Excellent work Julian!

A clinic in creativity and perseverance is what this build is all about. Wonderful !!!!!!!!

Julian,
Stellar work, as is your way.

I drove the LBDC to work today. We're getting close to back-road-ripping season.

Outstanding work

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

That is awesome!!

That is just awesome work.

We're back from another seemingly long break with a bit of an update.

When I initially started this project I didn't think I was going to do much with the interior- mine was and is in really great condition and it seemed absurd to alter something that was fine.

But of course that is my way and in keeping with the theme of this here thread, I just couldn't leave well enough alone... again.

The interior was supposed to be a project for this past winter but life changes got in the way of my plans and the interior would have to wait.

My seats were and are ok, but I'm small and skinny and I slide all over them and more than a few times found my derriere a bit too close to comfort with the shifter, at least for this PG rated thread...

The big question for me was what seats would I want? I was lucky at this years CheckedItOut show to sample a lot of seats. In fact if some dude came up to you and said something along the lines of "I really love your car, can I sit in it?" that was probably me, doing research... yeah, research.

I had settled on a set of BF-Torino Nurburgring R seats- the reclining version because kids but was not settled on the cost. Well, remember that strange two weeks when both the Euro and Pound crashed hardcore and all of a sudden the US dollar was mighty again... It's oft said never let a good disaster go to waste. Well, I pulled the trigger and because of the favorable exchange rate I saved over $800! Yahtzee!

Unfortunately the seats only came in black and that wouldn't work for me so I bought the vinyl version knowing I would change that. It was always going to be leather and fabric, brown and grey of course.

I looked around for a used Juki sewing machine after realizing that mine wasn't up to the task and was shocked at the cost. Around this time, I very serendipitously came across a boat upholsterer a few blocks from my house and began talking to him about tips and tricks. Eventually he got the hint and gave me a price that was less than the cost of the used sewing machine so I really couldn't say no.

I sourced the leather from a wholesaler I work with and got 3 full hides for under $600 and procured the gray fabric from West Elm for $20 a yard on sale. The upholstery work was $1200 and the seats $2200 after shipping, totaling about $4k for two custom seats. Not bad.

The leather is an almost spot-on match for the cork vinyl and it's super supple. The gray fabric has a diagonal pattern to it but on the driver's seat the angle goes from the top right to the lower left, and non the passenger's seat, it's the opposite... the seats are effectively book matched; a subtle detail but one that I was insistent on and I thin it matters. Remember, we're in the era of "everything is important"

I debated on grommets but after sitting on seats with them I just didn't like the feel. They look cool but functionally I feel they're a compromise.

I got the seats back this week and avoided doing any real work for an hour to get them installed. I took the car out this Sunday for a few hours, mostly to gather a data log to refine my VE table, but wow, these seats change the entire feeling and interaction with the car. I’m 5’11” and 145# and I wear 31x32 levis. I fit in these seats like they were designed for me. The support is perfect, the bolsters…perfect, the cushions…perfect. I couldn’t be happier with them.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680480701.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680480701.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680480701.jpg


In preparation for redoing the rest of the interior making this coming winter, I borrowed a new carpet set from Nick here on Pelican and have created templates. It’ll be a combination of the brown leather and gray fabric used on the seats. I'm optimistic that I can start making the pieces this summer and fall so that when winter comes along I'll be ready to go.

Without a big project to work on I have been tackling smaller things. I changed my AFR table from the pig-rich get-it-started one that I had previously to something that more resembles a car complete with fuel economy where necessary and a Saudi-like disregard for everything at WOT. Suffice it to say the car runs and performs much better. Tuning continues and at this point it’s little refinements that are kind of fun to chase down; a bit more tip in at this RPM, a slight stumble at that RPM…. Now that I’m comfortable reading data logs and understand all of the levers to pull, it’s a joy to diagnose and solve an issue in a matter of minutes rather than days. Eventually I’ll take the car to a dyno again just to see, but I don’t feel like I need to at this point.

