BC

I may need that light grey color code ( I wonder if it would translate to SEM)

Mark Anderson

Just a brief status on the car. I have put on nearly 500 trouble free miles and I had almost forgot what a great highway car this is. I'm looking forward to the trip north for Rennsport.

AO

Rub it in... thanks.

Rob Edwards

Mark's driving around with boring Cobalt door cards and center console while I have been playing with the rootwood pieces.









I spent some time reading about these polyester finishes and decided that I'd strip the worst piece first. This was nervewracking. I started with the spousal unit’s clothes iron and a plastic scraper, but that only works on the areas with a crack where the multiple layers of polyester are delaminating. You'd get a 'peel' going and discover the remaining polyester underneath that was still attached. Eventually discovered the hot knife approach- heat gun on the knife, let the hot edge soften the polyester, gently separate it.


Once you get down to the last layer touching the actual veneer, you can tell you're there because the polyester gets the crazed surface that corresponds to the wood grain (see around left A/C switch hole



Status after about 3 hours of work, down to the veneer in about 95%- the inner corners are a bitch to strip without damaging the veneer, they need more careful work: (I did manage one gouge in the veneer along the top edge but fortunately it won't be visible since it's up against the radio....)



It is impressive how dull the veneer is under the finish:





At this point I decided to chicken out and just send the pieces off to Jeff at Madera concepts before I hurt something. They are up near Santa Barbara and are known for vintage Jaguar and Mercedes Benz wood refinishing:

http://www.maderaconcepts.com/


Sent them off about 2 weeks ago, and they came back today. Man, sometimes it's just better to let real craftsmen do their thing:

bureau13

Holy crap, that's what they're supposed to look like? Amazing..

BC

wow

poc62

omg, wow!!!!!

Chuck Schreiber

Damn!!
Amazing!!👍👍

Tom in Austin

Spectacular! Rob, could you post a pic of the back of the door pieces? Curious what kind of fasteners are back there to hold to the door. And how the padded leather section fastens below the finished wood area ...

Rob Edwards

Hi Tom-

The door pieces have 3 or 4 slots on the back that hold a black plastic pushpin similar (but not identical) to those on the rest of the door panels:



And the padded sections have plywood backs, with 2 M5 studs held on by 8mm nuts and M5 washers. Dunno what the proper torque value is, it's not listed in the WSM. .




This pair says Stevinson on them- there is a Stevinson Porsche dealer in Littleton, CO. The car's original owner was the wife of the mayor of Amarillo, TX, so I'd guess the car was sold there (total WAG?)

Rob Edwards

Cobalt car is back here for TB re-tension, and the starter started to sound like it was gargling on rocks. Picked up a spare from the Anderson Collection, did a little clean up:











Forgot to mask off the solenoid can, oh well.

James Bailey

Ah Yes a Krylon "rebuild".......

Rob Edwards

For a concours rebuild I should clean up about 10 of them and figure out how Bosch was masking them, to get the 'correct' amount of overspray.

BC

Lolz. I'm next in picking out one of my starters. Was going to look for your thread on rebuilding one. Some bearings etc, and brushes as I recall?

Rob Edwards