1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

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Darren65
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Darren65 »

Have to agree too that I enjoy the details and effort that goes in to these builds 8) .....

.....and doesn't stop you thrashing the arse of them once finished! :P
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

I’ve only managed about 70 miles since picking up the car a few weeks ago so haven’t given it a thorough shake down yet. The car drove pretty well before but I have noticed an improvement in the handling, which feels superb and the ride is compliant yet very comfortable, probably due to the suspension refurbishment and new parts. I went with Elephant Racing standard rubber components and am very pleased with the results and would definitely recommend these. I used to get a lot of wind noise from around the door and the poor fitting sunroof but now these are resolved the car is much quieter than before and altogether it is quite refined at cruising speed.

The gearbox issues I had previously are resolved following Mike’s rebuild but having not had the car for three years, I had forgotten how long the gear changes are and how heavy the clutch is! The brakes still require a proper shove rather than the light touch needed on modern cars. Nothing wrong but just takes a bit of getting used to again.

As I mentioned previously, we didn’t do much to the engine and it still feels strong, powerful and zingy. When I bought the car, it came with a file of old MOTs and invoices and amongst these I found some from Chris Turner dating back to the ‘80s. Willesden is pretty close to my home so I thought I would give him a call and have the car checked over by him to address a couple of minor issues I had. Although he hadn’t seen the car for more than 20 years, Chris immediately remembered it and the owner who used to have the car serviced by him. Chris had a few CDI boxes lying on bench and first introduced me to Jonny’s Classic Retrofit CDI+ boxes. My CDI box was working fine but I liked the idea of having a reliable replacement with modern components so I was keen to upgrade to this. I haven’t had a chance to update the software and the speed switch upgrade you have made (by the way Richard, excellent write up on this) but a 40A relay is in place ready for when I have time.


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Gary mentioned that he had a few customers recently that were suffering from electrical issues which he diagnosed to poor contacts on the fuse boards so he recommended replacing these. I opted for the Classic Retrofit fuse boards for both front and rear of the car. They don’t look original but I like the reliability factor, the blade fuses, integrated relays and LED indicators and of course, they can easily be reversed to the originals I have kept.


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I also changed the batteries to these Sonnenschein ones, which are gel batteries so won’t leak. They are also a dimensional match to the old batteries and fit the battery boxes well. They seem to be more common with Porsche owners in the US and a couple of owners I had contacted said they had used these for many years without issue so I decided I would go for these too.


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I will try to take some photos next time I take the car out.

Kind regards
Gitesh
Last edited by 911GP on Thu Sep 15, 2022 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

From the earlier photos you could see that the car's interior was fairly complete, however much of it was in poor condition as you would expect from 45 years use. I wanted to keep as much of the original interior as possible but there were issues with almost every part. One of the rear seat bases had a cigarette burn, one of the rear quarter panels had a tear, the rear seat backs vinyl had chips along the top, the parcel shelf was broken along the cardboard spine and the door cards had speaker holes cut into them. I bought some original replacement panels but wasn't too impressed with the finish since the vinyl had slightly different shades to the parts in my car due to ageing and overall, the effect looked pretty poor. So I bit the bullet and asked Southbound to retrim almost every panel. In fact, the only parts kept in their original state were the dash top, knee bars and the garnish rails. Southbound's materials were a good match to the originals and their stitching and finish was very good.


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Gary said the carpet set fitted very well and I liked the ribbed rubber beneath the pedals so I asked Southbound to make a set of salt and pepper over mats with the same ribbed rubber:


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You may have read elsewhere that I wasn't too happy with the Recaro Sports seats I had bought and had restored and reupholstered by Southbound. Originally, my head was almost touching the roof which is baffling since I am only 5'9" and slim. Southbound adjusted the seats and they are ok(ish) now. I still feel my knees are a little close to steering wheel (40cm) but will see how I feel with time.


