BIB5566

[knapmann]

Those two pieces should go on the reverse side of the rear seat backs. Have they got two holes in them?

Regards
Mike

No wonder I couldn't figure that out! Each piece has a semi circle cut out on one side.

[rhd racer]

That is good progress. How is the colour match / blend line, or are you still waiting for the paint to harden before looking? Keep it up

[911hillclimber]

Ref bottom of the rear window and the roof material strip:

on my 73 the upholstered cover that goes over the surface of the rear parcel shelf buts up to the rear window and you can't see that area in the red rectangle you illustrate, but otherwise I think you are correct that it goes across there.

[knapmann]

That is good progress. How is the colour match / blend line, or are you still waiting for the paint to harden before looking? Keep it up

The colour match looks good but im waiting for it to harden before I rub them together. The whole car needs cutting back and polishing up though so I will probably do it all at once, I just need to decide when is best to do it.

[knapmann]

Ref bottom of the rear window and the roof material strip:

on my 73 the upholstered cover that goes over the surface of the rear parcel shelf buts up to the rear window and you can't see that area in the red rectangle you illustrate, but otherwise I think you are correct that it goes across there.

Nice one, I will install it here then as I cannot see where else it could possibly go!

[knapmann]

So my engine & bay need cleaning up and I want to check everything over on the engine before I press the button in order to establish what I have. So out it needs to come. I decided that like in the luggage area I would just clean up the existing and presumably original black schutz finish in here.

Many years of dust and dirt have accumulated





I realised that i have half the S front oil cooler set up, that is, the oil filter thermostat assembly, even though I dont have the actual cooler. I assumed Paul planned on getting one down the line at some point and I intend to do this as well so will be keeping it.



Stripped out the wiring


Put it back


Clean Engine Bay


Could do with a bit more space!


I started to dig into my engine to see what I have. I measured the intake valve lift at 11.5mm which I believe means they are indeed S cams. I also got a cheapo endoscope off ebay to try and look at the piston crowns. It wasnt very good but I think it was good enough to just about tell that they are S pistons. You can see the tight ridge between the valve reliefs which are specific to S pistons I believe. I know I have S heads from the casting numbers.




My only concern is that my MFI pump is (or was) an E pump, based off everything else I will have to assume it has been recalibrated to S spec. I cant tell what space cam I have from the outside.

Now I need to clean up my filthy engine, double check all of the settings and adjustments, which from the look of things are all correct already, and put it back in. Before I do that though I want to take the rear trailing arms out, whilst its easy to do so (bolts are in so they foul the gearbox on removal!

[911hillclimber]

Major work and progress.
Space is always an issue when working from home. I did my full restoration in a one-car garage, you have to be organised and then some!
Maybe a temporary 'shed' in the garden to loose the wings and things in.
Rotating engine stand may be a sound investment right now?

Great updates, more please!

[knapmann]

Still plodding along,

Fitted yinyl to the A and B posts



Took out all the rear end



Started to take my engine apart slightly in order to clean it up.



Cleaned up the throttle bodies and stacks, (which turn out to be 1970 2.2l parts), cleaned out the air bypasses, checked the linkages for length and wear, all was good. Left the butterfly idle stops alone for now, they appear to be set correctly. I found out that these have been re-bushed and are like new with no play at all, lucky me!




Started putting the engine back together and got it clean. Was able to check the injection pump timing, the plugs, the injectors, valve gaps, etc etc All looks good. I noticed that the engine cover has a crude hole made where the "through the fan adjustment hole" should be, which tells me that it is the original 1969 cover as they never had the hole in 69 originally. I'm simply going to put the engine back in, test for compression and fire it up. But first I need to clean up the transmission tunnel and underside of the back end of the car.


Finally another question. I have a really long length of this U-channel edging with integrated rubber seal, it looks like it has never been fitted and is just a long piece that needs cutting to length where appropriate, where does this belong on the car?


And one last one, how do people get compression testers to thread into the spark plug ports when they are so deep, I can imagine its a nightmare when the engine is back in the car. Do you need special tester?

[911hillclimber]

I have and use the simple Gunson type tester and it all fits, just have to guide it down to the plug hole carefully.
the 'plug' only needs to be finger tight as the O ring does all the seal you need.

[knapmann]

Installing Carpets, those footwell pockets are an absolute bitch



Engine going back in... this got precarious, too precarious to be taking photos!

