Autopower Roll Cage Arrives

My Autopower roll cage arrived the other day from ioportracing.com

It came truck freight and arrived unboxed all wrapped up together. When unwrapped, you can see there are lots and lots of pieces. Including the now needed second door bars for NASA races that have to be welded in. These are the only parts that need to be welded, everything else is bolt in. I figure I will test fit the cage and get it all mocked up and have a mobile welder come over and stack on the four stubs that need to be attached.

The thing is heavy. May have to get more drastic on other weight saving measure now to get down to the SPEC 944 minimum weight. 

Will update when installation begins. 

Vintage Automotive Literature

As an author of an automotive book, I love finding the rare bit of automotive literature. They are the needle in the haystack of poorly produced auto picture books. But they are out there.

And when at Gallagher Books in Denver buying a book for a friend, I found a book for myself. Not the $400 history of the Grand Prix car, but something unique none the less.

A first edition, and I think only edition, of Russell Richardson's Europe from a Motorcar. It is a travelogue of sorts. A bit about the car. But more about the car as change agent. As freedom from the crowds. Even in 1914 when this is written, Richardson complains about too many tourists in big towns.

Track down a copy if you can. The words are solid and the over 30 images delightful.

Picture taken in my newly discovered toilet top light box. The white walls, white porcelain tank and skylight make it perfect for snapping pics of small items during the day. Got a love the glossy finish.

Hood Paint

Since I am stalled waiting for my torsion bars and my roll cage, I decided to tackle a job I really, really did not want to take on.

In a previous post, I showed the compounding and buffing I did to bring back the paint on the Brown Bomber. But no amount of buffing would bring back the paint on the hood. It was chipping off in big pieces. So, I decided to paint it.

But this would entail stripping the old paint off. Chemical strippers are nasty, and I did have the sander, so. I sanded. What a mess. Dusty. Vibrating. Messy. But, with 80 grit paper I was down to bare metal in about one and a half hours.

I then hit the hood with an self etch primer, followed by two coats of filler primer.

Sleep.

Then, paint. Note: White does not cover well. I went through 4 cans of Wimbledon White (the closet to my 911s chiffon white and it does have good racing history, albeit for Ford) trying to get good coverage. I then put on two coats of clear. It turned out...OK. In daylight it looks great. But in the shade, you can see some variation in shading. Plus, some pollen from the cotton trees landed in it. But, it is a track car and it looks racy. So. I am happy. And I have a sore finger from pressing on the rattle cans.

The only paint left to do is the sunroof which is also peeling. I will be painting it red to match the wheels.

Coil Over Started

Started the Paragon coil over install. It seemed to go pretty well. I am using the Mookeh camber plates with it.

Just not sure if this is totally correct. Seems like the top nut is not far enough down and am also not sure if the spring perch is supposed to stay at the top of the strut. Will figure out in next few days...

More Reasons Racing Parts Not Installed

Well, we've been in Montreal for a bit of a vacation. Just as all the parts arrived, we headed out.

We stayed in Vieux Montreal. We at Au Pied Du Chochon which is the most over the top restaurant in the world. Seriously, look at the menu.

And we checked out the modern marvel Habitat 67.

But all that does not mean I did not have Porsches in mind. Check out the Boxster spotted in old town. And the collection of 928s, some on jackstands, some where near Marche Atwater. That man has some issues.

Why Racing Parts Not Yet Installed

Denver is great. I love the 300 plus days of sun. But really, why all the snow just when my parts are arriving?

Very frustrating. And yes, even though I have four cars, I have a one car garage. Very Sanford and Sons...

That is one of my Ventus RS-2 Hankooks in the foreground awaiting to be installed along with my full SPEC 944 suspension from Paragon.

Ugh, until next weekend.

Note, in this pic you can see that I did trim the support in the front air dam to allow for better airflow to the radiator. I do need to add in some mesh to protect it though.

Racing Parts. Seats.

Now that taxes are behind me. And my job has eased off a bit. I am able to get back to the P-car.

