I've woefully neglected this blog of mine. Now I'm getting ready for the ECC & hope to take & post pics next week. Meantime my old PC blew up, again, & I had to build a new one, again. This time I wound up getting some technology that allowed me to surf my old hard drives from previous PCs that either blew up or went obsolete & I found a bunch of old pics of Knikki being repainted @ AA. Here they are:

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While looking around the house for some old photos, I found these of Knikki from the summer of 2002. This was right before I took her down to AA to be repainted, have the euro pistons put on, restoration of the gas tank, replacement of the right rocker panel & soforth. She had been sitting in the same spot for 23 yrs., gathering dust. She spent 356 days down there, odd number coincidence, & when she was done I drove her the 800 miles home. It's quite obvious from the photos that the car did not need anything like a full restoration, just a freshening up. You'll notice how my Dad had the front bumper & spoiler painted black, & the rear bumper as well. Also note all the dust all over her in the early shots & what she looked like after I washed her for the 1st time in 23yrs. The last shot proves that not all LEs' came w/ plastic badges, as you can see the 9 is broken & sagging from the 14. This only happened to metal bagdes & not the plastic ones. These were actual analog photos, so I had to scan them to get them on this blog.




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Sometimes life just hands you a pile of shit @ the most ridiculous times. After spending a year & a lot of $, and another $200.00 on registration I wound up not going to Parade & showing the LE. The Father of a dear friend, a man I grew up across the street from, shooting his guns, stealing his beer & getting drunk w/ his son, passed away early that week & I wound up going to another funeral that weekend. So I guess I have to decide now if I'm going to Colorodo next year, or Chicago in 2, or back here on the east coast in 3. At least the LE is pretty much show ready. Still have to replace the side stickers & I might powder coat the engine tin... might as well be pristine everywhere.

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I've been absent from both here & the internet in general for a while. Other priorities, internet burnout & my PC going on the fritz has left me unwilling to hop on line as much. Anyway, I've been trying to get the LE ready for Concours in Charolette & I'm almost there. It's been a lot of cleaning & refinishing a car that did not need to be restored, but was converted from a perfect driver into a true trailer Queen . Thank God I have a nice, dirty, highly molested six to play with while I convert the LE into a paper weight .

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I scored a 74 LE Cinnamon Leatherette interior & put it in the six for the classic "Black & Tan" look. I could not wait to put it in, so I had to recently remove it all to install Tan carpeting to complete the look. I love modifying, but I call myself a renegade purist because I like to play with OEM parts. My Scirocco, S-15 & Civic are all this way. I can't touch the LE, so the six lets me fulfill this silly need of mine to play & build. Guess I spent too much time building models in my youth & wound up playing in 1/1 scale now .

Here are 3 shots that show the progession of the interior- "before", "can't wait cinnamon" & "done right".
The right half of the floor in the six has been replaced with a factory half pan & never finished right inside. So I pulled everything, POR all over the inside to cover up the last of the Irish Green. Ordered & installed one of Engmans' aluminium floor plates. Rebuilt the center console- not wired right/falling apart/ugly instrument face plate. Now it's wired right, lights work & made a new faceplate & covered it w/ dash material. Used contact cement & new joint fabric underneath to shore it up better. Had to add a power wire for the passenger compartment light between the seats, since the original seems to have vanished . Rebuilt the brake light switch. I previously changed out the stereo, speakers & steering wheel. Also had installed Camp 914 SS seat adusting handles & a JWest fuse box. Added visors, (were missing) & scored seat belts from Craig (Camp 914) & retrofitted the older, period correct, non-retractable seat belts back into the six. Replaced the rear right pilar facia & it just needs a coat hook. This has cost me in excess of $1850.00 so far in materials alone & I've done all the work . Again I'll say: "poor Man's Porsche my Ass!! " I pulled the floor mats from the LE because I ordered coco mats to be period correct in the LE, so that's another $125.00

The 4th shot shows a top view including the seat belts & other touches. Overall she looks very LE inside now. Yes, that's a cigarette burn on the center pad by the seat belt- beggars can't be choosers . The carpet is a little too brown compared to the real factory Tan inside the LE. Steering wheel is too fat & crested, , center console is 1970 not 1974 & has insruments, window cranks are 1970, not 1974 & the gauges are mostly 911, not 914. Also painted the inside aluminum door trim flat black to match the plastic ones on the LE. Seat belts are not LE, vintage 1970, but I think they look way cool. Oh yeah, the LE has no throttle control lever .

