Saving the "Rat" - Restoring a 69T

[kugelfischer]

Originally Posted by jt912

Are those aluminum front calipers? They look different than others I've seen.

Yep, those are 'S' aluminum front calipers. They were an option on all cars, but would have usually been associated with Fuchs. Great find on what looked like a base T!

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by jt912

Are those aluminum front calipers? They look different than others I've seen.

They are the aluminum S calipers!

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by kugelfischer

Excellent story so far! A good friend of mine has a Tangerine '69 T very similar to yours. Really great looking car.
Also, nice score on the S dizzy (and the S front brakes). I'm wondering if you might have an S motor given the red fan shroud. Post up your engine seriial if you aren't sure and the folks here will surely decode it for you.

Cheers

In terms of the motor I have no clue what is in there. The post on the back of the engine where the serial number is supposed to be is empty which means the engine is a rebuild with an unstamped factory case. I believe it is a 3R case but I will have to check. It has been upgraded to the pressure fed chain tensionsers.

[kugelfischer]

Very cool. Take a look @ the cylinders from the bottom side of the engine. T would have had cast iron cooling fins. If you've got aluminum fins, you may have something of an upgrade

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by ddinham

I think you just " spilled the beans". I can imagine who that is.
It is a small world.

If you ever get back to town and need parts or help, let me know.

Dana

I might be back for a few weeks during the summer. I will let you know!

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by kugelfischer

Very cool. Take a look @ the cylinders from the bottom side of the engine. T would have had cast iron cooling fins. If you've got aluminum fins, you may have something of an upgrade

I am pretty sure they are cast iron. Take a look at this picture

[kkinzli]

Originally Posted by kidrock

what a great score, very nice example. I've been reading lately that those steel wheels are becoming very hard to find, I have to believe they have at least an intrinsic value. Do you plan on keeping them on the car, or are you going to Fuchs or Ultralites?

Currently I have Fuchs but might go back to the Steelies which are in NM!

[kkinzli]

Time to get back to the story. During the summer of 2009 I was really busy working on my Ph.D. research and was only able to work on the car for one day a week. I was able to rebuild the carbs, paint the fan shroud, repaint some of the engine tin and give the engine bay a good cleaning. I also had to put in a new starter and alternator as I got stranded on Paseo del Norte when the starter went and had to cancel a date with my girlfriend (now wife). She was not very pleased about the "Rat" letting me down. Obi Wan lent me his truck and trailer and I was able to pull the car back to the roommate's house to make the above repairs. I went with an internal regulator for the alternator and cleaned up a bunch of loose wires while I was in there. It took me about a month to address all of the above mentioned issues

[kkinzli]

Alternator and starter install went according to plan. I do not have any pictures of the starter install.

[kkinzli]

Removing the fan shroud and painting it, painting the fan (aka Motormeister Obi Wan was pissed about that!) cleaning up the engine bay, putting in new fuel filters.

[kkinzli]

The silver fan shroud is the little known normal factory color fan shroud for an unknown engine with chain tensioner upgrades

[kkinzli]

Putting it all back together

[kkinzli]

Before and after

[kkinzli]

I also cleaned up the fuel pump filter and replaced the rubber lines

[kkinzli]

I also got around to changing the transmission fluid which was not a happy day. I found that there was very little fluid in the tranny and a ton of shavings on the magnet. I was quite worried about this and immediatly thought I needed to rebuild the transmission. Lucky for me I poured in SWEPCO 201 and have driven 7000 worry free miles since then! I hope that most of the shavings came from the syncros One day when I open her up I will know the whole story. Same goes for the engine!

[kkinzli]

Some random clock pictures

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]

One day Obi Wan mentioned that a tub he had sitting around out back had a sway bar in it that I could have. I immediately went back there and removed it, ordered some new bushings from our host and spent the better part of a Saturday cleaning up and repainting the sway bar and drop links.

[kugelfischer]

Nice repaint on the shroud. Looks like you had an E shroud since it was green under the 'meister paint. Also has the cut outs for the MFI injectors, but your heads clearly are not MFI.
I also agree that the cylinders look like cast iron. You can get a Mahle code off of the base where the cylinder interfaces with the case. Should be able to verify diameter etc from the code.
Having some kind out outlet during your PhD study is a requirement. Good score on the car. I did a lot of bicycling during mine. Not enough $$$ for a project car for me back then.

You may want to check out the Early S Registry if you haven't already. Lots of great long hood info over there and not restricted to S cars as the name would imply.
Early 911S Registry

[kkinzli]

Here are some pictures as to why the "Rat" got its name. Calling it the mouse would have been sacrilegious - read Dr. Porsche turning over in his grave- so what you see in the pictures are little "Rats". These little "Rats" were not discovered until the spring of 2011 when the "Rat" had already moved to Florida. I know these "Rats" were from New Mexico because they were good and crispy - a condition that does not exist three miles from the Gulf of Mexico! I found these little guys when I was installing ABS floorboards