DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Never been overly happy with the mountings and fixings for the hardtop. You are kinda left on your own to find solutions as far as how to is concerned.

Originally I used rivnuts at the back which are great in thin steel but really poor in thick fibreglass. I have come up with a new solution which is to used M14 left hand thread bolts which have been drilled and tapped with a M8 x1.5 thread. This will allow a very positive fixing in the rear bulkhead. I will use spreader washers and rubber washers for water sealing. There will also be 4 mounting points, two at the back under the rear window and two on each 1/4 window pillar. I found some lever cams which will allow them to be screwed in and levered tight to squash the gaskets. Local engineering shop did the machining for me and also added a chamfer in the bolt head to aid locating the M8 cam thread. The shop actually did it next day for me, cant ask for better service.

Hope to get these fitted tomorrow, will add more pictures.

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So car is booked into the upholsterers for new carpet and head lining for the hardtop. This means it would be finished ish.

Neat solution!

Work seems to be getting in the way of fun lately, so got some help locally;

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I did manage to apply the sound proofing everywhere. Used a Porsche style black polypropylene carpet. Slightly off script with pepita door pockets, but it came down to making things fit rather than originality.

The speedster interior is now finished, new carpets, and finished door cards really pleased with the result. Amazing difference makes to the car.

Pictures don't really the work work justice.

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Just the hardtop headliner to finish

Lovely updates, I do like bit of Houndstooth

Do you ever finish a car which is hand built? All but completion of a few minor tied up issues and any ongoing maintenance and running issues I think I might be there, maybe.

Bring on the summer of fun

Tried to get some better interior pics;

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Looks great

Looks finished too!

One last small 3.2 addition;

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2nKcQgs]

My work is done

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So it turns out my work was far from done. A whole series of annoying faults meant I lost any confidence when driving it. It did not break down as such put you were always praying the the car gods in the sky to get home.

We spent months trying to tune the engine to run without fluffing during gentle acceleration. Hit it hard and wow it was fantastic, but awful around town. The worst problem was after finally getting the engine tune right it would just revert back to poor running the next time you drove it. Really weird nothing mechanically changed. Also had problems with the wiring connection for the gauges especially the oil temp. level and pressure. Also a weird problem with getting a positive voltage reading on the earth side.

Enter Mike to help out. By chance I found that Mike worked relatively local and was a Porsche wizard looking after several customer cars and restorations.

Mike checked all the basic engine issues, compression etc and decided the engine was fine. Eventually after too many man hours the poor engine running issues was traced to a faulty thyristor in the alternator. The 20p thyristor switched the signal to the electronic 123 distributor between on and off, effectively clearing the setting back to default. The alternator was repaired but turned out not to be a viable fix. Now fitted a new lucas 90 amp hour unit. The high voltage 16.5v also fried the electronic tach so that had to also be repaired. Mike also dumped the magnacore HT leads for dropping voltage and subsequently spark. These have been replaced with standard HT leads and also looking at using different plugs. Mike also made some other back to standard 3.2 spec changes.

The Oil pressure, level, temp and fuel gauge are all working correctly and the errant 12v charge to earth found and sorted.

Currently waiting for a slot on a rolling road to conduct a final tune and remove any final fluff during gentle acceleration.

Plan to travel to CLM in July so hope to get a few hundred miles on the car before.

These problems make it all the more rewarding when you finally get it sorted

After multiple small changes to wiring and some components the 356 Speedster Flat6 3.2 engine is now running and driving Yea!

I managed a very enjoyable 90 mile journey of Friday.

The local rolling road in Norwich was used, but first the Emulsion Tubes were changed to F16 and the main jets to 170 which has resulted in a power and torque increase. The power run below shows very good top end results

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You will also spot the engine bogs down at the lower rpm range, you can smell the engine is lean. Apparently the rolling road power run involves just foot down and shift. We think there is an element of learning to drive the car. So minimal throttle gives a very respectable acceleration in traffic, hit 2700 rpm and it really wants to play. Once done 200 to 300 miles may look at tweaking the emulsion tubes and main jets a little further. There is also a thought about the 3.2 camshaft being wrong for carbs.

The list of improvements seems to grow, top 3 items are: there is a little steering wheel shake at 65 mph so think the tires need balancing again, the fixed seat is in totally the wrong position (to close to high) and the odometer has stopped working (most likely the plastic gears).

Morning,

Working through the top 3 todo's on the list. Hoping to get back on the road for Friday.

The front wheels are being re-balanced. I do believe its more likely to be the front castor angle. This is a longer task as I have to take the fuel tank out to get to the adjustment bolts.

I have pulled out the driver's seat. The idea is to lower the seat so the runners are bolted straight onto the cross rails. I had originally welded in a 40mm wedge to lift the back of the seat, then I had added 35mm spacers at the front to raiser the front. No idea why I have cut the wedge section from the runners. I noticed that one of the hand made seat rails was at an odd angle to the other. I have managed to compensate on the runner so the seat and runner mate accurately. Welded new tags onto the runner to match the studs on the cross rails. But, that meant the lift handle to allow the seat to slide no longer fits and would jamb on the new tags. Cant move the tags so currently working out how to fix. Ordered some steel tube to try and weld an extension.

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ticking the little jobs off the list is always so rewarding!