DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Having had the engine and gearbox rebuilt in 2010, the plan was always to go for a full restoration to give it another 40 years of life. So here goes.

I know very little about the history of this car, aside from the fact it was a Californian import that appears to have been a barn find and had a real budget makeover when I bought it. I've owned it since 1999 and had much fun with it.

Over the last few weeks I've started a resto - so in time honoured tradition - here goes with another set of rusty photos and 'blimey look what's under there' moments.

I'm planning to do as much of this myself as I can, but will be getting professional help with the metalwork (Barry) and paint etc (TBC, recommendations welcome). I'm also likely to need a whole heap of help from the eagle eyes on here and have already had a massive amount of help from JohnM who has given me a huge flying start on the project - If I can get anywhere near the quality of his, I'll be very happy - it's definitely a benchmark to aspire to.

Here's how it looked when I started (photo courtesy of Mrs Hot66 @ Spa last year)



And with some friends

At Home -







First thing to come off - managed this all by myself....

Although the car looked pretty OK from a distance and ran beautifully thanks to the Mike Bainbridge engine & gearbox re-build (here - http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/viewto ... 28&t=29314) there were definite signs of age like this around the bottom of the RHS targa bar





And the other side



And here around the RHS of the bonnet

.

All of which suggested there would be some nasties underneath.

I also knew that the floor around the pedals was a bit iffy, the suspension & brakes needed help, the windows were difficult to wind up the targa top whistled madly at anything over about 30 mph, the wheels (a combo of deep and flat sixes) looked like poop and the carpets had seen better days....

So a couple of weeks before Christmas, John came down for a few days and we made a start on the stripping of the car - turning it around in the garage first...



And dropping the engine

Rear suspension off next







Both banana arms look like they'll clean up nicely and the dust plates look like there's nothing more serious than surface rust on them, so will be reused.



The shocks will be replaced & looks like the rubber will also need replacing on the shock mounts...the perished rubber is a theme that keeps on recurring, but not surprising because of the age.



The brakes are looking in good shape, but will go off to Classic Auto in Macc to get the treatment





So we now have a cleared out back end.





On to the front.

great to see the start of your resto Richard

Hi Richard

Here comes another great story. Looking forward to your adventure, make sure you share.

Kind Regards

That's all I need - another thread to ensure I spend even more time on DDK !

Are you going to keep everything 'as original' in terms of spec or are you planning to upgrade any aspects ?

- resto threads, my favourites!

Hope all goes well Richard, will be watching with interest.

Darren

Nice one Richard!

Great start, now make sure you keep the momentum going


Chris

Thanks for the encouragement John, James, Chris & Darren - I'll keep the photos coming. I think this is going to take some time, but am looking forward to the whole process I'm sure you'll keep me on the straight and narrow!

Hi Andy - I'm planning to return this to original as much as possible. And yes to all you sugar-scoop fans out there, I'm going to be keeping the original American spec where possible, including the big rubber-knobbed switches and 'American-proof' signs on the switches.

I want to keep as much original metal as possible and refirbish as many of the things on the car as possible - but will need quite a lot of interior stuff as it's just not up to scratch - seats will need recovering, dash un-repariable, door pockets missing.

But the big question is finding NOS / good second hand vs say a Lakewell dash & door pockets, I think availability of the former will dictate whether I go new or not - would prefer the old stuff, but as I've said before, it's a difficult balance between looking 'patina'd' and looking crap - you balance this perfectly, so am watching your build for tips & tricks. I'm also going to need to do some work on looking for the 'right' vinyl for the targa top - there seem to be so many different opinions.

I'm also going to be putting the correct non-S bumper on the front and have managed to find a lovely pair of Hella 169s to go underneath!



My inspiration for the build is this car which is the only other 2.2s targa in metallic green I've seen (actually I've only ever seen 2 others of any colour, one in real life @ Headingham and this one)...and it's in great nick. 2.2s Targas seem to be quite rare, I think they made fewer than the RS in total about 1500 or so over the 2 years of production. So I think it's right to put it back as near original as possible.







I've decided that the amco bars are a bit too much though...

Great to see the start of your journey and like the fact you are keeping it as original as possible. I'm sure the time will come when I need to restore mine and threads like this are a fantastic way to learn how to do it!

Look forward to watching the progress!

The more resto threads the better by me!

The pics so far make the rust look very 'exterior panels' as the torsion tube rear areas look v nice. Be interesting to see when the underseal is all off.

Keep going!

Best of luck with the restoration, will look forward to the updates!

you know my opinion on the headlights

Sugar scoops and big rubber knobs have always been a favorite of mine.

Hello Richard.

I will be looking on what you're upto because I also have a targa in bits, too many bits.

Best of luck.

Thanks for all the encouragement....have to confess when I started taking apart my 'working perfectly well' car I did have a moment or two of doubt....A big pile of bits just won't go as well as one all that's all together . But as I got further in, it became apparent that this was probably just in the nick of time. There are some rust issues that need dealing with and would have got to the 'really bad' stage.

Next job was getting the front suspension out - seems I have mismatched struts for some reason one Koni on LHS and one Boge on the other- I guess it took a knock on the RHS at some point - or a serious 'kerbing' which would make sense as it's spent most of it's life on the other side of the road. [edit - Paul @ Tuthills told me that the Boge is the correct strut for an S-Targa and that it's Koni for coupes - so there you go, the wrong one was the Koni]

Chris (Jury) also pointed out that my car seemed to be leaning to the right...turns out it was and this is the reason. That and the fact that the shockers were as soft as you like probably go a long way to explain the weaving under braking from high speed ( ). So it looks like I'll be needing a refirbished pair of Konis at some stage in the build



Again, front brakes are pretty much OK (and one has had new seals & psitons already as an emergency job just before Classic Spa) but will go with the rears for full treatment.



Then it was time to take the rest of the front end out - "as a onner" as John M & Mike B say...and note if you will that the steering arm links at the rack end has one that's 90 degrees out...that won't help the suspension either.



Having said that, it looks in pretty good nick, so a good clean, powder-coat and new rubber should help a lot.