Time to dig in...softie conversion

[gint]

I like the trim ring. Looks... art deco-ish, in a good way.

[speedo]

Last monday morning at 6:15 am in was a brutal minus 13 F, and today it was 55 F...go figure. Hard not to get motivated. I finished up the paint on the front latch panel.

And cleaned up...much better than where we started.

Haven't seen this spagetti in over a year. Usually this gets wrapped up to go to the sand blaster....and he adds another 4-5 lbs of media to it. Nasty when unwrapped. This doesn't look great at first...

Most of the wiring needed to be re-wrapped, but it wasn't too bad. All cleaned up and repositioned.


Feeling better about this as I go along.

Looking pretty clean


I am looking for longhood 70-71 targa stuff...I can't find a box that I put this stuff in when I disassembled it.
floorboards
washer resevoir and pump
chrome driver bumperette with rubber (that doesn't need rechroming)
horn grills (ditto on the rechroming)

If you have some of this stuff...please pm me. I have a lot of SWB-LWB parts I am willing to trade.
Thanks

Speedo

[rennch]

Lars, I think I have a reservoir and a pump. Assuming I don't keep it for myself.

Did you just rewrap with electrical tape?

[proffighter]

Hey Speedo

Nice color, looks like the same my car is (or better was until repaint):

[speedo]

Just ordered a rubber package...partnered with a buddy (restoring a coupe) to get a small break. His bill was $900+ and mine was $1600+...excluding the soft window and tonneau. Targa rubber is expensive. SWT rubber is more expensive...haycait911 was right about targas
So the weather warmed up here (strange to get 60 degree F weather in the mountains in January and I was able to get a couple small things done.
My four wheel drive assistant.

As long as I am standing up...no worries, she stays low. However as soon as I bend or kneel down to do anything ...she strikes. A total attention sponge and my face gets really cleaned. Don't get fooled by the reading glasses.
The brake resevoir is getting refreshed.
It was filthy, hoses were shot, and support bracket and clamps were very rusty. Cleaned sandblasted, painted, new hoses and ready to go...

With the resevoir and lines installed...waiting for the gromets.

Ouch, my neck!

I need an easy way to unpaint some of the under-dash wiring that my painter decided needed to be body color, without screwing up the surrounding area that was supposed to be painted...body color. I am finally proficient at reading early wiring diagrams, you know the ones that are color coded. Kind of hard to corelate the wires to their specific application when they are all the same Gemini Blue Metallic. Hey, he was thorough.

[merbesfield]

Saw this posted on S Registry by Jim B and thought you might like to see it. He said it was custom made by one of his clients I believe.

[Duckworth]

Beautful wheel. Btw, Ace stocks a bin of hardware....referred to as black chrome for acorn nuts and bolts like that. Harley riders outfit with it.




____

[speedo]

I am reluctant to hurry up and put the gas tank in till the rest of the wiring under the dash is correctly placed. And the wiring won't get connected till the gauges are installed. But the gauges won't get installed till the dash is painted. Not having the gas tank in place means I can stand in the hole as opposed to kneel on the steel tank. The dash should have been painted early on by Mr Painter. Doing it now is risky...there is a lot to tape off. Heater/blower assembly also needs some work, missing rivets on the flange that the vent screws into. I like how the previous re-paint managed to paint the inside of this thing.


The dash looks great, maybe I just leave it as is?


Don't think so...tape it off

getting there


Instruments go in tomorrow...need to source the basketweave as mine is in good shape, but it has shrunk.

[speedo]

With the dash painted and the instruments can installed with the help of the dash top not yet in place The speaker hole makes wiring a lot easier. Temptation is to put everything within reach back together quickly, which for me means inevitably...undoing something that was installed out of order. Amazing that these still exist after 42 years...time to glue them back up

Wiper resevoir got sourced, cleaned and installed...note to self, find pump

I don't need to stand in the smugglers box, so it gets closed up

Spagetti that is ready...oh good, all the different colored wire is now the same color. Even my masking tape that was carefully marked to identify what wire goes where...is all Gemini Blue. Sweet! As long as all the wires are the same color, it shouldn't matter where they go right?

Waiting patiently.

I had to shake a ton of derbis out of the blower, and then "snake" a vacuum hose inside this thing...amazing how much crap had worked its way in there. Replacement flexible hose is needed between the left and right ducting that blows into the cabin footwells and the heater/blower.

I need one of these...in fact I could use both sides. The moisture has won..delamination has rendered these worthless for something other than a pattern, but I am not interested in learning how to bend plywood. If anyone has a pair from maybe a racecar project, let me know.


Speedo

[B15 AAL]

Originally Posted by speedo

Just ordered a rubber package...partnered with a buddy (restoring a coupe) to get a small break. His bill was $900+ and mine was $1600+...excluding the soft window and tonneau. Targa rubber is expensive. SWT rubber is more expensive...haycait911 was right about targas
So the weather warmed up here (strange to get 60 degree F weather in the mountains in January and I was able to get a couple small things done.
My four wheel drive assistant.

She looks like my old boy, but he's no spanner monkey.

[speedo]

My tach needed a make-over...lets see how it turns out. Sanded out the peeling and awful looking trim paint and rattled it...

Major improvement

The instrument cluster pre-gauges

And post gauges...note the "anxious speedo" (to be replaced by another shortly).
Good news is I used up all of the Genmini Blue wires...sure is easier to wire when everything is the same color.

In a seperate post...I asked for pics of the fuel evaporative system in the front trunk area. I have my handwritten schematic...

But my pics of where and how the different containers are attached, went away with my dead laptop. I anybody wants to weigh in here with pics, I would appreciate it.

