Back in Black

[Bugs 77]

Yeah I have seen that video, I check out a few for inspiration

I looked at Lakewell's videos too before starting, and as they mention one of your best references is the car itself. If the car you are working on is original then all the detail is there, take good note as to pull out the stuff you want to renew for ideas on methods of madness, worse thing is if work has been done before your ownership and finish is not up to factory standard and detail is lost. There is a bit of that with this car,  I am customising it a bit myself but trying to keep up the Porsche standard of finish and detail, will be nice if when Im done it looks like the factory did it, see how we go.

Speaking of which, started on the seats.

Lots of dirt and dust when you pull off the old covers, also found two American dimes, one dated 1979 (year of the car) and one 1967. And as mentioned before check out how it was done as you pull off the covers, and do them one at a time, you can double check detail on the one you haven't pulled apart yet while you assemble the other then the one you have finished becomes the one for reference on the following seat.

The backs are probably the hardest to do as in fixing the inserts in place as you go so I'll show what I did.

Turn the cover almost completely inside out with just the headrest part the right way then work it onto position the most you can.

There are flaps sewn to various parts of the inserts that form pockets for wire to fit in, these get pushed into the slots in the foam right through to the seat back where the are held in place with hog rings, the flap at the base of the headrest is first.

You then start to push the cover down over the seat back while feeding in the two side flaps to be secured in the same way, is a bit of a wrestle.

Here's the first of about 5 rings per side that get fitted, you would see signs of where the old ones where as a guide.

When you get about this far down (the first two rings in each side in place) you can carefully roll the cover down (be careful not to tear the cover at that point) and massage it down a bit more.

Access to the final few hog ring positions is pretty good at this point, I did make a small sharp hook on the end of a piece of coat hanger wire to get hold of the wire in the cloth flap and pull it through to the seat back position rather than push through by hand from the other side, both methods have their place at times.

From this point on massage the covers down and all the foam in place then the final stretch of the covers onto the appropriate spikey fasteners in reverse order of removal, there will be a few other bits that get held in place with hog rings too. I will be making the holes for the various fixtures and fittings last feeling through for their positions and using the old covers as an additional guide for type of cuts and position also.

These are the hog ring pliers, they are spring loaded so you can set up a ring in them ready to go. Tip of the day, set the pliers up before you get the insert wire into place (a two hand job) because one hand will be busy holding the wire (or other connection) in place while you pick up the pliers to clip it in place, can't tell you how many times I had all ready to go then have to release the position to then load the pliers!

Old covers off, new on. There had been extra padding added to the insert area of the old covers of the seat bases that was never really needed, yes the bolsters can need this at some stage but not the centre. I removed this and as you can see the inserts are full enough, they should be flat with the bolsters full.

[Bugs 77]

With heat delete on this car I've removed all heater controls/levers from around the handbrake area for minimalist look. I made a vinyl handbrake boot to suit and sewed it to the tunnel carpet so one less boot to pop out of the carpet and rattle around. Staying with stock style shifter boot detail for the moment.

[Bugs 77]

This morning I made a new parcel shelf, luckily I had enough black vinyl left from recovering the door top trims and there was enough cork vinyl I got in to do new door panels to use to finish the bulkhead part of the parcel shelf.
I took the black across level with the side trim tops so I think that flows around well, plus I sewed in some detail to match the stripes that will go on the outside of the car.

All will be locked in place by the two luggage strap saddles that go on top and there will be the two black screws that go down in the lower two corners. I forgot to fit the metal tab on the lower central part of the cover that slips into a locator on the bulkhead before I covered the backing board, bit annoyed, but it seems to be sitting well without it so all good.

[double0]

Great work!  Thanks for all the pics.

[Bugs 77]

No Worries, better pics than me waffling on too much.
Anyway while I'm working away on the car Richard has been getting things ready for the engine build.

Ready, set, GO!

[Bugs 77]

Before the engine goes in I had to fit the bulkhead liner, had planned on putting in a fresh plain stock foam one. The old one was almost reusable as was but I thought I might have a play and use it for the filler for a black vinyl one and see how that goes. 

