by John Glynn | Oct 8, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I’ve now been back from the USA for 36 hours. Our trip took us to lots of really great locations, so there are some fascinating features to write up over the next few weeks. Not everything will make it into a magazine though, so I thought I’d tell the story of the trip via a few blog installments.
My flight over on Virgin Atlantic was great. Arriving at my buddy John Gray’s house late at night meant I didn’t get to see much of my new 911 until the next day. In daylight, there was a bit more sun damage to the paint than I had been expecting, but I wasn’t that bothered: it still looked like good value for money. Driving it was initially a little weird, as the clutch had a slight on/off action that I think has since calmed down. We soon got the hang of it, and it was an entertaining daily driver while out there.
Buying a ride rather than renting is definitely something I will do again. There were a few minor jobs we had to do to the SC while in CA, but I’ll detail that stuff in a later post.
Our first full day was a mix of settling-in stuff. After picking up some coffee at Peets, we took a spin out to Sears Point raceway, where the CSRG race weekend was taking place. Jamie and I got some press wristbands and bought our tickets (it’s a charity do, after all). The weather was properly hot – about 110 degrees – so we came back in the early afternoon and played with the Lipmobile: a Honda Cub which had just been ridden 3,800 miles from Chicago to California, by my erstwhile photographer friend and colleague. Here’s a pic:
Later on, we took a trip to the unit our host rents with a couple of other petrolhead buddies. They have some very impressive stuff there! Roommate Alex is restoring a pair of Road Runners, and was working on a ’63 Dodge Polara owned by a drummer with a successful local rockabilly band. The Polara was originally a 440, but it now had the 426 Hemi motor fitted. Talk about sweet! I could just imagine the shoot, so I pitched it via email to a UK magazine who never came back to me, which was a bit disappointing.
Here’s a pic of the Polara in the workshop. It is inch-perfect sixties drag nostalgia, with slicks on the back and a Hemi in front, all wrapped up in black with hot red trim – pretty cool! An evening in the company of big block hot rods could only be followed by dinner at Max’s Diner, with a pint of Coke float, curly fries and a world-class burger. Heaven!
That was day one, and there’s plenty more to share. I’m keeping clear of jet lag so, as it’s 1 am here, I’m hitting the sack – will continue this tomorrow.
by John Glynn | Sep 20, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
I collected my ‘new’ classic Porsche 911T project this weekend. Worked out quite well as the seller (good friend and superhero, Mr Bosman) was coming over for the Goodwood Revival, and offered to trailer it across on the ferry for me. Here was a kindness I could not refuse.
We met early today and I borrowed Bos’s trailer to bring the car to a buddy’s secret storage yard, where some nice project cars are stashed in sea containers. I wanted the T out of the way for a few months, while I get finished with the projects I have on the go, pay for this new one and get my garage building moving on apace. Once I have a better grip on my to do list, I’ll drag this out again and get properly stuck into it as a spare-time R Gruppe build.
The easiest thing for me to do (to get this back up to speed fast) would be to buy a bodily ruined SC, break it and put all the mechanical bits into this after a refurb, and I’m pretty sure that’s how I’m going to go. Rusty SCs are getting ever more common in the ‘States now, so it should be easy enough to find something mechanically sound that would otherwise be on its way to a breaker. I will put my hot rod 3 litre motor into this one – not the tired original from a scrapper.
This T is in good condition to look at, but it’s not perfect. It has serious paint issues in the luggage compartment for example, where the painter has simply painted the whole thing rather than taking stuff out. It’s not a big deal for me, as I am ripping out all this early stuff anyway (hate fiddly twin batteries and that messy-looking fusebox) and reworking the loom to run an in-dash fusebox. I will also bin the early dash column switches and run IB stuff. Same with engine bay wiring etc. Also same with suspension and brakes, though I will not run a servo. Oil system will be bespoke: a front nose cooler with a relocated tank – things like that. The oil tank that came with this is one step from scrap anyway so that has to go somewhere else.
None of this is said against my buddy, as it comes to me almost exactly as it arrived at Bos’s place from Canada. He started doing stuff, saw the work involved in getting it nice and it was just not a project he fancied finishing, so it has come to me instead. I have wanted to try early car ownership since driving one of Tuthills early rally cars many moons ago, so this should be fun to play with. I don’t want to build anything remotely factory original: it is hot rod all the way, with no “bolting back to standard” in this car’s future.
by John Glynn | Sep 17, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Sheena Easton had the look back in the day, but this R Gruppe Hot Rod Porsche 911 T has it now. The owner has asked me to keep him out of the limelight, but I can’t resist sharing some pics. This car looks amazing: almost exactly how I want my own longhood, which arrives in the UK in just over 24 hours.
You just can’t beat the look of these custom Minilite equivalents – available through secret channels only heroes know about. I also love the centre filler, the track rubber, the wider front arches, the simple bumper etc. Race numbers are the icing on the cake, and are not for show: the car competes at the hands of both husband and wife.
The power in this one comes from a custom Euro-spec 2.7 built into a ’66 2.0 case. It runs 46mm PMOs, custom cams, a strengthened 901 transmission with 915 LSD and some sweet internals. The front end is Carrera (classic early-car mod) and the exhaust is SSIs with a Monty muffler. The owner did everything himself, including the 8″ flares and the paint. The inside is wicked also but I’ll save those pics for another day.
