Picked up a '68!

[Dan@SharkWerks]

I bought a '68 912 last week... Cliff notes: Original paint and presumably motor (but rebuilt), all interior and accessories intact. Aftermarket carbs and exhaust, rusty floorpans but not terrible, some rust on fenders but overall not in bad shape! It wasn't running and the only other guy that looked at it chickened out at the sight of rust, but it apparently had only been leaking for a couple years (the current owner just didn't care and let the car sit outside in rain even though they knew it had bad seals). I had it started in about 20 minutes after bringing it back to the shop. It clearly needs a lot of work but I've got time and access to lots of Porsche parts and references... I was reading the manual and thought this was pretty neat: Judging by the car you have chosen, you are a motorist of a special caste. Although you probably are no freshman when it comes to automobiles, we have compiled much useful information in the section entitled Operating Instructions with which you should become familiar before driving your Porsche. Additionally, the remainder of this manual is equally important and we ask of you to devote your attention to it at your hour of leisure. We wish you many miles of pleasure and accomplishments in your Porsche Dr.-Ing. h. c. F. Porsche KG Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen West Germany The ad says "Doesn't run". Gee... I removed every ounce of carpet, extra interior, and most of the insulation/sound deadener from the car already. It was all soaking wet from a recent rain. I'll be restoring an inch or two at a time at this rate but haven't decided on a game plan. For now I just want to drive it...

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[Dan@SharkWerks]

Hood was repainted at some point and looks really bad compared to the rest of the paint...






Ugliest part of the whole car:


Surgery begins...


First order... new brakes and caliper rebuild kits



Last weekend I tried to drive it, but noticed the gas pedal was sticking. I spent a few hours removing this monstrosity:


Throttle arm was completely stuck.


I had to drill a hole between the bushings and inject penetrating spray. Then torched it for a bit and eventually freed it up. The gas pedal flopped around though because it's just a big rubber pad on these cars that pushes a rod, so I had to replace it.



Fuel pump was acting up so I threw in an electric for now.



This oil line was also leaking:


So I removed the distributor and replaced it:



Oil leak was fixed, but I noticed it's leaking a bit of gas, too. I ordered the rebuild kits for the Weber Redline carbs today. I should have it tomorrow but probably can't get to it until Monday.

Current state is that it runs excellent and drives fine except the gas leak that scares me enough to let it stay parked until I fix it... The wet interior's out and it's all dry, so the car smells a lot nicer now. I don't have much into it yet and won't go crazy with 100% resto (out of my personal budget), but I thought it'd be a fun car to kick around as I learn a bit about a classic.

I've got my black plates ready for July..

[willhahn24]

Looks like a fun project, have fun

[iJeremy]

Dan -

Thats AWESOME!... I love seeing these cars bought by the willing and able and not someone planning on dropping a chevy in and putting a giant wing on the back... They are just too pretty to let ruin away. AND that flat four is actually a blast! You can rev the nuts off of it and drive everywhere at full throttle! Enjoy the car and keep posting updates. Congrats.

[Dan@SharkWerks]

Originally Posted by willhahn24

Looks like a fun project, have fun

Thanks, that's the #1 goal.

Originally Posted by iJeremy

Dan -

Thats AWESOME!... I love seeing these cars bought by the willing and able and not someone planning on dropping a chevy in and putting a giant wing on the back... They are just too pretty to let ruin away. AND that flat four is actually a blast! You can rev the nuts off of it and drive everywhere at full throttle! Enjoy the car and keep posting updates. Congrats.

Thanks Jeremy, and it's funny you talked about the Chevy and wing, etc. I've seen a lot of people ruin cars over the years and it's just not my style. I'm looking forward to putting around even in the flat 4 and just ordered a couple carb rebuild kits to tune up those Webers.

[kchng]

hf with ur project it will definetly look great ^^

[996wings]

fun project enjoy it, cant wait to see it done

[TomsMustangGT]

How much hp and torque does that flat 4 make?

[Dan@SharkWerks]

Originally Posted by TomsMustangGT

How much hp and torque does that flat 4 make?

Not a lot! I think it's got 90 HP stock and I'm not sure about the torque. Although it's got a couple mods, doubtful it's much beyond that. At least it's really lightweight.

Originally Posted by 996wings

fun project enjoy it, cant wait to see it done

Thanks and I'll do my best to share as it gets there.

