DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Every aftermarket item on this car is imperial. My first guess for the Italian webers was metric, but the thread on these wing nuts was too tight. After a bit of measurement I took a guess as 3/16 UNC. When they turned up... a perfect fit.



Standard on these covers is a nylock style nut, but I elected the convenience of wing nuts with thread-locking glue to prevent them rising up under vibration. Will add some soft washers, e.g. nylon when I clean it all up in there, to prevent the pressed steel getting abbraded away over time.

RobFrost wrote:Today, sounds of "oh dear" as people looked inside the orange one.


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You sure they were not looking at the rear spoiler ?

You sure they were not looking at the rear spoiler ?

Hey, you'll hurt her feelings.

Also, you haven't seen inside.

Petrol tank's out. I was expecting some rust around it for some reason, but nothing.

Also, I thought the tank was leaking but now it's out I'm not so sure.

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Stripped the undertray and primed in zinc primer.



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They say never weld a petrol tank. I felt much more comfortable about the prospect after it had been on the Passat exhaust for a couple of hours.



I wrapped it up in a blanket after this photo, and it got nice and toasty.

It would have been a whole lot easier and quicker to just buy a new one but I have a strong affection for all the original parts.

The original petrol hoses do seem to be petrol-tight but the rubber has lost its elasticity and the cotton has lost its strength. I was able to snap this one easily by hand with a twist. With the tank out today I replaced all the front hoses.



An interesting note - this simple y-joint, around £5 from any local motor parts outlet costs £107.12 for the genuine Porsche part. https://www.design911.co.uk/fu/prod1507 ... 0--74-83-/

Instead of the readily available new H4 headlights, I got hold of some genuine H1 headlights. Pretty rare, apparently, and genuine Bosch logo on the glass!



Quite a bit of corrosion to deal with, as one should expect:



Sanded and dissolved the oxide using phosphoric acid mixed with wallpaper paste (to make it thicker). Once that stood for a while, it was all washed off and polished to 3000 grit



FInally repainted with mirror finish paint. It won't be as good as the original reflector, but it'll be way better than it was:

You are so very lucky to have a rust free front end!
That will have saved so much time and messing about.

In my youth I've welded a petrol tank, but filled it with water to the brim and then welded the neck in place....

Car Builder Solutions is a good place for these pipes etc and pipes available now in E10 resistant materials.

To pressure-test the tank, I bunged up all the holes. An unused silicone sealant tube is perfect for the neck. I made an oak plate with a rubber base, drilled with 5 holes to blank off the sender hole. On fixing it, I discovered the thread was bad on one of the holes. Luckily it cleaned up nicely with the tap. It's possible this was the source of the leak. There was a strong smell of petrol in the frunk and signs of bitumen running down from the tank - which I estimated to be caused by petrol leaks, but if I'm lucky this faulty screw is all it'll be. The whole area was smeared with silicone, and it's a little well, so I ws expecting it to be corroded through. but it doesn't look too bad and the gasket was in poor condition.

You have to be careful rethreading it and use the right shaped tap because the holes aren't right through - they have cap nuts fixed to the bottom.

Predictably, I dropped one of the five bolts into the tank. Aha! I thought. Time to use my telescopic magnet for the first time ever... but it turned out the bolts aren't magnetic. So I doubled up some duct tape on the end of the rod and tried with that.



The magnet on the end of the rod pulled hard onto the bottom of the tank and the gaffa tape stuck to the tank better than it did to the rod. So pretty soon I had a lost bolt AND a lump of Gaffa tape inside the tank.

Perseverence paid off in the end and both came out.

I pressure tested the petrol tank, brushing the whole thing with soapy water, paying special attention to the joins. I thought I was VERY conservative with the pressure - only say one fifth of a bar, but let's just say my 62 litre tank might now be an 85 litre one. I didn't get a chance to get a photo because I jumped into action pretty quick. I release the pressure and where it ballooned up, a crease formed within the wheel well, I hit it back with a hammer. Actually quite impressive how the seam welds held up.

I think I got to the tank at the perfect time because water had begun to spread under the plastic coating and there was a lot of fine surface rust underneath it. I finished stripping it back with an abrasive nylon disc (looks like a hard washing up sponge), primed with zinc primer and coated with overpaintable stone chip. The stone chip isn't as good as the original Porsche coating but I can come back to it if needs be.

The below pic is Tangerine. As you can see, it's very different from Signal orange. Why don't you rename the title as the Orange Dream?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/transaxle/23497279975


Keep up the good work.

IanM wrote:The below pic is Tangerine. As you can see, it's very different from Signal orange. Why don't you rename the title as the Orange Dream?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/transaxle/23497279975


Keep up the good work.

Good question, in fact I pondered the same thing at the outset but went down this road. May change it yet.

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