Finnish Francesca, 1973 targa resto

[MarkIII]

Love a retrospective resto thread, lots of photos of Barry's workmanship please

[inaglasshouse]

I get the feeling that Richard is about to post his resto thread with Barry which is about to commence.
I feel it might overtake this thread because I have the speed of a tortoise.
To get out of sync for a moment I can say that Richard's 911 will replace my targa on Barry's jig which has just been completed today.
I have a great deal of Barry's photos to post up in the coming weeks to show the level of his dedication and brilliant workmanship. This we all know about. What you should also know is the level of customer service Barry gives. This is what completes the perfect package for me. As well as being a genius he is also a gentleman and as honest as the day is long. For all my working life I have come across vagabonds and corner cutters so the last few months (despite being so far apart) he has made me feel close to the project and let me realise that there are truly decent people in the world of business after all.

Hi Mike,
Indeed. Mine goes on the Celette this week, I believe.
Thread already started : viewtopic.php?f=28&t=48740
... but now there might be some real content!
I might temporarily overtake you in picture posting, but I expect you'll finish your car well ahead of mine.
Cheers, good luck with the next stage.
Richard.

[210bhp]

Thanks Richard.

Well, I suppose I should get back on track.

I worked my way around the nicely bagged parts and tried to put them in groups that I thought might go together. Lots were easily recognisable but some caused me a bit of head scratching. Although comprehensively labelled it was all in Finnish! Helppppppp Mika........ I've no doubt I might be able to pick up a few words of Finnish along the way but what good "is this the upper or lower bolt" in polite Finnish conversation is going to do for me I don't know. Anyway, no doubt I will be in touch with Mika over the coming months for a bit of translation.

Im sure it will all come together and when the resto is completed there will be one bolt left over ("where should this go I wonder?")

Meantime, I noticed all the threads on ddk about shell preparation and considered the views of everybody who opinion must count for a lot, those doing restorations. So, conventional blasting, dipping, ice blasting etc , I checked them all out and finally (with Barry's help) settled on blasting at Decorrosion Services for various reasons,

1, The shell did not need 'stripping' as Mika had carefully done that with his surgical instruments and endless patience. I was basically in bare metal.
2, The shell had developed a flash covering of surface rust while sitting for two years in a Scottish barn thus proving that a few years in a warm de humidified Finnish garage at a constant temperature is far better at storing bare metal.
3, Decorrosion Services were great to deal with and they were on the way to Barry's. I was trying to tie the delivery of the shell to Barry straight from the blasters. It's nearly a nine hundred mile round trip for me so I only wanted to do it once.

DS suggested that if I could get the shell to them by 7am one morning they would put a triple shift on and get the whole shell and all the extra panels blasted inside 12 hours. In fact it took them a little longer but one evening I left Scotland with the shell in my trailer, arrive at DS at 2am, slept in the comfy RRover reclining front seat and was at the front door of DS at 7am. The job was done and finished by late evening, I loaded back up, stayed the night in Chertsey and was on my way to Barry's early the following morning........

Regards
Mike

[210bhp]

Barry is a top bloke as we all know. He was there at his workshop and I was a little late due to roadworks and a detour in unknown territory. I had never been to Barry's workshop before. It's a impressive little place, not in a grandiose sort of way but in a way that makes you feel like 'a lot of great craftsmanship goes on here'. Homely, well bedded in type place. Neat, tidy and compact, there was an immediate feeling of a nice ambiance. You get an impression the car will be in good hands. And the view is great. I think you can nearly see France!

It was nice to catch up with Barry. In days gone by we bumped into each other at lots of events around the country and abroad but his excellent reputation obviously means his workshop time has gradually taken over. It was nice to chat in the warm sun as we unloaded and popped the shell through his door and into the workshop. I was hoping the sandwiches and cakes I'd brought would get me a little discount at the end of the day but alas not

It was hard to say goodbye but a long journey home beckoned and it's always the return journey that seems to be a drag. 450 miles or so I think. Before I left a few things popped up,

Barry seemed immensely impressed with my coach built trailer. When I had hastily bought it off eBay some months before it looked 'nice' but it turns out it's actually 'Barry nice'. Properly built he said.

