DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

I'm starting this thread because my car is now going through another part refurb. I will no doubt be asking many questions in the tech help section so thought I ought to let you see what is going on. Like the title suggests I sometimes do a bit then later decide to do the bit behind that. I'll start with a story so far.

After many years with Beetles and Camper vans I decided to look for an early 911. At the time I knew nothing of T's, E's, and S's, was ignorant of the 1580 or at what point IB started. I just wanted pre 73 for the free tax disc! Bearing this in mind I ended up with a targa T sporto!.. I know, somewhere between a Marina and a nicely turned out 924. The car was the best of the bunch I looked at at the time. Cheapest too, £5000 bought me 35years of HEAVY patina with no structural rot. That was 5 years ago.



The only bits missing were the centre rear bumper panel and the original front seats. No prob I'll find some old seats affordable on e-bay...like I said, I knew nothing!

So the idea was as all my previous projects, a rolling resto. I cant buy one and then not drive it straight away. I'm the kid who's model spitfire pilot was an unpainted blue plastic glued in the cockpit! Swapping US spec overriders and lenses, and sporto to 5 speed were done as soon as I found the parts needed and the car was used rat-look..ish.



The main problem I had was after a wash and buff the car came up quite nice. When viewed from across the road it was presentable, this is mostly because it was brown, coincidentally the same colour as rust. It's all solid underneath though, with it being my first one I didn't know what to look for corrosion hotspot wise so got lucky I guess. I decided a top side repaint was needed to get rid of the crusty edges (headlight bowls, door bottoms etc). I wanted a 70's shade but with a tan interior my choices were limited. The shortlist was Chartreuse, Aubergine or back to Sepia. In the end I wanted a change from brown and when I saw a sample of Aubergine it looked like a colour a Goth would do there fingernails (apologies to Auber fans)

I don't have the biggest space to work in but it was something I wanted to tackle myself. The garage to store it overnight with the heaters on and a carport I could sheet up into a makeshift spray booth (Yes the neighbors loved the shanty town look) 2008 was a nice summer and that was when I painted it. The layout of the garage and carport is side by side so shunting between the too was always a traffic stopper.

















So along with a set of new rubbers, carpet set, lenses and some boxster seats this was the new look.





From the first tin of nitromos to the final coat of lacker took 3 weeks, my whole holiday that year. Putting back together and fitting the interior and glass etc took another month or so of weekends and evenings. Now by the time I was this far I had learnt of the differences in T's E's S's etc so hankered after a coupe. A couple of months ago I sold my Camper so thought I'd look for a coupe of the same age. It would probably be another T but at least it would be a tin top. Haven't they gone up in price!!! The recent RHD T on E-bay that fetched 10k+ (for what looked to me like a logbook, vin plates and a lot of work) means I've got what I've got and be happy. So I will do the bits I scrimpt on last time in favour of the shiny quick fix. The saga continues...

My plan is to tidy up and paint the underside, renew/refurb the suspension/brakes and stop the engine leaking. Now I know these things can be expected to leak a bit but if any of you are bikers I'll describe my car as powered by a 2400cc scottoiler! This I think is the reason my car has stayed mostly rust free underneath. There is rust on the suspension arms and brake parts etc, but the body metal work is all sound. The car has been grounded at some point though, and scuffed areas of the petrol tank and floor have some surface corrosion where the sealer has been grazed. Where this has occured I'll strip the sealer off and get back to bare metal. There is a mixture of oil, over spray and Schultz under-seal. The latter is my own fault, it was a quick fix to cover the over spray that would match up to the oily blackness under there. I'm really regretting that decision now.





I have a head start and I'm shifting between the floor pan, suspension and engine as the mood/budget swings, so some of the questions I ask in the other sections may seem out of sync but its all got to be done by sunshine next year.
So it's time for thinners and a rag....

Wow! The car looks great! Shows what can be done with some determination and ingenuity. Chartreuse was an inspired choice.