So I needed a new sheath for the front trunk release cable in the six. I got one & figured it was a quick install. Jackass. Fortunately, I had to cut a hole in the front trunk anyway- need an exit for the oil cooler. Cut a hole in the floor of the front trunk of a six, , poped the hood, re-installed the cable release properly this time, , cut & welded in a repro of the factory air exit plate on the 916 & GT. Needs cleaning & repainting but so does the whole car. Plate is double bead welded in so it's not going anywhere. I figure I'll just keep fixing everything & test fitting all my mods before I take it all apart & repaint the whole car. At least I get to enjoy it that way. Put 245 miles on her today; I must be getting around 16mpg in this pig. It's not a 4!! Fun ! Got a headlight that's not working. Turn signals & horn stopped working as well- loose cables or a bad relay. Going to weld a new battery tray & support back in the engine bay & get rid of the front battery next. I hate bugs.

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I hated my interior in the six. I love my interior in the LE. Problem solved! Oh yeah, I finnaly swapped out my steering wheel for a real one I rebuilt & recovered.

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Found this on You Tube... kind of ticks me off -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=880qPLHy3XQ

Had to remind myself how far I've come along w/ her the past 6 months. Before & after progress report I guess. A lot more work to go still, or in other words.. another never-ending 914 story .

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Been sick as a dog this past week... summertime flu has grabbed my ass & planted it. Spent most of my time blowing my nose & surfing the internet for pics of KT-So... to die for! Got my brakes back from Eric today... also to die for. Pop had vintage slotted Ferrodo pads lying in a box & I found them & will use them on new Zim rotors.

Added LSD addative to the six cause I seem to be chattering more than normal around slow turns. New tires though. I have to learn how to drive the six, it does not handle like the four. When I'm in the turns I reach a point in the wheel arc either way when the front end grabs very hard & feels like the rear is going to kick out ?! I wonder if this is normal? I was raised on a little four that was never pushed hard. The six, "Nasty Mnatasha", is a beast & begs you to push her. Added a OEM mirror to the right side of the six as well. Cleaned the plugs, air filters, looking to replace the gas filter... all getting ready for the ECC. Have to install a HD hi/lo headlight relay for the H4s' I swapped in from Knikki. Removed the hood crest as well. Still avoiding the leather steering wheel, maybe that would be better time spent rather than surfing for pics of a Goddess (KT-So) I'll never meet .


I hate being sick.

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It's not easy preping a car for Concours but I have to have it easier than anyone else because Knikkis' a time casule. She was however, my Pops' daily driver for 4 years or 16 seasons, of Washington DC driving. She needs a good cleaning underneath & I'm so lucky I have no structural rust. I dare anyone to find rust on this car, other than the rust on my engine bar . You'd think she was from Ajo Arizona except for the vintage interior. Wonder if there's any Tenners in Ajo ?

Swapped out the Sacramento from the LE into the six. Put an old 1975 Frankfurt USA in the LE that I landed on eBay for $12.95. Yes, a '75 Frankfurt USA, it works, $12.95 + $5.00 s&h . It was listed as a Fiat X19 stock radio & I guess there isn't enough demand for fixing those up. So no one bid on it for a week & I quietly won it . My Dad's original invoice said they sold us a Blaupunkt- this is wrong, they sold us a Saphire & Pop & I installed it ourselves to save money. Saphire sucked & stopped working years ago so I replaced it w/ the Sacramento, not knowing this mattered for Concours. So I put in a Frankfurt, cheap . Figured why argue w/ written history? Had to make a faceplate for it out of sheet metal. Spraypainted it black & glued new material over the plate.

Also worked on spiffing up the front trunk in the LE, installed the Sacramento into the six, blew out the old Alpine speakers it had & had to replace those w/ cheap Sonys . Cleaning the LE I noticed my door switch gaskets were shot so I replaced those as well. Busy, busy , busy. Blew out a belt on my compressor . Fun! Tinted my windows... on the Garage . Ultra black limo grade 5%.

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