I also bought a mini lathe and now everything looks like a turning project. To wit, I made some door lock pulls to replace the plastic ones. I’ll be deleting the round knob when I do the door cards and these are taller allowing the door to be unlocked and locked without the use of the round knob, which I find ugly and redundant.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481261.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481261.jpg

I also made a shifter extension. It’s only about 2” but it’s all in how you use it… isn’t that what she said? It’s a simple piece modeled after the bicycle compression stems I use on my road bike; a shaft with a flare at the bottom and a bolt that pulls a wedge into the shaft and expands the flare thus locking it into place. Eventually the whole shifter will get dressed in leather and the extension covered.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481311.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481311.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481311.jpg

Speaking of leather, I practiced my leathercraft on the strut brace for a clean bespoke look, just like everyone else. This is how I'll wrap my steering wheel and shifter.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481502.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481502.jpg

And since my fuse box cover tabs were broken, it received a leather strap with snap to hold it in place. Leathercraft is really fun and if my day job doesn’t work out, I guess I can make BDSM leather goods…?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1680481590.jpg

Beautiful work!

Great update. Must be very satisfying to have the seat upgrade come out this well. Not only the great look but good fitment too.
Digging the leathercraft in the last three pics too. All the custom touches add up nicely. Well done!

Even though I sat in a LOT of seats I wasn't able to sit in a set of these so it was a HUGE risk. The favorable exchange rate was good enough that if I didn't like them I figured I could break even or maybe better reselling them. That said, I was VERY relieved!!

Only problem is that they make the rest of the interior look worse!

Love the combo on the seats. Albeit a German car, the grey and tan wouldn’t look out of place in Milan.

Love the seats. I'm with you, no rivets.

Once again, I'm in awe of your work! Love the seats, I'm in need of a pair myself.

Julian,

Great work. As usual. The seats seem similar to mine. Love them.

1. I need to do something similar. That GD cover just won't stay on. (My tabs aren't even broken!)
2. I lol'd at you crafting BDSM leather goods. Based on what I know about your day job, I reckon you'd have to get into leather goods as a side hustle.
3. I'm just awestruck at the craftsmanship of the leather on that strut brace. Skilled labor like that is beyond my ability to understand. Very well done, my friend.

I'm out of town this weekend and next. But when I get back, I'm coming up to Chicago or I'm going to have a BBQ and you're coming down to central IN. Your choice.

Just an awesome job all around , love the seats !!!!!!!!!

Glad to see the final product. Well done.

"Leathercraft is really fun and if my day job doesn’t work out, I guess I can make BDSM leather goods…?"

As with any Showdown post, I come for the excellent photos & writeup and stay for the great humor.



Cooking on a Porsche 911- The herb butter made the difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvXBR50rH9E

Hey Showdown, any chance you could help me out with a "desk clock?" Would love to gift to my dad on Fathers Day. Happy to pay...of course

"I practiced my leathercraft on the strut brace for a clean bespoke look, just like everyone else."

Perfection

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Here’s the STL file for printing the desk clock housing:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hb2ijgvjzx8gws7/clockHousing.stl?dl=0

Well gents, as is the norm lately I haven't had much time with the car. That said, I did get to squander away part of Saturday to tinker with it inside and out.

The first order of business was to execute a wholly blasphemous procedure that will make knees weak: raising the car.

I have had my car quite low for a while and thus far almost all of my driving have been North of the City through the North Shore- communities with multimillion dollar homes and roads that cost just as much and are almost free of the defects and potholes that plague the rest of the city/state/country. Driving these roads with a very low car was wonderful; it tracked well, it was stuck to the road and it never bothered me.

Last week I took the car into the City proper and well, let's just say that for a rough ride like that some people pay houses of ill repute fine money. It was just brutal and wholly unsustainable and I wasn't even going all that fast. Given that I plan on actually driving the car on all roads this wouldn't cut it.

When I first tinkered with the suspension I swore that I'd never do it again, it was so brutal. I thought that replacing the bushings and installing adjustable spring plates would solve the problem but oh was I wrong.