Looking forward to further updates.

car does look great in Chartreuse. You'll have to bring her out next year when we have one of our Northern drives

Looks like you loved the colour so much you painted the driveway the same colour ?

hot66 wrote:Looks like you loved the colour so much you painted the driveway the same colour ?

You should see the cat…

Yes there was as much paint on the drive as on the car, still hasn't worn away completely. It was the first time I had used anything more than a rattle can and there was a lot of trial and error with adjusting pressure and fan on the guns.

To put KS's mind at rest no animals were harmed (no matter how unimpressed they were) during the painting of this car. So long as we don't include the herd of flies that decided to take a stroll on my fresh paint.



Thank you for my first few replies. Like I mentioned I have a small head start so will try and up date quite often to start with. It's just a matter of up loading and resizing photo's.

It looks really lovely now and the cat is pretty good too.
BTW Where did the carpets come from?

The carpets were from a company called Lake.. something, I can't remember. They were bought through e-bay. I'm in Billingham till Monday but can check the name when I get back if you would like.

No worries.
It is probably this
http://www.lakewell.com/en
... and they look very nice

Great colour and the Paint looks fantastic. I will be a really nice car once completed.
Kind regards

My car has the aluminium sill trims so the under body sealer comes up the sill some.



I've scrapped all this off because it's been damaged in places at some point in the past.





It all cleaned up very nice though. I love those wheel of death things that fit a 4" grinder.



I'm not going any further forward at the moment. Front end next time.



A squidge of seam sealer a dash of etch then some stone chip.



Then I put on a coat of Chartreuse. I know this is OTT but it's nicer than Schultz.





I've done this middle bit because I wanted to get the sills repainted and needed the car outside for the elbow room. There is a slight mismatch in the shade so a set of side scripts will hide the join.
The car is now in the garage with no engine or rear running gear and the thinners is going to my head





In this area it's oil and road grime and is not too bad to remove. Mostly the crud has been coming off in three washes. I'll give it a final once over before the paint goes on. In the photo below there are some areas with sealer removed at panel joints. There was an oily film behind it and it hadn't adhered well. I assume this is something from when the panels were first joined and it wasn't panel wiped before the sealer was applied.



Under the wheel arches is not as easy. There's the layer of Schultz on the over spray on the oily grime on the original finish and it's taking time.



But it does come off eventually.



I have also now realised that I can't clean this off all the way up, D'oh. So I'll just get where I can reach.
I've got a painting session on soon because the shot blasted suspension parts are due back. It'll make a nice change to having a bit of paint to sniff instead of just thinners.

.

ger, I think the FHH***K plates are just standard dvla age related plates that are given out to imported cars. I've had and seen others around in Sheffield WWA***F for 68 cars.

Recently I had a go at shot blasting some parts. On lighter surface rust my compressor copes fine but it's not up to the job of shot blasting heavy rust. So after spending too much time upsetting the neighbours just doing 2 drive shafts I sent all the other bits to be done by the pro's.
They came back all clean but a bit late in the afternoon. I wanted at least a coat of etch by that evening.



I brushed in the areas that were going to be hard to get at with the gun.



The next morning I started early and got them all in gloss black.






I afraid there's not many photos because when I get going I tend to forget that bit. I have all the needed superpro bushes ready so am eager to get them back on. I just have to get the chassis ready first

Next I started to clean the oil tank and to begin with all was well.



But..





I thought this was going to have be a professional repair or a new tank until one of the "friendly masses" pointed out it could probably be patched up with a tank sealing putty. I'll let you know how that goes when I get some.

I have now finished cleaning off the underseal so have applied etch and then stone chip where needed. This will get a week to harden and I hope next Sat/Sun to get some top coat on.









So if all goes to plan this time next week I'll be very happy.

Looking great. Fantastic to see all the dog eared bits looking like new. Keep the photos coming.

Kind regards

Did you do all that work to the underside lying on your back in the driveway? If you did then hats off to you that's some dedication