Picked up a '68!

[Dan@SharkWerks]

The rust preparation continues, but in the meantime I've been driving the car a bit. One thing was driving me crazy... the shifter. The pattern on the 901 transmission is new to me anyway, but this wasn't the problem. My issue was that the feel of the shifter was terrible. There was a "muddy" gray area, going left to right, that made it impossible to tell if you were in gear at all, let alone figure out which gear it was. Also, going to 1st gear was especially hard, since its position was down-left on the H pattern and the shifter would run into the seat. I asked James, who told me that I likely had to take out the shifter to see the cup where the ball of the shifter was seated. Here are some awful pics but it explains the process I used to fix the shifter. Removing the shifter was so easy on this car. I removed the three 13mm bolts that hold it in the console, then the two 10mm bolts that hold the cable in place. Here's what the plastic "cup" looks like, that the lower ball of the shifter rotates and moves in: The pic doesn't really explain the problem, but the cup was nearly disintegrated. The sides were completely gone, meaning the ball had almost no support. I bought a new cup for under $10 from our local parts house. Lubed it up a bit, then installed it onto the shifter's ball: Then I took a sharp pick and hacked away at the old, worn-out cup until it could be removed. I put some of this grease onto the new cup and put it in place. Here's the old cup, removed from its hole: I installed the 5 bolts and took it for a drive. EUREKA! Night and day difference... now the shifter's tight and predictable. No more sloppy guessing about which gear is which, and I can actually downshift it now. I really dig this transmission now.

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[David9962000]

Congrats and good luck. There is a great article in Excellence magazine this month about the 912. I enjoyed it and it said that the engine in a 912 sits a little forward and it gives it a better handling.

[Dan@SharkWerks]

Originally Posted by David9962000

Congrats and good luck. There is a great article in Excellence magazine this month about the 912. I enjoyed it and it said that the engine in a 912 sits a little forward and it gives it a better handling.

Thanks David,
I read that article online before our copy of Excellence came: Wow what a clean car... I cringed at the part where he mentioned that the car had been garaged since the 60s, then he was going to park it overnight in the rain the first day he had it. What a scary thought!

I haven't driven the 912 too much yet, but apparently the handling is more neutral because of that engine placement and less weight in the rear. It'll be hard going to and from 911s to this but at least the 912 doesn't have enough power to get me in trouble yet.

[Dan@SharkWerks]

We have been busy lately, but I had a little time to work on the 912 which required immediate attention.

First, the turn signals stopped working. They were pretty rough in the first place. They didn't shut off automatically when finishing a turn, and the right signal was becoming hard to engage. Finally last night, right stopped working altogether. Then left this morning. I also broke my driver-side window roller this week, so I couldn't easily roll down my window to perform those cool hand signals.

So I took off the steering wheel and disassembled the column slightly. Luckily it's all easy to move, just requiring a few screws. While I was in there I cleaned everything nice and pretty. I couldn't find anything damaged in the signals, but it was definitely stuck. James suggested contact cleaner, and after a few sprays (and dirty paper towels later) the signal started working. I continued to clean up the little cluster of complex gears and finally sprayed a dry lubricant on when I was finished. Now they work like new!

I reassembled the wheel but somehow lost the horn in the process. I will have to fix that this weekend.

I also mentioned before that the lack of mirrors was making the car pretty dangerous to drive. The car came from the factory with only the driver's side, and I plan to keep it this way. Here's some ugly plastic aftermarket mirrors the previous driver had installed:


They looked tacky and actually were really bad mirrors, constantly moved around etc. Shown also is the stock mirror. But I realized this was from a 66-67 model, so I swapped out for this larger one:


I purchased the small one on Craigslist for $30, the bigger for $45.

