DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

deeply impressive solo job!

The car's looking great - you should be justifiably proud of your work.

Looks wonderful!

Thank all very much.

I am deeply ashamed to say I'm rather full of myself at the moment and it's been a walk in the park compared to most projects on here. Now I've got the resto bug again I'll be sorting some more bits and pieces but I don't want it on ramps at moment just in case the sun comes out

Mike, I like the look of the sugar scoops. It's an old car and I like the fact that this style of head lamp shows that. However if I'd been "fastest finger first" on those H4's you sold I might have tried a new look.

Well there was no plan to be up dating this till the winter but

Nice sunny day and booked in for the MOT at 10am. Then out for a blast, back for tea, wash, pint(s).... The AA man has just left. Well not just, I've had time to upload photos and type.

850 miles in to my running in and potential disaster. Not full on end of the world, but the "oh for f*ck sake I only just put the sod back in" type.

The second potential weak point is re using my old turbo tensioners. Again it's down to cost but at least this is something I could up grade later without too much strip down.

It's not actually the chain tensioners, but because I'd thought this would be a future up grade I didn't replace the oil lines. My own silly tight arse fault wait till I do fit hydraulics and need the new lines with the extra take off anyway. One of the old lines has split at the crimp.

I was on the type off dual carriageway that only has a 3' wide hard shoulder. I noticed the cloud of smoke out the back but oil pressure and level were good. I had to drive for a few miles on to the next lay by.



It's hard to tell from the photo below but my nice clean engine and bay are properly splashed with oil. I'm guessing the underneath will be just as bad.

I can't imagine it'll stay this clean and tidy for long

I have thought since that the pressure would be up because the sender is before the leak. I can't be sure how long the cam was starved of oil before I saw and reacted. When I get the motor out and check I'll let you know. Best case- new oil line+oil. Worse case- New cam+rockers+cam housing+gaskets+oil lines+oil What summer we're getting will be over.

I'm going for those pints now...lots

Aarrggh. Tough luck. Good luck with the minor damage. Can you fix it without dropping the engine again?

R

Hi Richard, its looking like it should all be ok thank you. Hopefully.

I chatted with Barry via PM about the bar so it didn't fill your thread with unnecessary posts. Thank you for the info.

Sorry to all for the mardy woe is me tone of my last post. Things are better now. In the cool light of the next morning albeit with a hangover, I decided to have a rummage while the engine was still in to see what I could access. I got about 5L of oil out of the sump and tank so it was still flowing around everywhere else. When I took the cam covers off it was all quite wet down there (quiet at the back) a wipe of the lobes where I could get showed no drastic "side of a 50p" type wear. The photos don't show much, most where blurred.





With suddenly feeling a lot better and very very lucky I thought I'd hand crank the motor round check the other sides of the lobes. Have a go at removing a rocker or two to check their contact faces. Then try my hand at nipping up the head bolts and re adjust the tappets all with the motor in. It is a little early at only 850 miles but you know when you have an "I can do it all now" moment. Seconds later there was an "oh bu**er" moment. In this and various other threads I've harped on for one reason or another about my car originally having A/C. Sorry for that but somebodies one time expensive option has caused me some grief over my few years of ownership. The hole in the boot floor, The washer bottles location, The missing strengthening bar and tow hook. While I'm on that subject-

I hope never to use it for anything other than somewhere to place a trolley jack.

Well my welding got tested as it was winched on to the dolly for its shameful journey home! And finally to top it off the double belt pulley you get with A/C means I can't get a cranked ring spanner in to turn the motor with the engine in.



For a moment I considered tightening the fan belt enough to use the alternator nut but didn't want to over stress the alts bearings. The belt and pulleys are oily. For an even shorter moment it crossed my mind to jack up one rear wheel, stick it in gear....no.

So with the cam looking ok, 2 (each side, cos I've learned my lesson ) cam lines plus cam cover gaskets are winging their to me. It'll all be up and running again by the weekend. Then I'll just run it and see how it goes. I will have to get the motor out at some point, its lathered in oil. What squirting that didn't cover the engine bay got sucked in by the fan and dressed the barrels and case. So the final re torque and tappet adjust can happen then and if I can find one a NORMAL pulley will be fitted.

Awesome resto
And sharing your pain for the engine trouble

Antony

Thank you Antony, hope you've been been successful with your own engine trouble.

Time for some winter projects, interior and a bit more on the motor.

I posted in the wanted section for some bits and pieces to continue the targa and was successful in gaining some seats from James-TheEasyLife (a good fella who let me have the seats at a give-a-way price) Not pretty but apart from missing the headrests they're all there, and Andy-Lightweight_911 (an equally good fella who's sent me some h/rests to try before I buy) DDK is a great place



Another piece I wanted for the car was a Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio. I was confused at how they fitted when I first saw a picture of one but now realise I'm missing an adaptor plate. I was offered one by a DDKer but won one on E-bay at less than half the price so had to give back word on his offer. My E-bay prize is a Euro spec Frankfurt as opposed to the US version I should have and the control knobs are dished where I think they should be domed but it looks the part. It also came with a plastic facia so has gone straight in. It is cracked and scratched but will do for now and I can make/find the proper adaptor plate later.



Putting it in was the easiest way to test it worked before leaving feedback for the seller. It's all good apart from the dial light doesn't work. I've read some threads on vintage radio forums and it sounds more trouble than it's worth to open it up and risk breaking something just for a lamp.

Back to the seats. I will be having a go at refurbing the metal work but leave the re-trimming to the pro's. This leads to a catch 22 situation, I'm sure a re-trimmer will want the seats complete and built up rather than being given dismantled parts. So I'll have to strip them repaint the metal then put them back together for him to take them all to bits again.

