Time to dig in...softie conversion

[speedo]

I will contemplate restoring a softie in the future but I am going to go on record and say I don't want to do a conversion (and try to make it look correct) again.
Of all the restorations I have done, this one has (and is still) kicking my butt.
I took today to install the targa cover and install the rear window wipe gasket. The headliner...that was my recent nemesis.

The cover installed...I had to partially install the rear gasket before installing the cover...PIA I won't go into

The holy grail of soft tops...wow was I lucky

And installed....

My new restored Dave Brown targa top...ouch $ !

Need to install the targa headliner and the seat belt attach point

Here we go...

Yay...I am close to being done...with the targa top

Speedo

[Kidasters]

You, sir, are excellent. The rear window looks like a bear, and the lesser of us would have given up.

This is one of my favorite build threads. Beautiful car done beautifully.

[speedo]

Front seal on the targa bar is the last before the new top $$ gets fitted

And the sill trim needs some help, not serious help, but just help.

Aircraft stripper should be safe...right? They use it to strip paint off the exterior of aluminum skinned aircraft.

Elbow grease with a scotchpad and the results

Not new but nicer. I have decided that I don't like the nylon fake rivets...but I do like the SS trusshead sheet metal screws instead

These will look fine. If I want to replace them with the rivets, I can do so.


I will need to redrill location holes in the new outer rockers

Final upholstery on the front half of the tunnel. As there is no boot to cover the base of the 901 shifter...I chose to mount the carpet under the shifter. I think it cleans up well.

Next on the agenda are the lower door gaskets, door panels and the windshield and rear view mirror. Floor carpets...then "by golly" I may allow myself to install the seat frames and the new seats. I will need to install/fabricate the inner seat belt attach points. I get to choose a steering wheel/hub and horn button...heck, I am running out of interior punch list items!

[lateapex911]

Originally Posted by speedo

Final upholstery on the front half of the tunnel. As there is no boot to cover the base of the 901 shifter...I chose to mount the carpet under the shifter. I think it cleans up well.

Next on the agenda are the lower door gaskets, door panels and the windshield and rear view mirror. Floor carpets...then "by golly" I may allow myself to install the seat frames and the new seats. I will need to install/fabricate the inner seat belt attach points. I get to choose a steering wheel/hub and horn button...heck, I am running out of interior punch list items!

Agreed. But I wonder, a nice touch might be some allen cap screws in Stainless or black ?? Just a thought, incredible job so far!!!

[speedo]

Glass guy came up on Thursday (yeah, I don't install glass...they break it, they own it)...couldn't get cell phone reception to google my address and was too new school to actually look up my address on the internet so he just drove back and forth in front of my house looking like an idiot...while I was yelling and waving from my shop. Gave up and left. I called the dispatcher who contacted him. Driver called, angry at me for not jumping in my car and chasing him down...really? Said he was upset that he could not get cell phone coverage at my house....so he went back to his shop. Dispatcher asked me if he should fire the dude I told him it was not a big deal, just get someone else up here...soon. Sent another guy Friday...yesterday. Pretty cocky about all his experience with Porsches. Three hours later he gave up and said he needed another set of hands. I repeatedly offered to help maybe I look questionable...yeah that's it. I am now rescheduled for Tuesday. They are not making much off my glass install at this point. Remember the part about why I don't install my own glass
So I trimmed my aluminum door sills and drilled and attached. I had to un-install (hate doing that) the lower door gasket. But they look good.

My targa receiver rivets arrived and I modified a punch to deliver them. They are black plastic and hollow. Try to hammer them in place and they will double over and die. The washer on the punch helps to center them and the punch slides into the center and keeps them from collapsing.

My door panels as received from the upholsterer

I am ready to install these bad boys as the last (with the exception of the seats)
bit of my interior install. Oops Houston a problem...When I picked these up from the upholsterer, I looked at the one on top...paid the dude and left. Now I see an issue with the drivers door panel in front of the winder. First the passenger side that looks good...

Now the drivers side where someone made a booboo and tried to hide it


Not cool. And The fact that he tried to slide it to me and hope that I missed it ...pisses me off. I left him a message which he will probably not get till Monday or maybe Tuesday. Unacceptable for the prices I paid. N'other delay. I am used to these. Dang-it.

