DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Thanks guy's. I'm really pleased how its turning out. It was always going to be a keeper, and the closer I get to finishing it, the more convinced I am that I'll hang on to it for a long while.
This morning I dropped off the knee roll at the trimmers and went into work. At lunchtime I called in at Porsche Centre and picked up the new accelerator pedal. It was obvious looking through the bag even before opening it, that it was far, far superior quality to the 914rubber one.
First thing this evening when I got home I fitted the pedal to the car. Installed the restored drivers mat (with remade heel pad) and clipped it to the floor properly using the two eyelets and connected the pushrod ball in the socket of the pedal.
With the drivers floor mat back in the car its amazing how it transforms from work in progress to looking almost finished.
Since it was still dry this evening I got the two door cards out of storage and started to clean them. Much like the seats, the dreaded basket weave material was holding no end of dirt, sand and grime. I spent a good hour on each panel with a foaming cleaner and toothbrush. Some of the staples along the bottom behind the panel have come away and the basket weave is loose. Once cleaned and dried out I plan on re-gluing and stapling it all back in place. Fortunately the only small tear is around a bolt that holds the armrest on so should be covered.
As it started to get dark I brought the panels inside to dry out. I expect they’ll need another going over tomorrow when I can see any dirt left over once dry.

That looks simply wonderful, so open and relaxing to look at.
Remarkable that the original parts can be restored, looks a million $$$

You can't be far away now to a drive down the driveway?

Thanks for the kind comments. Almost anything can be restored to some degree or another. I’ve been restoring classic cars for 35 years now and in my early years on a zero budget, so I’ve had to learn ingenious ways of restoring parts with little financial outlay but lots of hard graft.
Today I had an early start at work. I’m organising another car club stand at Carfest South this weekend so need to get ahead of things at work so I can have Thursday and Friday off to set up for the show.
At lunchtime I called Woolies and ordered some more high temp glue, spray and tin. I’d used the last up on the headliner and I have more new Perlon to trim the bonnet area with.
This evening I spent another hour cleaning the door cards again to get the remaining dirt out of the basket weave. Leaving them to dry I started to re assemble the Targa roof, fitting the catches, trim and new rear fuzzy seal. The door window top seal runners had me perplexed for a short while. They are curved and you’d expect them to be convex from the outside, but they are in fact concave. The edge of the targa top is straight and the channel is curved. I hadn’t noticed it when I stripped them down, but it did confuse me for a short while.
In the end I took the roof over to the car and fitted it (minus the window top channels) to see for sure how they went.
The roof was a real tight fit onto the car with all the new seals and took some pushing and pulling to install it for the first time. I think I’m going to have to leave it on the car a good while for everything to settle in.
With that cleared up I took the roof back to the house to fit the runners and new 914rubber window top seals.
Channels fitted a treat but sliding the Tee of the window rubber into the runner was another matter. I tried all sorts. Talcum powder, soft soap, washing up liquid, Vaseline (not all at the same time) and after getting about 6” of rubber in the channel it was rock solid.
I spent the next TWO hours wrestling the 914rubber seal. In the end I had to forget trying to slide the seal, but instead I had to squash it down its length so that the T curled in on itself enough to locate it into the channel. By the end I’d had enough and having got just one side in, I’ll leave the other side until tomorrow when I’ve had time to relax and regain my patience with the 914rubber product!

Darren C wrote:Channels fitted a treat but sliding the Tee of the window rubber into the runner was another matter. I tried all sorts. Talcum powder, soft soap, washing up liquid, Vaseline (not all at the same time) and after getting about 6” of rubber in the channel it was rock solid.
I spent the next TWO hours wrestling the 914rubber seal. In the end I had to forget trying to slide the seal, but instead I had to squash it down its length so that the T curled in on itself enough to locate it into the channel. By the end I’d had enough and having got just one side in, I’ll leave the other side until tomorrow when I’ve had time to relax and regain my patience with the 914rubber product!

To slide rubber trim/seals into grooved runners I have used Glycerol.
Or Autoglym bumper trim gel or the RaceGlaze equivalent.

But does sound like the rubber is the problem!

KY Jelly is quite slippery apparently!!

