I did not know where else to put this, and am so excited I needed to tell folks.

I sold a 72 911 Targa S this morning. I only made around 8K, not counting all my time. I bought the car for 15K. I rebuilt the engine to a 3.0, using the factory 2.2 block and heads, and having the fins shaved a little, so the jugs would fit, so it would still look like a 2.2. The machining of the block and heads was kind of obscene, at over a grand. I balanced all the rotating parts myself, to within a gram, while waiting for parts and the engine machining to come back, and cut the fins on a bandsaw. I spent over $8800 putting in a roller crank and bearings, drilling out the oil passages for them, the roller cam, and rockers. I had the old style chain tensioners bored out, so they would accept larger pistons. I added a larger oil tank, high volume pump, and oil cooler because this engine should safely rev to over 7500 rpm on a daily basis, and when he drives it on the street it will need to stay cool. I also used a competition RS cam grind, and got rid of the Solex carbs for a set of prejetted Webers. I also upgraded the dogleg trans as best I could, even though they are notoriously weak, because with all the numbers matching I had to keep the old style housing.

I had the interior redone to stock, and replaced the door cards with new copies. I had to replace both doors and refit them, with good used California doors. Back then, the car was pretty much hand made, so I had to remove material, and add lead to make the door gaps correct. The body is a single welded piece, so you just can't throw one of these together. I rebuilt the gas heater, and added a hidden fuel shut off valve for it. I got rid of the cardboard, because they weren't supposed to have it or carpeting under the front hood, with that controlled bomb heating the car.

I located a genuine factory tool kit for $200 on Ebay. What can I say? I'm cheap. I replaced the plastic folder that kept the original owners manual in the glove box. I had the vehicle history folder laminated. Had the clock rebuilt to quartz, and had the trim sandblasted and powder coated to the original black. The folding targa top was rebuilt with brass bushings, and had the skeleton powdercoated so you couldn't see them. I stripped the whole car down to bare metal. I welded in a new driver's floor, and stripped all the undercoating from under the car with kerosene, a scraper, a brush, along with a poorly paid high school slave to do the nasty work, because he wanted to learn. I sprayed the whole car with an epoxy primer, fitted and added a ducktail spoiler, and European lights. (period correct) I painted the car a factory orange, and was able to locate a company that still made the old style weather stripping, with a woven welt, for the bargain price of $1700. I used stock wheels, and kept the same size and make tires.

When I started the car up for the new owner, he said he could feel the exhaust beat in his chest, when he was behind the car, and she isn't that loud for what was done to her. I told the new owner he would need to use straight 50 weight oil the rest of the motors life, which would probably be around 25 to 30 thousand miles if he used it as a daily driver, and let it warm up for 5 minutes before driving it, used race fuel, and much less if he decided to race it, or go cheap on the fuel or lubricants.

It took me 6 months and almost all my disability check money after paying our house payment, power service, and insurance to build her. My wife pays the rest of our household expenses, and wakes me up to go to bed, when I fall asleep in the garage. At almost 57, my body is getting to the point of being almost useless. I have arthritis in my hands, I wear knee pads now, and I can't see worth ****. I also have a hole in the top of my head where an old single post air over hydraulic hoist dropped an inch, and a incorrectly installed exhaust clamp(2" band and single bolt) punched a hole through me. They are supposed to be installed with the bolt facing up. I sent my apprentice home for the rest of the day, after coming back from hospital, because of him doing that. I also damaged my lungs, liver, and kidneys from painting cars in my teens. Back then we did not use masks.

The health report is to remind all of you to tip your tech, when he or she work on your cars. They buy all their own tools and boxes.(I have over $35,000 of them according to a 1995 insurance listing) For the most part, they are cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and will probably not live as long as you. Most of us do this out of passion, like creating art. At my dealer I always as a rule was tipped, even though I did not appreciate the doctor and lawyer's wives pushing the money down the front of my pants, because they were being ignored at home. An extra fin is not going to kill you, and it will pay back in dividends next time you request that tech to work on your car. Believe me.

The car is being trailered to Atlanta as we speak, and his son flew their airplane back home. I don't know what he is going to do with the car. He said he was going to put it in his living room.

That would be a shame, and expensive. All the seals will dry out, plus he would need to hire somebody to reprime the engine, so there would be no damage to the crank bearings, and pump up the chain tensioners before he starts it, if she sits for over a week without at least being started. Restarting a roller crank engine that has set too long entails spinning the engine over without the spark plugs,(AFTER adding oil down the pressure galleys that are plugged with brass plugs in one half of the block), until the oil gauge is maxed out for over a minute, then replacing the spark plugs and running her until the oil reaches operating temp.(I would just drive it)

After all of this work and worry, I am one tenth of the way to my already restored early E Type roadster, with the European headlamp covers and right hand drive, sitting at a friend's house in Deutschland, plus the vacation that goes along with getting it........Be cool.....Mike

 

Is there a 911 Targa Forum?

