Finally, new skins and clean undercoating Options

[tod914]

After a gargantuan effort of trying various methods to clean the dirt embedded undercoating, finally got it 90% better. Purchased a clothes steamer, a variety of cleaners and and a sonic scrubber . Mucho work, a final coat of Griots rubber cleaner and their tire dressing, very pleasing end result. The Griots actually softened the undercoat abit. Excellent product, non greasy, non glossy, non sticky finish.
Opted for a set of Vredestein 195 65 sportrac 3's. One of the few performance tires available it seems. Can't wait to take it for a spin. I'll post some daylight shots later.

[Pat Garvey]

After a gargantuan effort of trying various methods to clean the dirt embedded undercoating, finally got it 90% better. Purchased a clothes steamer, a variety of cleaners and and a sonic scrubber . Mucho work, a final coat of Griots rubber cleaner and their tire dressing, very pleasing end result. The Griots actually softened the undercoat abit. Excellent product, non greasy, non glossy, non sticky finish.
Opted for a set of Vredestein 195 65 sportrac 3's. One of the few performance tires available it seems. Can't wait to take it for a spin. I'll post some daylight shots later.

Tod,

Should probablt know the answer to this,but I forget......was your 914 originally undercoated. Looks like a good heavy coat of Shutz, and then something else.
???
Pat

BTW - super 914!

[tod914]

Pat, I have no clue. Guess at some point I'll need to get the COA and see. I know the original owner had it done at some point. Either ordered it that way or had the dealer do it.

[Pat Garvey]

Reason I asked is because the plastic fuel line connectors are covered with it. Not the usual, though normal for Ziebarted cars (of which mine is one). Cleaned it off years ago, as well as the clamps. Seems to look a little more neat to me.

I can send a pic if needed.
Pat

[Pat Garvey]

By the way, the tires look great! Where did you get them?
Pat

[smg914]

Tod,
The wells look great and so does the car! By the way, did you purchase this car out of Washington state by any chance? A very similar car from Texas then on to Pennsylvania and then to Washington that I was involved with a few years ago.
Steve

[tod914]

Pat got the tires from Eurotire up here in Fairfield NJ. I'm sure there are other distrubutors closer to you. I'm very pleased with them. At least the looks so far. Still waiting on the powder coater for the dove grey intakes. Once I get them back, hopefully Monday, the paint and nipple gaskets will go out to you.

[tod914]

Steve yes! It's the same car. I knew this car when I lived out Califorina in 1998. Joe Boucher owned it; retired judge and big into the concours and rally sceene in the Santa Barbara region. He was the 2nd owner. I came real close to buying it then, but it was just alittle out of my reach at the time. Came up on Ebay last summer so I grabbed it. Car was immaculate when Joe had it. Took quite an effort to get it back to where it was, but was worth it. Think I will have the pan steamed in the fall. Way too much scrubbing to get that grime out. Debating on Zone 1 next week. Most likely a no, due to the Long Island traffic. Doing any events with your 73 this year?

[smg914]

I bet I spent 25 hours on the phone with the owner from Washington. Not Dwayne the mechanic but his friend who owned the car. I think the owner had Dwayne sell it for him. He seemed like a real nice man. He commissioned me to find him an all original Bahia Red 73 2 liter. I found the one you now have near Philly and he flew me up there to look at it. To my eye I didn't think a nicer all original Bahia Red 73 2 liter could be found. It wasn't perfect, the price was too high, but it was a dam nice car and I told him that your not going to find a nicer 73 Bahia Red 2 liter. He paid the price and had the car shipped to Washington and when he saw it, he called me on the phone. told me it was a piece of shit and it was worthless to him and he never called or talked to me again. I mean he chewed my ass out. I was stunned. But Tod, I'm so glad you have the car now. In the previous owners defense, he didn't have the time or ability to do the things your doing to the car and he was expecting it to museum perfect even though I told him it wasn't perfect.

I have no concours plans with any of my cars in the foreseeable future.

[tod914]

Steve, spoke with both Dwayne and the owner, whom you dealt with. Both very forth comming on the condition of the car. The owner had very limited time to talk. 99% of the time I was cooresponding with Dwayne. He was very helpfull and easy to deal with. I figured if it was 80% of what it was in 1998, it would still be a very nice car. The owner had an incredably beautiful 76? in orange with tartan seats. I believe one panel was sprayed so he sold it to one of the members here in Germany just prior to this 73 purchase. Museum qualitly cars with 100% documentation just don't come up for sale. I'm under the impression he gave up on his quest. I'm still plugging away (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I told him about the silver 74 I had at the time. But judgeing by what he was looking for, I didn't think it would suite him either being it had an exterior respray. I think as time passes, some of these one owner gems will start to pop up.