Thanks Kev, I’d already struggled this evening to get the remaining seal in before reading your top tip. Hopefully it’ll help someone in the same situation, but I fear it’s a seal issue not lubricant as it was as slippery as an eel yet still wouldn’t go in easy.
David, trust you to lower the tone….

Anyway this evening I got the last seal in. The 914rubber seals were a good 2” too long (well one was the other was an inch too long). Even before fitting one was longer than the other. Once in – and considering I put them in by squeeze not slide – I needed to cut them to length at the windscreen end. I did this with a brand new Stanley blade and squared off the ends that had arrived wonky.
I was then ready to trial fit on the car again.



All fine
The square cut off end by the windscreen met the frame rubber perfectly and the 45degree end over the roll bar sat neatly on the vertical seal giving a tiny resistance as the rear latches were closed.

With the door windows wound up there’s a bit of adjustment to be made to the regulators to level the glass off against the roof seal. This was something I couldn’t do until the roof was finished which is why I’ve held off with fitting the door cards until now. Something for next week.

Anyways its an early night tonight as I’m setting up the stand at Carfest South in the morning (if anyone is going, please come find us for a chat) I’ll be away until Tuesday when normal service will be resumed.

Phew…what a busy weekend of continuous partying, car showing and camping raising money for Children in Need, I’m pretty shattered after all that; but it was a great weekend and a real hoot.

Anyway back on to the 914 restoration. I picked up the knee roll from the trimmers. It was about ¾ done and they decided that this was as far as they could go with it after all the shenanigans. So that left the final trimming, glueing of all the return edges and stapling to me!
My high temp high strength new pot of glue had arrived from Woolies so today I set about finishing of the vinyl covering. I had to stretch and glue the vinyl down the recesses for the fixing bolts and around both ends. Not an easy task and I can see why the trimmers didn’t want to go much further than the flat surfaces. They had however managed to heat stretch it around the face of the knee roll without a stitch join or crease, so that was appreciated.
Anyhow after a couple of hours I got it all stuck down, cut off the excess and put in a few staples (out of sight) to make sure it doesn’t retract the stretch in it and undo easily. Not factory to have staples but considering the state it was in originally its much improved. Just need to let it settle and the glue dry properly over the next few days before it goes back into the car. I’ve put it in my conservatory living in hope that the sun will come out over the week and with the heat, anything that’s going to move or come unstuck should reveal itself.
I also had a small packet arrive over the weekend with the oversize screw plugs that go in the ends of the dash and door panel. No longer available from Porsche I tracked some down in the US $5 all up including postage and got them within the week.
AASE Sales. (not sure how you pronounce that, hopefully not the same as aardvark)
While the glue was out this evening I also stuck down the door panel basket weave edges that had come unstapled along the bottom.
My son arrived this evening and we finished off by replacing the O/S drive shaft seal on the rear axle of the Morris before it got too dark to see. Just cooking dinner as I write this then afterwards I’ve got to drive 30 miles to drop him off...I'll be so glad when he passes his test.

This morning I finished off gluing a couple of rogue edges of vinyl down on the knee roll that had lifted overnight and using my Swedish punch set I cut the small circles out where the side screws and cap fit, before leaving for work.
During lunch today I chased the new windscreen from Porsche Centre Portsmouth and picked up some more 3M 3/8” Butyl window tape from the Motor Factors as I’d used more than anticipated on fitting the rear window.
This evening when I got home from work I got the 2 stainless trims out of storage that go across the knee roll and sit at the bottom of the basket weave dash insert. The trim was held in place with a double sided tape which seemed to have a cloth inner (a bit like a material sticking plaster) The residue was scraped off and old glue removed with a little cellulose thinners before a good Brasso polish ready to go back on the knee roll when I can find some similar double sided tape.
Before Carfest I’d fitted the targa roof and noticed the window glass wasn’t level/parallel to the roof. The glass was up into the rubber end cap at the top of the quarterlight front runner, but with the roof now on, it was about ¼” (6mm) low at the rear leaving a clear gap into the car?
I’d looked at multiple images on-line of the glass to roof alignment, some hard to make out, but generally they seemed to vary wildly. I’d also looked at Kev’s daily driver and spoke to him about it at the weekend and had come to the conclusion that the panel and glass fit wasn’t that great originally, but certainly better than I had at the moment.
With the door panels off I thought I’d have a play around to see what could be done to make the car watertight
Before I’d fitted the roof, the glass was adjusted so it sat evenly on the vertical seals and the angles adjusted at the bolt adjusters on the base of the runners in the bottom of the door. I’d also adjusted the limit stop (B) so that the glass stopped when it reached the runner end cap at the top of the quarterlights, yet still the glass was low at the rear in comparison to the horizontal roof line. The glass needed to rotate ever so slightly in the door to raise the rear.
This had me flummoxed for a while because the short horizontal mechanism channel runner at the rear of the door held on with M6 hex bolts was as high as it could go, yet the glass was still low……….
After a bit of head scratching and trying different things, the penny dropped.
The mechanism is a sort of pincer, and if the distances between the two tops of the pincer are shorter/closer then the net result is the reach is higher. Since the rear part of the pincer is a roller in a runner (short horizontal mechanism channel in para above) and that was already adjusted as high as it could go, it couldn’t be that. However the front pincer top is a M8 bolt in a slotted block (A) which you can adjust.
Simply moving the M8 bolt to the rear (the block forward) allows the glass to lift further and change its angle/rotation within the door.



