58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[jetdog]

Thank you Roy,
No hurry, I'm just glad to be here!
Cheers,
Pete

[roy mawbey]

Pete,

That's going to be some car when finished. Great photos.

Roy

[JTR70]

Hi Pete,

Thanks so much for the kind words and for joining with us here! I agree with Roy, your car is going to be amazing. BTW: thanks for keeping Pete company Roy. It was so nice to read that someone else has been working on thier project for nearly 30 years too. Relieved to know that I am not the only one. You can find my oil line portion of this build beginning on page 32 here: http://www.abcgt.com/forum/14-356-Restoration-Projects/34-58367-The-75-Junkyard-Carrera-coupe-restoration.html?limit=6&start=186
if you're building this system from scratch I highly recommend doing it with the car on a rotisserie. It was difficult enough so I can not imagine trying to accomplish it on your back. As for the oil tank I would recommend going with a standard 911 tank on the right hand side where it belongs for this engine. The plumming is much simpler. I'm only running the 4-cam tank on the left side because thats what this car came with and I'm unwilling to modify this car anymore than I have to. More trouble and more plumming but I have no choice. My other project is not an original 4-cam so the tank will be on the right where it should be for this engine. So you bought a Wevo swing axle unit? I'd only heard they where going to produce it. I'd love to see a photo of the case if you wouldn't mind. I'm going to be machining an original 901 5speed for swing axles. Your painted shell and motor look amazing! Please think about a build thread on your car! If I can help with anything else just ask. Welcome once again!!
Justin

[jetdog]

Hello Justin,
Just home after late night at work, thought I really like to get this off to you while I'm thinking about it.
Still pouring through all your archive of amazing pictures of all your stages. Just a wealth of info and very inspiring to say the least. You are very meticulous, and I can really appreciate your passion in doing beautifully finished work.
I am still in process of gathering parts for my GT clone. I have a hard line 911 kit from Elephant Racing which Dean P recommended for ease of modification to fit a 356 application. However the oil cooler is not anything like your nice compact Setrab. I would like to very much follow your example. Could you send me the series number of your unit. Also would your friend Bill (the machinist) that fabricated your clever alloy clamps be interested in making another set?
I'd be most appreciative.
Best regards,
Pete

[JTR70]

Hi Pete,

Thanks again for the really nice words, I appreaciate it!

The Setrab oil cooler I bought is thier "Proline STD" series cooler. They come in a wide range of configurations so Take a look at thier website and see which one would fit best for your B-car application.

As for the oil clamps, again you're going to need to build them to suit. If your running the 911 oil lines they are slightly bigger at 19mm than mine.

Here are the basic dimensions that Bill added which any competent machinest could replicate and change slightly to suit your larger oil lines. At this point I'd strongly recommend that you find a machine shop in your area that you trust. Bill is getting up there and has had a few serious health issues as of late. It took 6 months for him to complete my last job and he only knocked it out for me beacuse we're friends and I told him not to worry, just get better and that I'd settle up with him and have another machine shop finish it out. My intention was to let him off the hook but he insisted on finishing the job. Anyway, he is a great guy but he is slowing down through no falt of his own.
Hope this helped.

Thanks again!
Justin

[JTR70]

12/3/17

My cousin wanted me to send him photos of my coupe so I sent him these I took a few days ago. Then it hit me

This paint job is officially 2 years old as of last month. The only bright side is that I haven't seen any bubbling or lifting so its stable so far.

So after two years I still haven't finished color sanding it.

Pretty much stalled on the interior after the headliner went in.

I'm grinding out the closing tin development but it should have been done a year ago.

also Working on my 16 inch alloy/steel wheel set. This center is just laying on a polished Fuch for dreaming purposes.


I did recently place an order with Trevor for one of his All Alloy GT decklids and will post some shots of it when I take delivery.

So a lot of irons in the fire and none of the them hot. I need to get refocused so I can begin making some notable progress. I still want to finish this car before I die but at this rate I may not make it.
Hope to have some progress worth posting here shortly.
Thanks for looking!
Justin

[neilbardsley]

it looks so close

Maybe focus on getting something you can drive then add in the interior later? Unfortunately your desire to have everything perfect, which is what has ensured the quality of car, probably means you will not do this

[roy mawbey]

Justin,
I think most of us the same with projects. I should have finished my utility room a year ago. Still got to tile the floor. Once you stop on a project its hard to find time to start again.

Once you do and it goes well, then it comes together! That's what I keep on telling myself.

Nothing is hurting on your car. Paint is now nice and hard.

Roy

[gkw]

Justin I can't believe it has been two years since you painted your car.
Time gets away from us. Hang in there its a great project. Gordon T1

[bbspdstr]

Paint shrinks. Place it in the sun, get it hot and then in the shade to sand and polish. But you likely know that.

You likely also know that today's urethanes have a typical "window" for sanding. When I was painting, it was three days max of sitting after baking in the booth, post-paint, for a few hours (at 120*). After that, the "skin" was very hard and fine sanding was very difficult and when sanded, it was difficult to polish due to exposing the micro-bubbles under that skin if sanded too far, so be very careful...now that your window has closed.

