Targa Rebuild Project

[rodoredas]

Interior coming together, seats in, door trim on. There's no special treatment here, managed to salvage some of the floor mats but other pieces have gone to god when we stripped this 2 years ago, so basic setup with some Bunnings carpet, no leather trim and flash stereo here, no rear seats either.




Swapped the tyres over to gold painted wheels my son and I did, not sure about these, reckon the proper Pags from group4 would be way better. Oh well. maybe these will grow on me, if not I'll swap back to black and do these polished petals, choices!




So not much left, tune the carbies, install new ignition switch, install from struts brace, get road worthy and I'm away. All looking good for test run at Sandown early November and a trip to see the Bright Hod Rod Show November 6th-8th

here's hoping!!

cheers

[rodoredas]

Did I say early November, just a few jobs, this final hurdle is doing my head in!!

Ignition switch issue was the actual key lock/steering lock mechanism, so that had to come out and get repaired, What a job that was getting it out. According to books there is small hex screw you can reach from under the dash to release the steering lock - yeah that might be fine, but when the screw is inserted from the top it's impossible to get at without drilling hole from inside the truck to access the screw



Couple of weeks later re-installed it - turn the key to Start and engine cranks over, so it's fixed - but engine does not start - no fuel - Fuel Pump gone - brand new bosch unit has failed me. So that has come out and been sent away for test/replacement.

Meanwhile bought some vinyl/foam and glue from local upholsterer and recovered the rear deck and rear side panels



Seems like 2 steps forward 1 back at the moment, but I am getting closer, hopefully I get fuel pump replaced and back in next weekend, finish install of Ignition, gauges, steering wheel etc. Decided to do some repair work on the from door pockets in the mean time and will recover.



cheers

[rodoredas]

Fuel pump has come back from Sydney where they discovered cardboard inside the fuel pump - go figure. must have been residual pieces from when tank was in cardboard box, remember this is new reproduction tank.



So we have another new Fuel pump ready to go, but the question is how did the cardboard get from the tank to the fuel pump, given there should be filter in the tank like that shown below on the right. Alas there was not. I just assumed there would be and the thought to remove the drain plug and check did not cross my mind. Anyway I have a new filter - but it does not fit the drain plug thread on the tank. The diameter of the threads are just different, the thread diameter on the plug is 30mm, on the new filter it's 35mm - so back to drawing board on that one.

Meanwhile got the ignition switch/streering lock installed after it's repair, what a job that is. Key now turns to the Start position and the engine turns over - just one big problem left - Fuel!!

The plug at the base of the tank is a monster 38mm, and a large shifter with 800mm extension pipe could not move it. So had to purchase high tensile impact socket and rip it out with the impact gun. WTF.



Interior is back together with steering lock/ignition switch fixed and installed, steering wheel back on seats in, I'm ready to go!! Well.....nearly!!

get some fuel going and remove the push button start and I'm away



cheers

[rodoredas]

Shane's never ending Targa rebuild continues.....

Last problem was the fuel tank - or should i say lack of in-tank filter on these Dansk reproduction tanks. It's taken a bit of messing around but we now have a small Proflow inline filter mounted between the tank and the filter. This is a bit tricky because of the lack of room but we have run fuel hose from the tank, along the support, over the support (copper pipe here) back along the support and then back down to the fuel pump. Much like a figure 8 using copper and rubber fuel hose. Sorry no pics of this.

If any of you have the Dansk reproduction tanks be aware there is no in-tank filter and your fuel filter could become blocked if there's dirt in the fuel.

I gave up trying to fix the door pockets, just too broken so will go without for now.

Carbies have been tuned and are running fine, we have reliable fuel source, reliable ignition switch and she running on all 6 cylinders

Big news is I have Roadworthy and have applied for club plates.

Bad news is that now we have a driver and she's been on a few test runs using unregistered vicroads permit I have noticed the gearbox is popping out 3rd under load. This is gearbox I bought here , the LSD shown in the thread. I guess a synchro is worn, what else could this be. Shouldn't be anything wrong with this, but there you go.

I'll seek advice and see where that takes me.

I did some of the carby tuning myself and had the pros finish it off. I used combination of Sychrometer and manometer to measure air volume and vacuum and matched this on each cylinder.

my idle was a bit high but that's been reduced as well. in the new year I'll get the car over to carburettor shop and run up on dyno so we can check air fuel ratios under load to see if further adjustments are required





merry xmas to all and happy new year, lets see where 2016 takes us.