One of the most unappealing things about the car was the rear deck lid grille. This piece is notorious for being warped or damaged (look at 68 and 69 911s, 912s and you'll see what I mean). Mine was missing a couple bars and many others were bent (this is after I tried straightening them out):



I popped into Parts Heaven in Hayward and saw this one on a 911E, so I quickly purchased and installed it:



Big improvement eh?

[LaneS@MAcarbon]

Looks like it's comming along nicely. Good job Dan!

[Dan@SharkWerks]

Another week down and a couple new additions to the 912. I'm driving it every day now, and the car's loosening up nicely. It's a lot of fun and gets plenty of stares (maybe because it -looks- so old with this paint being flat etc.)

The whole time, I've been driving it with the interior gutted to bare metal except the dash and driver's seat. Since all the rust scraping and brushing was now complete, I finally had the time to apply the Eastwood 2-part rust converter.

You take 4 parts of one solution (resembles slimy, thick kool-aid) and mix it with 1 part of the wetting solution (resembles alcohol) and stir. It looks like thick purple paint when you're done mixing. I used a spray can cap for the measuring tool.

I used a tiny foam roller and tray ($3 at Walmart) to apply. I went over every bit of rust and most of the painted stuff too just for good measure, applying a really thick, wet coat. After an hour or so I applied another. Within minutes, the rust begins to turn black.

I did about 1/4 of the interior at a time, and it took ~3 hours to do the whole interior.

Half-way done:


A couple hours later, the rust was now all completely black, as black as death. No rust dust comes off it, etc.


It's pretty neat stuff because it starts out gooey and sticky, then over time it dries up and it only affects the rust. The areas with some leftover factory paint don't change colors.

It's been days now and the interior finally has no more rust smell. The next step is the Eastwood rust encapsulator, which will coat everything in a rust-sealed paint with a heavy top-coat, then I'll worry about any leftover small holes or areas that need patching, such as the back seat cushion area before I start the carpet and interior repairs.

[Dan@SharkWerks]

Today I had a few hours at the shop, so I applied the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator (Eastwood Co. - Rust Encapsulator). It's basically paint, but really thick good paint that's meant to prevent/cover rust.

Lesson learned: cheap wal-mart foam rollers don't hold up well to this stuff! I used 6 rollers and 3 trays, and a whole quart of encapsulator on the interior only using two coats on the floor pans (and the rest was coated once).

I spent about an hour on each floor pan just rolling it in thickly, another hour or so on the top decklid area, and maybe an hour under the dash (repainted it all black), quarter panels, sides and pedals. I also re-coated the e-brake handle and shifter base.

It's still got a few hours before it's completely dry, but overall I'm very happy with the results.



Keep in mind there's still going to be carpet, floor mats, seats etc.

Driver quarter panel interior:


There's also a vinyl cover for this (and seat bottoms, carpet, etc).

Through the dirty back window you can see the deck area (it's covered in a large vinyl pad that I need to clean up still):


The pedals are a nice improvement, but the pic didn't come out so well...


I am going to have the seat adjuster rails sand blasted and powdercoated next. With it being a weekend and Monday a holiday, it looks like I'll have to install/remove the seat once again in a few days. I think I've done that about a dozen times already.

[JoshBsZ]

great thread man, keep up the good work!

[Dan@SharkWerks]

Thanks Josh!

I posted this thread up on a bunch of Porsche forums, and recently finally posted it on the big one (912bbs.org). The replies I got were all different than the other forums.. I don't know why I waited so long to post it there.

Anyway, one of the replies said,

Dan

Have you looked under your steering wheel cover? That sure looks like a wood wheel, correct me if I am wrong...

I had not thought too much about the steering wheel, but assumed since it was covered with this ugly $1 wheel wrap that it was probably worn out. I also assumed it was rubber like most of the 912s and older Porsches I see, and from glancing through the wrap when I first bought the car, it looked like the rubber had worn out and was down to the inner metal wire. I assumed it was much worse UNDER the wrap than the wrap itself.