So I covered it and sewed it along the main fold lines,

And wrestled it into place. You can get the stock ones in a bit smoother than this but I think this might be ok. It's all very black in there so will probably disappear behind the motor once its in, and will be easy to wipe down clean if that's your thing.

[Bugs 77]

Having deleted the electric flag mirrors I've now fitted the single chrome drivers mirror, so the car is now officially a backdate, from 79 to 74  

Along with this I've reassembled the doors with their refreshed frames and new window felts and door seals, also fitted a NOS rear lid grill with all new hardware (bit of a zen moment)

Just now trying to get one of the local signs and stripe guys around to see about doing the matt black stripes and scripts before I refit the front and rear windows, they're either very busy or very laid back.

[Bugs 77]

Getting closer to the end of car and interior tidy up, one area to hit was the fuel filler as it was another spot that showed it's past life in colour.

This is some of the remains of the old rubber fuel catchment boot, covered in overspray and grime.

So out came the fuel filler neck for a clean off of all its overspray and put back in with a new boot, while they were out I cleaned, sanded then sprayed the filler area, I even took the spring loaded catch off and removed all the overspray from that. Now on a lot of restored cars you will see the catch painted over, I now know why, you have to spend half a day trying to get the spring back in place while lining up the holes to slip in the split pin axle. The water fill neck is now redundant, smaller bottle going in the trunk. Have a new vinyl protection flap to go in, now just need a new gasket for the fuel cap.

Finished off fitting the foot boards, had to make a couple of those top brackets for the passenger side and rivet them into place in non factory aircon position. I modded the carpets to slip under the bottom of the boards so the boards are fully exposed, I put an eyelet in them which slips over the threaded rod on the floor that the bottom of the boards is secured down to and made a black plastic fitting that screws down the whole lot. Dead pedal in the centre to come.

About to make the RS style door cards, the kit comes with the red webbing door pulls which are fine for total race car finish but I don't think ooz quality. Even in new factory RS street cars I think they are a bit underdone, I get it but no.

So I channeled a bit of Magnus Walker and made my own, not quite his style of patina with leather but some webbing covered with some of the black matching vinyl and sewn. For something you are going to handle regularly they just feel way more substantial and quality, the gentleman street racers choice.

[Bugs 77]

Gave the gearbox a scrub and returned that and the refreshed starter motor up to Richard in Perth, while there checked in on the motor build. 

All going well, just awaiting the PMOs and we made some final choices on exhaust setup and a few other bits. Timing should work out well with finishing off the car in time to mate it to the engine.

Love his work.

[Bugs 77]

Into the door card job now, bought some 3mm MDF board 1200mm x 900mm which is perfect for two cards. The version I bought has one side prefinished finished white, normally used in the back of cabinets and whatever, should help control dampness coming from the inner side. Whole sheet was AUD$12 or the price here of a pint of good craft beer on tap (6 pounds?). The base kit of bits I got from Pelicans (they call it the RS America kit) and includes a template to cut out your boards. Figured it would be best to do this rather than ship finished boards around the world, hence getting Lakewell to chuck in a couple of meters of cork vinyl with the carpet and seat covers they sent down.

Marking out the cards, template is nice and accurate.

The two cards now cut out ready to cover, one shows the white waterproof finish. I cut out the speaker holes bigger to match the full size of the hole in the door for max size speakers I can find, plan on possibly making/taking phone calls so may need some assistance to hear over the engine note

 

[Bugs 77]

One thing leads to another, the new door pulls came out great but don't match the door handles supplied, they didn't before but then were two completely different things, now they are similar but different vinyls and finishing style.

So, better make them match.

As the door handles were supplied, two different styles of strap in close proximity.

So I made these to match better.

The way the handles came covered was a pretty neat way of doing things, but that system was done with the handles as a flat bar which was then covered and bent to form after. With what I made I glued the new cover into place over the already formed handles so the stitch pattern was central on the outer side then hand stitched the rear join on the rear side, bit like covering a steering wheel.

[Bugs 77]

Almost ready to install, just been copying stock detail of finish down to placement of foam strips, I guess they help stop door rattles and help how the cards sit.