I’ve put a hat on now, just so I can take it off to the man who built this car. Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing some details. The car is perfect – hope to see it in the metal one day!
by John Glynn | Sep 15, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Having diagnosed the source of the torrential cabin leaks on my 1983 Porsche 944 Restoration (rotten battery tray), it was time to extract the damaged interior and get the car dry. I started by taking out the front seats.
These are proper Recaro sports seats, so I was hoping to save them. No chance – they are ruined. One front runner bolt on each had to be assisted in release with a crowbar: classic 944 front seat mischief.
Front seats out, you can see how different the footwells are. On the left is the swamp. On the right is dry and lovely. I am so disappointed that someone didn’t do more to save this car early on. The trim is a very nice combination and works well with the white. Must have been a great looking car back in the day, especially as it’s such a lightweight thing. It wasn’t owned by a cheapskate either: I pulled a nice-spec Pioneer DEH-700 out of the dash. Shame no face but the chassis is rusted away anyway.
Front seats out, I started slicing carpet and rear seat squabs. Took a while to get that done and mop up the water (both sides), then I took out the rear seat back before sorting out a cover of sorts for the front glass. This will keep the worst of the rain out of the cabin until such time as Rob Campbell at Racing Restorations – UK Porsche Rust Repair experts – has an open space in his diary to weld up the battery tray, nearside sill and the front seat mounts – might as well be done while everything is apart.
I also replaced the rear lid latches and pins and adjusted the whole thing – such a lovely job using good parts taken from last year’s breakers. Must break a 911 sometime, see what that’s like.
Has returned to the farm for now. We should be able to get back on the case in October some time.
by John Glynn | Sep 12, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
As the 944 Turbo is sold, I was keen to move my other 944 project along; get it MOTed and then either start using it or get shot of it. It has to be MOTed to get the number plate off, so that’s a no choice thing.
Anyway, I collected the Porsche 944 from Midlands Car Storage and hooked up the A-frame. Towing with the Landcruiser is a dream, so we had a good run home, where I put the kettle on and wondered what to do next. I decided to start by getting the boot open.
The way a 944 tailgate works is it has a pin in each rear corner which locks into a recessed latch. To open, the key pulls rods inwards to slide the latch plates and release the pins. There are sponges (I kid you not) between the car body and the latch recesses and then the latch bodies have little reservoirs underneath, which collect the water which runs down the pins, and drains it out through the boot floor. It is convoluted but I think fairly clever. However, it is a bugger if the latches are not used regularly.
I bought the white car knowing it had sat unused for ten years in a leaky car port in Chichester, right by the sea – the house was a street away from the Channel. Imagine the steel pins and steel latches submerged in a salt bath for ten years: they seize solid and need smashing off. Smashing off window locks in a cramped greenhouse, in 26 degree heat, while lying on a floor and working over your head (in a car thick with mould) is a lovely job. I eventually got it all apart, opened the lid and checked out the boot. Dry and healthy and no rot anywhere, except the locks and the number plate lights. I have new ones of these so they’ll go on tomorrow.
I’d stuck the battery on a boost charge, so decided to try some electrics next. The door mirrors worked in 2 out of 4 directions – nice. The pop-up lights did pop up and made me want to keep the car. I love pop ups! The rest is fairly basic: this is mostly a manual car, which is great. The carpets on the drivers side seemed not too damp but the other side was soaked. I pulled the bonnet catch and noticed a lot of rust on the fusebox, the sort of rust that doesn’t happen with leaky rear window seals which is what I though I had. This had to be a hole in the battery tray over the fusebox pouring water straight down.
Battery out and project brakes on! A huge hole right across the front of the battery tray is just pouring buckets of water into the car, every time it rains. That has to go off and be fixed before we do anything else – have booked it in with Rob Campbell at Racing Restorations for some TLC next week. I’ll get the bit on the sill done done at the same time.
Getting the rest of the trim out should be fun – the front seats are seized on the runners which makes removal a job and a half. Will do what I can before the GP tomorrow.
by John Glynn | Sep 6, 2009 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
Ahead of starting the 911 engine strip down today, I had a major tidy-up in my little garage, which had turned into one of those places where you can get both feet in the door and no further. Five hours later I had floor space and could work on the motor right next to the toolbox. I call that a success.
Most of what is in my garage is parts and trim for my white Porsche 944 project – that bargain eBay purchase from last year (at least I hope it was last year). I look forward to starting the job of taking the 1983 944 Lux apart and putting it back together as soon as my little Landcruiser is finished.
Upgrade parts include full Porsche Recaro sports leather in black, fresh carpets and headlining etc, power steering, new engine mounts, new window and rear glass seals, Weltmeister throttle cam upgrade, decent tyres and so on.
This Porsche 944 project is a fairly low mile, two or three owner car, so I am hoping to use it quite a bit when it is back on the road and fitted with the all-important PAS and leather. Think it will look great in Grand Prix White with black hide, plus clearing out all that 944 stuff will give me my garage back.
Was using the parts washer for much of today – did a lovely job on 944 hubs, struts and crank sensors etc. Found the new ECU for it too. Sorting through some more bits tomorrow. I took so many usable parts off the two I broke last year and have such a lot of stuff in the garage. I’m not sure that it’s all going to be required: eBay beckons.