With the M8 bolt (A) slid to the rear, the end stop (B) needs to be adjusted again and another ¼” (6mm) can be gained at the rear of the glass before it hits the front quarterlight runner end cap.

RESULT…

Level glass on both sides that goes up to sit neatly on the Targa roof seals with no gaps for water or wind noise.





With everything adjusted I checked the windows wind up freely, doors open and close easy and then nipped up all the adjustment bolts to complete the job.

This is as ever very interesting.
I guess the early 911 has the same adjuster (?) which may mean mine is loose as the passenger window is very reluctant to manually wind up, easy to come down.

Must check!

You must be getting close to finishing the interior now?

Darren C wrote:

Hi Darren,

Glad to hear you are back on the project after the long weekend away partying!

Adjusting the door glass to fit correctly around the rubber seals is not easy.

Looking at the above photo its not quite there, as the glass stops short of where it seals in the rubber seals!

I will explain... starting with the up upright with the quarter-light attached. The end cap should sit tight in the targa to windscreen seal. The photo shows a gap.
The door glass top then sits right up in the windscreen to targa seal. The top of the glass pushes past this seal when the door is shut.
On the targa top to door glass seal the glass should go on the inside of the rubber seal outer lip, not resting on the lower bottom edge.
The mounting rail on the targa top is adjustable backwards and forwards on the rail mounting slots, it needs to be adjust backwards.
The lip was added on the later 914s (914 rubber one is slightly different from the original) to help to stop the water that runs off the targa top running down the inside of the door glass into the cabin, the earlier 914s didn't have the lip.

Good luck with the tweaking, you don't want too much water getting in the inside when it rains and when you wash the car!
Then there is the wind that will whistle past as well when you drive with the windows up!

Cheers guy’s, The stiffness in your 911 winding up may well be adjustment, but I have had that before where the old window channel fuzzies have made the glass tight in combination with rust/dirt and lack of grease in the lift mechanism.

Kev,

It does seem to be a dogs dinner to adjust. Compounded by new original and non original seals!
The quarterlight runner upright is a long way out in the bottom of the door which pulls the top in.
The quarterlight glass is quite tightly pressed into the windscreen pillar seal so I don’t want to go much further with that.
If you look at point A in the picture below (and above in previous post without arrow) you’ll see the top edge of the glass is squashing the 45 deg part of the targa seal and tight into it.



Here lies the problem. To adjust the glass so it winds up further into the targa seal it would run out the top of the quarterlight cap as its about as high as it can go now. Also it would need adjusting so that it moves outwards at the top as its already squashing against the 45 deg part of the targa roof seal. This would mean the quarterlight wouldn’t seal then.
It seems to be a problem with the profile of the 914rubber targa seal, being too fat (which was part of the issue trying to fit it).
The fit is really bugging me Kev, and I will leave the door panels off a little longer and have another tinker at the weekend.

