2687

... or any other info about the sister orange 70 S-es, I'd love to hear it. Please drop me a PM or email.

Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

What have you been doing for 2 years?

Item 3: Buying Stuff

And earning money to buy stuff.
I have some very expensive pieces of sheet metal from Porsche, and lots of other bits.
More on that, with pics of the more interesting parts, later.

Cheers, Richard.

[sladey]

Nice update

[inaglasshouse]

What have you been doing for 2 years?

Item 2: Researching History (part 2)

The Australian owner from whom I bought the car had intended to restore it. He made a good start and amassed some interesting parts. Along the way he took some photos which tell a bit more of the story.

Let's start with this one:

Yes, it's my 70S.
As was obligatory in the 80s, the poor thing was painted red. It also acquired fat rear arches and a whale tale. The full stockbroker treatment.

These pics give an idea of the bits the PO removed as part of the strip down:




Which left us with this:




Looks pretty awful on the face of it, but luckily it turned out that the unmolested parts of the chassis are in good condition.

Also we've not yet found any accident damage. Unless you regard wide arches and a whale tail as an accident.
Maybe more of a crime.
I know, I know, the 80s were different times...

[Jonny Hart]

Provenance is everything, of course. The DDK Heritage Dolly has mystical ancient markings:

... so at least I know it's been welded up by someone who knows what they're doing.

Glad to see the top quality carpet offcut 'trim' is holding up too!