Getting the spring plates out required all the swear words plus a few that I've now got on trademark, heat, and a goddamn crowbar. A CROWBAR. Fortunately I was able to get them out undamaged and reindex the torsion bars without issue. During the install process one of the threaded bosses for the bolts that hold the spring plate cover on stripped out. Ugh. So out came the dremel, angle grinder and welder to weld on a nut to the boss.

And just so it's known, I will be power washing the inner fenders soon...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

Eventually after a few more hours than I had budgeted for the car was back together and raised a bit. I took it out for a quick drive on some gnarly roads and holy cow was it a revelation. It drove so much better, felt better, handled better and wasn't painfully rough. The change was totally worth it though at times I wondered what the hell was wrong with me for seeking out this punishment. It's never a Porsche project until something that you thought would require one wrench looks like this:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

If I ever have to tinker with the suspension again though, I'll be converting to Rebel Racing solid bushings. That said, I'm pretty happy with where the car is sitting now and there's room to go up or down depending on my whimsy. I know it looks high but there's only about a finger width between the top of the tire and the bottom of the fender. It's not the look I would love to have but I want a car that drives good, not just looks good.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

With the car driving so much better I then loaded up the laptop and went out to do some highway tuning, specifically leaning out the fuel at cruise. Driving up and down the highway with hand on the wheel and laptop pulling fuel out and reloading the tune is...interesting. Best performed on an empty highway or with a friend- neither of which I had so it was...interesting. Eventually I did get the tune leaned out and now a highway cruise I'm hovering around 17:1 without any backfires, missfires or stumbling. Hopefully this means I'll be a wee bit more fuel efficient on log drives than when the car was at 13.5 HA!

There's still work to be done on the scaling of the vertical axis but for now it's running so well that I'm a bit hesitant to change anything until I have a larger data set to analyze.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682877496.png

I have to say that now, being very comfortable with TunerStudio and my EFI system, it's a real pleasure to hear of feel something with the car and fire up the laptop and not only be able to see it in data, but fix it in a few minutes.

The skies saw me having a lot of fun and conspired to end my day early so back to the batcave I went to tinker with the interior.

After getting my new seats I wanted to return to the interior because in comparison it looked decidedly meh. My dash inserts are 2mm fiberglass sheets that are spot glued into the aluminum trim tray. When I made the first set I made a few spare sets of the inserts thus allowing me to change out the dash material in a matter of minutes. And so I did. The updated dash uses the same twill fabric as the seats and is angled to match the side vents. I like it, but if ever I don't and want to change it... 5 mins is all it will take.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

While I had the dash apart, I replaced the hazard switch with an unmarked toggle, because I love unmarked toggles. I also turned an aluminum knob for the light switch; something a bit more...raw and homemade. I'm debating switching that with a toggle too but I have to do some reverse engineering of the light switch flow first.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

I also removed the vinyl from the kneepad I made and wrapped it in the same leather as the seats. It's a subtle change but it makes a huge difference as you look at and touch it all the time. I think it was well worth the effort.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

And finally I pulled the hidden USB port and replaced it with...a hidden USB port, this time with one that has USB-3 fast charging and USB-C fast charging so that I Can charge my laptop if I need. First world problems.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1682874822.jpg

On the 13th I have a rallye (the first one was skipped due to a...blizzard) so I'll probably not chance anything on the car in the next two weeks. Plenty of smaller interior projects to play around with if I feel the urge.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable running an air cooled engine at 17 to 1 AFRs…

Julian,

Really love the insert material and the toggle switches...... reminds me of one of Dad's old airplanes.

There are times when my car runs at 1.11-1.15 Lambda. (16.32-16.91AFR)
Cruising RPM with almost no load, there's no reason to pile on a bunch of fuel. Once any load is applied, the Lambda/AFR plummets back down into a 'safer' range.

This is the beauty of EFI. You can very specifically dial-in the calibration.


