Bugs 77

Good luck with the move Dave, I'll let you know what I do next when it happens.

The blue car now has a new home, it will be here in WA for a couple of months more then shipped across the country to NSW when it's new owners relocate. Having sold her I'm having sellers remorse, I'm not sure it was the right thing to do, really should have kept and developed the car further. Values for good cars here in Aust. are still very high, hence why I sold the car, but the money is helping to get one of my daughters into her first home. My thinking is to wait and see if values cool a bit then look for a 930, at the moment they are still way up there for a good one, so much so that cars like MK1 996 GT3s and MK1 Cayman GT4s are cheaper and look like better investments allround. 964s don't add up either and as good as 993s are they don't quite grab me. So I'll just sit tight for a bit and have a think. The 74 with her new owners, Dave and his wife are long time VW and Porsche enthusiasts and so is in good hands.

I was always under the impression that the alloy front beam was in all Carreras from 73 on and the rest got them from 76 on. My 74 2.7 has steel, a 77 ROW 2.7 I had was fitted with an alloy beam as was my 78SC. If the 74 Carreras were steel that makes me happier for when I up-rate to Carrera spec engine wise so my car will as close as possible to a factory 74 Carrera.

The closest it gets to a drone is at 70-80 kph in 5th but is quieter or lighter tone at our 100-110 kpm (2800-3200 rpm) cruising speed, can still hear the radio or have a decent conversation but no real annoying resonating. But pootling around the streets is where its at, supercar stuff with the sports exhaust button stuck on. You hear everything the motors up to, so the car is now all feedback and fun without having to stretch the law too much.

Ha! doesn't sound that good on there, need better recording gear, much better in the flesh.

Here's a video by iphone of the exhaust. Was a bit cold, should have had a little bit of the old hand throttle on.

Personally I love it, may be a bit aggressive for some. Surprising ok at cruising speed. Have noticed a difference in performance, fitted the Dansk headers at the same time. Will see if I can get a sound bite onto the "Wonder Woman" thread.

Hi Guys, Get the car out most weeks but don't have much contact with other IBs, next to never see them on the road anymore, particularly down my way. So when my mechanic Richard James (RJP Motorsport) let me know he was having a little get together I jumped at the chance to check it out. Richard dose great work and looks after some nice cars, hears a look at a couple of SCs that are going back together at the moment. It'll be good have another look at these when they back together. The silver car is getting the aircon system from Jonny Hart. Went to the Porsche Club WA concourse day for some more mingling, mostly water cooled 911s, Boxters and Caymans. As far as IBs were concerned the usual larger amount of 3.2s were absent, there were a couple of SCs and an 80s Turbo, most were 74-77 2.7s which seemed to attract some attention now when before were basically ignored. All up about 60 cars there. My 74 next to a very nice 73 911E, probably the most colourful corner of the crowd. The next weekend took my Kombi to Day of the Volkswagen in Fremantle, was quite gobsmacked, over 200 cars there and more Kombis than you could poke a stick at! That's my green Kombi next to my daughter's boyfriend's white super low Rat. Someone's interested in buying my kombi so will have some funds to put towards uprating the 74 2.7s motor to Carrera spec. Cheers, Bugs.

16 x 7 & 8 fakes in orange, Then raw, Real 16 x 7 & 8 with early 70s look.

Cheers David, yep, it's the right way to go. Does Jonny want or need an exchange core?, I can send him one but maybe the distance rules that out as not too cost efficient.

Did a quick touch up of the rear valance to tie things over for a bit. The car has four new tyres and had an alignment, transformation plus. The old tyres where from 1991. With the new exhaust you can hear every firing of every cylinder, and every misfire too! Even cruising on light throttle there has been some popping from the exhaust so I fitted a new set of spark plug leads and changed the CDI unit over to one I had in the cars spare parts collection, it was much better coming into work this morning. I think I will be investing in one of Jonny's CDI boxes though, it's got to be better yet again. Having said that I'm really enjoying the car as is, just about to get in and head home

So what's the go with Amber headlights in Europe, was it a past requirement that's kind of retro/cool now or still a requirement in certain situations? Was it something to do with rallying?

It's too sunny here for sunroofs, I put all my money into a tricked up aircon system and cart that around instead, the new gear is lighter and lower down that a sunroof. 😎 Hate to say it but it's the best upgrade I ever made, my darling even comes with me for a drive now! , but she's not so keen on the new exhaust. But seriously, if for whatever reason you may find yourself needing to remove it, bonding in a nicely made carbon replacement and leaving it on display would be cost efficient', easy to do and completely successful. You wouldn't need the felt seal (it would cause more issues), the correct Sika (and no I don't sell it) product will seal perfectly, look neat and deal with any flexing issues between the roof and carbon panel. Trust me, I've been playing with carbon, epoxies and stuff for years with our race boats and applying things we've learnt to fiddling about on our cars. There's some very cool stuff you can do.

Well there you go, someone already makes one. Would have saved me having to make moulds. Yeah, email them and see what the caveat is. I can understand the notion that cracks may appear If you were finishing the roof flush then painting to hide the panel. Because the rolled edge of the roof has a resonable radius and also the top corner of the insert panel, a desent expoxy glue would adhere to these well (when roughed up) and wouldn't crack like some polyester more filler type material. It's the little things like that that make the difference. It's the same with any jobs done on panel work, minimise crappy bog, stick with good product. Having said all this there's nothing like top quality steel work.

Thats exactley how it should be done for a perminant invisible roof alteration, you could almost say its the modern way. The first method using a Sika type adhesive is for a diffferent look that is easy to do, the carbon panel would be on display and would look like you have just replaced the sunroof with a carbon one. It would be a neater fit and there would be no felt type seal visible, just a bit of a bead of Sika neatly down a bit or flush with the top surface. There would be no cracking problems because there is in a sence a flexable join with no hard filler to crack. Bit like bonding in a modern windscreen these days. There are some Sika type panel adhesives they are using now in panel repairs and not welding.