1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

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majordad
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by majordad »

Looking at your lenses and how you treated them I’m wondering could I convert my Euro lenses to Italian, ie remove half of the Orange like you did using the Butyl Cellosolve, and where would I buy it?
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

majordad wrote:Looking at your lenses and how you treated them I’m wondering could I convert my Euro lenses to Italian, ie remove half of the Orange like you did using the Butyl Cellosolve, and where would I buy it?
Hi, I can't see why not. The Butyl Cellosolve tends to spread so you may find that you cannot achieve the orange faded edge that I have seen on Italian lenses. However, you could always strip them and repaint as I did. Note that the Butyl Cellosolve is actually a Dow Chemical trademark and it is also known as Buytl Glycol, 2-Butoxyethanol and Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether. The company I bought the Butyl Cellosolve from no longer stock it but if you Google these chemical names there are many suppliers.

Hope this helps,

Gitesh
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by majordad »

Thanks, I’ll investigate further and report back.
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Bootsy »

Great update Gitesh, you attention to detail is superb
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

Thank you, but this can be a double edged sword and hence why my wife thinks I have OCD! Here is another example:

Gauges

Most of you will have noticed from this earlier photo that the car had the wrong oil temp gauge:

Image


With a bit of research I discerned that I needed a combo oil temp/pressure gauge with part number 911 641 104 00. This is the one I bought date stamped 4/72 so a little earlier than my car but it was the right part number:

Image


I sent my gauges to Julian Reap to clean and refurbish the bezels, which had a little rust. Julian is a great guy and very local to me. I have loved spending time at his workshop looking at his amazing work. The only downside is that he is very busy, which means a long turnaround time. I wasn't in any rush so not an issue for me but if you are thinking of sending him gauges, allow plenty of time. Here is a picture Gary took of the gauges fitted to the car:

Image


All was good until I saw the gauges Tom (Tp81) posted from his '73 911E, also done by Julian. Hold on a minute...the combo gauge I had was different to his.

I discovered the combo gauge had a cosmetic change in early 73 (28th March 1973 to be precise, according to Steve (911MRP). Thank you, Steve.) It retained the same part number but the OIL script was lowered closer to the silver dot and the handbrake warning light symbol at the top was changed to a "B". Gary thought the one I had bought was fine but I knew it would always bug me when I looked down at the gauges so the search was on for a replacement gauge, which was not an easy task. The production run was short and many of these gauges had been scooped up for RS replicas. No joy from the wanted ads I had posted on the forums or any of the suppliers or owners I had bought parts from in the US. The Europeans had the metric gauge with "Druck" printed instead of "Press" so I didn't think any of the European parts suppliers would have one. However, I was wrong and I was offered a gauge in very good condition from Germany and it had the same date stamp as my other gauges: 5/73. To match the other gauges, Julian swapped over the bezels and turned it around quickly for me. Here is a photo I took the other day when I went to see the car:

Image


You can also see the excellent job Jonathan Parr did on my refurbishing my plastic trimmed steering wheel to leather. It is the 40cm type that would have come with the car so quite big compared to modern cars, but I like it. Thank you, Jonathan.

Kind regards

Gitesh
Last edited by 911GP on Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
keith fellowes
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by keith fellowes »

Gitesh, you don't suffer from OCD, it is CDO!!
What superb attention to detail
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911hillclimber »

Had to look at my 73T once I saw/read the above but one post.

My 73T I thought was a Feb 73 build, but I have one of the 'close oil script' gauges and the instruments are original to the car, so the build date is later than I thought (presumably).
Something to learn every day. :)
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by IanM »

911GP wrote:You can also see the excellent job Jonathan Parr did on my refurbishing my plastic trimmed steering wheel to leather.
The steering wheel looks really good. What type of leather did he use?
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

911hillclimber wrote:Had to look at my 73T once I saw/read the above but one post.

My 73T I thought was a Feb 73 build, but I have one of the 'close oil script' gauges and the instruments are original to the car, so the build date is later than I thought (presumably).
Something to learn every day. :)
Hello Graham, that is an interesting point. My COA states that my production completion date is 9th May 1973, which I'm pretty sure is wrong. The 911E registry shows cars with chassis numbers slightly before mine having a build date of June 1973 and slightly after mine with a build date of July 1973. I can't see how gauges dated 5/73 could be made and fitted to my car in less than 9 days!

IanM wrote:
911GP wrote:You can also see the excellent job Jonathan Parr did on my refurbishing my plastic trimmed steering wheel to leather.
The steering wheel looks really good. What type of leather did he use?
Hi Ian, that is a very good question and I have absolutely no idea and never thought to ask him either! Sorry. He may reply if he reads this or you can PM him.


Kind regards
Gitesh
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by jtparr »

911GP wrote:Thank you, but this can be a double edged sword and hence why my wife thinks I have OCD! Here is another example:

Gauges

Most of you will have noticed from this earlier photo that the car had the wrong oil temp gauge:

Image


With a bit of research I discerned that I needed a combo oil temp/pressure gauge with part number 911 641 104 00. This is the one I bought date stamped 4/72 so a little earlier than my car but it was the right part number:

Image


I sent my gauges to Julian Reap to clean and refurbish the bezels, which had a little rust. Julian is a great guy and very local to me. I have loved spending time at his workshop looking at his amazing work. The only downside is that he is very busy, which means a long turnaround time. I wasn't in any rush so not an issue for me but if you are thinking of sending him gauges, allow plenty of time. Here is a picture Gary took of the gauges fitted to the car:

Image


All was good until I saw the gauges Tom (Tp81) posted from his '73 911E, also done by Julian. Hold on a minute...the combo gauge I had was different to his.

