I'm at that point now where there's very little to do until the car is painted. The paint slot I was hoping for won't happen now but I'm close to making other arrangements now. In the meantime below are a few other little bits I've finished off.


Targa latch hardware.

Headlight Motors were fortunately it fairly good condition and the casing both displayed their stripes well. They only really need a deep clean.

The fresh air system really needed a lot of work to refurb. Like many, mine had been left in situ when the car was resprayed previously so internally it was light ivory! It’s also not uncommon for the drain tubes to snap off and mine had suffered. Mine had also lost a couple of the tabs the retaining clips held on to so some of the pieces needed replacing. If took a while but eventually I had a good enough set to set about making good.

This is what I had to start with…



Overspray extreme!





I don’t think the seals are going to be reusable

Starting to clean…

This lot could be better so it was off to the platers.







New seal pack from 914Rubber

All back together and ready to install. Quite a difference from the beginning. Another stupid amount of time spent cleaning parts no one will ever see

Stephen,

While your cleaning these up, why not list how your doing it.

Take a great thread that I love to watch and make it one that elevates the others knowledge. Mainly me as I have to do these soon also, and want to save some time.

Cheers,

Stephen

I think I've ben lazy with this write sorry. Everything here was cleaned using the basic things I think we all have in our garages. A degreaser, methylated spirits, white spirit and paint thinners.

The black plastic parts were polished with Autosol metal polish. However the actual top of the airbox I had to paint as it was very scratched.

The only other cleaning I did was to the electrical connectors on the headlight motors. They were soaked in a solution of distilled vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. You can either make a paste or I prefer to add more vinegar and dip the terminals in. In only a few minutes they look like new. Hope this helps.

Nice Work! Well, we are seeing them now and there is satisfaction in knowing you have done this and literally touching every part. You will not regret it.

looks terrific.

Whilst I think of it another tip I can share is what I do with my zinc plated parts before I send them to my plater.

So I know they're going to come back looking great I make sure I clean them as good as I can before sending. I also soak them all in an acid based wheel cleaner. Not all wheel cleaners are the same so you may have find a particular one. I buy mine for ebay UK and it's unbranded and not available in US. This acid dip will remove all of the old zinc. You can then clean the individual part with a wire wheel to polish them up. You can be sure that you're plating will then come back looking fantastic.

How did you resto the plastic pieces? Polish with a buffing wheel?

Damn the air box and flapper valves/vents are amazing. So you used Autosol
on the black plastic? Need to give that a go in the future.
Assembly of that system never happens without a few swear words !
I did mine with 914Rubber’s kit right before I started my current project.
Looking spectacular Stephen! Crack on......

No buffing wheel, all by hand, a dab on Autosol on a cloth. To be honest the plastic polishes very quickly. The plastic in the airbox itself has an extremely low melting point temperature, I think you could destroy it very quickly with a buffing wheel.

Wow, that looks better than new Stephen!!

Beautiful work .................. Thanks for sharing.

The last month has been a bit manic personally and also with bits and pieces on the car. A conversation with a local Porsche mechanic a while back led to an introduction to the guy he uses for paint. Cutting a long story short the car leaves here tomorrow to be blasted and then painted! The last few days have been rather frantic finishing off all those little jobs I've put off, because they're just little jobs!

The same guy who recommended the painted was also kind enough to lend me his rotisserie, I just needed to make adaptors so suit my car.

Typically those little jobs took several days and as they were just finishing jobs there was little to photograph so no pics unfortunately.

The only job worth photographing was the modification to sill to allow for oil lines to my front cooler. The cooler I'm using has the input and output on opposite sides so I decided the best option was to run a line down each side of the car. Yeah I agree it's not the norm but once the car is together none of it would be visible anyway and it was a considerably cheaper option for the same outcome.

The bottom of the left A post has the indentations originally going to the charcoal canister as I won't be needing those the space is there for the oil line. The right side however is different and required modification.

Before (I'd already previously done a small patch repair here)


A bit of creative shaping with a scaffold pole


Almost finished

So from here I'm hoping the next updates will be from the bodyshop. Exciting times ahead.

Looking forward to it! Great to see you made it to this point

This thread is very inspirational and frustrating at the same time.

I see what you are doing and gets me revved up to get some work done on my car. Then the reality of me getting something done, and doesn't turn out quite as nice as yours, haHA!