Today I have continued to work on the knee roll. A little more fettling and gluing was required. I picked up some high strength doublesided tape at lunchtime from the Motor Factors and fitted the stainless trims to the rear of the roll, making sure to carefully measure the “gap” position where the steering column plugs go.
I got the two vents out of storage and fitted those into the knee roll so that I could check the 4 clips on each open properly to lock it in place.
The hardest part of re-trimming the knee roll was getting the vinyl to stretch and glue down the bolt hole recesses. In the end I had to apply gentle heat and draw them down with a long nut and bolt and the old penny washers. Leaving the glue to dry overnight I hope to finally get it back in the car tomorrow and complete the dash.
Finally this evening I gave the basket weave on the door panels another scrub; they seem to dry after a few days each time with grey muck at the bottom of some of the pattern which is quite frustrating, but I’m getting there.

Today I finally finished fettling the re-trimmed knee roll. I’m quite pleased with how it came out in the end after all the grief it caused. The plan (like the roll bar trim) was to try and make it look as original as possible and as if it hadn’t been re covered at all. Considering all the splits and chunks missing from it and the 3 filler repairs, it didn't turn out too bad in the end.







After work today and with nice new shiny bolts I managed to fit it back into the car today.





Just need to get the steering wheel back from the trimmers now.

Stunning Darren - great work. It's been said before but this is going to be a very useful reference work for those who follow your lead.
Hopefully it will be made into a 'sticky'.

Regards

Andrew

Thanks Andrew, if my ramblings help or inspire just one person, then it will be all worth it.

Today was a mix of sunshine and showers. I started this morning with a little tent drying out & maintenance from last weekend that I hadn’t been able to do due to work. Straightening and cleaning tent pegs and sewing up a few small tears, hindered only by rushing to drag it all inside when the rain came.

Anyway, late morning I started on the old bonnet carpet while the tent dried. The old Perlon was very dirty and torn so had to go.



The hardboard spare wheel cover has the Perlon stapled on, so I carefully picked all the staples out and cleaned up the board. The edges are painted black but several areas had worn and started to crumble. These were re painted with matt black paint; applying it heavily so it soaked right into the board on the edge, this sealed as well as coloured it. The underside face that sits against the wheel wasn’t too bad just a few chips which I touched in with a modellers brush. While that dried I got out the remains of the Perlon sheet I’d bought for the headliner and marked carefully around the old carpet with chalk.



These were carefully cut out with my shears and the hole for the washer tube punched out. I had a little delay looking for my Staple gun and in the end I remembered I’d lent it out but couldn’t get hold of the guy so had to nip and buy a new one from Screwfix. By the time I got back the black edge paint had dried so I carefully stapled the Perlon on; stapling alternate 90 degrees with the gun so that the staples had the best mechanical advantage to not pull out.



The front bulkhead and whole boot was then carefully masked off and high temp, high grip spray glue applied to it and the rear of the carpet. While the glue touch dried I took off all the masking tape and paper so that there was no chance of the Perlon getting stuck to the masking paper and tape while being lifted into place.
Once the bulkhead carpet was in place I fitted the new rubber seal across the top. This was a genuine Porsche seal and fitted perfectly to complete the boot.

What a day today!
Kev convinced me to come along to Hedingham Castle today. A 300+ mile round trip but well worth it. Up at 5am I was at South Mimms for 8am and met up with a good group of DDK 911’s before leaving around 9am for the show.
It was great to meet everyone today and to see so many nice 914 & 914-6’s together. Lots of great information gained from hanging around with Kev and some interesting inspection and investigation of the 914’s for sale in the Coy’s Auction.
Weather was great and time flew.
As always I was keen to get at least an hour a day in on my 914, so rushed home to make a start.
I was asked today if my daily thread was genuinely real time….the answer is yes.
Arriving home I started by getting my new sunvisors out of storage. The originals were in a shocking state all lumpy and mis-shaped so couldn’t go back in the car. The brand new ones were found on German Ebay and purchased a couple of months ago.



To show its realtime I’ve included my entry pass from Hedingham in the pictures!
The old screws were cleaned with a brass bristle wire brush before a brasso polish of the heads ready to fit.
They came in a single box so the passenger side visor needed sliding onto the centre rod. This was a bit of a fiddle as the vinyl was heat welded all around so the hole needed very carefully cutting in it to allow the rod to fit. The rest of the installation was fine once the distances were set for the brackets to match the windscreen frame screw holes.



They look pretty good in place. As it got dark I finished off and took a picture using the flash, they look slightly grey with the flash but in reality they are black.