ex-California' 68 912 coupe -rolling resto

[dizzycap]

Been meaning to start thread here too, but throughout the rust repairs (yup, even on california cars...) i can't really say much of the imagery was particularly inspiring. So here we are, two years into the project, MOT'd and on the road. Time for all the fun bits. The fiddling around. the tidying up. The improvements. The nonsense.

Bought this as a rolling car needing a new floor and needing the usual overall mechanical repair/resto. To the best of my knowledge, It had been imported from california to denmark mid/late 90's and then sat untouched for 15 years until a guy on the swedish early911 forum located it, brought it to sweden and I bought it from him. It's not in 'first paint' untouched condition (more like 3rd paint...) but it's remarkably rust free and straight and most of the trim bits are there and in ok condition. It was the condition of the shell that really got me. It's really dry in most of the usual problem areas.

Now for some pictures! This is what it looked like about a year ago, when i got back from the MOT, I think.




As you can see it's not quite sitting right, but I've started to adress that with a fresh set of rear rubber bushings and adjustable spring plates. You'll also notice repro 5,5x15 fuchs. Not quite detailed correctly out of the box... Haven't decided what to do quite yet. In a way I like having 100GBP wheels on a car like this. I aspire to use the car a lot during the summers so it's gonna get scratches and knocks. Patina, i believe its called. This car has loads of it.

I've already done some things to the car so more posts to follow.

[sladey]

Car looks sweet keep the pictures and story coming. You're wrong about the resto part - we all love a resto thread so we'd love to see pics of the work you had to do

If you do drive it every day I think you'll find it gets better with use - mine certainly does

[dizzycap]

Before I get into the grotty details of the rust repairs let me share a recent project. All the door window seals on the car had disintegrated pretty badly and was crying out to be fixed. Cranking up the windows was everything but smooth and it was obvious some work was needed. I had put it off in order to fix more pressing MOT stuff but now the time had come.

Luckily this is one of my favorite repairs on a Porsche. The way the extruded aluminum profile door frames work together with the felt U-channel is just so beautiful and the result comes out great. If you have the right repro seals. I had learnt when restoring my 1970 911 that what seals you get from various online stores is a gamble.

My experience:
U-channels: When I did the 1970 back around 2011 I was provided (probably from ferdinand.se) with a set of U-channels that were pretty rigid. I think they were reinforced with a bit of metal mesh in the fabric as they are pliable and bendable to shape. These worked perfectly and I wasn't happy when I received a set for the 68 (probably from Pelican) that were totally soft. In the end the soft ones works fine once in the door frame and I couldn't say they're worse than the rigid/reinforced U-channel in any way. The rigid ones just feel better to work with IMO. looking into it now there may be a difference between years/SWB/LWB but I don't know.

Outer seal. (window scraper style). The original seal is a very simple seal, and the ones you get from PP are presumably for 964 or something and look way to modern. Comparison of the two seals:

I hated the look of the new seal and started looking around. International Mercantile showed the correct profile on their web page and the seal provided by them is correct. IM's rubber quality is a bit grainy and rubs off, so if someones knows that someone offers these seals in good quality rubber let us know. It looks really good though. Thank God for that. After postage, customs and the fact that I ordered more seals from IM that were also incorrect sourcing these little seals came to be extremely expensive


Inner seal. The disintegrating seal I pulled off the car was a simple pinch seal with one fuzzy side towards the glass (sorry, no picture of the original seal) but the repros - including the alleged correct item from IM - have a lip towards the inside of the car. I can't figure out how this lip will work with the door panel overrider so hopefully i'll find a correct looking seal eventually. The original seal does look very generic.
Maybe someone can shed some light on the version of this seal?

Sorry for long post. Here's a picture of a box containing - after all was said and done - one pair of very expensive seals. I can laugh about it now.

[jamie]

WAIT WAIT WAIT....

Californian cars have rust?

[dizzycap]

WAIT WAIT WAIT....
Californian cars have rust?

Nah! It's mostly just sunburn...

[sladey]

Was it actually parked on the sun?

[Robind]

WAIT WAIT WAIT....

Californian cars have rust?

Lol I think in my case it's was"do Californian cars have metal??"

Sweet car BTW, do like the red/Fuchs combo

[dizzycap]

To sum up the door project: I finally got round to sorting out the drivers side door gaps. Some PO had failed miserably and I actually feared the door/doorpost had been hit/repaired. But an hours work with some skilled help (ok, I didn't actually contribute much. Way to scared to put hammer and dolly to painted panels.) it flows very good. Very pleased!
That out of the way meant I could fit the DDK supplied original door panels and Early911sregistry supplied original door pull. Chuffed with the result!