Project Deutsche Coupe

[JP911]

Lookin great, Matt! Any track days planned?

You should chat with Toby before you put the elbow grease into the hood.

[MichiganMat]

Originally Posted by JP911

Lookin great, Matt! Any track days planned?

You should chat with Toby before you put the elbow grease into the hood.

Hey JP: why's that? Did he have a tough time or what?

[TWIN911]

Are you in San Jose, Curtner Ave?

[JP911]

Originally Posted by MichiganMat

Hey JP: why's that? Did he have a tough time or what?

No issues fitting and looks great, but it buckles pretty badly at speed. He's got some pics from a track photographer and the middle of the hood is very noticeably pushed in.
Not sure what the long-term effects or issues would be (if any) and maybe it's not a concern, but thought you would want to know.

FYI, he's trying to figure out a way to support the center of the hood from inside the trunk.

[MichiganMat]

Originally Posted by JP911

No issues fitting and looks great, but it buckles pretty badly at speed. He's got some pics from a track photographer and the middle of the hood is very noticeably pushed in.
Not sure what the long-term effects or issues would be (if any) and maybe it's not a concern, but thought you would want to know.

FYI, he's trying to figure out a way to support the center of the hood from inside the trunk.

Ahhh gotcha. Yeah, Ive heard that wind resistance can cause the center of the hood to bubble downwards. My hood is pretty thick though, so Im not too concerned. If I were Toby I'd bond/epoxy some supports to the underside of the hood, I've seen a few guys here on Pelican do the same.

[MichiganMat]

Finally got around to removing the front bumper and took some pictures of the brackets.

This is one of the front brackets. The studs in the bumper slide into the main plate holes and the dzus fastener part is extended to the side. The piece of flat-stock that connects the two acts as a spring to hold the bumper and studs into the plates


These side brackets hang down from the fender and are made from some square tube stock:


Here is one side of the cooler and its bracket. I built the brackets to fit into existing holes in tub to prevent having to drill new ones


I also considered mounting the dzus wire into the main plate of the bumper brackets but with that design there is no tolerance for poor measurements. With the "spring" / "side-car" style mounts I've made there can be some play in the fittings.

Everything will be getting a nice coat paint ASAP

[MichiganMat]

The other side of the cooler and its bracket:

[Tom '74 911]

Hi Matt -
Thanks for posting those bumper mount pics.
Tom

[MichiganMat]

Wiring, wiring, wiring. Ive wanted to tackle the wiring for months now and I finally got around to buying the parts.

First up were the headlights. The old plastic connector had broken off and there was copious use of electrical tape and pure-white-hope holding it all together. New connectors and crimps made short work of it all


Next up were the lines going to the turn-signals, rewired with fresh MSD Deutsch connectors. The old lines had to be disconnected back behind the headlights which was a total PITA.


Also picked up some good blade-style fuse blocks to rewire the fuse panel. Got these Hella units from Summit Racing and they are great, water-proof even. I started in on the panel last night and I was shocked to find many of the wires just barely holding on, I count myself lucky for not having an electrical fire at this point.


More to come...

[MichiganMat]

Some pictures of the finished dash. The pics don't do it justice, it turned out really really well:

[Kraftwerk]

This has been a fun read. I like many of your choices. In particular the Aviator Grey paint job looks amazing. I see you did not do a total bare metal paint job. What are the repercussions of not going to the metal anyway? Besides getting her back on the road quicker!

[MichiganMat]

Originally Posted by Kraftwerk

This has been a fun read. I like many of your choices. In particular the Aviator Grey paint job looks amazing. I see you did not do a total bare metal paint job. What are the repercussions of not going to the metal anyway? Besides getting her back on the road quicker!

I dunno if there are any really negative sides of not going to bare metal other than there are still a few parts of the car that are still the original color. I mean, the metal is safe, but the trunk is still brown... I don't mind it so whatever. Its a not a garage queen, its a dirty-filthy-street-n-track whore.

Had a really busy weekend finishing things up in the trunk:

Finally finished the fuse panel rewire. Some of those wires were a real beatch to wrestle, but I got them all terminated and happy. I used the old fuse panel bracket to mount them to the car.



Also got to work in the smugglers box. Mounted and wired the cutoff switch, and wired up the line for the amp. The ground line going across the top of the battery is only temporary, I intend to clean that up ASAP.


With the help of my brother we were able to correctly wire up the wiper relay (which hadn't been working), install a new fresh-air blower after mine had burned out, and buttoned up all the busy work under the hood. I still need to make a new panel to cover the blower and valves, but its looking pretty clean under here:

[MichiganMat]

Started work on the sub-box recently. Im going to box in the rear seats with some lightweight wood and run one 10" sub behind the drivers seat. I started with a cardboard template for the front section, going to make another for the top section.