[Kidasters]

Wow. Two steps forward, one step back.

Yeah - I've learned the hard way about those plastic targa bar rivets. I've gone through about 12 of them.

Bad form on the upholsterer. Good services are hard to come by, aren't they?

[speedo]

So I start to work on the passenger door.

I will need to get these in shape to install. I have to install the panels roughly on the door to mark and drill for the pins. Once the holes for the pins are drilled and installed, I secure the pins and upholster. Here we go...






These guys need to get dialed in

Almost done. I need to figure out where my attach points are for the handles. Some riv-nuts are going to be needed

More progress to come over the weekend.

Speedo

[merbesfield]

I had read a post or two about how "easy" it is to install glass. Then I watched Mark from Mark's Custom Glass, not me, spend over three hours wrestling with one 911. And he does them a lot. Turned out to be a crappy gasket. And then your story hear. No thanks, that is one job I will be happy to sub out.

As for your door panel escapade, that is just complete low-rent BS. Take him out back and shoot him, after he fixes it of course. Dumb!

[speedo]

So the armrest is going to need a bit of love before installation. I thought the doors had a "captured nut" but not. There is a hole in the right place, but no nut. No big deal...riv-nuts were invented. These will work...


Guy that did my door panels did the armrests. I am reasonably pleased with the job...but it was a pain to get the bottom panels on.


Door finally assembled

And his lonely friend wishing that he had a door panel...(that wasn't buggered up)

Time to step it up and get this guy ready to mount

[kokenm]

What did you use for the board under the door upholstery? Looks shiny like metal.
Mine are terrible and I need to come up with a replacement before starting to rebuild the upholstery

[speedo]

Are going away up front. Ordered and received new rubber deco, as the old stuff was drilled and dented from the old bumperettes. I could fill the holes with some black caulk, but the vertical imprints are not going to look to great any closer than 30 ft. Yanked the deco rubber off and came to find that not only had the bumperettes imprinted the rubber...but they left their mark on the aluminum as well

Hmmm...torque those suckers down good and hard, don't want them coming off at speed. Sheesh!

I want to work on installing the trim today, so no time to order and wait for another aluminum deco strip. I can work with this. And as I attempt to "work" out the dimples from the bumperettes, I can also go over the rest of the aluminum and massage any other dings as I find them. I grabbed my file and attacked...cleaning the file marks up with varying grades of sandpaper and elbow grease

Cleaned up nicely...there were a lot of other dings. I thought most of my work was going to be focused on the bumperette area, but ended up reworking the entire strip...and voila, destroyed the evidence.

Time to work on cramming rubber bead into small channels


My poor fingers...

[speedo]

So the good news first. With the new bumper deco insert, I can finish up and install the front bumper and end caps. The little T bolts that slide in the channel on the back of the aluminum deco strip have seen better days. Some are rusted off, some are broken and some just spin. I didn't think ahead on this...and really don't want to wait a week to re-order and get replacements shipped. Sorry state...
I think I can modify these carriage bolts to ride in the slot, and actually be a bit stronger than the original. And as they are SS, rust shouldn't be a problem for a while.

Cranked out ten in no time

Carefully installing the trim and trying not to bugger the paint. The T bolts allow the trim to be installed and shifted left-right to get it centered

Then once centered, it gets tightened down. Look mom, no over-rider divots on the trim


I fabricate the fog lamp delete cover braces

And as soon as I figure out the beading for the deletes...I think it is the same beading as for the bumper end caps, but I need to confirm this. Ready to go.


And the glass guys...not great. First guy drove up and couldn't find my house cause he couldn't get cell coverage to google my address as he drove back and forth in front of my house while I waved and yelled. Second guy found the house, but gave up after three hours claiming he needed a second set of hands (other than mine). Third guy had his vehicle break down on the way. Fourth visit was two guys in two trucks. Two and a half hours later they conceded that the glass was simply poorly made and didn't fit at all. Can't wait to hear what the office manager has to say when they show up back to the shop. This is why I don't install glass...ever. I have had the time in between glass guy visits to sand down my windshield trim, remove the annodisation and then polish the aluminum back up to remove 42 years of abuse. Looks great. just need to get it installed correctly in the dang car with some glass. I am jonesing to install my seats, but don't want them to be in the way of frustrated glass installers with sharp objects in their back pockets.