Shopping for race parts is FUN!

I've never done it before. What a blast. Picked up some camber plates on ebay. Some suspension parts from paragon-products.com A roll cage and harnesses are coming soon. Hankook tires coming.

But the coolest part so far are the seats, OMP TRS PLUS, that I ordered from apex performance.

FIA rated so I don't need a set back brace for a few years. With FIA rated brackets, they should be secure and safe. The stripes though are perfect. Close to the German flag colors, they will look great with my red harnesses and red wheels.

Reduce Dash Glare and Cockpit Leaks

The aluminum dash I fabricated looked super fast, but the glare it created was super dangerous. I guess engine turned dashes look great on Hot Rods and Bentleys but not race cars. So, I primed and painted it flat black. Dash glare solved.

Then I noticed that I had a pretty robust leak into the cabin. We have had so little rain in Denver that I did not notice it until recently. But it must have been happening for some time due to the surface rust that was created in side.

I traced the leak to the junction of the battery tray and the circular water outlet pipe. I dremeled the old body sealant out of the way and replaced it with some good 3M weatherstrip adhesive. I then took the time to clean and POR 15 the battery tray and the inside area where the surface rust started. The clear shiny stuff in the pics in the POR 15. It drys to a shine. 

I also cleaned up the wires quite a bit more and cut off a bunch of not needed brackets.

Not too bad for say 3 hours worth of work.

Getting Racy.

Finally, a weekend with no work to do and good weather. Plus, my friend Chris Mosera who runs a cool production company called Garage Films is an auto racing nut, was in town and able to help me. Every project on a car goes like 3 times as fast with a helper than when you are by yourself.

The first project was deleting the headlight motor assembly. Four bolts and a popping off a circlip and this was done. 

Next, was deleting the windshield washer reservoir. Two bolts and then you pull it out from the bottom. Yank out the lines and this was done.

Now, the heater, not so easy. First, we needed to put in place a line that went from the water rail over the exhaust to the inlet on the manifold. It is a tight fight, and took some swearing to get the new 5/8 heater line to fit. Had to play with the length so it would not crimp. Longer was better.

Now to remove the heater, you need to remove the dash. Jim Pasha has a good article on how to do this. Once the dash was out, we were able to get at the heater assembly. Four bolts on the firewall accessed from the engine and it drops out.

I was going to reuse the dash but it is so ugly and cracked it was annoying. It is actually not that heavy. Maybe ten pounds. But I wanted to make a dash to hold the stock gauges. Luckily, I have a neighbor who is a metal artist and he let Chris and I use his shop. 

First, we made a template out of cardboard to make sure it would fit nice. Then, with access to some 16 gauge aluminum stock and a plasma cutter the dash was cut to size quickly. Finally, we bent some 1" metal stock for brackets. We left some room for a few additional gauges if I want to add them down the road. The dash weighs 1lb. The gauges themselves are very heavy though.

Some big house clamps on the back of the gauges hold them  in place. I moved the speedo to the left hand side of the dash, put the tach in the middle and rotated it so that the shift point was a twelve o'clock and then put the multi gauge in the right hand spot. Looks pretty sharp.

Too sharp though as the reflection is pretty bad. I will probably just spray it flat black or glue a piece of black suede to the top of it.

One small final thing was to make another aluminum panel to cover the whole left by removing the heater assembly. This was weather sealed and bolted in place. 

Wow. I am tired. And look at all the junk I was able to take out. Just sitting there on the ground. 

Brilliant Barn Find Repro

I've been beyond busy with my regular job so not able to work on my Porsches much. But, that does not mean I do not get the odd minute or two to surf craigslist.

And what a gem I found that has been on the denver site for a while. I have tried to get it posted on bringatrailer.com but they keep dissing it.

It is a 1966 Hurst Hairy Olds replica. What is cool, is that it is not all shiny and new like most old-style replicas. They made it to look like a barn find. And anyone who reads this site or my book knows I love barn finds.

Hopefully I will be able to do some dash stripping/rebuilding on the 944 this weekend.