The other good news was that Barry dropped his front windscreen template into the targa and he went 'bloody hell' in the way he does. It was the best fitting front screen on any of his pre-restoration shells he had seen! As an owner you remember these little snippets. Barry declared it "accident free" and just about the most (factory) original targa shell he had ever seen.

That was the good news. The bad news was that the targa shell was not quite as good a condition post blasting as the previous picture suggested. Barry paced around it and rubbed his chin and hummed and hawed a bit and pronounced that we would need all of the extra panels I'd brought and probably a few more. It was a bit disappointing but at least I was happy that my 'untrained eye' had worked out in Finland that it wasn't too bad a shell to buy.

The bombshell which followed was really annoying............

Edit; voi paska!!!!

Regards
Mike

[murph2309]

Ok. Some key Finnish phrases for you.

Kaks olut - two beers (remember, no word for 'please' in Finnish)

Jumalauta - God help me / oh my god....

Voi paska - oh shite

Kittos - Thanks

Minna en puho suomea - I don't speak Finnish

Should cover most of the Porsche resto permutations...

[210bhp]

Thanks Richard.

See edit in post above.

Regards
Mike

[willbrown]

The bombshell which followed was really annoying............

Edit; voi paska!!!!

Regards
Mike

come on it's Friday afternoon - stop teasing us

[Gary71]

Yes, I'm sat here waiting outside my son's school reading DDK and you leave us hanging!

[Bootsy]

The bombshell which followed was really annoying............

You got home and realised you'd left your glasses at Barry's and didn't know anyone who could sell you a new pair?

[Lightweight_911]

The bombshell which followed was really annoying............

Edit; voi paska!!!!

Regards
Mike

Barry had discovered that you aren't a dentist after all so wasn't prepared to accept your offer of free dental treatment for life as part payment ...

[inaglasshouse]

You took a close look at the photos and realised there was a big hole where the roof was supposed to be?

[210bhp]

It's not as bad as any of these things.

What you have to realise is that I had it in my head that everything would go smoothly. I had prepared everything to work out and had taken the minimum time off work to make it all come together with minimum disruption but still be in control of the project even from a distance.

Amongst the multitude of spare panels were the doors. An original very nice door and a NOS door still in Porsche primer and with the part number sticker still attached. Mika had carefully collected all these parts but I was particularly pleased with the doors. No work there (or not much) I thought to get perfect.

Barry put his roving eye over everything and said the blasters have done a good job on your shell. He ran his hands over the major panels and pronounced everything fine but then caught sight of the doors. Popping them up on his bench without more than a glance he said "these doors are warped".
He proceeded to measure up with his template curves and sure enough the outer panels were miles warped, the NOS door worse than the original. I was gutted.

I had been totally impressed with DS and the guys worked non stop to finished the job inside a day but Barry and I agreed that maybe I had pushed them too hard and possibly the doors were done at the end of the day without the same care or by a lesser experience operator. I had not the time to go back nor the inclination to complain. You can't prove anything. Maybe the door was dented a little before work started. Maybe it was a dodgy panel. The rest of the shell was perfect, no warping anywhere. And the price was very competitive, and they were great guys to deal with.

"No worries" said Barry, "I will be able to recover them but it will be hours of extra work".

This is not a moan or complaint, I drove home happy overall but also a little disappointed.

Regards
Mike

[grannysmith]

So I wait...as many others have with bated breath...to find out what the bombshell is and it turns out to be some ripples in otherwise rust free doors the Barry can sort in a few hours!

Never had you down as such a drama queen

Now a real bombshell would have been the COA was wrong and it should be sepia with a sporto box

[hot66]

So I wait...as many others have with bated breath...to find out what the bombshell is and it turns out to be some ripples in otherwise rust free doors the Barry can sort in a few hours!

Never had you down as such a drama queen

Now a real bombshell would have been the COA was wrong and it should be sepia with a sporto box

[210bhp]

So I wait...as many others have with bated breath...to find out what the bombshell is and it turns out to be some ripples in otherwise rust free doors the Barry can sort in a few hours

If only that were true I would agree with you......

Regards
Mike