Speedo

[Kidasters]

Will the glass guys ever get this right?

Will we be amazed at just how good the fog delete panels look?

Will we hear about an upholstry shop employee that went missing because he messed up the wrong door panel?

Find out - in Speedo's next post!!!!

Hopefully soon.

[speedo]

Hey, where I live is a cool place if you like the mountains and the sunshine. We have had our trials and tribulations over the past few years...fires and snowfall. This time around we had significant rain over a short period of time and the resultant flooding was 100 year stuff. We are dealing with it. My problems are insignificant when compared with the losses others suffered. And there have been a few other things going on...speed bumps of life as they are referred to. But, I am back in black and want this project to come to life. So the questions in order...

Will the glass guys ever get this right? No the glass was delivered broken and new Sigla was ordered (again).

Will we be amazed at just how good the fog delete panels look? Probably not as the PAINTER ruined my deletes...and I had to go with fog lights in my replacement bumper.

Will we hear about an upholstry shop employee that went missing because he messed up the wrong door panel? Funny you should ask...just retrieved the panel yesterday from the upholsterer

Find out - in Speedo's next post!!!! This is my segway into an update...

Hopefully soon.

[speedo]

I fought with my front bumper last week. You might think that "fought" is strong language...but there is no other way to describe the interaction between two body parts that should have (one would think wanted to) go together. The bumper which was from a different car, (was never hit or damaged, and the fenders which were also from a different car (not the same car as the bumper) had also never been hit or damaged. Trial fitting the bumper and rubber gasket...

Looks like a catfish...

Doesn't it?

Outer brackets are ready to go

My problems were essentially the front of the fender arches were pulled in to far and they needed to be massaged outwards to match the curvature of the bumper


I "bullied" the front fender arches a bit and things lined up

I picked up the repaired door panels yesterday...before this

I will get them installed tomorrow. Winter arrived early....sheesh October 4th!

Speedo

[Macroni]

Amazing.......

[curtisaa]

Lars:

You're a rockstar with Porsches!!!!

[speedo]

So the door panel repair/redo was good. He apologized that it was messed up in the first place. It took four weeks to do, but we have been flooded out for four weeks, and some other non-Porsche stuff has taken priority. Get past it dude
So the panel needs to be doctored to fit the door

Temporary fit

Studs installed and the door getting wrapped up

Everything dialed in before the rain/barrier is glued in place

Been a long time coming...barrier

Finishing the upholstery

Moving along

Almost there. Fitting the door handle on the drivers side is much easier as it is so streamlined...love these early handles


Gets better as we get closer ....or not

[speedo]

But it was so long ago that the vinyl had slipped. I wasn't happy. So it gets ripped off ...before

Shriveled remnant of my displeasure...sounding somewhat "garage poetic"

And done. Small problem...while trying to fit the door top, I was messing with the lock release and oops

Crap. Take the door panel off, remove the moisture barrier and figure out why this came loose. Won't bore you, it was a two hour PIA.
We are installed

Look mom, pockets!

As a breather, I wanted to install the new washer pump. This baby mounts on the left end of the washer reservoir.


Unfortunately, a forty year old reservoir did not like the new pump. Try as I could to heat, lubricate the nub to take the new pump...I cracked the old plastic. Once I figured out how to get them to play well with others...I had to seal the crack

Removed the plug and JB Weld to the rescue on the inside

I could now use some help on the plumbing between the top two reservoir fittings and the two fittings on the pump if you feel so inclined to help with a picture of the layout.

Speedo

[speedo]

I was of the impression that the glass guys (remember them?) would have an easier time installing the windshield if the seats were not in the car. Then I began to think that windshields are installed in cars all the time with seats in the car. What was I thinking?
So the damn seats are going in. Brackets first

Floor is ready...vacuumed and cleaned up for the carpets first.

Lay the carpet down

Even though the redone seats were Recaro, the latches and receivers were not compatible. These will go away

And be replaced with these Porsche correct receivers


I can lower the seats a half inch by removing these

Fronts were easy


Backs were a bear. This will lower the seats 3/8ths of an inch. Seats already sit a bit proud. With a 400-420 steering wheel, getting in the car is a bit tight.

Speedo