When I first got my car it had fishnet recaro's mounted on this type of frame



To fit the boxster seats I've been using since I also removed these parts



They're all rusty now because they've been propped up against my garage wall since 2006ish. To make the boxster seats fit I welded in these tabs that now need to be removed without damaging the surroundings. I do like to make things difficult for myself





Before I get too far in to this seat swap and start cutting the tabs out there's also this problem to consider



You can see how much higher the seat base is and I'm 6'6" on a good day. When I picked up the seats from James I had a sit in his car which has one sport seat and one standard. Sat in the standard I was tilting my head and still getting the Brill cream on his head lining. I don't want to always have the roof off so I'll chat with the re-trimmer when the time comes to see If it possible to sculpt the bases to lower them.

The h/rests Andy sent on the try before basis went in fine...looks like I'll be having them because try as I might I can't fathom how to get them back out




The hinges all operate properly but have plenty of fluff stuck to the grease



I've seen Mick-MT 's thread on the doctors car and his home made bar gizmo that can be used on those springs. But I'm still a little put off releasing them. My hinges are painted not chrome so I'll clean them and see if it possible to mask the moving parts and paint them as is. Looking at them it appears if they are painted in the bolt upright position when the seat is reclined no unpainted areas will become exposed. After a de-grease and removing some of the parts this is how they look



To remove the tilt lever means bending back those tabs so I'll leave them in and mask them.

To remove the cover and spring base from the shell



A screwdriver to ease away the metal fold. Then you can push down on the base and ease out the tucked in cover.



With this released all the way round you can fold it back to see inside



The string you can see diagonally in the centre is attached to upper spring parts then tied to some lugs on the shell so these need to be cut. You can then release the spring frame from the tabs in the shell and it all lifts out. This is what I found.



I don't know whether the insides were painted when new but I can't help but think this rust was caused by
A, a spilt drink or two over the years
B, an emptied bladder or two over the years
or C, Oooh 40 years worth of bum sweat

Need to get some bit to the blasters now so I'll update when there is some progress.

I've changed the title a little to stop me cringing when I see it,but rest assured I'm still doing this all topsey turvey. As you'll see

The seats are on hold for a bit. I got bored of trying to find the correct/closest match/something I liked, shade of vinyl sometime ago when it became clear they wouldn't be ready for summer and the POB tour. I've also since had a trial fit and found they are too high for me really. You seem to sit on them as opposed to in them. I changed the wheel which helped on the leg room but still left the headroom problem. The Boxster seats I have are great but not very seventies so I want a happy medium.

I have a plan, sort of. Technically its only an idea at the moment. Here is a bit of back story.

The car came to me with "fishnet" Recaros'. They gave a good seating position but were "proper buggered!" I didn't mind the outer look of the car but hated sitting in a rats nest.





So I had a go at recovering them. The rest of the interior was shot too, cracked door cap,nicks and scuffs in the door pockets and a crescent worn in the door cards by the window winder handle. Back then I didn't want a tan interior so did the whole lot black.



It turns out I'm no seamstress. I hadn't known how much vinyl I would need so bought.....some.....turned out not enough. When I went back for more the stock had changed and I ended up with too different grains. I can't remember how long they were in the car but wasn't happy with the result.

I found this lot on e-bay and it all went back to tan.







I sold the old Recaros' to a fella down the road 7 years ago to use in his TVR project.

Not so long ago I bought them back.



For seven years they have been in his garage with all the other TVR project parts. When I get back around to finding that elusive shade of vinyl I'll re do cards,the rear seats and both types of front. The fishnet to use and the others for....if I ever shrink!

So there's the plan/idea.

In the meantime I could do all the bits that are supposed to be matching black again.

The door pockets,door caps, and rear parcel shelf needed to be matched up to the armrests and dash top. The dash has the compulsory crack but I don't to tackle recovering that. I think it will end up a mess and what the hell, most LHD seem to sport that look anyway. This was all done before the POB tour.

With the lesson learnt on not enough material I bought plenty and set to work.





Warped,damaged and badly repaired. The ally trim on the drivers side was really bent out of shape and as a temporary fix last time I replaced it with some edging you can buy for motorcycle fairings.





I've seen threads that mention getting them over some boiling water to soften the board. It works very well at getting back the basic shape but i was still left with some filling to smooth over the flatter surfaces.



The back had a top to bottom rip so I tried my hand at a bit of glass matting.



Horrible stuff to work with but once its set it is really strong. I don't think this will ever let go again. A bit of filler to smooth over the matting and will paint the backs black.



The map pocket on the drivers side had been used to pull the door closed too many times and also needed a repair.



It looks here better than it was. It had no strength and was crumbling. This is the passenger side and how it should look.



I cut the ropey section out and replaced it with a piece of plastic stuck with more fibre glass.



A bit of smoothing and ready for vinyl.

My last effort with the door caps was poor, but when I removed the material I remembered why I'd done it.





These are so dried out and hard that I thought filler won't be a problem. So they got some more this time to really straighten them up properly.

The more observant of you will notice that the photos of the strip and repair so far show the driver side. From now on the recovering photos show a mix of both sides. I've had a look back through all the pictures I took and it would appear I'm crap at continuity.

The front is straight forward



The corners press round quite smoothly





You end up with the mess out of sight.



This is the map pocket with the repaired corner.



At the bottom rear corner you end up with an over lap.



I wasn't going to bother with cutting out the excess and stitching the joint as its all hidden underneath. So a bit of tuck and fold.



With the cap and trim back on I'm quite happy how its turned out.



It looks like I took no photos of the "doing part" of the flappy pocket at all. They are simple though with no folds needed.

Looks fantastic - amazing seeing the pocket fully assembled

They look a great result Mick, so much more rewarding than shelling out the second mortgage for new ones as well