Curiosity got the best of me, so I went outside and removed the wheel wrap. As I began untying the nylon, I felt like an archeologist unveiling some great artifact. I peeled back a little bit and I was shocked: it was indeed wood! As I carefully untied the rest over the next few minutes, I unveiled more and more of the wheel. By the time I removed the whole thing, it was clear that the wheel was not only wood as the guy had suggested, but nearly in perfect shape. The cover preserved it very well over the years! It even has cool grooves for your fingers that I couldn't feel before.



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I looked it up and sure enough, a wooden steering wheel was a factory option back in 1968.

This car is just full of surprises!


before:

[Dan@SharkWerks]

It's been pretty hot here and we were very busy on our new Project Gallery, but I did manage to make a few changes over the last couple of weeks.

The most obvious problem when driving my 912 now was that its tires were very old and cracked. They were so hard, that I'm not sure they were made of rubber anymore. I think they were more like biscuits. I would lock them up driving into my driveway even. There was simply no traction.

I ordered five Good Year Eagle GT tires. I ordered the 5th for a spare. The tires were 195/60/15s, about the biggest you want to run on stock wheels from my understanding. I did a bit of research and read that these tires offer good performance for the price and I liked the tread pattern versus the other brands such as Michelin or Yokohama.

I also reached a point in the project where I would take a turn -- and I know some people won't like this. I looked at 911s and 912s for months to decide how I'd want mine to look, and something about the Fuchs wasn't doing it for me. Maybe it's because they're common, or maybe I just don't think they "fit" on the car, especially with this color. I am not a big fan of chrome/polish, so I couldn't do the hubcap. I took a slightly different direction.

I bought 5 steel wheels. I had no spare before, so I figured I may as well have a matching one. These are actually spares from the later 911s, so usually they're in pretty good shape. They're also cheap - the cost of these wheels plus tires is about what my Fuchs will sell for, so I'll basically trade my Fuchs without tires for steel wheels with brand new tires and gain a spare. They are quite a bit heavier (6.5 lbs per corner!), but since I intend to make this car a cruiser, I don't mind the extra rolling mass for now.


Most of them looked decent, but had OEM stickers on them:


I removed the sticker with Brake cleaner first, and cleaned and degreased all the wheels.


The roughest wheel had some surface rust:


The stack of the tiny wheels next to Cayenne TT tires (:lol:


After brake parts cleaner and wire brushing...


Here's the paint I opted to use. It's the Rustoleum "Hammered Finish" silver. This is the same durable paint I used on my homemade gaming seat.


I love this paint because of the finish it leaves, but it's also very strong for "cheap" spray paint.

It started raining minutes after my first ultra-light coat was applied to each wheel, so I had to wait 2-days to apply more paint.



Picking up where I left off, the final coats turned out exactly how I wanted them. I applied 2 very thin coats and 2 heavier coats.



The biggest problem was that they're now -too- clean and shiny, and the rest of the car isn't. As I am putting on some miles they are getting brake dust and road grime, completing the look I was going for.

Most recent pictures with the steelies, now with steel blackish lugnuts instead of chrome/aluminum caps. I still need to paint or clean up the centers though, which I'll do soon when I work on the brakes:



The car's running awesome. It seemed pretty fast on the way to work today with nice cool weather. Starts right up and idles fine, and now with these tires I've really been chucking it around some corners!

[JayWild]

Great work Dan! It's a fine classic! And looking better with every pic u show!

[TTZip]

Great work. I like the interior transformation where it went from a very nasty rust to a great looking black. I will be following this thread. Keep it up!

[hrs1]

thnx for sharing the restoration process...looking great!

[Porsche323]

Looks like a great project, and you obviously know what you are doing, which makes a big difference. It will be awesome when you are finished. The Porsche is a great project car.

[JoshBsZ]

I can't belive how cool this project is. Ths is exactly something that I have been wanting to pick up. best of luck and keep driving it!