I do know that the headliner is in great shape on my 911 and I am happy. To replace it is a real challenge. As I remember both the front and rear windows have to come out. I don't ever want to do that task. They both "jut pop out" in theory. Yea right.

On my El Camino it was likely 25 years ago that I had the headliner replaced. There was a van that I saw that was "Mr Headliner" and he came to Pro Photo, pulled out the old headliner, took the cardboard piece down, and sanded off all the old glue. New foam backed headliner material, and it still look good.

One thing that I suspect helps a lot is I just don't ever drive around with the windows down. Well, almost never. In the years I have had the 911 I have done it twice. The two times I opened the sun roof. Once in Monterey, CA and once in Maine in Acadia National Park. We were only driving at 25 to 30 MPH.

Let the new owner fix the headliner on the Range Rover. It drooped bad. The top was masonite instead of carboard, and a real hassle to get out. Lowest replacement i got was $600. just $200 less than I paid for it. Besides, it only drooped in the back, and I don't ride there.

I bought my 914 brand new. After several rainy days and lots of heat, the glued on headliner started to droop. Since it was under warranty I took it in. They looked at it, and agreed to replace it. They ordered in the new one, and called me to bring it in. When I went to pick it up, I had no headliner at all. Just bare fiberglass roof. They had ordered the cloth for a 1.7 and it was not right. So they order the right one, and called me back. That headliner looked perfect when I sold it.

I learned way back then to never trust German glue. The American glue they used was forever.

Better horses?

Better petroleum based synthetic glue formulas.

Don't ever trust a German prophylactic either. Much of the German rubber is not the best.

Dave does that now with a laser.

Yea, I saw that. But he still has the OEM plastic one on his car for the same reason mine is on my car. I used a large open end wrench (24mm it think) and padded it with tape. Whacked hard with a hammer and just made noise and small dents on the base of the knob. If I ever go to one of Dave's knobs I will have it in had and then attack the old knob with an air chisel.

Forget the hammer. Try a piece of pipe to effectly make your wrench longer. Persuade it off.

All I know about shift knobs is that I have had several friends that their muskle cars knobs kept falling off the end of the stick.

The wrench slides in from the side, and you have to apply force sideways on the wrench. To put a piece of pipe on the end might help if I can keep everything in line and use two hands to pull up. But I don't want to pull up so hard I yank it out of the shift mechanism. I don't want to suddenly have the entire shift handle and shifter mechanism in my hand and a destroyed shift mechanism on the floor.

I have a "gimmick rally" to go to this morning. Mrs Carrera gets car sick easily if she is forced to read directions and write things down as a passenger. So one of the other guys on the board of directors is swinging by here and I will be his navigator.

It should be fun.

Glen, I guess that explains why I saw you in pictures but not your car!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1555786882.jpg

Yea, I was forced to have to ride in a 2011 911 Turbo S Cabriolet. It only has 550 HP and feel a tiny bit faster then my 911.

It was a perfect weather day and mid 70s and low wind. We did not win, but we had fun. The owner of the car is on the board of directors of the club. He likes to change cars a little bit more than I do. Well OK a lot more. Since 1974 I have only had 5 cars, and I still have two of that 5.

Vince had started a list of previous cars and is up to 72 so far, and he is younger than I am. And as I remember 72 is a bit more than 5.

It was fun, and we all had a good time.

Yep those Gimmick Rallies tend to make the navigator sick if they have a lot of corners going every which way. If they are fairly straight from one clue to the next it is better for the nav. But most of them have you driving around in circles.

Take a dramamine and they are great!

I am just so happy I had the forethought to put on sun screen 100 SPF. He dropped the roof at 9:30 or so and we were topless until we arrived at the restaurant at noon. I could feel the sun’s effect on my skin after I got home. I would be red lobster looking if I had not used the sun screen.
His car was purchased used, and I don’t know what he paid. He did say it was 168 grand when new. It has a lot of options, carbon fiber interior, and lots of buttons.

It is a nice car, but not one I would want to buy. It was a perfect day to go topless. We ate outside at Pop’s on Rt 66 and it was really nice weather.

When had the BoxsterS highest SPF available was 70. Was Hawiian Tropic and smelled coconutty. Also had some other stuff that was sweatproof, but it was only SPF 48. Always them and a couple of hats in the Boxster. Went an entire summer that never put the top up. It only rained at night that year and it was in the garage.