[knapmann]

Well I got my engine back in and fired it up, seems to run fundamentally OK but struggling to get it to idle right, its way to high at the moment and it never seems to return to the idle it had after pressing the pedal. I have lots of investigation work on my hands, I need to check the timing and advance for starters. I suspect its not behaving itself.

I decided to leave the engine tuning for now after growing frustrated and lacking a timing light. I decided to get on with the interior. I needed to recover the rear side panels, garnish rails and deck. It turned into the mother of all gluing projects. Which after headliners and carpets etc etc im pretty much sick of the sight of contact adhesive already. The side panels in particular were bastards, the plastic arch parts which are stapled to death from the factory were very much worse for wear. Lots of cracks, missing sections etc one was too far gone pretty much totally shattered, but I had a spare fortunately. Even this needed gobs of araldite to hold it together in places. Once the structure of the plastic sections was made sound, it and the card section were covered I had to glue them together as stapling them as per factory was out of the question, even one staple introduces massive cracks into the plastic section. Plastic is always a nightmare on old cars, unrepairable and highly prone to failure. I had the same issue on my '02, the heater box is all rivited together plastic, of course after 50 years they are pretty much disintegrating.

After lots of covering, fitting, refitting, over and over, I finally got it all finished about as good as I can get







Also got my rear and front screen installed (above/below), dash pad as well, I decided to leave it warts and all in the end



The interior is nearly complete except for the rear seat backs and some minor touches I can sort at a later date (ash tray etc). I really need a rear deck garnish rail but cant find one anywhere... A big hold up will be the front seats for which I dont have the tilt and slide rails required...

Im slowly going to move on to the exterior, I hope to get the engine lid fitted next and then the rest of the panels. I started sorting my engine lid grille. The slats were all bent to buggery, not helped by the 3 bar design, I can see why they went to 5 bars. i should have took some before pictures so you can see how they started out but I didnt...





A question regarding panel installation order. My assumption is that it is doors first then front wings then bonnet? or is it wings first then bonnet/doors? It all seems to be a chicken and egg situation as they all inter-relate...

[210bhp]

You might have noticed that the engine grille bars are all numbered for the correct order.......

Regards
Mike

[911hillclimber]

What a great job you are doing with this car!
imho leaving the dash top 'warts and all' is wise.
Those grill slats are really well done, you must be very patient which is an asset as.....

As to panel fitting, I've done this just twice, doors on and true to the rear wing and sill line with door latch and B post sticker in place, preferably the rubbers too. I fit the door frame in and get that right to the opening and ensure the rubber is compressed using a piece of printing paper as a 'sliding feeler gauge'. It is right when the door is closed and the paper needs a nice pull to move it without tearing.
Add wings with caulking and align the wing rear to the front vertical edge of the door getting the filler strip in by the screen scuttle. Leave the main top run of bolts loose ish.
Fit the bonnet and then ease the wings all up tight.

The panel with the greatest adjustment is the bonnet, and is very hard to get right....
The wings ideally need the lights in after to fully check the nose of the bonnet to the grills, and the grills have to align to the lights.
Fit the front valance with it's nose rubber. The retention of the rubber can be teasing.

Above all, take your time.

[knapmann]

What a great job you are doing with this car!
imho leaving the dash top 'warts and all' is wise.
Those grill slats are really well done, you must be very patient which is an asset as.....

As to panel fitting, I've done this just twice, doors on and true to the rear wing and sill line with door latch and B post sticker in place, preferably the rubbers too. I fit the door frame in and get that right to the opening and ensure the rubber is compressed using a piece of printing paper as a 'sliding feeler gauge'. It is right when the door is closed and the paper needs a nice pull to move it without tearing.
Add wings with caulking and align the wing rear to the front vertical edge of the door getting the filler strip in by the screen scuttle. Leave the main top run of bolts loose ish.
Fit the bonnet and then ease the wings all up tight.

The panel with the greatest adjustment is the bonnet, and is very hard to get right....
The wings ideally need the lights in after to fully check the nose of the bonnet to the grills, and the grills have to align to the lights.
Fit the front valance with it's nose rubber. The retention of the rubber can be teasing.

Above all, take your time.

The doors sound like a reasonable job as you can do one at a time. But the wings and bonnet sound like its a mammoth task! as you have to do it all in one go by the sounds of things. At least Im not dealing with repro panels for the added headache!

[911hillclimber]

You have it easy!
Mine has, on both sides, Porsche rear wings, Dansk door skins, Dansk sills, Dansk front wings, a fibre glass bonnet and a glass front valance.

Had to compromise in places, but it is a hot rod...(so ok)