Saving the "Rat" - Restoring a 69T

[kkinzli]

Day 20 cont: Working on A arms



The joys of being young and finding a smile in everything


One of the reasons I can make so much progress is that I have my very own gardner


A small side project over the last two days has been to rip out our FL room and replace it with a lanai (screened in porch for you non Floridians)



The Rat's much younger but more abused brother hard at work

[Daves911L]

Kristoph,
This popped up on 356 Talk this morning. Maybe on this forum already? But thought you ight enjoy it.

Bound to Cover Just a Little More Ground: Factory Delivery

DG

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by Daves911L

Kristoph,
This popped up on 356 Talk this morning. Maybe on this forum already? But thought you ight enjoy it.

Bound to Cover Just a Little More Ground: Factory Delivery

DG

Thanks David! That is an amazing video. Very inspirational It must have been so cool to go to the factory back in the day. I will try to go to the museum this summer!

[kkinzli]

Day 21: Finishing drivers wheel well after welding shut some more holes from dry wall screws. I was also able to get the area below the pedal cluster down to bare metal, weld shut the factory alignment hole and primer in preparation for reinstalling the pedal cluster. I was also able to finish the A arms today
with the help of the Padawan

[Dublinoh]

A porch and a Porsche. Do you sleep? Great progress and fun to follow.

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by Dublinoh

A porch and a Porsche. Do you sleep? Great progress and fun to follow.

Thanks for the compliment! I do sleep but generally need less than most people. My parents were teachers and got me up at 5:15 am for the first 18 years of my life. This works out well for being a professor because I can get a lot of work done before the students get to school

[kkinzli]

Day 22: Got the front suspension put back together

[kkinzli]

Day 22 cont: Here is another picture

[kkinzli]

Day 22 cont: I went to set the ride height with the torsion bars and am not sure if I have done so correctly and need some advice. When putting the cap back on the torsion bar how should it be aligned. In the middle, towards the top, or towards the bottom? I put mine at the bottom arrow and used a mallet to knock it into place and then started screwing in the height adjuster screw. Something about the set up does no feel right. I think I should have aligned the cap with the top arrow and then started screwing in the height adjuster screw. I took pictures of the previous setup and counted threads (there were five threads showing above the cap). Thanks in advance for the help

[Flieger]

Front Suspension Geometry_ 017 by Max_911S_fahrer, on Flickr

[RWebb]

put the screw back to about the same position it was in before, if you are using the same torsion bars

BTW - did you rebuild the steering rack while it was out?

[Daves911L]

Kristoph,
Don't worry much about the adjuster position. What you have now appears to be close enough for a start. Once its all re-installed and the car is back on its wheels, you can adjust it as necessary. If you run out of adjustment room, take the weight off, back out the screw, pull the adjuster cap off and install it in a different position as needed.

As for a real Porsche, I'd be delighted with that diesel super. Plenty fast for me. The armor (Maus?) would be all sweet too. Especially considering the small distance from Albuquerque is to the Mexican border. Not sure what that last thing is. Some late model Mazda perhaps?

But how about the renowned Porsche 212?



Have fun with the rat this weekend. I'm welding on the right rear quarter of 89379 tomorrow. Going to spend Sunday skiing (in spite of La Nina, there is tolerably decent snow in the Sangres).

DG

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by Flieger

Front Suspension Geometry_ 017 by Max_911S_fahrer, on Flickr

Thanks! I am sure the picture will come in helpful albeit your setup is much nicer than mine

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by RWebb

put the screw back to about the same position it was in before, if you are using the same torsion bars

BTW - did you rebuild the steering rack while it was out?

I am using the same torsion bars and have put the screws back into the same position as previous. I did not rebuild the steering rack as it is functioning just fine. All I did to it was blast a ton of NM grime off and am not refinishing it since it is aluminum with no rust and no rust potential Must be nice to work on a DeLorean

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by Daves911L

Kristoph,
Don't worry much about the adjuster position. What you have now appears to be close enough for a start. Once its all re-installed and the car is back on its wheels, you can adjust it as necessary. If you run out of adjustment room, take the weight off, back out the screw, pull the adjuster cap off and install it in a different position as needed.

As for a real Porsche, I'd be delighted with that diesel super. Plenty fast for me. The armor (Maus?) would be all sweet too. Especially considering the small distance from Albuquerque is to the Mexican border. Not sure what that last thing is. Some late model Mazda perhaps?

But how about the renowned Porsche 212?



Have fun with the rat this weekend. I'm welding on the right rear quarter of 89379 tomorrow. Going to spend Sunday skiing (in spite of La Nina, there is tolerably decent snow in the Sangres).

DG

Hi Obi Wan!
Thanks for the advice on the adjuster screws. I think your plan to take a Maus to the Mexican border is excellent - the border patrol need all the help they can get I think I got the last picture from MazdaSpeed. I will not be working on the Rat this weekend as the inlaws are in town and we will be taking "Das Boot" out into Estero Bay and the Gulf. Good luck with the welding and I hope you enjoy the snow! Here is a picture of the Porsche 212 with Michelins I think

[RWebb]

put some new grease in the rack while its out

are you going to upgrade & lighten the suspension with newer Al pieces?

this is the perfect time to stiffen up the chassis - adds little wt. and Dave/TRE has gotten amazing results by doing it...

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by RWebb

put some new grease in the rack while its out

are you going to upgrade & lighten the suspension with newer Al pieces?

this is the perfect time to stiffen up the chassis - adds little wt. and Dave/TRE has gotten amazing results by doing it...

Thanks for the advice for new grease in the rack! What type of grease should I put in there? In terms of upgrading I am trying to keep things as original as possible. This is due to two reasons - 1) I am a professor and therefore need to make this project as cheap (what a joke!!) as possible. This means me cleaning and trying to reuse everything. 2) If I start replacing everything with new stuff pieces of the Rat will be gone forever. By the end I will have a new car without all of the history which does not sound good to me. I liken this to all of the old ladies that get face-lifts down here in FL. They look terrible and would just be better off not putting new or improved stuff in and just aging naturally by keeping their old stuff. Just my two cents (see reason 1!)

[kkinzli]

Can somebody tell me how to change my signature? About to hit 250K on the Black Knight and need to update soon. Thanks

[RWebb]

I used some Mb SWEPCO I had lying around. Valvolene red Synpower is also good - wonder if they need to be compatible??

I understand re costs - the later Al susp. parts are cheap tho... rear bananas will help with wt. savings in the rear.

At the top of the page, get to the Control Panel & change in there. On the left IIRC.

[NaplesBound]

I just want to say what an amazing thread. I just spent the last two hours reading over this. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Keep up the great work, sub'ed!

Chris