Looking forward to the next update

You certainly have skills! Can't wait to see the next installment. I have to admit I'm a little jealous of you guys getting color on your cars. I think I'm losing my race against winter to get paint on mine this year.

Thanks Jim, I really can't wait either!

I've gone back over things sometimes more than once to make sure it's as good as I can achieve. Each time I've improved and so have my skills. I've said this before and I'll say it again - patience has been key in almost every part of this build. If you have that nagging feeling in your head that it's not quite right, stop what you're doing and rethink. Of course this adds to the time but knowing you've got if right is priceless. Good luck with your build.

There's always someone slightly ahead of where you are in your project - trust me I've been jealous of others on many occasion. This time it's my turn, but yours will come!! Keep cracking on, you'll get there.

And there it goes, the furthest it's travelled in three years.

I'll be checking in with the painter in about ten days time, so I'll report back then.

Wow, that must give you a flutter or two to see it go off for paint. This is going to be exciting.

Nice build, wonderful detail work!!

Nice work. Your attention to detail is great. You're at a great point in the build. Can't wait to see it back from paint.

Now that is a cool pic! All too often we forget to take a pic at some of the biggest moments because we are caught up in them.

It certainly did, very exciting times indeed. Your previous comment on the colour choice stuck with me.... Light Ivory it will remain.

I did almost forget, but called out for the wife to grab her phone. Like you say a pivotal moment in the cars history.

Looking forward to seeing the paint and glad you figured out a painter in the end, who is it going to, enquiring minds want to know?

Thanks, it's been done fairly local to me, well 45 minutes away, in Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex by a guy who was recommended to me by another classic Porsche owner who had his car painted by him. He's just one guy with his own shop and only takes on one project at a time.

He's done a few Porsches before and understands exactly what I want done, adhering to the factory finish as much as possible. I'll be supplying him with a plethora of photos that I've collected over the past months mainly from Cairo's six restoration that he's happy to follow.

First stage is a light media blast, which he also does. I'm planning to drop in for an update the week after next.

As surprise update...

I got a call from the bodyshop on Saturday afternoon asking if I'd pop down and help setup the rotisserie. So this morning I headed over there and to my surprise all but the underside had already been blasted.











Still a few nooks and crannies to get into but it's looking great and I'm pleased to report there were no hidden surprises! Even at this stage with the car appearing to be just a single colour is looked a lot more complete than it ever has.


Deep breath time as we carefully roll it over for the first time.





The rest will be completed over the coming few days.

At. Last...

An amazing build. Man I wish I was at this stage.

Congrats!! It’s beautiful!!

I got up bright and early today and drove out to the depths of the Essex countryside to visit the car.

It's now been fully blasted and fortunately only a couple of tiny issues found that are really easy fixes. So that's a great relief. It's now also been been epoxy primed and looks pretty fantastic.
After seeing so many restorations at this stage over the years for some reason I find it hard to believe that this is actually my car! However I'm sure it'll become real when I have to pay the bill

Opening the door to the spray booth before the lights were turned on.

Congratulations on reaching that huge milestone. What a great look for our cars.

I agree, Lucky9146 too !
Light Ivory is a great choice.

Thanks, it really is exciting times right now. It'll be another couple of weeks before i get to see the car again, but it can't come soon enough.

I thought Jim's car was Grand Prix white, a 9/11 color?

Light Ivory is less white.....

Oops ! foot in mouth.

I find this picture amazingly artful this is just such a cool shot! Nicely done
Great to see it in a paint booth too.

I am not the person who had the car painted back about 1995 but I can say that it is a very creamy white as opposed to a white white. It has always been my understanding that it is Light Ivory, the original color, done with Imron paint.

Picture here shows a whiter Porsche Carrera S (Gran Prix I think) in front of mine, given it is a very bright day I think mine appears a shade off. I know in person it was different.


Click to view attachment

Certainly looks Light Ivory to me Jim.

Here'a the first shot I took and my favourite one.

Love it! I would frame that one!

Light Ivory is a warmer white, Gran Prix White is a bit bluer. IMHO, vintage cars look better Light Ivory...as seen in Lucky's photo above. =)

I'm getting kind of sick of your unlimited talent

Kidding aside, this is awesome, both the progress on the car and the photo.

Thanks Bren, appreciated.