Jump to content
  • entries
    13
  • comments
    16
  • views
    3,807

About this blog

Ongoing project

Entries in this blog

Ready for his closeup

So it's been quite a journey with good old Fred. Blood, sweat and cursing. He was named Fred by my wife because when he showed up in the driveway, he was painted black and she thought he looked like a top hat, like Fred Astaire's. So Fred he was.    I learned a lot and spent a lot. Hundreds of hours in the garage while Pandora kept me entertained. Dozens of questions and help from all you FAQ'ers, Steve at Blunt and various friends and mechanics. Quite the journey.    He's fi

NYNick

NYNick

Rubber Seals

The last few months I needed to finish up the car and get it watertight to ship off to the shop for the engine install. I had ordered BMW OEM seals from Steve at Blunt a while ago, and was dreading the various jobs after reading and re-reading all the Tech articles. I decided to put myself in a corner and asked my 30 year old son to help me with the windshields since he had done both of his on his 911 with my daughter. We decided to do it over Christmas while he was here for a few days.  

NYNick

NYNick

Rear seat delete carpeting install

I've gotten quite a few compliments, including esty herself, on my rear seat delete carpet installation. I basically followed her instructions on her website and the FAQ article by Mlittle, but I thought I'd document my experience here. It came out great.   First, I installed the carpet kit for the 'front' of the car. You've got to have the rear seat bottom upright done anyway to begin the rear seat area. Next, I lined the back part of the seat back with EZ Cool. While I was at it, I u

NYNick

NYNick

While the body's away the mice will play...with subframes

Here's the rub. I spent all that time stripping the body for paint and repair and now it's gone. The garage is empty now, except for parts scattered everywhere.  Engine over there, suspension over here, transmission over there, door cards, windshields, seats, header, driveshaft ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!   I decided to tackle the front suspension. I was smart enough to have my welder neighbor fab up a front dolly for me that I bolted to the car with the suspension bolts before sending i

NYNick

NYNick

Remiss

I can't believe it's been a year and a half since my last blog entry. So much has happened I can barely remember it all!   Since I left off sending the car off to the paint shop, I'll start there.    Had it towed 30 some odd miles and gave the guy some cash to get started, along with a signed estimate. Quite honestly I was nervous about how the whole thing would go, what with rust removal, new fenders, new front air dam, new floor pans, paint color change etc etc. There have

NYNick

NYNick

Tidying up so to speak...

I spent the last few work sessions clearing out the engine bay and ancillary areas to try to get Fred ready to ship out for bare metal respray and rust repair. In a day and a half I completed removing the following:   -Fuel line from bay to tank -Fuel pump (original under car location) -Brake booster and Master Cylinder -Pedal cluster -Windshield wiper motor and assembly (PIA!) -Firewall Insulation -Hood locking bar -Battery plastic piece (so dumb!)

NYNick

NYNick

Engine drop and prep

The last few garage days, well actually ALL the garage days, have been leading up to the inevitable engine drop. While I hemmed and hawed and tried to negotiate my way out of dropping versus pulling, smarter guys than me prevailed and I resigned myself to the task.   After cutting the exhaust and getting that out of the way, I tackled the drive shaft front and rear. As with other pieces and parts on the car, I put some yellow paint marks on both ends so that I can realign the part late

NYNick

NYNick

Exhaust, driveshaft etc.

Went after the exhaust Saturday morning. Beat it to death until lunch with PB Blaster, heat, hammers and crow bars but the slip fit fitting between the Ansa Sport Exhaust and the exhaust pipe to the header wouldn't budge. I posted a 'help' on the forum after searching the web, but didn't get much, other than heating it red hot with Oxy/acetlyne which I don't have, so I dropped it for the day and moved on to the header.   Seems that wanted to put up a fight as well. The lower bolts were

NYNick

NYNick

Gas, Glass and antifreeze

So last weekend I tackled the radiator removal. Easy peasy and only 4 bolts, after pulling the hoses. Radiator looks nice and clean but surprisingly there's a radiator shop nearby so I'll be taking it over for an evaluation and maybe a re-core. After that I went after the A/C condenser and fan. I'm going A/C delete on the car anyway so out it came. FYI you have to disconnect the fan from the condenser to get them out, but also, no problem. For those who are counting, they weighed 10.5 lbs togeth

NYNick

NYNick

Fenders, rust and trim, oh my!

I was away for several weeks and if you must know, played quite a bit of golf. But I've been back for a week now, so I got to work doing what needs to be done over the course of the following weeks to get it ready for the body shop, rust repair and paint. If you ever want to know why paint jobs cost so much money, try tearing a car down. It takes an incredible amount of time (and patience) and when I run out of the latter, I just call it a day and go back at it another time.   I actual

NYNick

NYNick

Removing trim, door cards, tar insualtion

The last few days were pretty full and I made sure to finish early so I could watch the Masters!   Before I did anything else I put the O-rings I got at the dealership in the fuel injection pump. Attached is the picture and the invoice. $7 a piece but they fixed the leaks!   After that I tackled the aluminum trim that's all over the car. The car had been painted at least once or twice before, so some of it was held on with plastic plugs, while there were still some original c

NYNick

NYNick

Console Delete

In the Porsche world, it's fairly common to delete the A/C and the center console in the early cars, at least in temperate climates. I personally never liked the look, and took the console out of my SC, creating miles of legroom and a much more open feeling.   I envisioned the same thing with Fred, so I dug in. The console was easy...a few nuts here, a few switches there. Of course, I labeled all the wires for future reference, and saved and labeled the console.    The Behr A

NYNick

NYNick

It begins...

I brought this 74 Tii home a few weeks ago, and my wife immediately dubbed him "Fred". This was because he was black, and according to her, looked like a top hat. This reminded her of Fred Astaire (she's living in the 1940's in her mind even thought she's ALOT younger than that), so who am I to argue with a wife naming one of my cars? This translates into acceptance, and who among us can't use a little more of that when it comes to acquiring vehicles?   Here is is, after I removed the

NYNick

NYNick

  • Blog Statistics

    • Total Blogs
      448
    • Total Entries
      2,347
×
×
  • Create New...