DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

It's been such a long time since I was able to get down and see my car in the flesh but next week I'm Devon bound to Classic Fabs hallowed doors to get my greasy paws on my little 356. The electrican has been in town and apart from re-soldering many of my wiring mistakes he fitted a voltage regulator to work with my old style alternator which being an early model needs such a device. He tucked it away rather neatly under the MSD ignition jobbie and did all the required hook ups. I've still got engine problems with the offside bank of Webers not running right plus there is still a problem with oil frothing on it's return from the front cooler. The carb problem is being addressed as we speak but regarding the oil one thought was to delete the front mounted oil cooler, however this proved a futile operation as the oil returned in the same frothy state. Another thought line was to change the oil type and so, on recommendation, we are now using Motul 4100 with the hope for an improvement. 1st pt pics

Problems, problems. Sometimes I think its' two paces forward then three paces back, but I'm sure it will come good in the end, it'll only take time and of course shed loads of money, ha, why worry you can't take it with you.
Next bit of grief was the clutch cable requiring a bracket to be fabricated onto the transmission crossmember, no big deal this one. Then the discovery that the handbrake cables were a little on the short side and some demon lengthening will get these to fit, hopefully.
When I was originally running the pathetic little four banger in the 356 my throttle linkage was a glorified bicycle tandem rear brake cable hooked up to a bit of welded steel on the throttle pedal. Actually it worked great, however Steve at Classic Fabs could most certainly not allow such Heath Robinson lash ups to emerge from his workshops, so there will be a modified 911 linkage in it's place to slam open and close the butterflies on my Webers, nice.

Might, just might be test driving this coming Wednesday. Hey, better get some insurance for the old dog. Modified vehicle eh, bet that's going to cost me.

Of course it’s standard spec mr. Underwriter!

Graham,

Nothing is just straight forward on the changes you have made. So close now, and yes I guess you have to be honest and state everything to the insurer, I suppose they will load it up a bit. To get agreed value on mine had to send about 6 pics of it and mine is just an old original car. I wonder how they arrive at a premium interested to know how you get on and if it runs!

Roy

Drove down to deepest darkest Devon today to Steve Kerti's Classic Fabrications' workshop to check out the progress on my little 356 and I have to say it is looking absolutely awesome with the triple Webers sitting menacingly in the engine bay and the hand fabricated exhaust headers tucked under the rear fenders but showing just a tempting amount of pipework below to let you know this car is not exactly standard. OK there are still a few items to be addressed, like a reverse lockout plate so I don't shift from fifth into reverse at 100mph. Not too healthy for gearboxes that move. The oil frothing problem on the return cycle is unfortunately still giving headaches. We have to get some front rubber to replace the ancient 195.45 Pirellis and will be going up a profile to some 195.50 x 16 Toyo's as the car has quite a pronounced 'California hangdown' at the moment. Then fixing the Autometer vacuum gauge and most important or all will be to re-jet the Webers and dyno tune the engine on a rolling road which thankfully is not too many miles away in Plymouth.
Steve has a full sheet of tasks to be completed and I hope he will get most done but he's just got a new toy - a Chevy Nova, a sweet little US compact if you didn't know currently with a Corvette motor but soon to have an ex Lola small block with all the good parts. Also in the shop is a sad Carrera Turbo just crying out for some Classic Fab type love and attention, and I might just be giving this tasty turbo some attention of my own.
One other item I should mention is with regard to our current transport being a late model Macan Turbo we picked up recently. It is fast, in fact it's wickedly fast but it does suffer from turbo lag like when you are in traffic going 50's, 60's and the main body of vehicles increases speed to 70/75+, foot goes on the gas and, you wait, push a bit harder, then boom it's take off time and before you know it you have to give it a boot full of brake pedal, a procedure not conducive to relaxed motoring. But the real kicker was when previously I have travelled to Steve's place in Devon which is a 250 miles round trip or so and gone there in our old Cayenne diesel, I used to use a quarter of a tank of fuel. In the Macan, about 10 miles from home the fuel warning message started, that's less than 20 to the gallon. Gulp, ere, can you lend us a fiver for a couple of litres?

The outstanding problem with the aeration of the return oil supply was still baffling us all. However following consultation with a couple of experienced gentlemen who do race their respective machines the upshot of these discussions was that the return oil had a too perfect route back to the oil tank. What was needed was some form of interruption to the path that the oil takes, so Steve decided to pull out the oil tank and completely remake the thing with the return pipe making a sharp right and sending the oil onto the side face of the tank plus as the oil drains down it travels through a mesh then past further baffles and that little lot should remove all the nasty little bubbles in my oil. However prior to this particular work the car did not go to the rolling road tuning place as was the intention but Patrick, Steve's maestro mechanic stripped down the offending bank of Webers, found it fairly well clogged with debris, reassembled the carb assembly and, voila, the car ran like the proverbial dream. They were so pleased with this result they were giving the engine a goodly amount of revs but failed to notice that the oil pressure was scaling up to 90 psi. They very quickly learnt of their error when the oil filter gasket blew out and the engine dumped a gallon of crude onto the workshop floor. Big oops.
The cause was a stuck return spring, not really stuck fast but held due to a sort of tide mark that had formed. Steve quickly rectified this by giving the valve a light hone and fitting a lighter spring. He also gave clearance to the oil filter housing and the great result, after quite a load of grief was a sweet running engine showing 50 to 60 psi and sounding just as sweet as a nut.
There remains just a few more jobs to be completed, one of which was to fabricate a better throttle linkage. Way back when the car was powered by the four banger I had rigged up a system which was working perfectly utilising a tandem bike brake cable, however I knew Steve wouldn't allow this to remain and he has now fitted a 911 direct rod system so everybody is happy. We are very nearly there.

You know it's funny how things come good. It's a Bank Holiday weekend and it's hot and sunny, well it is here down South. My new summerhouse is all complete, painted and furnished. I've just finished the restoration of my Hillman Husky, hey, don't laugh. We had a great turnout on Saturday at the Churn and then a terrific day down at Goodwood on Sunday at the Retro Rides event, at least 20 911s' on show. Then checking my emails after watching the Giro on Eurosport, a message from Classic Fabrications; main man Steve has obviously been putting in the overtime and was able to take small blue 356 out for its' first run in nearly three years of incarceration. It's on a UTube clip as per below which I can't attach here for reasons I don't know but seeing my wee beastie hustle down the road almost brings tears to my eyes. Actually what really brings tears to my eyes is totalling up how much this little lot has cost me.
https://youtu.be/-D_ND0xpSc4

Looks like Bardot, sounds like Aretha. You can have it all

Fantastic! He really is a very clever guy – did you see Delwyn's Carrera RS while you were there? Probably didn't recognise it as such even if you did spot it...

Graham,

The engine looks great with the carbs, and the test run was really nice it sounded perfect to me.

Roy

that is cool

Delwyn has a Carrera RS !!!! Good God, that man has foresight.

You could say that... He's had it since the 1980s - used it as his daily driver into London for several years.