While the last few months have been a little frustrating I can see this is all but done and we can start to enjoy it early next year

cheers

[rodoredas]

well it's been an exciting few weeks since Xmas and we have now have Club Plates and had some opportunity do some runs out to Healesville/Yarra Glen area for a bit of a shake down. And yeah we still had 3rd popping out and an rattle left front suspension, both have been sorted. Sadly the LSD has come out and we've replaced it with the 915 that was originally in this. The LSD is mounted on the engine stand in the spare room ready for tear down and repair - good project for me for next six months or so. Lucky we pulled it out as it has input shaft seal leak too and was just about to start impacting the clutch.

I've also been doing some cosmetic changes, making a cover for holes in the door panels left after removing the door speakers, shifting the accelerator pedal slightly to the right, it was very close to the brake pedal, making a mesh cover for the rear wing. It's all a big experiment really. I need to get a radio Blanking plate and something to fill the gap where the ash tray was, that was packed with a heap of stereo crap removed a long time ago.

So we are just about ready for bigger test at Phillip Island later this month, I am preparing second set of wheels and will probably get the Dunlop DZ03G or Bridgestone RE11S semi slicks. I've got Toyo R888's on the Sporto but according to the tyre guys they are no longer being made otherwise I would probably just have gone for them. For the type of stuff we are doing on the track the R888's are good, reportedly the Dunlops are way better so it will be interesting to see.

While there was a lull in proceedings I completed the tear down of the original 2.7 that was in the Targa. Successfully removed all the head studs without any issues and separated the case easily. I had read of many cases where this can turn horrible, but I had not one problem. I took my time and used a head stud removal tool like that shown below, this made the job real easy as you can get a good grip on the studs close to the case and prevent twisting the stud as happens with the 2 nut removal method. So that engine is now in pieces and boxed up in the spare room. I'll get the major components like crank and heads inspected and see what options we have for a hot rod 2.7 rebuild.

I reckon in the next week to 10 days I will have this Targa done and dusted to a point where I can say I've completed what I set out to do - looking forward to that!







cheers
Shane

[rodoredas]

she's all but complete, ready for first track day this coming weekend, second set of wheels done in Gulf Orange with the Dunlop DZ03G semi slick track tyres



cheers

[Adam]

Damn, this has been a fun thread to read, Shane. Congrats on the work and the apparent ease at which you're getting through it all. The car looks great!

We're local, too - I'll keep my eyes out for it/you in traffic.

[rodoredas]

thanks Adam, glad to see you are enjoying the read.

WOW!! years of work and learning and heaps of help culminate in the first real road test of the restoration, we are at Phillip Island for the shakedown, we have been here before, but that was in the Sporto 4Speed, no clutch, we now have a manual 5 speed, we know the track, how will we go in the Targa.

I'm anxious as I sit on the grid in pit lane wondering if we'll go OK!

And then we are waved off by the marshals, we are off, engine roaring as we reach for 2nd exiting pit lane and track opens up before me, down the hill into 3rd, into 4th, turn 1 approaching, off the throttle, dab the brakes, we are far left on the track and cut into turn 1 at 150-160kph or so - she's going and we are flat out concentrating on what we are doing around the double apex of Southern Loop in 3rd. Flat out around Stoner Corner and then we hit the brakes hard 150m out from Honda, back into 3rd, down to 2nd round we go, tyres squealing gripping hard - you beauty, through Siberia, tricky, not sure what gear we should be in - 2nd, no 3rd, lost a bit there wrong gear, wrong line but we are flat out around the back of track, hugging left at Lukey Heights over the top, down the hill, BRAKE HARD, shift down into 2nd, hard right and then the sweeping big left turn at 11 and 12 while reaching for 3rd, then 4th (is hard work) then we are on the main straight reaching for 5th. What a ride, we clip 200kph down the main straight and line up for lap 2 - you beauty.

Son, Steve and I had a great day in the Targa and she went well, real well. - and we had our mates with us, helping us, but more about them later.

We did have a couple of cases late in the day where we lost power (engine cutout) during a lap but restarted after 10 seconds or so. Not sure what that is - fuel, ignition - did we hit the rev limiter - we are not sure yet.

What a day, full of different emotions.

You may wonder why there's now mention of the Sporto, the plan was Steve and I have a car each - I had spent Friday night bleeding the brakes and installing new front brake pads, then with flat battery Saturday morning went and got new one -- THEN after all THAT -- some in-attentive driver smashed into my beautiful Sporto at the service station on Saturday morning, the last thing I had to do in preparation for the weekend was to get some fuel and look what the ***** did!!




Sporto, woman in a van, not looking what they were doing, in a hurry, reversing out of the parking bay - CRASH.

[Adam]

Jesus, I hope that wasn't a hit and run. But then, I would be pissed either way.

