912 Targa : A slow restore / refresh

[neilbardsley]

Busy day. I was in Daventry last night so I got the train back to London, then a tube, train & taxi to Newdigate. Interesting my taxi driver had just bought a Lotus from the 80s. A bit like the one from You only Live Twice. I then jumped in the car and drove up to home. Put my surplus hard window into the garage. I think I will try to sell this on. Picked up the soft window and other stuff then drove into town. One almost not funny on the M23. Thanks goodness the weather is good I was able to make the trip without any drama or water getting in. Unfortunately given that I was hopping to start my holiday today trying to find somebody to work on the rear window at a couple of hours notice wasn't easy. In the end the only takers were Tower Porsche and they have at least done one before. The car needs an MOT unfortunately the horn isn't working. Hopefully I will be able to pick up sometime tomorrow. However,
the seals at the front targa window need sorting but I think that will have to wait for another day. The main idea is to get it sealed against the weather.



I got into a strange discussion with Peter at Tower Porsche. He has a nice 64 356 Cab sitting in the corner. That has been there for 4 plus years? They also have an orange 912 which has also been sitting there for 2+ years. Then he showed me a white 69 912 that he had bought in from California. Nothing of the ordinary but then he started to talk about a 73 RS that he had hidden away for a rainy day and he was just about to put his hands on a 904? At this point I started to wonder about fact v fiction.

[Lightweight_911]

Car looks great Neil - Aga Blue was a good choice (& being the original colour is probably a bonus).

[neilbardsley]

Small problem the 3 backets which are at the rear window to secure the bottom of the window to the car are missing. You can see where they were but they have disappeared\broken off at sometime. The garage is going to try and fabricate some.

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[myatt1972]

Looking fantastic Neil

[Mr Pharmacist]

Looking great Neil - but why are you in a rush to get it on the road? Leave it inside until the road salt goes away!!

[neilbardsley]

I use it as my car around town

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[neilbardsley]

Not good news on the car. roof on and fitting well but rather than taking 4 hours it took two days. Ouch. Next they noticed a leak from one of the rocker cover seals and decided to fix that. In addition they said that the steering was lumpy. Seemed ok to me but the MOT tested agreed and failed it on that. It's amazing how everything happens at once. They already greased the linkage but are now looking at the rack which doesn't sound cheap. It's exactly what I didn't need right now as yesterday the Defender broke down and our house roof started to leak.

Hopefully once I get the car and use it I will feel more positive about it but I'm over budget and seem to be spending money that is needed elsewhere! I think that I've broken all of my own rules for never spending more on a car than it's worth. Actually hopefully I'm still ahead of the game on there regard but who really knows.

It would of been great to have the car back for Sat since William, no 3 son, has the XC county champs to try and win, so it would of been good to have not taken the train to get there.

[Darren65]

Hope your luck changes soon Neil

...why not post a few photos of the car now that it's done......having everyone telling you how great it looks will make you feel a whole lot better!

[Bootsy]

Keep the faith Neil!

[Mr Pharmacist]

It will all be worth it Neil - unless you are planning to sell it right now you will recoup your investment, but most of all you've got a rare and fantastic looking car.

[neilbardsley]

I Boris Biked and ran to Tower Porsche last night and got there about 6pm (which is normally their busy time with people coming out of work) but it was shut. Not that I can blame them they do work long hours there but unfortunately no photos.

However, I did get an update this morning. The rack has been sent away to be checked/rebuilt and the bushes on the rack have gone. The bears etc will be replaced since it is out so, looking at the positive, it should be like new.

[Bootsy]

Nothing worse than a lumpy rack!

you should notice a bid difference.

[neilbardsley]

Nothing worse than a lumpy rack!

you should notice a bid difference.

Ooh Matron!!

[neilbardsley]

While it's home. It's dark and I only have a camera photo so more pictures to follow.



I going to collect my thoughts about this project and post some more details in the next couple of weeks. However, a massive thanks to Mick Temple, Yves, Charlie at Newdigate and Tower Porsche for all the work. Mick and Charlie have done the lion's share of work. In fact without Mick's help and advice perhaps we wouldn't of finished!

The drive home was a real pleasure the boys at Tower Porsche reconnected the heating so it now work very well. In fact I had to turn it down as it was generating too much heat. I have the Europe/Sweden type 912 heating system and it does it's job. They gave it a service while it was there, which to be honest I was planning to do myself, but the engine is running very nicely. Plus after the steering rack's rebuild it's very smooth. The first proper drive will be next weekend when I run up to Daventry.

In summary it's over budget and late but feels like it will replay all the effort/cost many times other.

[Darren65]

….oh, and buy a camera!