I just did a silver C-2. It was painted by a good shop that ignored/forgot my condition that I inspect the details after a "cut-in" before their overall painting. Their overall painting became a very expensive primer coat. It was repainted by a 42 year old local guy to whom I was recommended by my detailer/polisher/overall really good guy. This second painter, from Romania, worked as a painter for Alpha, then Porsche, then came to the US..fluent in 4 languages, 5 if auto paint is added. He used a finer metal flake and got the silver to look just as I remember new(er) 356s to have appeared 40+ years ago...when it was in single stage baked enamel.

I let the car sit while doing other assembly and finding/restoring the special 4-cam parts missing when the car arrived. The shrinkage happened because it wasn't baked and the one 'paintjob' followed closely on the other, which wasn't baked.

When almost finished in assembly, my detailer friend made all the paint issues just disappear. There is the fine "baked enamel" look to the surface but it's shiny-like-new.

I wish you good luck with yours. Here is something else you already know: it takes patience and you seem to have plenty of that!

-Bruce

[JTR70]

Thanks Neil! I could just throw a 356 trans, a push rod motor and a drivers seat in it and tool around but you do have me figured out...I just won't do it. Probably stems from my upbringing as my Father was and still is "Mr Temporary" (bless his heart)and never fixed things to a high standard, as it was always just to get things by. It drove me crazy as I got older and its probably why obsess and take things too far in some cases but in the end I have to like it otherwise my mind gets very resistant.

Roy, your utility room is a perfect analogy. It is hard to get the wheels rolling again once you've stepped away for a while.

Thanks Gordon! Time sure does get away. I believe your T1 has been completed for at least as long as my car has been painted.

Very True Bruce, I did miss my window and I was warned about it by my friend who shot the car. Aside from motivation my other problem completing this task was a clean enough area to sand in. My shop is small and I have a lot of grinding dust and other particulates everywhere. I'm sanding with a hard block and my biggest fear is wet sanding and hearing that "ZZZZZZZZIP" as something small and nasty got between the block and surface. Then you dry the area off revealing a knarly scratch and you just pray enough material remains to sand past it and polish. All things you know as well. When I'm comfortable enough to begin again I will watch for that bubbling but in the worst case I suppose I'll just have to reclear it again and level it before it gets too late. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will all work out though.

Thanks again for listening you guys!

Justin

[roy mawbey]

This page about final finishing of the paint surface is interesting. I had no idea at all till reading that thread reply by Bruce. The things you start to pick up reading on this forum!! I presume this operation is applied to a clear coat situation only??

I only have cellulose spraying experience and never even metallic. In any case my experience is no longer valid anyway as cellulose is now hard to obtain in quantity over here because of its harmful aspect.

Its also I guess now, with this 2 pack paint really not possible for the DIY man to even contemplate with just a garage, no real extraction and no oven!

I really liked spaying my car last time almost 30 years ago. Just hired the compressor put a face mask on and did it. The only thing I didn't do was spend another week or two on the preparation. The top coat was compounded by hand which took a fair time. Things seem so much harder these days and the standard is so much higher as is the cost if you get it done in a spray shop.

For sure Justin your preparation was top notch, take your time and finish it as you can.

Roy

[bbspdstr]

"I presume this operation is applied to a clear coat situation only??"

Roy, actually no...the kind of paint, or not 'paint' per se but a plastic coating you have on top, is the issue. Now, over here, most all commercial painting is "base coat/clear coat." The top coating is typically urethane, a chemically cured material...over a base of 'almost a lacquer' type of material. (I am trying to stay away from the technicalities.)

A single-stage coating that is not cleared but is "hardened" by an activator can be more troublesome to sand and polish than the clear coating. I have had several cars that were to be "more Factory-like" in a single stage urethane that would NOT give up on the scratching while polishing (reds seem to be the worst) and finally, out of desperation, were sanded lightly again and clear-coated.....which polished just fine.

There are single-stage metallics available in acrylic urethane and maybe in polyurethane. We occasionally use that on wheels done in silver.

Lacquer is also still available...but it is very expensive. That's what I painted when I started. Chemistry has changed with the times and making true restorations very hard to get as "authentic" as some like to have, but there are 'tricks' and ways around this dilemma when necessary. The only good news is that the new "paints" carry a lifetime warranty now. Not so with good ol' lacquer......
-Bruce

[roy mawbey]

Thanks Bruce for the explanation. As soon as the new paint came in and cellulose went out fashion I sort of clicked off in my interest. I really got on well with a spray gun and with a friend who lived opposite we did a fair few cars together even had full size gas bottles with a trolley that we could move from one garage to another, made up receivers for our spray from metal beer barrels and generally were an unsafe pair of individuals. The gas welding kit went, after I moved house and my friend nearly burnt his garage down when the interior of a car he was welding caught fire when welding underneath.

I still raise a laugh seeing the shape of a Ford Cortina in red on my friends front garden lawn. He masked the car but not the grass.

Things have improved in the past 40 odd years

Roy

[jjeffries]

Not necessarily in this particular thread, but generally the discussion of paint often reveals the " two countries separated by a common language" cliche.
My observation: the English use the word lacquer for what we'd call clear coat, akin to varnish. The American word, properly combined with another, as acrylic laquer, seems to describe what English call cellulose, or nitro-cellulose.
Is that correct, or are acrylic lacquer and nitro cellulose two different animals? Cellulose connotes cotton, right? And acrylic is more in the realm of plastics?
Confused in Connecticut! John