My 1968 911s restoration - advice needed please

[alfi68s]

Hi all, the bodywork restoration on my car is nearing completion and nearly ready for paint and i've been dragging my heels getting all of the mechanical parts restored and ready to reunite with the car... I have a few questions that i need to resolve to allow me to push forward and get parts ordered, refurbished, or made.

I need to fit an external oil cooler, is it possible to make new hard lines? Does anyone have dimensions of hard oil lines?
Anyone know of any good condition used lines available?
I'm going to powder coat the suspension parts etc. Does anyone know of a good powder coatings? I pressume you mask off all contact faces and surfaces or does the powder coater do this? Is there a colour or finish that looks a bit more period than the usual powder coating examples seen?
I want to get all of my bolts etc replated. What is the modern recognised process for doing this? Any contacts would be appreciated.

Thanks for in advance for any advice
Alfie

[911hillclimber]

Ref powder coating..
I have used Redditch Powder Coating many times.
They are very familiar with sorting old vehicle parts, attend all the classic car shows etc.
you need to be sure your parts are serviceable!
If so they will blast them as appropriate and colour to your choice. They mask threads, male and female and one man does the lot to your bundle, a nice touch and works well.
They last did a Lambretta for me, superb job indeed.

Better people than I will comment on external oil cooler mods.

The correct plating process is easy to find in any good city, but I think chrome6 plating is now illegal in the U.K. But maybe not for hobby use?
The ch6 gives the yellow finish when the zinc is passivated, modern plating gives a silver finish which is not quite so resistant to salt corrosion, but still good.

Good luck with the car.

[defianty]

For recommendations it may help if you give us your location Alfie. Someone may know of a place locally.

For both my sandblasting/powder coating and plating I found small local companies that were both great to work with. Inevitably you forget the odd piece here and there, being local I could always drop in with a small sandwich box full of bits and they'd happily do them for a few quid cash.

I also found the the better you could clean up the parts before plating the better they would turn you. A lot of time was spent with a wire wheel.

[fetuhoe]

Graham,

Just for interest the use of Hexa-valent Chrome to passivate zinc plated parts was indeed banned some while ago and has been replaced by a Tri-valent system so a 'yellow' finish is still readily available but not as long lasting.

The Clear finish is also a chromate treatment but using a slightly different chemistry. This finish is also now Tri-valent and tends to provide better corrosion resistance than the currently available Yellow finish.

It is also possible to now obtain a Black Chromate finish as an alternative.

If you zinc plate high strength fasteners (Stronger than Grade 8.8 ) it is sensible to 'bake' the parts after plating to eliminate any potential for hydrogen embrittlement to occur and cause bolt failure.

I would avoid using Hexa-valent chrome solutions at 'home' as these substances are rated as being carinogenic, mutagenic and tetragenic.

Hexa-valent chromating of Cadmium plating was permitted for Aircraft parts up to about 18 months ago but I believe this has now been withdrawn.

We never powder coat suspension parts as we don't like the finish and is not always entirely durable.

We paint all our suspension parts in a Zinc Phosphate rich 2-pack Epoxy paint which has a salt spray life of 1000hrs to red rust.

It has very good adhesion when sprayed onto a freshly blast cleaned surface and it des perform very well. We use a Satin finish of around 50 gloss units.

[alfi68s]

Thanks for the replies, I'm based in Cheshire so any local recommendations would be appreciated.
Hopefully my parts should be pretty clean - I've got access to a vapour blaster and the results are looking good so far.

[BILLY BEAN]

Alfie, how much research have you done into fitting an external cooler? Are you building a "hot rod" or trying to keep within what Porsche did in period as far as is practical? Where do you propose mounting the external cooler? Is the current 'plumbing' in your engine compartment suitable for an external cooler? I am not trying to be clever here but it would be helpful to know what you are trying to achieve in a bit more detail in order to possibly elicit further advice.

[alfi68s]

Regarding the oil cooler, when i bought the car a few years ago it had a extra oil cooler mounted in front of the fan, a duck tail spoiler allowed clearance. I'm trying to get the car close to it's original spec with a few period hot rod / motorsport mods. The engine has been enlarged and tuned earlier in it's life (2.5l 225hp) it really needs an oil cooler.
I'm not opposed to doing something from a later year but would prefer to keep the mods in period. I was thinking external oil lines and a trombone style cooler or even a turbo cooler at the front.
The car is still getting bodywork repairs at present and i want to prepare now for the oil cooler mods before it goes to paint. The bodywork restoration has been a fairly massive undertaking as it had flared fibreglass arches and 50 years of terrible repairs, As yet the new rear quarters haven't been fitted so i'm open to ideas....
Alfie

[911hillclimber]

Fwiw, my 73T has a good 3.2 in it, 230 bhp ish and I have a simple trombone external cooler, loop at the front.
I hill climbed this car for many years and 60k miles, no overheating.
Preparation to fit it is down mainly to threaded inserts along the driver's side sill and inner front wing, all nice and simple, period and effective.

[ajwans]

Elephant racing makes the lines which run under the right sill. https://www.elephantracing.com/porsche/ ... oil-lines/

andy

[alfi68s]

That's basically what i was thinking of doing regarding the oil cooling. Anyone got any oil lines they are willing to part with, Porsche items are fairly expensive....
A few pics of my progress...[URL=https://s956.photobucket.com/user/ ... .jpg[/img]
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[stretch]

Nice Alfie. Looks like your doing a quality job there. Chances of finding used oil lines in good order will be virtually nil.
You could have put the through the sill lines in earlier, but as you know the external one's are your only choice now.

Look forward to more progress pics.

Dave

[impmad2000]

I have a set, removed from my early IB shell. Trombone cooler, pipes, thermostat housing ( never been opened, but I have tried). And some flexible pipes. I can bring them to the DDK swap meet. Battered and bruised but essential. £300.
Tim

[BILLY BEAN]

As has been said above your only option is external under sill oil lines.For these you will need under sill captive fittings to be welded on and P clips in the front inner wing. These oil lines in original form and what is currently available from Porsche have M30 x1.5mm end fittings (1972 /73MY). You may already be aware of this. You will also probably need two flexible oil lines to couple the under sill lines to the cooler. These can be made up and the rubber hose and fittings are available. Your existing oil system in your engine compartment, if original, will be M26 I think. A trombone cooler is probably the simplest option up front and should be M30 x 1.5mm. The trombone cooler can be left exposed so no stone guard necessary. The cooler will need some fixings to the inner wing again welded in.
The complications may come in the engine compartment. However you do not say what you have in terms of an oil system in this area. Do you have the earlier set up or something from a later car e.g. 1972 / 73 ? Or some sort of hybrid system? The earlier and late systems are totally different. Again if you can say what you have it may be possible to help further.
As had been stated above Elephant racing is a possibility but are not cheap either when I last looked. In addition the exchange rate is poor and you have the cost of shipping and import duties on top so may not be an option.
As Dave had said used oil lines are virtually impossible to find.

[911hillclimber]

The cooler is very long, as long as the car itself bar a couple of feet.

Brave to split he pipes from the thermostat, threads will almost certainly fail, and that will be expensive again.
I'd buy Tims set!

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[Berny]

I have a set of original brass pipes somewhere will have a look!