I discovered the combo gauge had a cosmetic change in early 73 (28th March 1973 to be precise, according to Steve (911MRP). Thank you, Steve.) It retained the same part number but the OIL script was lowered closer to the silver dot and the handbrake warning light symbol at the top was changed to a "B". Gary thought the one I had bought was fine but I knew it would always bug me when I looked down at the gauges so the search was on for a replacement gauge, which was not an easy task. The production run was short and many of these gauges had been scooped up for RS replicas. No joy from the wanted ads I had posted on the forums or any of the suppliers or owners I had bought parts from in the US. The Europeans had the metric gauge with "Druck" printed instead of "Press" so I didn't think any of the European parts suppliers would have one. However, I was wrong and I was offered a gauge in very good condition from Germany and it had the same date stamp as my other gauges: 5/73. To match the other gauges, Julian swapped over the bezels and turned it around quickly for me. Here is a photo a took the other day when I went to see the car:

Image


You can also see the excellent job Jonathan Parr did on my refurbishing my plastic trimmed steering wheel to leather. It is the 40cm type that would have come with the car so quite big compared to modern cars, but I like it. Thank you, Jonathan.

Kind regards

Gitesh
Hi Gitesh
Cars looking superb..glad the wheel is up to your standards..! :cheers:
All the best
Jonathan
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

Apologies for the break. I was waiting for the car to be brought home so I could take some photos. Anyway, my car is home now so...carrying on with the dash area, I had the ubiquitous crack from the instrument binnacle to the hole for the speaker. I considered recovering the dash but in the end, Gary touched it up with some adhesive. I'm pleased with the results and glad I didn't have it recovered:

Image


I didn't realise that there was also a hairline crack along the length of the dashboard above the glovebox and Gary did a very tidy job here too:

Image


The re-anodised dash trim fitted well and looks much better than before:

Image


I had originally wanted to fit a period radio but had to abandon this due to the overspend. Anyway, there wasn't a radio fitted at the factory and so far, I don't miss it.

There was a large hole at the back of the glovebox so I bought a good replacement from the US but then I had an idea. I asked Gary to repair the old glovebox with some fibreglass and fit a power point in it which would be useful for charging phones. Rather than fit a large cigarette socket, or a USB version of it, I bought some discreet connectors similar to those you would find on a laptop computer:

Image


My dad and I made two power points out of black anodised aluminium to connect to it (one USB version and one 12v socket). They can plugged in when wanted and stored away when not in use.

Image


Image


Image


Image


Gary made a small bracket and fitted another socket under the dash. This would be more suited to the 12v power point box but I also asked Gary to make this socket permanently on rather than only on with the ignition. I then converted a CTEK eyelet connector so that I could charge the car batteries from inside the car rather than having to pop open the bonnet every time:

Image


Here it is in action:

Image


Gary thought the glovebox light should have a chrome surround but with some research I found that '73 model year had a black surround so I bought one of these. And then found out I already had one with the black surround :roll:


Image


The sunroof switch I had was from a different car altogether (I think Gary said it was a GM part) so I looked for an original and bought this:

Image

Although it would work fine, Gary told me that it was from a later year and '73 model year had a chrome surround. I bought this one from a very helpful chap in Australia:

Image


Stupidly, I didn't realise beforehand that I also had the wrong connector on the wiring harness. DDK to the rescue, I was offered a sunroof wiring harness from jwhillracer. Thank you, Jonathan.

Gary informed me that my ashtray light was missing (I didn't even know there was one). Replacement ordered from Porsche:

Image


Kind regards

Gitesh
Last edited by 911GP on Tue Dec 03, 2019 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by Grenoble39 »

Hi Gitesh,
It's certainly painful to read the extent to which you are torturing yourself on these details. Are you sure any of them are going to make the car drive better?
Obviously I am one who believes that cars evolve over time, and are simply there to be driven!
Best wishes with it though,
Howard
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by 911GP »

Grenoble39 wrote:Hi Gitesh,
It's certainly painful to read the extent to which you are torturing yourself on these details. Are you sure any of them are going to make the car drive better?
Obviously I am one who believes that cars evolve over time, and are simply there to be driven!
Best wishes with it though,
Howard
Hello Howard,

I do understand where you are coming from. When I bought the car it was well worn but perfectly drivable and I could have continued to use it as it was. The previous owner had done that for many years.

The pain has really stemmed from the restoration itself rather than these small details. The car now handles beautifully and drives really well but of course, none of these details make it drive better. Unlike a hot-rod or bitsa, my car was largely original so I was inclined to bring it back to original as best as I could.

Kind regards
Gitesh
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by hot66 »

I love these little details Gitesh as much as I like a twin plug hot rod engine ... with any well built car it is always in the detail 8) .... of course what’s even better is driving
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Re: 1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

Post by inaglasshouse »

A lot of it’s in the detail, I think. A car with all the details right sometimes feels more than the sum of its parts.
Anyway, why not? Once you know what’s correct, sometimes it’s no more difficult / costly to do it right.

With that said, surely we need some driving words and pics Gitesh? Well done for getting this far.

Cheers, Richard.
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