How's the X Type doing?

 

The X Type is doing great. I started doing the cold air mod today, by drilling out a 3" hole in the air filter box, and will be drilling a 3" hole in the bolt in crush zone member by the ABS unit, and changing the locations of the grounds on that piece. I bent the dipstick tube towards the motor, so I can install the insulated or carbon fiber tube to the crush zone member, and install a cone shaped inlet just behind the lower grill, or at least in that area just ahead of the inner wheel house. I was thinking of running the hose behind the headlight on the right side, but the fender clearance is too close. I was also thinking of putting a 3" NACA duct coming out of the right side of the front bumper, but I don't want to compromise the look of the car. The inside of my airbox looks different than the one in the write up on the forum. It was completely open. Maybe they changed them for the later 3.0 engines. Regardless of how I do the induction, I will be using the stock airbox, and probably a K&N filter. I have found that those tuner cone shaped filters don't flow well.

There isn't much I can do with the throttle body, unless I weld up a different intake manifold, and use a larger flange and maybe a throttle body from a larger engine, that Jag makes, if I can trace down the drive by wire circuits. Until that happens, I think the exhaust is large enough.

I used a bore scope, and found a lot of fluffy carbon, on top of the intake valves, so I am going to be running a lot of Techron through the engine. The one owner who had the car before me probably used the cheapest gas he could find, so my first thing to deal with the fuel system is to clean the carbon off the valves, and clean the injectors. The car doesn't use oil, but I blow out some smoke, when accelerating hard from a stop. The car was probably a city car, and never got a chance to blow out the carbon on a highway run.

That's the plan for now. There are 911 forums, but they are mostly for guys looking for interior pieces or wheels for their current cars, because we all know, that they have the best cars in the world(a lie) As for the 911 write up, I just wanted to tell the guys what it takes to build and care for a race engine, and how the older cars were not just stamped steel. They actually needed to be massaged, and worked on to get the bodies straight. Who knows, maybe one of these young heroes will want to find an old sports car and put it together right, instead of just adding bolt on stuff from Pep Boys to their rides. Life doesn't get much better than that. Like I said, I am now one tenth of my way to my dream E Type. That early pre emission six of the D Types and early E Types made gobs more power than the later twelves, that they put in just to keep the power up during the emissions learning curve of the 70s and 80s.

My next problem now, is finding another car I can flip towards my ultimate goal. Maybe a Bentley.

Be cool......Mike

 

Read it all,admittedly well beyond any ability I will ever aspire to.

Are you going to post some pictures of the E Type roadster as the other 90% progresses? Would make an interesting thread with your professionalism.

 

I will put up pictures of the E Type, if I can get Klaus to send me some. I saw it in person about 5 years ago in his collection. She is triple black, with chromed wire wheels and knock offs, with a chrome luggage rack on the trunk. I don't know if black was a factory color in 63, but Klaus bought the car then, and I don't know if he ever painted it. It is flawless, and lives in a climate controlled building. He uses this stuff called Elephant Wax or something that sounds like that on the leather. It is the best stuff in the world supposedly for leather.

He is close to, if not 80 years old, and told me to get going if I want the car, last July. He said he would hold it for me. This is the first time he has ever talked about selling anything from his collection, and they are like his children. The money is being transferred to him sometime later today, so he knows I am serious about the transaction.

I met him through my years with Porsche Audi VW, as an engineer, and he helped me get the factory to build my 928S the way I wanted it. It is black with a cocoa leather interior, sunroof, and 5 speed with their competition suspension package that could only be special ordered. The only thing we could not convince them to do was install an analog clock, instead of this ugly digital one. I think it is one of only a handful with options like that. I am still looking for an 82 console without AC and the analog clock. Not an easy find, especially in the US, as are the 5 speed transmissions. For some reason Americans buy sports and touring cars with automatic transmissions. I can't see the logic in that.....Anyway......Be cool.....Mike

 

Wow! Sounds like quite a cool project with the Porsche. Do you have any pictures of it?

 

I have a couple pics, that I will see if the wife can scan.(I still like to use film) It really just looks like an orange early 911S, Everything looks stock from the outside. I usually don't take many pictures, because no one in their right mind is going to build an engine like me. I am a manic depressive, with an IQ of 135, and I have severe OCD, so I tend to over do things. It took me as long to get the engine and trans the way I wanted them, as it did to do everything else to the car. It takes me almost 8 hours to wash a car. I take 3 showers a day, including when I was at the dealership, and was called the cleanest tech my service manager ever saw. I also carry bottles of disinfectant, and always wore a white lab coat, when I was working on cars. I did get dirty working with my millwrights at the steel mill, but still took 3 showers a day....The Boss understood. He liked my attention to detail....Be cool....Mike