Originally Posted by kchng

hf with ur project it will definetly look great ^^

Thanks and I will!

Since I was sick for a few days I got behind, but today I had a few hours so I pulled both carburetors from the motor. Those inner nuts were kind of a bitch, mainly because one of the studs was way too long.

Overall though, easy-peasy and I had the carbs out in about a half hour.




I took apart just one today. Both are actually leaking in the same place (the accelerator pump diaphragm was ripped).

Here's my "Carburetor Rebuild Workshop" (sponsored by Brembo and HRE):


Taking it apart into layers, it was clear that it was really nasty inside anyway:


Here's what was causing the gas to leak into the engine bay:


I spent a couple hours with carburetor cleaner and Scotch-brite pads scrubbing and cleaning up the exterior of the main housing, then cleaned all the gasket surfaces, blew everything out, and replaced the float valve. Finally I replaced the torn diaphragm and reassembled everything with new gaskets:




The rebuild kit actually did not include the top gasket, so I will need to cut a couple myself. It just connects the carb to the air cleaner housing. I also did not spend a whole lot of time on the "Redline" air cleaner lid yet that's heavily corroded. I'll either sand it down and paint it, then sand off the stuff that sticks up (making the Redline logo etc. chrome and the rest black) or just polish the whole thing.

[jainbaby]

Wow that looks like fun

[LaneS@MAcarbon]

Awesome project Dan. This one looks like a lot of fun. I miss having an old Porsche project car around. I can't wait to see your progress, good luck.

[RFFG]

Very nice!

[ArmyPorsche]

Congrats on the find.....you should definitely have a good time with this one

[Dan@SharkWerks]

I finished rebuilding the second carburetor and it looks pretty good, too. I didn't spend a whole lot of time polishing up the air cleaners, but they look decent for now. I re-installed the carbs after replacing the fuel line that runs behind the fan (this line is notorious for leaking and causing fires on these cars from what I hear).

The fuel leaks are now all fixed!

I also replaced the deck lid strut because the lid was falling on my head while working on the car. Now it springs up with authority.

I spent the last couple of days replacing all the lights around the car so I can begin driving it. When I started, 1/4 turn signals worked, 2/4 parking lights worked, 0/2 brake lights worked, 0/2 license plate light lights worked. I replaced all 12 of these bulbs (about $20) which fixed about half of them... but I had to clean every connector and ground with a razor blade/pick/sandpaper to get most of them working. Now I'm happy to say 4/4 turn signals, 4/4 parking lights, 1/2 brake lights, and 2/2 license plate lights work perfect. I haven't traced down that second brake light but the wire looks fine so I'll look into it this weekend (there's one wire that runs from one brake light to the other, through the outside of the car and again through the deck lid area). I also couldn't figure out why the reverse lights don't work, but I'm pretty sure it's the switch. Anyway, the car has *most* lights and I don't feel unsafe driving it now.

Since the driver's seat was installed, I installed the seat belt for it, and because I just added it to my insurance ($9/month!) I took it for a spin around the block. It was pretty fun to drive, so I ran inside and grabbed the digital camera, and shot this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAbj_UzDNc

Warning: the audio is terrible and an airplane flies over head at the end, but you get the idea.

More to come later.

[Dan@SharkWerks]

I drove it to lunch the other day to get it up to a reasonable speed of 50 MPH and be among traffic. It was around this time I remembered that I don't have side view mirrors installed and lane changes are a bit interesting.

I also noticed that dust from the rotted insulation and rusty bits blows all over the place while driving, making it stinky/dangerous/sucky/hard to see/etc. So this must be fixed ASAP.

I spent about 8 hours this weekend scraping up the loose paint/surface rust from the passenger side of the interior. My main tools were a paint scraper, wire brush, and shop vac. The goal was to remove as much of this junk as possible and vacuum it out of the car to prepare for rust conversion/sealing, and replacing the carpet.

Before:


After:


The hammer was used to fix some spots where a previous owner had used a floorjack in the wrong place.

I threw out a whole shop vac full of loose debris and now much of this area is shiny bare metal.
Then I spent another few hours scrubbing with wire brush while keeping a shop vac running nearby to remove the remaining loose rust dust and surface rust. The floor boards look pretty good at this point, but with a couple small holes poking through, I might weld up replacements before I apply the rust protectant/paint and replace the carpet.