A little build update I suppose, it's been awhile.
In my last update I had a list of things I wanted to do this season. Sadly, I worked on one of those items (the speedo) and am back at the drawing board on it, haha. That's not to say I didn't do anything to the car this season though.
I did get those 15" Fuchs reps mounted, overall I liked them.
I stumbled upon a set of Revolutions on here. These are a style of wheel I've loved, going back to my VW days. Pretty good price and they were NOS, so I bought them.
I was not, however, fond of the black centers. So I had them blasted and I painted them silver.
Shot comparing the Revolutions, the 15" rep Fuchs, and the 16" rep Fuchs
Anyway, I installed the revolutions, rolled it out into the driveway.
Immediately decided I didn't like them and started refinishing the 15" Fuchs right then and there. I already had the paint stripper and supplies etc.
So, I stripped the old paint off of the 15" Fuchs. Taped up the holes, leveled them out.
I used the bucket method this time instead of masking.
after filling all 5 areas and connecting the shallow strips.
This is a shot showing the areas (red border) that were painted previously. That was the thing that threw me with them, the mask line wasn't right.
Once they were all done, I think the mask line is better, but now maybe a little low.
I think I'll re-do them again, maybe in the spring.
Next, I replaced the crystals in all of my Heuer timers. I have two pair that I interchange, these two got double-dome sapphire crystals and it really makes them look nice. The other two got flat sapphire with chamfered edges. The originals had plastic.
I swapped the factory steering wheel back on, I like the diameter more than the smaller 3-spoke I had. Both in terms of driving control and also gauge visibility. I re-wrapped my wheel in leather, and got a hockey puck horn button.
I was most of the way through stitching when I realized I made the joining stitch in the incorrect method. So this too will likely be re-done this winter.
I was going to go on a fall rally put on by the Overcrest podcast. A nice podcast put on by a couple friends, both with 911's. I helped out with a bunch of the graphic design for them and had been looking forward to it for several months.
The early morning drive down to the start point, left the house at 4:30.
I was one of the first to sign in so I got my pick of the numbers, chose the year of my 914 because why not?
I've been on dozens of drives and rallys, many using the same roads we were driving on this day, so it was nothing new. The setup of the rally was quite different though. It wasn't a lead-follow rally. We knew from past experiences that it turns into a mess with tail cars rushing to keep up with lead cars, then everyone coming to a halt once they catch up etc. The accordion effect, or rubber banding. However you describe it it's not fun. So they scouted 3 full different routes, all with some gravel/dirt shortcuts mixed in. Each car was given a large map with the routes, and a guide book with turn by turn directions to follow the routes (this was the part I helped on) that resembled rally pace notes. Intended for a co-driver to dictate.
It was off to a great start. We let most of the people go first so it wasn't a big crowd all hitting the roads at once. I took off with about 3 cars behind me. A guy from the video crew was in my car so I had to go off of memory for several of the turns.
We came up to one turn and that's when things started to go south. I've been reliving this moment since it happened about a month ago. I had massive brake fade/loss and had to rely on the corning ability of the car to take a corner at far faster than I wanted. We did make it around the majority but near the exit of the corner I was on the far outside. Once the tires hit the grassy off-camber outside of the bend it was a slow-slide down the ditch, over several mossy logs, and perched on top of a culvert.
It's easy to want to point fingers at what was at fault. The pads I had weren't the best (Mintex redbox). But in reality it was my fault. I was just going too fast and shouldn't have been pushing the car as hard. A mistake I was lucky to have learned with the only outcome being a bruised ego and a broken fiberglass valance. I will for sure be bleeding the brakes and replacing the pads with the ones Eric recommends, as well as keeping it cool on the streets.
I called AAA and got it pulled back onto the road. Checked the car out and it was only the valance and some dirt. I drove it to the meetup for lunch and then had a pretty uneventful 2 hour drive home. Valance in the frunk.
Now, back to the project.
I ordered a seat on August 1st. I was hoping to have it by the drive (early October) but didn't actually end up getting it until the end of October. I had originally gotten a quote through GTSClassics and the price was just way too high. Then I saw that Pelican offered the seat at a lower price so I ordered through them. It turns out that Stephan/Pelican just hadn't updated their catalog. It was listed as including the headrest and free shipping, items that would normally add a couple hundred to the bill IIRC.
I received the seat sans headrest. Initially a bit perturbed I contacted Pelican about the missing headrest (with no clear way to mount a headrest either) and they contacted Stephan. Found that indeed their listing should not have said that the headrest was included, but he is sending me a headrest with grommets anyway because of the mixup. So it was a positive outcome with two companies, both Pelican and GTSClassics.
That brings it up to date, the car may make another appearance on the roads this season but with snow due soon it's a big maybe. I would really like to get the seat in and at least take it for a short drive.