DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Great car and a great thread. I also heard wonderful things about the M&K set up. However because of the fouling issues I went for a FlowMaster Delta 80 Series single in and out from the same side.. Sounds pretty good really, sits centrally and offers good performance.

That Steve Wong chip is killer huh? I am going to go on the rolling road and send my findings to Steve and have the chip tailored even more for my car. When I get my car in 1 piece and have time that is.. engine build in progress.

I am sure I'll have to do it all again when I make the switch to SSI in the distent future.

Hi Alam,

The M&K could do with a bit of further straightening but I can live with it for the moment. I'm thinking of going to a pipe bender to do a custom intermediate pipe to hide it up behind the bumper (would need to have some heatproofing on the bumper as well though I reckon) - but I was concerned about where altering the length of the pipe would affect performance (something about sonic length - so the sonic boom coming back from the end of the exhaust goes back to the exhaust valve at just the right time so it's not fighting against the next wave - not sure if that's relevant here though - does anyone know?)

Steve Wong chip = brilliant

On the SSI's have you thought of 993 H/E's with flipped flanges? apparently very similar performance for very little money. Do a search on pelican for the details - someone on here (I think it's 1972 911T has done it)

Cheers

Excuse posting on Impact bumpers as well but this relates to both early and later case. Basically I've fitted Elephant Racing Monoballs at the front, so thought I'd post my experiences to help anyone else trying the same. This time I'll do pictures - as Telly Savalas said 'if a picture paints a thousand words then why can't I paint you'. Whatever.

Had a real saga getting the things - ordered them over here and had problems and eventually got a refund. Ordered them direct off Chuck in the end, along with some other goodies. I know Kroggers does them as well.

JG actually recommended I fit them after test driving my car - would have made a nice Christmas present to myself - as it happens it's ended up as part of my birthday present.

OK here's the suspension top before we start


The top of the shock absorber sits in a thick rubber bushing. The thinking behind the monoballs is that on harder cornering the top of the shock compresses the bushing and moves. The monoball takes this movement out which should help with cornering



Here's the beauties, waiting to be fitted:-



Mmmmmm, Monoballs....

First remove the nut, washer and disc from the top of the shocker


Then compress the shock and move it to one side - I actually hit it with a plastic hammer from the top and then managed to pull it down from inside the wheel arch. In the manual is says you probably won't have to remove the wheel but I can't see how you can do this without removing it.

The next stage is to get rid of the rubber (and metal collet in the middle of it) - it just says to cut this across the top with a stanley knife. I started doing this and found it hard, so then went to using a baby hacksaw. Eventually I realised I was just being wimpy and the stanley knife worked fine - repeated cuts worked well.


Once I cut about half of it away, one good smack with a hammer (one of those rubber shot-filled ones) and it fell through the hole, leaving this:-



I used a bit of wire wool to remove the worst of the scoring.

I then fitted the monoball - you put the main body through from underneath and then screw in from the top. This is what it looks like underneath:-



That's when the problems started.....

It says the nuts need tightening to 60lb ft torque. At this stage you need to reach into your toolbox and pull out your 1 & 7/8 inch socket. No, not the normal one - a special narrow-walled one. What do you mean you haven't got a socket that big - what kind of man are you anyway? The socket required is huge. I couldn't find one at Halfords, and eventually decided to just use a pipe wrench and mole-grips. The nut actually has a split pin holding it in place as well so as long as I could get it tight I wasn't too worried about not getting the exact torque right.

So now I've decided how to tighten it up it should be easy right? Not on your nelly (I've wanted to write that for ages). Getting at the top nut is OK - although it's close to the inner wing and I also had to disconnect the suspension bar thing (completely forgotten what they're called at the moment) to get better access.

It's the bottom nut that's the problem. The nut fits tight inside the metal thing (for want of a better description I'll refer to this as the metal doughnut) - there's so little room in there that you can't get much at it. I definitely couldn't get any tool at it with it sat in the car so out it came, and onto the bench (I carefully marked the position of the plate before moving it so as not to disturb the suspension settings)



I tried getting a mole wrench to grip on the flats but each time I came close the walls of the doughnut forced it off. Eventually inspiration struck and I ground back the mole wrench, to remove some of the material on the back and also put an angle on the jaws - like this:-


This mean it slipped inside the flats and when closed up it gripped it well enough. With the mole wrench clamped on, and the wrench itself gripped in the vice, I was able to get a good bit of force using the pipe wrench on the top nut.

It all went back together smooth enough, and I fitted the split pin. I then went onto the other side. I was hoping that my 'special' Mole wrench would allow me to fix it all in situ like this:-


But no - it kept slipped off.

