DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Great write up of unintended consequences. Thank you.

You’d think the gotchas were all over now wouldn’t you? No such luck.

The next one was not if my making but down to Design911.

I’d ordered two of the tapered pins that hold in the ball joint (not sure if that’s the correct name but you’ll see what I mean) as they are non-re-usable.

I came to tap them in but they weren’t playing ball



It shouldn’t be sticking out like that. For once I resisted the BFH temptation and tried subtler means of persuasion


But still no joy.

I wondered if I’d somehow managed to damage the hole so to test this I grabbed the original ones (that still looked good) and tried one of them

Went in perfectly.

Then I compared the Design911 one against the one I’d taken out


The original is on the right. The one in the left has admittedly been deformed by me trying to press it in but the profile is crucially slightly different.

While looking for something else I remarkably found a brand new replacement (along with unused ball joint!) so I was able to use that

I ordered a replacement one from Porsche and that went in perfectly too


Looking good.

Finally I had to sort out the hard brake lines. One was completely mullered when I took it off and the other one didn’t look great either.

I’d seen videos on making your own brake lines up and it didn’t look too hard so I ordered the kit

After watching a YouTube video I was obviously an expert so I cracked on


All went well

After this I was able to bleed the brakes and the. Take it out for a test run.

Apart from the fact that I hadn’t bled the brakes properly it was great. The rebuilt shocks transformed the ride.

I came back and bled them again until I got a firm pedal

There was one last job to do before I could drive it daily. I’d notice some of the paint peeling off near the sills under the car.

I think this was because parts of it were only protected by epoxy mastic and didn’t have a rubberised protector (eg raptor) over the top. I thought I could sand it back, treat it, re-coat it and add suitable protecting over the top

Sod’s Law dictated that this was where the scissor lift raised the car so there was no way I could access it using the lift.

I needed another plan

Once a classic car is in a fighting mood, anything can happen.

I'm encouraged as I thought I was the only one always in the 'ring'.
Since when was the double taper cotter pin single use? Didn't know that.
Mine have been in/out 3 times in 30 years.

Amazed to see that flaring tool. Same as mine which I bought in the 1970's. Crude, simple, does the job.

Does anyone manage to bleed early 911 brakes first time?

What did Design 911 have to say about that part, of late there does seem to be a lot of their stuff that are not the best of reproduction parts?

i had problmes with oem pins in the past .. genuine from porsche were perfect

I haven’t had time to take it up with them as I’m still working on the car

And yes Bentley manual says they should be replaced each time and I’ve seen that online as well but can’t remember where. I presume they stretch slightly when torqued up.

Next update - I got wood!

Interesting reading. My new ball joints together with their installation kit that includes the pins just arrived from Elephant racing. I hope they fit better than the Design911 ones..... I see Design911 do 'OE Match' parts front ball joint cotter pins. Are those the ones to avoid?

I have found most outlets do NO quality control on the parts sold, they rely on the supplier to send 'good parts'.

Unless it comes from the factory there is a risk.
Lots of parts sold retail come from the factory but most popular OEM replacement parts can be iffy.

I am NOT just saying Des911, I've never had an issue with parts from them over the years.

I bet my ball joint pins are soundly rusted in place by now...but I install the M6 nut (metal locking type) with red loctite too.

hot66 wrote:i had problmes with oem pins in the past .. genuine from porsche were perfect

Can’t remember ever replacing them… I await a sudden near death experience soon

Only if the nuts come off!

I presume replacement is recommended if they are removed with a big hammer on the thread! A small punch will knock them out without damaging the thread and leaving them reusable.


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That makes sense - some people do have to muller them to get them off. And yes the crap ones were described as OE manufactured. I double-checked the part number and it matched.

Ok so I e been over the moon with my car lift - it has utterly transformed how easy it is to work on the car.

But I won’t let me work on that flaking paint under the sills…..

So back to my wood - I made one of these



And then 3 more



Which let me do this

So that meant I could have a look at the flaky paint. With a screwdriver….

This was the first hole…


But it wasn’t the last!