DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Cool work as always Andy….like the wire wool and talcum powder technique…..

What does the talcum powder do?

sladey wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 10:41 am What does the talcum powder do?

Stops chaffing in those crevices

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I purposely left some time for Bootsy to chime in ...

The talc seems just seems to enhance the 'matting' process ...

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Interesting…

Talc (and corn starch) is also quite good at cleaning oxidisation off alloy wheels and giving them a sheen

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I've not heard that before - I'll have to give it a try ...

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On investigating why the oil level gauge wasn't working correctly I found that the electrical wires for the sender unit in the oil tank weren't connected - they were zip-tied up inside the osr bumper.

As is often the case, the oil tank was covered in a thick layer of oily grime so I set about scraping the gunge off & to get better access I decided to remove the rear number plate panel - the two rubber seals that fit along the top of the panel were missing (as was the fastener securing the bottom corner of the panel to the o/s quarter bumper) so it needed to come off anyway.

Once the panel was off I decided to remove/clean the silencer too.

Apart from some surface rust on the tailpipe & along the seams it was found to be in very good condition so I cleaned it up & treated those areas with Kurust followed by high temp manifold paint:





With the outside of the oil tank clean & the sender wires connected, the silencer was refitted using new copper gaskets & hardware. New rubber seals were then fitted to the top of the number plate panel & a new rear number plate added





I'd previously taken off all four Fuchs wheels in order to remove the balance weights & clean up the insides prior to getting some new tyres fitted - only to discover to my surprise that the wheels were in fact not 'deep sixes' at all but a matched set of 5.5in Fuchs !





When I first got the car I'd wanted to fit some different wheels but ruled that idea out as I couldn't justify the expense when the car already had a perfectly good set of 6in Fuchs - but the discovery that they were in fact not 'deep sixes' changed that ...

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Hope you fit something unusual!

Wonder how much hot air the number plate lip seal stops from being pulled in off the hot silencer?
My 73T has never had that seal since I bought it in '88 but it can get hot in mid summer/traffic queue etc.

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I'd previously quite fancied the idea of fitting a set of Group 4's alloy version of the original KpZ steel wheels so after the discovery that the Fuchs weren't 'deep sixes', I ordered a set :






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My intention was to delete one of the 12v batteries - on the driver's side - & incorporate a battery cut-off switch so the first part of the process involved removing any non-original wiring including the aftermarket Cobra alarm/immobiliser.

Although the alarm was installed by an official 'professional' fitter, it was still a typical bodge job !

In addition to the alarm system I also deleted an old radio harness:







The fuse boxes & their associated wiring looked a bit 'mouldy' so were dismantled & cleaned.







Then I fabricated a mounting bracket for a battery cut-off switch from 4mm black textured ABS




- bent it to shape






- & trial-fitted it in the battery box

What size rims did you go for?

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They're 6" x 15's Ralph ...

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Everything I'm changing on the car (wherever possible) is undertaken so that it is fully reversible should any future owner wish to return the car to standard.

In relation to the deletion of the driver's side 12v battery, this meant retaining the heavy duty cable that runs from the n/s battery box back to the starter motor plus the 3 thick red wires supplying current to the ignition switch (although in the case of the latter I did remove the ring terminals).

First stage was to remove the original main battery cable - routed behind the fuel tank - connecting the two batteries.

I then used multi-strand flexible 35A cable to make a new battery lead - this would connect the o/s battery to the battery cut-off switch mounted in the driver's side battery box seen in my previous post.





Another short length of 35A cable was used to connect the other side of the battery switch to a heavy duty 1-in 4-out junction box





The h/d cable feeding the starter & the 3 x thick red wires for the ignition switch were then connected from above





- & the ABS mounting plate was held in place by utilising the 2 x n/s bumper attachment bolts





To round off this job all that remained was to fit a set of new fuses





- & re-attach the (cleaned) covers - nice to see that even the paper labels inside the covers were still present & in good condition:







So that's another ~ 12kg saved - & all fully reversible ...


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Thank you for great thread!!

I’ve been wanting to do the battery relocation for some time and this gave me inspiration to finally do it!