Ran the wiring down the side of the tunnel, its going to be a really clean install. This teeny little 280watt amp should be enough to get the job done

[MichiganMat]

Work is coming along nicely on the speaker box. The backside of the speaker needed to be boxed in and I tossed around a bunch of different ideas before settling on using wood for it. I was considering fliberglass or even just leaving it wide open, but I think this simple box enclosure will get the job done.

[MichiganMat]

Carpeted and fitted. With this out of the way I can finally get the interior back in and start in on dropping the engine, replacing the worn out pressure plate, and sorting out the CIS.

[juanbenae]

thats stuff looks heavy! especially the bumper & cooler mounts..... when might we see you at the track again?

[MichiganMat]

Originally Posted by car 311

thats stuff looks heavy! especially the bumper & cooler mounts..... when might we see you at the track again?

The ol' girl is not a race car. Besides, the wood I used to build that box is surprisingly lightweight.

As for the track, Im building a Lemons car with some friends to campaign out at Infineon next year, so I'll be back out there soon. Looking forward to some AX's next season too.

[MichiganMat]

Finally got around to taking care of the spare tire. There's nothing sexy about fixing a spare tire but whatever, I thought I would share this info because I haven't seen it anywhere else here on Pelican

The original space-saver tire had a huge gash in it and was unrepairable. I did some searching around the net and found the smallest possible tire for a 15" wheel. I came up with a tire by Federal called the FD1 in size 165-45-15, shipped to me for ~$70.

Took it to the tire shop but they said they didn't have the tools to get the spacesaver off the rim, so I had to cut it off. A few minutes with an angle-grinder and off it came. The new tire is just a hair larger than the spacesaver fully deflated. It doesn't sit perfectly into the gas-tank cutout, but Im sure if I deflated it a bit that it would sit down just right. It does sit low enough to use the holding bracket however which is good enough for me.

Why did I bother fixing the spare? Im hoping to run a few of the NorCal rallies this year (ie Mellee), and Im trying to break myself of old habits of not being prepared. In any case, here are the pics:

[MichiganMat]

Finally got some time during the holidays to address my clutch issues. A few years ago I experienced a complete transmission failure and purchased a used '73 box of unknown condition. I rebuilt the box with new seals and while I was in there put in a Wevo bearing carrier. I remember looking at the input shaft seal and thinking to myself "If this thing ever fails, its going to ruin my clutch". Well sure enough, the box really _really_ didnt like that seal and it backed out and dumped trans oil all over the clutch and its slipped ever since. Through trial and error I found that the seal would stay seated in the race if the retaining spring were removed so thats what I did.... long story short, trans oil gets by that seal still and was dumping right into the middle of the clutch pack and caused it to slip.

I did a little searching here on Pelican and found a thread where Grady Clay recommended drilling a "drain hole" at the base of the guide tube to give it a path away from the inside of the clutch pack. While I was in there I installed a new Fidanza lightweight flywheel and a sport pressure plate.

Here we go again...


Drain hole at the base of the guide tube


New clutch goodies


Installed:


New cv boots while I was in there


Yes, I reused the oil-soaked disk... but I did soak it in a quality degreaser and took off the top layer with a sanding disk (wore a ventilator too, that material is no bueno on the lungs). Does it still slip? Not nearly as bad as before, but funds are tight and I can live with it for now. In the meantime, the Fidanza feels great and the car is all buttoned up and running pretty good. Maybe in a year or two I'll get around to tearing down the trans and dealign with that seal, but Im hoping its later rather than sooner.

[MichiganMat]

Just finished up with a project I've been wanting to do for years now, upgrading the exhaust. A close friend off mine gave me a set of steel headers from his racecar when he moved and I debated for weeks whether to run them or sell them. I finally decided to toss them on but the next question was how do I get heat? Webasto? Electric? The obvious answer was to weld on some heat exchangers.

I've been getting better and better at sheetmetal work so I thought I would give it a try. Made some templates, cut some sheet, and tacked it all together. I haven't run the ducting to them yet so I don't know how hot they'll be, but anything will be better than the old exchangers I had on there.

So the parts list was roughly:
- new exhaust studs (had to drill and tap one, not as bad as I feared)
- all copper nuts
- new exhaust gaskets
- various pieces of exhaust pipe from autoparts store
- backdated oil lines
- 2.5" SCAT ducting from Aircraft Spruce
- Magnaflow crossflow muffler, mandrel bent, installed by Sunnyoaks Muffler in Campbell CA (these guys rock)

Templates:


About to start welding. Bent the can by hand, nothing special


Inlet installed:


Finished products. You'll notice the valley I had to bend in along the top of the cans, thats to clear the valve cover nuts and studs. Not much room in there unfortunately


Magnaflow installed. This is the perfect muffler for the SC engine, the sound is perfect, I couldn't be happier. The guys at Sunnyoaks even butt-welded the mandrels together, really professional work


Livin' the dream. 911 is rollin', its little brother (the 912) will be joining it soon.