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When I first placed my order with Southbound, their roof lining had square perforations but by the time my interior was needed they had introduced the now common diamond perforations. It is not an exact match but fairly close.

Original:

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New replacement:

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The colour is a little more "mushroom" but I think this actually works well with my original sun visors. My passenger side sun visor is in very good condition. I thought about restoring the driver's side, as others have done here, but it isn't too bad so have left it for now. The sun visor hinges were rusty and the chrome was flaking. It was cheaper to order replacements from Carpoint but the quality was not very good (beware if you are considering purchasing these) so I had my originals rechromed.


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However, the Carpoint door striker rebuild kit is very good and I would recommend this:


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My rear quarter window openers were fine but I came across a pair of very nice originals for the same price as the Carpoint repros, so a no brainer:


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I wanted to retain my original 1973 stamped Repa seat belts with the red jelly bean button but preferred the inertia reel set up to the statics I had. I knew this should be possible since it was a factory option:


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After a lot of searching for various seat belt parts, I managed to put these together. Orange tracer seat belt webbing and dated labels from Stretch (thank you, Dave). Gary made the inertia reel covers, had the components replated and reassembled the seat belt parts. They work well and are much better than before.


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Took a while to find these sports receivers with the long black plastic backs:

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I also wanted to have rear seatbelts in the for the kids (although three years on, my daughter is finding it a squeeze in the back!). Original 1969 dated Repa lap belts were kindly offered to me from barryb (thank you, Barry). I knew lap belts would not be as safe as three point so with some work, we managed to put these three point belts together:


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All the belts were stitched by FDTS and they were excellent and very pleasant to deal with. They also supplied the black webbing and some of the hardware including these hooks. I'm not too sure I like them but they are convenient for storing the belts away:


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The previous owner had supplied me with the original door pockets but they are too far gone to restore so I ordered these replacements from Carpoint. I have read that some question their fit versus the ones supplied by Porsche but these were fine and fitted without any issues:

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I have never understood how the driver's side door is supposed to be closed without a door handle to pull on. Since the door pockets on my had been removed I used to pull on the door frame. Gary said that some pull on the small door pocket but we both agreed that having a proper door handle would be better. I sourced this one from the US but have kept the original RHD one I had.


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The electric window switch bezels were real chrome plated plastic which I believe was also used on Mercedes cars of the same era. My passenger side window switch was in good condition but the chrome was peeling on the two driver's side switches. Although chrome plated plastic is still used today, I found it very difficult to find a company who would restore these two switch bezels for me. One company that tried to provide this service were not happy with the results since the plating was too thick such that the bezel would not fit around the switch and thinner plating showed the defects in the plastic beneath. In the end, I used a company that applied chrome spray paint to the bezels and the results were good.


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Paint plaque supplied by Ake Olssons at Skaraborgflyg (he also supplied the engine decals shown on my last post). Good reproductions and a nice guy to deal with. Gary stamped the paint plaque for me 936-9-3 per davep (thank you, Dave).

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My windscreen had a chip and had also been repaired previously so we replaced this but kept the old tax disc holder:


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Kind regards
Gitesh
Last edited by 911GP on Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:23 am, edited 3 times in total.
Ralph
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Ralph »

Wow - amazing attention to detail. Looks absolutely spot on.

Ralph.
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yoda
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by yoda »

Great work Gitesh, the car is really looking fabulous.
The force is strong in this one ......
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tonyiad
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by tonyiad »

The Chris Turner tax disk holder is a gem, wish I kept mine
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by PMNorris »

Hi Gitesh,
Fantastic work, everything you've done is top notch. Please can you let me know who did the vapour plating for your headlight reflector restoration. I need mine restoring and yours look fantastic.
Many thanks
Paul
1970 2.2 911 T / Ex RS Clone, now more original looking, with 1979 3.2 SS engine
1988 3.2 Carrera Commemorative edition (sold)
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Hi Paul,
This is something Gary handled. I’ve PM’d you his number.
Kind regards
Gitesh
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by PMNorris »