What I want to see is the timing map that goes with that VE map. ;)

There is such a thing as too lean. Even though the car may not be missing or hesitating, at some point you start losing fuel efficiency. Unfortunately, determining that point requires a lot of dyno time and calibrated fuel flow, or a lot of experimenting over long distances on the highway with meticulous records. And it depends on the particular engine/vehilce combination, fuel type, and other factors. In the past, I understood that to be not much above lambda=1.1, but I've also heard that modern engines can run significantly leaner at better efficiency and without hesitating, so "it depends." But hey, have fun playing with it, and see what works best for you. I'd like to know what results you get.

The car isn't a "theme" or "art" car but I am pulling a lot of cues from my time as a kid with my father at his airport where he flew hand-built sailplanes. It's a nod to him introducing me to the 911 and the fact that though he lusted after one his whole life he never owned one... The "euro" license plate I have is actually his tail number.

Keep in mind that this is a stock 2.7 CIS car so it's already pretty fuel efficient and was built to be that way so running near 17 shouldn't be a big issue. If and when I change cams that will have to be addressed but that's for another day...

Stock 2.7 timing. I'm still running the dizzy. Jamie and I were talking about some options that may come in winter... muahahaha!!

Obviously you can tune your car in whatever way makes you happy. An air cooled Ducati idling at 16.x to 1 AFRs will glow the headers cherry red for several inches off the head.

It would be interesting to monitor the cylinder head temperatures with those low load AFRs.

Love the build, thanks for sharing.

stk 2.7 cis set up in this order: valve adj, ign timing, idle speed, ign timing, idle speed, fuel mixture @ f/d, set idle speed, adj mixture @ f/d, set idle speed, check ALL again after taking car for a rip...(afr of 13 - 13.8 using an exhaust co tester...)
Enjoy...

I'd say it's a good thing I'm not riding a Ducati, then! ;)

~40 mins on the highway cruising at 16.7-17:1 and my oil temp was pegged at 190. My oil cooler fan wasn't on either. Ambient temp was low 60s and humidity was low.


I'm not sure you've followed along: stock 2.7 internals with an EFI ITB conversion; no more fuel distributor.

Ok no prob… if efi itb… I would set up idle with afr no leaner than 14… same reasons still apply as this is still an old air kuhled engine…. Afr beyond idle speed & engine with load dependent on total build specs….JMHO

Hey, I had to raise my car too. I could probably go 1 more spline on the back and a few more twists on the front yet. No shame

I love those subtle interior changes !!! What's next with the engine ?? Pyrometers ?? It wouldn't surprise me ...

17:1 at light throttle, low load was leaner than i could tune mine. It just wouldn't do it without missing. 15.3 was about it. And this required me to have about 40-45 degrees of advance.

Why do you think that raising the car a little bit helped with the ride so much? bump stops?

I've heard the race guys say that you have to trim some of the stops on the rear shocks if you got much below euro height.

I hardly know a lot about suspensions but it seems to me that if one starts radically altering a stock suspension, it’s destined to perform with diminished results.

As my suspension is stock, the degree to which I lowered it coupled with the cruddy roads was just a combo too far.

I think to go that low I would need stiffer torsion bars or to start adapting the suspension as a whole system to accommodate that ride height and I’m not keen on that.

Whatever the reason, the return to a more reasonable height just makes the driving experience so much better. I guess they knew what they were doing back then!

Imagine if you had low-profile tires.
I can confirm that getting a quality ride at a low height is not the easiest thing to do. (I'm debating new shocks instead of the wide body I shouldn't do.)

I DID!! I had 50 series Dunlop Direzzas on 16" Fuchs. It was unbearable. I'll keep those for if I ever do a track day (hahaha!!) or when I just get sick of them collecting dust and want to sell them...

One of the reasons I'm weary of starting down the suspension rabbits hole is watching how much you've had to do to get the results you were looking for. While impressive, it's a cautionary tale for all but the bravest ;)

Don't tell anyone, but I'm not done yet.
Not by a long shot.

Julian,

Lowered cars suck in the real world, good on you for raising it up to a reasonable level. When I bought my car it was fairly low and I got sick of literally picking my front license plate out the street when backing down slight inclines. When I redid my suspension, I raised it up to Euro height and am slightly tempted to go a tad higher.

Best,
Rutager