[speedo]

Minutia takes time. The aluminum dash fascia trim was rough. I know there are replacement kits, but I decided to straighten and polish what I had. TRE supplied the new basketweave...thanks Dave. Everything was disassembled, polished and new basketweave vinyl installed. The aluminum trim that was mangled around the radio orifice looks new. A bit of double stick tape and contact cement.




Matt found me a one piece knee pad that I can recover. I still have a couple yards of vinyl ready to go...

Getting the pattern set up

Cut and glued to start to stretch

Almost finished up with the trunk...needed some logistics help with the "evaporative system" which I got from an separate post...almost there


Installed the gas tank seal and trial fitted the tank

Tomorrow I finish up the evaporative system and install the charcoal canister, and gas tank and fuel lines for good. Finish up the knee pad, and install it and the dash, and the steering clamshell. I have a couple wire questions on the steering console to figure out. I have two brown/white female spades wires with coming out of the switches (turn signal and wiper). They need to find their male counterparts...and I didn't draw the schematics when I disassembled, or I can't find them. The single brown ground wire goes to the horn button. If any body knows off the top of their head what the brown/white wires go to...school me or I have to head back to the wiring diagrams.
It is very winter here...14 inches of snow in the last 24

Speedo

S

[speedo]

I wouldn't care about being correct. It is SO much easier to rebuild a non-correct car. So I am trying to put this targa back together correctly (well at least mostly correctly ) I am almost done with the kneepad...looks like it got attacked by paperclips

New vinyl

The SWB one piece and the later two-piece mounting holes are close...still need for the hole to be massaged a bit. Needs to snug up tight to the bottom of the polished trim, but still allow the glove box door to open.
Before...

And after...woohoo no ashtray!


Next up on the operating table...door tops, much easier than the knee pad.

Evaporative tidbits installed, still need the last piece of clear hose that comes off the tank. I'm glad the system works well...it was a PIA. Maybe the last time I reinstall the complete system

Ordered the clear windshield, but the new dash has to go in first.
Another day or so and I can bring down the fenders to prep for hanging.

Speedo

[Duckworth]

______

[speedo]

Took the door panels and early SWB door pulls to a little "old School" guy in Denver on Friday. The door pulls need to be recovered, and the door panels need to be reproduced. I could have gone with Appbiz...but I don't want to go RS on the doors. A couple other names out there have complete panels, but I gave the local older guy a chance. Seems like a decent guy, good workmanship, and he certainly needed the money. The big name in Denver seems to be AutoWeave, but they were a few weeks out and four times the price. Sometimes you get what you pay for...we'll see. I finished the door top trim, and started to work on unraveling the rear harness. The console is pretty nasty.


Not sure I like the cut wires and the jury-rigged fuse holder


I need to clear all this stuff off and repaint the console

The rear lid looked great on the outside...my painter didn't prep the inside of the lid. When he shot it, he painted over the residue (oil etc) on the inside of the lid. Just nasty. I had to be careful as I cleaned and prepped the inside of the lid and re-shot primer

Tomorrow it gets body color and goes back on the car.
This slow stuff drives me nuts. I ordered the windshield and need to get the A pillars ready for the install. Front fenders are coming...not soon enough.

Speedo

[speedo]

I am supposed to be working backwards from the front of the car. I needed some accomplishment in the rear. Took this mess apart to clean it up.


Cleaned up and ready to reassemble


And installed...

Still need to ID this stray wire off the condensor

Oil tank installed



Tail-lights next....

[Nico911]

I admire so much guys like you Speedo who are able to do so much by themselves. Great job.

[merbesfield]

Insane dedication. Electronics cleaned up well.

[speedo]

Few more small items...Rich supplied me with some floorboards that simply needed the hardware moved over.

As I am going against the grain and using SWB armrests vs the correct 70-71 armrests (don't get me going on why I dislike the robust, hardy, stout, ineffectual) cardboard door pockets. I like the streamlined early handles, with the long elastic/bungee pleated pockets. I am not an upholsterer. I have completed a couple amateur steering wheel recovers, and I will recover knee pads and door tops...but I will have my door pockets made. The local "go-to" Porsche upholsterer was 4 weeks out and wanted BIG $$ to make a couple door panels for me. So, I went out on a limb and contacted an old school shop in Denver to make my panels. I gave the guy my 70 (shrunk) original door cards, an 83 door, and a pair of 67 door handles. He was thoroughly confused. I needed to get him some dimensions...basically how the early door handles attach to the early doors, and how the early door stampings compare to a later (SC) stamping. So without going into much detail, as I am probably the only one backdating interior door panels at this point...here are the two internal door skins side by side.


The holes for the armrests are in the same places...


The primary difference is the early doors have spacers that "fur out" the attach points near the bellcrank for the release pivot

Once I explained this to the upholsterer...we are a go. Panels will incorporate a trick basketweave insert thanks to a Randy Webb suggestion. We'll get them back on Friday and I will post pics.
Inch by inch...

Speedo

[speedo]

There is a three piece (sewed together) stretch of vinyl that needs to be installed before the windshield can be refitted. It extends up the left A pillar, across the underside of the windshield crossbar and down the opposite A pillar.


Mine was worn and dry rotted...I couldn't consider reusing it in good conscience. I called around and couldn't find anyone that could sell me the item. Bummer.
Worn areas



It comes apart

Not nice...
I laid out the pieces and cut the blanks from fresh vinyl...but I am sure
I will have to get some sewing machine help to stitch the top to the two sides, as I don't think it can/should be done by hand.
Back end is wired with new lenses. I am starting to undislike the Gemini Blue car more as get closer to the end.



Speedo