Hello and question
 

Greetings to all from snowy Germany. I have recently bought a 1980 Targa, petrol blue with cork leather interior. It came to me from the US with 51,000 miles on it and in very nice driver condition. I look forward to many years of fiddling and fixing and mostly driving this car.

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I've installed headlight relays, upgraded headlights, replaced the CDI box, and a few other simple things. I've been doing some buying on the used parts board, but thought this would be a good time to introduce myself, since I've finally found a simple problem I haven't been able to solve.

The windshield washer wasn't functioning when the car arrived, and while I've sorted through all that and can make it work, I need to reattach the hose to the fitting on top of the washer tank. What is the super-secret way to stretch the hose and make it fit? I've tried heating it with a hair dryer and stretching the hose with a phillips screwdriver, but no joy yet. How is this done?

Many thanks,

Dru Martin

I can't help you with your question... but you do have a beautiful car. I love the color combo, especially with the sport seats.

This may not be helpful but when I removed and cleaned the washer storage tank behind the left headlight, I reconnected the hoses with no problem. Do you need to pull the tank to reattach the hose? There is very little room at the top of the tank when it is installed. Pretty car with very few miles. Great find.

I suggest getting another piece of same id hose and double barbed connector and attach to the short hose. It is not original spec but it will work. You can find this at any hardware store,

Welcome aboard Euro Targa Brother =)

+ That may give you better leverage. It's just the big metal stainless band that holds it in.

I went through that (connection) but I believe I used new hose so it stretched easier. Plus the fender/wing was off.

If you had just a little more heat than a hair blower, I believe that would soften it up enough to slide it over. Heat guns can make an easy job of it. Be careful - it can melt the tube as well. Put the tip of the hose in boiling water perhaps/.

On a separate note your dash looks great. You may know, they like to curl up at the vent exits for the defrost air. Your dash looks like you do not have that issue and I am not sure what causes it. Maybe heat from the sun at a weaker point on the dash?

Buy a high quality leather product that needs to soak in to keep it supple. Leather dashboards new are very expensive and expensive to restore so use the product regularly (Maybe twice per year). The leather can lift from the dash core when it dries out.

Nice car.

I don't know what it is, but I've yet to buy a US car of any brand with functional screen wash...

+1 on what Bob said; boiling water will make the end of the hose soft and pliable without melting it; nuking a cup of water in the microwave for a few seconds seems to be the fastest way to re-heat when it's cold outside... The simple hot air guns are too hot, I thought.

Fortunate the check valves and washer outlets aren't clogged/useless - easy life! :)

I actually had the tank out already. And now it’s back in- not too difficult. I went back down to the garage, sat down on the wheel, and there sat a small pair of needlenose pliers. Heat the tube, insert the pliers inside the tube, heat the tube, open the pliers inside the tube, close and insert pliers further. Heated and repeated until the hose would go back on the fitting. Success!

Bob,
Thank you.
What counts as a high quality leather product? I’ve got a gallon jug of each kind of Lexol (cleaner, conditioner, Vinylex for the plastic) downstairs that I’ve used on my other cars. Does that qualify?
Also, what all is leather in a special leather car? My guess is all four seats (what about the front seatbacks?) dash top (but what about the binnacle piece?), and door cards. Anything else?

Thanks, Scott. I’m thrilled to have it.

Question for all- what sort of mileage should I expect to see?

Easy life, indeed! Though I did have the tank out anyway. I take easy jobs and make them harder!

Door panels are leather. Not the swing up lid on the pocket. The door pocket I believe is trimmed in leather.
Liner under bottom of targa roll bar
Backs and sides of seats. Non full leather seats have leather in the surfaces that touch your body if not cloth. (not fully sure if an all vinyl sear was available in the SC's)
Rear seats pads / swinging back part of rear seats.
Rear deck panel behind seats - not the flat part under the window.
Side panels in rear
Knee kick pad I believe - (binnacle?)
There is leather on some of the targa top parts near the windscreen.
Steering wheel (probably all SCv have leather wrapped wheels)

Not the dash face or glove box.

Just spray the Lexol conditioner on a part and if it soaks in, it's leather. If it does not, it's vinyl. I may have a few of the parts confused with vinyl but the Lexol check will confirm.

I use a product called Soffner. Colorplus.com but I can't get their website up.

Many use Leatherique's product call rejuvinator. They have a nice write up on how to do a real effective job. Look for the rejuvinator link on the left hand side of the site. They probably ship outside the US.

http://www.leatherique.com/

There has to be similar products in Germany but it will still be mail order probably given the high end products are not often found at the local car parts store.

If it is a factory set up, all air leaks sealed, tuned up properly and you drive it like a little girl on the highway (65mph) you may see 27 mpg, especially if your car is a US version with an oxygen sensor. I would not eliminate it if you have one.

Check your speedo with a GPS as they are notoriously 10% higher than the real MPH. You may only have 46,000 miles on the car as the odometer is in error too. I have read where folks say the odo is correct but it ain't if the speedo is off as I have checked it using mileage markers on highways.

Do you have the 80mph speedo? The cars originally came with them - at least my 81 did. It was replaced with a 160mph speedo and the Porsche garage made a notation in the cars maintenance manual as to the mileage of the original when replaced.

Stay in touch here. Lots of good people that can help you. Welcome.