Nice write-up of the track day, enjoy the fruits of your labour, mate!

[rodoredas]

It been a few months since last post, but Sporto has all been fixed at Paint and Custom, they do a great job. They fixed the original panel so that's a good thing and she looks brand new again. No mechanical damage, just the fender.

Meanwhile I have been trying to get to the rebuild of the 915 LSD and that has come together in the last week or so and that is ready to put back in the Targa. I dismantled it but had the experts pull the Input shaft apart and replace the 3rd and 4th synchro the slider and slider race. I've put it all back together along with new gaskets and seals and it's in a much better state than the so called 'rebuilt' state it was claimed to be in. 'Rebuilt' meant it had been taken apart for some reason and dodgy incorrect second hand bits installed, no new gaskets or seals. I don't have much recall on the guy I purchased it from in LA, I have heard he passed away.

Anyway it's all good now and we'll plan to get it installed sooner rather than later.

I've also been working on some cosmetic stuff, a mate showed me how to paint the low areas of the Porsche emblem on the wheel centre caps - it's a tedious process with tiny brush, enamel paint and some turps - but the results are cool.





just another engine running shot - why not!



and some gearbox rebuild shots - offending 3rd/4th synchro and note the small slider bar



gear cluster out



these bearing races could be rotated by hand given a decent twist so sealed them with Loctite 641



New 3rd/4th setup with new synchros and larger slider, same as we have on 1st/2nd


Prep for adjusting shift fork gap during assembly



While this was challenging I had done a couple of Sporto rebuilds so had some idea of what to expect, having said that you really can't do these jobs with expert help and advice, some special tools and the Bentley workshop manual

[911 tweaks]

looking great Shane...!! my oh my how you persevere...! My hats off to you... now to continue enjoying the heck out of these cars & with your son... take care... bob

[rodoredas]

Got this LSD back in the car on the weekend, the weather here has not been so good and haven't had chance for test drive, but have been up and down driveway! - it shifts gears - so that's a good start after all my handy work!

gear housing installed with 5th/reverse gears all setup



on the stand ready to back in the car



Engine out, old gearbox removed and this one ready to back on the engine.



cheers

[911 tweaks]

nice shane... what is the grey looking color on the trans or is that the camera flash...? I guess its paint primer or a rust proof coating... hope you can get some driving in before the weather gets bad... keep making progress every day... bob

[sus911]

Enjoyed reading this on this rainy day Shane!
Well done mate, I really admire your persistence and temperament.
I've just done my first engine drop on my 3.2 Carrera that I've owned since 1987.
It needs a new clutch and attention to some minor oil leaks, not much else. It does have however 30 years of dirt & grime & many parts have lost their gold cad plating.
I think I'll be detailing the engine, engine bay & underbody.
I have an engine stand but the adjustable yoke doesn't fit the bell housing bolt pattern. Any tips on where to get yokes locally?
I'll be starting a thread soon.
I've just finished some pretty major motorcycle projects and have clear workshop space!!!

[rodoredas]

Hey Bob the grey one going back in is the one from 914agogo, (we got the Yoke shipped out with it!) he's painted it, not sure what with but it seems all OK.

Glad you're enjoying the read Phil, it's been a blast and hope your engine drop has gone ok. My yoke came from pelican and apart from trying to borrow one locally I'm not sure what to recommend. - PM me we can talk.

The weather cleared here on the weekend and I had first opportunity to take the rebuilt LSD for spin and my handy work has paid off - she works a treat, you can really feel the new 3rd/4th synchro, it's just much firmer and requires a little more force to engage. So I'm happy with all that - it's been an odd journey with the LSD but it's all good now.

While this rebuild is about done and the car is up and running I'll turn my attention in this thread to the 2.7 engine that was originally in this and the original 915 gearbox.

That engine is now in pieces (and gearbox on the shelf) and I've some decisions to make on what to do about the engine. I've started taking some measurements on the crank shaft and I'm getting close to tolerance. I'm going to get these done properly before I work out just what will become of the engine, for now a spare room full of boxes and engine bits and 915.

Also spent some time on the weekend doing what is to be about the final piece of the 3 year exercise. She's ready for a track day, sadly we'll miss Sandown in a couple of weeks, but there's plenty more coming up.

Throughout the entire process I have had some extraordinary help, guidance and assistance from Darren, Jye and earlier Phil out at Auto Coupe in Eltham. I simply could not have tackled such an exercise without them, it's been a simply awesome experience and we have great times ahead.

If you're in Melbourne and need help with your project or car you won't get better service or advice anywhere else.

So in fitting tribute I decided on a special decal.
Thanks guys, just awesome

she goes and she looks great too.