DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Hi guys, having recently introduced myself and the car, it was suggested that I start a restoration thread so here goes!! Please have a read of my intro for background.

I have already completed a lot of the metalwork, including new OEM latch panel, and front half suspension pan, and all the dodgy bits in and around that area. Have also taken care of all the rear footwells, including the areas around the rear torsion bar and tunnel. Outstanding metalwork is right side door latch panel, kidney and a small section of the adjacent rear wing below the Targa bar (the other side has been done by previous owners and looks good / like new.

I have used some of the warmer weather to strip rear bumpers, front bumper and engine lid back to bare metal - these ones were all the most solid of the multiple parts that I have accumulated over the last 20 years. These are all in 2k epoxy, straight, solid and looking greaaaaaat! A bit of TIGing, and skim of filler was of course necessary. I have some interesting pics of some dissected spare body parts that I will post soon.

Looks like I need to re-size all of the pics I spent all morning cropping, so I'll post them later for each section of the car. I'll hit enter now, and also post the bit that I am completely stuck on separately....

Bye for now! Dean

73T Targa, MFI (ex USA, imported and converted to RHD many moons ago, under restoration)
80' 924 Turbo (bought yesterday not home yet)
996 C4 cab (first engine destroyed itself, second one blew head gaskit - sold)
A bunch of 944's all gone.
My old love, an 83' SC Targa in Pewter, gone.

Here is just a tiny selection of the frontal repair photos...

I am lucky to have a spot welder with various long and short arms, plus TIG and MIG and switch between them as necessary, including when the gas runs out on TIG, again!!

The other thing that I found is that the Dansk and OEM coatings, even when sanded off, cause the TIG to 'spit' and leave great big lumps of metal on the end of the electrode. The MIG is much happier with that metalwork, but much hotter and the welds are much bigger and take longer to grind down than the tickle needed with TIG on low amps. I prefer the TIG for seamlessly (and sometimes invisibly on a good day) patching in plain steel, with and without filler rod (thanks to Contour Autocraft for teaching me to TIG without filler rod). The spot welder never complains, and just does its job - has been a God send!!

OK, so now I have just learned that 3 attachments is the maximum, and they are in the reverse order

More on the front section, in no particular order...

OK, last pics of the front section, and enough for today (the wife said)....

Nice work. Enjoy the journey

A few pics of the rear footwell repairs

.... the beige paint is Hammerite No1 Rust Beater (my favorite paint for interior pitted bits - chuckle)

Rear right tunnel section repair....

Been a while since I updated - I was stuck on getting the new OEM wings to fit sufficiently well, and same with the bonnet. It looked like to me like both doors needed to come forward by a couple of mm but the top hinges were already flush up against the hinge posts with no shims.

Anyway, I shouted out for help, and it arrived in the best form from Barry who, with a little tiny bit of assistance from me occasionally like to lift away the fully assembled doors (heavy buggers!!) and remove some bits and pieces out of the way for him to work his magic, hammered, slapped and fettled everything into a really nice shape

The edges of the doors, scuttle and sills were sanded back to reveal the bare metal and check for filler in preparation - no filler found, only the previous Aubergine paint and primer layers on solid shiny sheet metal. The original met blue was gone, suggesting that the previous Aubergine was part of a bare metal paint job.

I learned an incredible amount from watching Barry (mainly, to be braver - its only metal, and even the most expensive new OEM panels dont fit well) and now have a plan and instructions for taking it forward. The towel trick was particularly impressive for shaping up the curvature of the bonnet. The sledge hammer tweeks of the door hinge posts were slightly painful to watch, and needed special tooling, but as used by the factory apparently. Tweeking the shape of one of my shiny new wings around the door support on the floor was worrying too (I was holding it down to stop it running away!), but worked a treat.

So, the next steps.....

Learned that my sills were not welded on properly, and found a little bit of corrosion and few mm of filler at the front end of the left sill where it begins to slope up, and there is corrosion around the jacking point, so this will be replaced by the correct OEM part and installed plug welded in properly. Jury is out on the right sill....

Right latch post and some of the quarter panel needs some repair sections. Left side latch post has been done previously and looks good.

The left and right sides of the scuttle panel that curve around the screen need leading up to the rain channel to fill out the gap between the scuttle and the new wings - this gap could potentially be closed with a bit of chiselling, but this will likely twist the tips of the wings and increase the door top gap, not to mention it might crease 'somewhere'. The wing to door top gaps look like they might need closing only by perhaps 1 mm so, but they are not fully bolted up yet and the wing sealing tape and rubber seal is not in place yet so may need more. Then the options are a skim of filler or blobbing on and filing lead around the door edge.

These pictures may not do it justice, but I can assure you that everything is looking straight now with good gaps....

Left side...

Bonnet to wings...

Excellent Right man for the job

During the last week, I was preparing to run the MFI engine before dropping it to take care of the back of the heel boards properly and do sill work without the weight of the engine. I last ran it 4 or 5 years ago (that wasn't the plan), following which I removed the fuel tank for front end panel work. So, with a new fuel tank just fitted and 5 litres of 99 RON fuel, I went through the usual pre-start prep work: remove plugs, turn by hand, prime the pumps with fuel, fill the injection pump with oil (tough job!), crank a few times (with plugs out, HT lead disconnected and held close to the case, cold start solenoid wire disconnected) to build pressure (gauge showed 40 psi, so looked good), cleaned re-gapped and put back the plugs, cranked again with HT lead still disconnected. Re-connected CSS wire and HT lead and then tried to fire her up...... guess what?! she fired up on the first turn of the key... and idled smoothly!! unbelievable! I really wish I could take her out for a spin now, but I'm not tall enough to drive while sitting on the back seat, and the initial smokiness until she cleans out her pipes might draw attention

Getting ready to tidy the welds on the back side of the heel panels - B&D Power File ready with new belts...

Dropped the engine for this (see separate thread), and also in readiness to tackle sills and kidneys.

First though, I decided to take a break from welding and grinding (poor neighbours!), remove the heater flap boxes, and then clean all the gunge off of the underside to see whats (left) under it.

Had sprayed WD40 on the flap box nuts a couple of times over previous days. After a tweak in the wrong direction, all 6 nuts backed off easily. Had to hit the boxes, which are toast and will be replaced, with a mallet to free the mated ducting ....

Used my wife's tooth brush and Auto Glym Engine and Machine cleaner for this, which I found to be a mild and effective (I want to keep the garage dry and the car dry). I used a sponge to lift off the loosened dirt and washed the sponge off in water + squeezed it as dry as possible. Two applications and it was all clean enough to eat off of. Used (whole tins of) carb cleaner through a straw to remove the dirt from the hard to reach corners.

Thankfully, I think perhaps 98% of the original cream coloured underseal is still in excellent condition and still properly adhered.

The small areas that are not e.g. around the fuel pipe welded-on brackets only have really minor surface rust and will be cleaned back to bare metal and primed to protect it and ready for new underseal - I am undecided about what to use e.g. either Por15 or brush on epoxy 2k primer, then underseal touch-up either the proper 3M stuff or Gravitex.

I would prefer to remove the MFI fuel pump cradle to cleanup and protect the area around it, but this looked like a real pig to remove, and just as difficult to put back....

Has anyone done this please - any tips on how, without damaging the tube?

The fuel pump is now out...