Thanks Gitesh
1970 2.2 911 T / Ex RS Clone, now more original looking, with 1979 3.2 SS engine
1988 3.2 Carrera Commemorative edition (sold)
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

It has been a while since I last updated this. The car has been running well and overall I have been very happy. There have been a few minor bits that I have been handling myself at home. When Gary was rebuilding the car, I asked him to run a wire from the brake light to the roof via the rear screen rubber in order to fit a high level brake light. I originally provided him with a used led unit from a BMW 3 series but it looked too big on such a small car. Afterwards I fitted this smaller unit led unit I sourced from the US, which looks much more discreet and I am really happy with the results. The unit is housed in a textured black c-shaped housing that suits the car well.

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Gary had also noted that a previous owner had stuck a new piece of mirror glass to the on top of the old one. I managed to get the old mirror off and found the original, badly tarnished underneath. Armed with a hammer and a plastic bag, I went to break it and fortunately the whole mirror and ring popped out. I replaced the mirror, fitted a gasket and pressed the retaining ring in quite easily. My luck ran out when I went to fit the mirror to the car and dropped a nut in the door. A five minute job then took an hour but the end result was looks pretty good:

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It took me a while to find this nice, original 915 gear knob:

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The seats still continue to annoy me so will be something I will be looking to address in the future. In the meantime, I sourced an original 380mm wheel and Mr Parr did another wonderful restoration for me and wrapped it in single skin leather. Thank you, Jonathan.

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Many thanks also to Mike B (210bhp) for restoring the hood crest. He did a fabulous job (as always) and it really does look great on the car:

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I realised I hadn't taken any final photos post the restoration so here are some I took last night after returning from Gary Cook's for some minor post build snagging issues.

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I know they are not to everyone's taste but I like the wheel arch trim, especially the way they meet the side sill end caps and the rear bumper trim. They were an original item on the car along with the muffler skirt but we fitted new replacements since the old ones were too far gone to use again. I asked John at Chesterton's to fit them with small torx head nuts and bolts so that they can be removed for cleaning and they don't look that that different to the original rivets:

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Sourcing parts can be difficult and I spent a lot of time and a small fortune looking for deck lid badges. My deck lid grill was in good shape with a nice purple black colour to the anodising and really wanted the badges to be the same. Early on I bought a very nice 911E badge from Graham (911hillclimber) but this went missing at one of the anodisers. Fortunately I was able to source a NOS replacement. I also bought many sets of Porsche deck lid letters until I was offered these originals which look just right against the silver paint:

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Thank you to all the companies that helped restore my car and a massive thank you to Gary and Giulio at GDC Automotive.

Thank you also to my family for supporting me during the restoration, especially my dad who has helped me considerably through the whole journey.

Lastly, I would also like to thank all of you DDKers that helped with special thanks to Mike (210bhp), Darren, Jonathan Parr, Richard (inaglasshouse), Steve (911MRP) and Andy (Lightweight 911). Your help was invaluable to me. I am very grateful.

Kind regards to you all,

Gitesh

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Last edited by 911GP on Wed Oct 19, 2022 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Darren65
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Darren65 »

The car looks super sharp and fresh Gitesh and is credit to your due diligence, fastidiousness and burning desire to make the car as good as it can be!

You've done an amazing job, huge congratulations :thumbright:
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Bootsy »

What Darren said - bloody lovely
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Lightweight_911 »

.

Congratulations Gitesh - the car looks wonderful !

As Darren said - credit to you for persevering to get all of the small details looking 'spot-on' & refusing to go the easy route of just buying new/repro items.

Has it given you the restoration 'bug' ... leading to you scouring the internet on the look-out for your next project ? :wink:

.
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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Gary71 »

Looks absolutely wonderful :)

Great restoration
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by hot66 »

Looks fantastic
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