And in, clean look and semi lightweight, pretty happy. The lower three screws that hold on the cards I tapped out the holes to 3/16 as the original screws had been lost and various self tappers had been forced in and chewed up the original M4 thread pattern, I just happed to have some black s/s countersunk 3/16 bolts kicking around and I had some black plastic fittings normally used for ute tarpaulin attachments that I cut the heads off to use as countersunk washers, the hardware supplied was s/s and chrome so not really right, what I fitted is a bit chunkier and I think looks better.
The round locking disc is floating about a bit, without the angled sewn feature of the standard cards the, cards are a bit thinner so don't pack that disc out toward the inner knob as much. I'm not sure but there may have originally been something between the knob and the disc, if any of you could check that detail it would be great. What I'll do is make a neat black foam spacer to go in there to pack it out, I've got some of that kicking around, as you do.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Bugs 77
grammar, again.

[MarkJ]

Great looking door cards Bugs 👍

[Bugs 77]

Thanks Mark, I might add two more fasteners at the bottom between the three, makes a feature out of them.

 

[Zohar]

Fab thread , really enjoyed the process and the great pics.

[Bugs 77]

So that's pretty much the interior done, I'd just fitted the luggage strap saddles (they help hold the parcel shelf in place, easy to do with no rear screen in) and a few other final fasteners and cleaned off some grease on the new carpet (from the passenger seat rails while putting the seat in, cover your carpets while working folks). A new steering wheel and stereo will go in later, will do an electrics tidy up which will delete a few switches from the dash which could affect choice of stereo. 

Stripes on next then windows in, must away now to go rattle the stripe man's cage.

[Siy]

You've gotta be pretty pleased with that interior.... looking great!

[Bugs 77]

You know how I refinished the new wheels, don't do it that way. The shortcut all in one can of zinc type primer doesn't go off hard enough or stick well enough, scratched too easily and lifted a bit taking off the tape after panting the black sections, it looked correct but didn't hack the pace. The car is coming out too nicely to take shortcuts so starting again.

So I paint striped and water blasted off all I put on and the original black centers as they came, back to their bare finish

These are Euromeister  Fuchs replicas, the centers are their cast finish with the rest mill finished, as they come the centers get thick primer and black paint and the mill finish a thin clear coat, I have now removed all that.

Proper etch primer on now up to taped off outer lip.

So here we go again, next is a fine metallic silver, then on top of that goes a nice hard two pack clear matt paint, trying for the magnesium look with some durability. Then will be ready for the fiddly mask up for the final black sections.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Bugs 77
grammar, again.

[Bugs 77]

Here the fine metallic paint has gone on to be followed with two pack clear matt.

Two pack clear matt on now, just waiting for it to harden, fingers crossed, with good primer so it sticks and nice hard two pack over the silver there won't be any issues when the last masking tape comes off.

After marking the high tide level to mimic the Fuch's dip the wheels in the tub of paint method to do the black sections, all is masked up ready. Can't say I'm a huge fan of this part, it's relatively fiddly and time consuming.

consuming.

What I am a big fan of though is removing the tape afterwards. No issues this time and I think will have reasonable durability, just washing the wheels with the odd polishing of the outer rim on occasions to keep on top of things.

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Bugs 77

[mean in green]

Liking the polished rim look.

I have a few paint jobs to do but suspect the drop in ambient temperature means they'll have to wait for now...

[Bugs 77]

Yeah I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I think it makes it. Temperature is building rapidly now so no drying issues here.

 

[Billecartz]

Nice work Phil.

[GimmeShelter]

I've just found and read this thread - wow.  Really like the work, congratulations!  Especially the parcel shelf (a work of genius) and the care taken on the wheels.  The car is already looking terrific.

[Bugs 77]

On 21/10/2021 at 22:30, GimmeShelter said:

I've just found and read this thread - wow.  Really like the work, congratulations!  Especially the parcel shelf (a work of genius) and the care taken on the wheels.  The car is already looking terrific.

Thanks GS, must say your car is looking good too and some nice custom touches as well.

[Siy]

Hurry up and get a pic of those wheels on.. they do look great!