The Slow Learner - messing about with another 911

Good idea to take your time and do it right. It deserves to be set right. 

It's an old German convertible.  You shouldn't be surprised to find water leaks!  I usually find water leaks on old German cars that just have a sunroof, let alone an entire fabric, folding roof...

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:

Good idea to take your time and do it right. It deserves to be set right. 

That's more or less the plan. It'll take me a while but I generally find working on this car more rewarding compared to working on some of the other cars I own.

docwyte said:

It's an old German convertible.  You shouldn't be surprised to find water leaks!  I usually find water leaks on old German cars that just have a sunroof, let alone an entire fabric, folding roof...

Well, there is that. Although this appears to have suffered from higher water levels than I'm usually used to. But then again it's had over thirty years to turn itself into a swamp.

Not much has happened recently while I was trying to get the S2000 work done (which also begins to feel a bit too restoration-like). Over the last couple of days I finally managed to carefully get the driver's side door card off. I'm pretty sure it's held on from the factory by a mixed assortment  of 1.5" long self tappers and some allen bolts that aren't all tightened down.

I'd say this one's done for and someone who wasn't me got their money's worth out of the door card:

Guess it's time for new door cards and probably a new handle as well, given that handle is nearly as mouldy as the bottom of the door car.

Time to send the plate back in and brace myself for a longer project, I think.

Now that I've mostly wrapped up the "mini-resto" on the S2000, I'm trying to quickly get the Porsche ready for inspection despite saying I was going to take my time. The reason? I drove the S2000 on some local roads and the unwelcome thought of "man, I wish I was in the 911" popped into my mind.

The main piece of work other than putting the seats back etc that I need for it to pass inspection is to sort out the front brakes. For some reason these cars - at least in a damp climate like in the UK and out here - have a habit of having their brake calipers freeze up if they sit for a while. Which of course this one had. I did manage to get the passenger side front one operating smoothly, but unfortunately the driver's side one has a piston that refuses to cooperate. It's been under pressure from the correct Hazet retractor tool overnight and hasn't budged, so against my better judgement I've ordered a set of "restored" front calipers. Even paid for overnight shipping, so hopefully I can sort out the front brakes over the weekend, address some of the other minor issues and take it in for inspeciton.

In reply to BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) :

Is the damp climate coupled with not enough driving what also cause the brake problem on the S2000?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

I think it was definitely a contributing factor, but my understanding is that S2000s in general are a bit susceptible to gunking up the rear calipers if you don't change the brake fluid that often. Which didn't seem to have happened on either the 911 or the S2000.

So it's at least probable.

Well, E36 M3. Another step back - I got the driver's side front brake rotor off easily and tried to separate the rotor and the hub. For those of you who haven't worked on these cars, the rotor is bolted behind the hub, so you have to take both of them off as a single unit and separate them.

Four out of five bolts that hold the two together came out after some persuasion with the ugga-dugga. This one, however decided to mess up either the thread on the bolt or the nut. So right now I have to figure a good method of getting the nut off without damaging the hub and then get someone to press the hub out of the rotor as they appear to be rather intimately stuck together.

Once I took a closer look at all of the other bolts that came out OK, I noticed that pretty much all of them were bent and a bunch of them also had stripped thread. Not quite sure what happened there, but I have to order replacement nuts and bolts first anyway.

Of course I didn't get my lazy backside out to the shop early enough so at this point in time it was getting to hot to work on cars.

So, thinking about this problem a bit more - I either need to cut/split the nut off that's deeply recessed into hub without damaging the hub, or carefully grinding/cutting away the bolt head on the other side. The latter does appeal more because there is less danger to the hub itself as the brake rotor protects at least part of the hub.

Either way this makes me a tad nervous as the hub is apparently more or less a used part only these days.

Still wondering how they managed to bend the mounting bolts.

Edit: Someone on my favourite a/c Porsche forum did mention that the bolts are single use even before I hamfisted them. Makes me feel slightly better.