Decided to remove the plate on that side as well - but the bolts were much too tight and one had seized - eventually it just ended up turning the captive nut round and round. Bummer!

Having got the nut fairly tight I decided to put it all together again on the basis that I would take that captive nut off tomorrow and finish the job off properly.

So that's my job for tomorrow morning.

Driving Impressions
I can feel the difference but it's quite subtle in day to day driving. Those first few degrees that you move seem to have sharpened up a bit, and that's a nice feeling. I took a tight corner quite vigorously on Sunday though and then I did notice a substantial difference - the front end kept on gripping - normally it would wash wide a bit - the extra grip at the front seemed to help the back move out a bit - in a controllable way.
As I've driven it more I'm enjoying it more. It's not a night and day feeling (apart from that fast tight corner) but there is a nice difference that I can feel.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Mark

nice write up Mark

Always good to hear real world experience of these kinds of mods

Further update.
(Note I've previously mentioned some of this stuff of Impact Bumpers)

I saw some really cool handles on one of the threads - an orange car in the US that had been drilled.

I'd still got my original black ones lying around so thought I'd have a go at doing it myself

I basically polished them until much of the black had gone and then started drilling the holes. I marked out centres by eye and drilled the holes perpendicular to the curve of the handle. I found it easy to get stressed because they weren't perfect but calmed down when I realised they will always look different from different angles. I started with smaller drills and went bigger until I got the look I was after.

Once the hole was drilled I went back into it with a chamfer bit I have (just a cheapy for chamfering the edge of pilot holes) which cuts a 45 degree edge to each hole - this neatens it up quite a bit.

While I was at it I also smoothed some of the edges to the handles, and also changed the shape of the trigger - rounding the corners off.

Once I'd done one I used that as a template for the second one.

Here's a before and after shot:-


Once all this was done I took them to a local platers. Being a complete novice I thought I might be able to get them anodized for a 'duller' finish - soon found out I can't - think this is only something you can do to aluminium. They are made of some sort of alloy which has been nickel plated and then copper plated before having the black applied to it.

I chose a chrome platers in Nottingham - Numptys-R-us - you may have heard of them? Anyway it must have been my lucky day because when I got them back they'd taken care to highly polish the studs by which the handles are attached to the car - they'd done such a good job they almost got rid of those nasty lines in the studs ('threads' I think they call them) - which mean the nuts would slip on (and off!) really easily (i.e. without even turning the but). I won't name and shame but will let you know their name if you PM me. Won't be using them again.

I tried extracting the studs but no joy - they were just turning. Then thought about drilling out and tapping a new thread. This was not going to be easy - the handle material isn't very hard. Eventually I thought it through and came up with a solution - drill out the studs making the holes a bit bigger, then JB-weld some new studs in. Not perfect but hopefully should be OK as it's not under any great stress. To help the JB-weld grip the stud better I cut a deepish notch into each stud before putting it in.

Here's one of the handles chromed and with the studs JB welded in. While the JB-weld was setting I used masking tape to make sure the studs were as perpendicular to the handles as I could make them. I also put the striggers in place to make sure they were in the right position and the masking tape ensured that the JB-weld didn't stick to the triggers.



And here's a pic of the finished article. I'm pretty pleased with them really. Anally retentive saddos like myself notice them and comment on them - my family and friends don't understand why I've done them and to be honest I can't explain it either other than it looks cool - but then what other explanation do you need?

oooooo

I like that
Tim

As you said to me on Sunday when I saw the finished article - 'it goes faster now!'

Thanks for the reminder Thomas - nearly forgot - here's the very important health and safety warning I posted on an earlier thread on IB - I now realise I should have posted it here as well.

SAFETY WARNING - I drove the car to and from work after having only fitted one handle BUT DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF - on the journey home that day it was plain that one side of the car was driving faster than the other side and it was only down to my immense skill that I was able to avoid a crash. Such is the dramatic effect of lightening the door handles. Phew!

Now the warning is given I accept no liability for excess unbalanced speed.

Nice mod I like it... now I can see the sale of door handles going though the roof on ebay

Just perfect for some bling diamonds to be pressed in. Obviously you'll need your teeth blinged to match.

Thanks for answering my question from the 'Hedingham' thread

Very neat, and a typical 'hot rod' touch to a car.

What's next for the treatment, the tyres or the engine cases

Ian

Thanks for the nice comments Ian

With regard to future changes, watch this space Ian - should be quite a dramatic change coming up soon - in time for Classic Lemans

Cheers

Mark

Handles look really nice.