The biggest difference between the BoxsterS and the 914 was at highways speeds with the top down the wind in the 914 would wear you out.

Stijn!!
 

One pet peeve of mine is so many sun screens have stinky coconut smell. I have no desire to stink like a oily coconut. I use the good stuff. Neutrogena Ultra sheer sunscreen. It has very little if any odor. It goes on like skin lotion and dries and does not leave a grease slick on my skin. It is great stuff.

It is another beautiful day here. I had to go play in the garage. The center vent for the AC in the dash has had a broken slat since I bought the car. If I play with it I can get it straight as long as the air flow direction is not changed. So I decided since I look at it all the time, replace it. The tech section on Pelican has one guy saying it was a 10 minute easy swap.
Not so much for me. After fighting it for an hour in got the old one out with no damage to the dash. To get the rubber boot from the AC system go back over the vent and getting the new one snapped in place was even more fun. I had to slide the clock and speedometer out, and stick my arm behind the vent and push against the vent as I used both hands to push the vent into place. I would be “handy” to have three hands sometimes. I finally got it all back together. What a pain. 10 minutes is a lie unless he had a race car with open access to the back of the dash and no fresh air blower in the way.

On to other tasks.

That was an interesting Easter lunch. Batween lumch and desert All the kids up through college age did a cakewalk kind of a thing for their easter baskets There were numbers in a big circle (20). Each of the kids stood on a number. My neice played Gene Autry's "Here come Peter cotton tail" as they bunny hopped from number to number. When she stolpped the stayed on te number they had hopped to, then a number was pull out of a hat. Whomever was on that number got the easter basket with that number on it. However there was a plastic eggs with as task on it and you also had to proform that task before the basket was yours. It was pretty entertining with the tasks. One was the person had to juggle 3 things. Another play a song by slapping their butt and someone had to guess the song. One had to eat a cup of applesauce with no hads. Another had to open an airline package of peanuts without using their hands. etc.

That sounds different Richard.

I had so much fun replacing the center vent I decided to have even more fun. First I replaced a lot of the fuses on the fuse panel. All the old plastic fuses are gone, and only ceramic fuses remain. All the 25 amp fuses are new, and most of the 16 amp fuses.

Then I tackled another project that has needed doing for several years. The high pressure headlight washer pump has not worked very well and leaked like a sieve if it was used. I try to avoid driving in the rain, but I will when necessary. Last year going to Porsche Palooza it rained the entire way from my house to the hotel in Eureka Springs. I tried to use them a few times and they did little. So I had a new pump on hand and just been procrastinating doing the replacement.

Once again folks in the tech forum say it is a piece of cake. I will never eat cake at their house. The 2 gallon tank of washer fluid has to come out and the high pressure pump is sort stuck in place with rubber buggy bumpers and friction. The tank has a huge metal band to hold it steady, and bolt through the top. That bolt on the top also holds the evaporation filter for the gas tank as a separate tank. All of it is crammed up inside the front fender on the left. So a few easy steps, and then try yea, just go ahead and try to pull the hose from the pump to the headlight washers. The hose has turned to not very flexible stuff since 1985. No doubt, no one has ever been in there before. The clamps are almost impossible to get to. I had endeavored to preserve and got the dang thing apart. I had about a gallon of blue washer fluid I had to drain out.

Getting it all back together is lotsa fun. The most fun part of all, is getting the little 10 mm bolt back into position and holding the top of the washer tank, and the bottom of the gas fumes canister. The two tanks share that bolt, and the gas vapor canister has to go in place first, then align the washer tank, and get the bolt to run through both tanks mounting brackets, and into the fender bracket. That is no fun at all.

I am soooooo glad I don't do that type of stuff for a living. I would have to charge 1000 bucks plus parts to do the washer replacement.

Having clean headlights is highly overrated. :p

We’re just back from our son’s in-laws for Easter brunch. Big gathering. Lots of food. Great time. It’s lucky that our son married into such a nice family.

There was clear evidence of an attack cone at the last autocross. I was completely innocent and the cone attacked my my car while it was just sitting there. Yea, really. Longe black streaks of rubber on the front valance were easily removed with s little wax. Dang cones. No way did I run one over on make a mistake on track. It was the cones fault!!!!