I recently bought some cheap carbide burrs for my dremel, and I've really been liking them for "precision" grinding like this. Lots easier to control than the ol' death wheel.

I got these ones but there are a lot of them on there in the same general price range.

In reply to cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) :

Thank you, just ordered a set.  I didn't even think about using my Dremel to grind off the bolt head, but that's a really good suggestion with a somewhat lower capactiy for mayhem.

In reply to cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) :

I've used similar burrs on the Dremel for just this kind of thing and yes they really are an indispensable weapon in terms of cutting in confined spaces.

Well, the burrs arrived today, let's see how well they work for me.

A poster on the other forum I'm mirroring this thread to pointed out that these bolts are more or less single use only, and it looks like the ones on my car have been used more than once. The spring washer clearly wasn't, for starters.

Used another vendor for a set of OEM bolts, washers and nut, so let's see how well that goes. FCP Euro didn't list them and my usual source of Porsche parts (Pelican) shows 2-3 days delay for shipping, so I'm trying out a place down in Gainesville.

I use Suncoast for parts mostly.

In reply to preach :

Thanks, I'll keep them in mind.

Right, 911 now with moar brakes. The burrs did their job and I was a bit more careful on the passenger side so it didn't turn into a repeat performance.

Right now it unfortunately looks like I've hit another "inspectable" issue that will require me to change at least one if not both of the rear bumper guards. Looks like the metal structure in them is completely rusted out and I mainly have thin air to bolt the license plate lights to.

preach - the recommendation for Suncoast Porsche for parts is already proving useful, the bumper guards there are considerably cheaper than the same OEM ones Pelican sells.

I really need to get my act together and start working on this car again. So in a desparate attempt at self-motivation, I finally put it on my YouTube channel and discuss its current state:

That's a really nice car and looks to be in great shape cosmetically. 

Is it worth it trying to remove all those electronics and putting it back to factory spec? I hate unknown electronics on my cars. 

In reply to Slippery :

Thanks - the bodywork seems to be in pretty good shape other than the mystery respray in the original colour. That's more or less the reason I ended up buying it, because I'd rather deal with a desert baked interior (the car came out of NorCal/Northern NV before it ended up here) than having to do bodywork repairs on one of these.

The electronic mystery boxes will definitely need a closer look. I know one of them is likely the alarm, but I'm not sure if both are related to the alarm or just one. Either way I definitely agree on the deep seated dislike of mystery electronics.

Fun fact - my prior 89 C3.2 in the UK had a battery drain that was considered "normal", so I didn't poke around too much. A friend of mine bought it from me when I emigrated, and while investigating an unrelated issue, his auto electrician pulled out three(!) different alarm systems.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I avoid aftermarket electronics like the plague.  I'd immediately remove all of that stuff, nothing but good will come of it.

In reply to docwyte :

I suspect one of them is the alarm/immobiliser, so that'll require careful removal. I'm definitely going to take them out sooner or later - probably at the same time I'll try to take care of the aftermarket headunit and find something a little more appealing to the eye.

I'm generally not a huge fan of aftermarket electronics, I just don't want to create another sub-project right now after I already worked on the ECU.

Red Porsche? Check

Fuchs wheels? Check

Coolness level upped? Check

These old 80's and 90's air cooled era Porches are getting lost in obscurity here in South Africa, and seeing one really makes me happy, even if its thousands of miles away. 

The last of the "driver's car" before the intervention of electronic nannies 

Found some time to get rid of the mildew on the leather surfaces in the interior. And I spent more money on tools:

So after yet another issue with the BRZ, I needed a quick "win". Not sure what possessed me to think that a 911 of all cars would provide me with a quick win, but hey...

Yes, it's the first time that I've actually tried to find out if the roof mechanism worked. Hey, I've only owned this thing for about three years, and I still don't know if it also goes up again.

The important question - "did I drive it out of the garage or did I push it out?" - will be answered in a video soon.

And to answer the question if I had to push it out of the garage or if it made it under its own power: