500

**Sigh**

I thought this was going to be the great weekend of the first trip, but alas, one more surprise was lurking...

I got the wheels on and the basic ride height set and I went to bed last night thinking: "Ahh... one more relaxing day in the garage doing a wheel alignment and then, voila, the new 911 rolls out Sunday".

As soon as I went out in the garage this morning, I thought: "Yeah, that front wheel (passenger side) is sitting with a lot of negative camber..." It had been this way originally, but I had driven the car so little I did not think much about it.

Now, I intended to set the front wheels with just a touch of negative camber (0.5 degrees). When I measured, it was -1.8 degrees. So, when I loosened the top mount, I then saw that the mount was already shoved all the way out! So I had a choice between -1.8 degree or MORE negative camber. Not what I wanted.

I stewed around for the rest of the afternoon and was probably very unpleasant company for the family. Eventually I concluded that the only explanation that could fit was a bent strut housing.

Finally I gave in to what I knew I would do and disassembled the front suspension and when I was able to accurately measure the passenger side housing with my vernier protractor it was definitely bent... at least two degrees. I don't want to roll around with a race car set-up (especially since 911s should have even MORE negative camber in the rear). So, I have just ordered a new pair of struts. I will sell the inserts to recoup a smidgen of the cost...

As I am not very cool and am running 8's on the rear instead of 9's, the extra negative camber would really manifest itself with the top of the wheel tucked way in under the flare.

As one might imagine, my mood was not conducive to taking picutures today!!

Ah well, I have come too far to not finish it off correctly. I really wanted a stock alignment and having a agressive race-car set up on the road was not going to be satisfying.

Ed Hughes

Whatever the alignment settings you go with, a bent strut isn't a good thing. So, it's the right call.

500

Hey Ed, thank you for the vote of confidence... it is nice to get that confirmation that these choices are right. One person I spoke with thought I should just drive it for a while that way, but I could not get enthused about that.

The struts are due to arrive on Friday. The weeked is looking to be very busy with other family obligations, so I am not sure if I will be able to get things together in time to drive it on the weekend... If not, it will be the following weekend. Doing the first drive during the week is not a practical option: I get home too late. I want to be able to do a thorough shake down, with the benefit of daylight, and time to adjust/check things.

I feel compelled to explain my earlier comment about being unpleasant company: When I read that over again, I wonder if people imagine me wandering around the house yelling and cursing and hitting things! It turns our I'm not that dramatic. Rather, when I get in a bad mood from car problems I tend to just sulk around and go upstairs and sit by myself and try and read! When things go REALLY bad I beat my pillow up (literally).

irobertson

Wow, sorry to hear of your setback, just when you were getting ready to finally enjoy the fruits of your efforts. I agree with Ed though. Best to get it right, especially after you have gone to the extents you have to make everything else perfect.

500

Today was the day!!

It really happened, I drove the thing and it works. On top of that, it works really nice! Very tight and solid feeling...

Here's a quick rundown of the weekend: I stayed up until 6 am Saturday morning putting the front suspension togther. Saturday was tied up with other activities so this morning (Sunday) I got up and started working on the wheel alignment. By 3 pm I was ready to give it a go.

I took my little guy for ride #1. The car was great right from the get go and we did a bunch of acceleration/coast down cycles and then filled the tank. The alignment seemed totally fine. The car tracked straight, even with hands off. The engine just sounded so good. Ride #1 was ten or so miles. Then I took my wife for ride #2, along the same "circuit". Even she was impressed!

Then ride #3... My little guy and I drove a longer route through the country, with my wife following in the Corolla to observe. We stopped for pictures:



















We went on a hilly route where I was able to do a lot of accelerations and coast downs to continue the break in. By the time we arrived home, I figured the car had covered about 65 miles, so I dumped the oil for change #2. Everything looked good. I am really happy.

Ed Hughes

Wow, finally-congratulations! It's a feeling like no other....

She looks superb, by the way.

TexasRider

It looks fabulous and I know it had to feel that way too.

Congratulations.

Now I can send you mine to hurry up and do the same treatment to.

x038F

Woot! Congrats on a job well done.

TT Oversteer

Its about freakin' time! Seriously, congratulations on maintaining your high standards right to completion. What a great adventure for you and your son. I hope your 911 brings you years of happy motoring!

Amber Gramps

Very cool.

Andy Kay

Congrats! I've been following this thread for a long time. Hard to believe it started in May 2009. You have got to feel great about this build!

Reiver

Great job...nothing like a 'new car' to make any driving fun....you did a magnificent build.

irobertson

Wooo, congratulations on a successful & fantastic job.

500

Thank you for the nice comments everyone!

I had to pinch myself Monday morning... I guess I had so many doubts about things I might have done wrong.

The past week at work was very busy, so nothing was accomplished. However, today I took care of a few odds and ends:

1) I filled in new oil (this is the third batch of oil & filter). I put in Brad Penn 20 W 50 and will run this for approximately 500 miles, which will probably take me most of the summer.

2) When driving it on Sunday, I realized I had never put the turn-signal cancelling ring on the Momo steering wheel, so I've taken care of that now (looking back, I think I had just put the wheel on at one stage "temporarily" to see how it looked, and then just torqued it on last week, having forgotten it was not done.

3) One of the brake lights was not coming on, so I had to fiddle around with the fit of the bulb and the spring contacts.

4) I'm re-bleeding the brakes today. They were pretty good on Sunday, but I think they were just a bit on the soft side still. Apparently it is not that unusual to have to take a few swipes at bleeding the system when everything was re-built (I rebuilt my calipers, replaced the master and all the soft lines, so the system was bone dry).

Aside from that, everything seems perfect (oh, and I should put the jacking point plugs in too!)

I am looking forward to some driving in the car tomorrow. My little guy is going gliding with the air cadets tomorrow and he has already asked if he can be picked up afterwards in the 911 - he really likes it!

I will try and take a few more good pictures of the car as a whole and add them on here, but I think I am almost at the end of this thread (I guess it has gone on much too long!!)

In the future, if I should embark on some other project on the car, I will start a new thread... What other project you ask? Hmm... I don't know, maybe a faux-Stroesk Speedster conversion in pink, you know, something tasteful!*



*Note: Stroesk stuff is just fine in its own way... just not the expected direction for an old air cooled 911!

whalebird

Amazing...thats all I can say. That is a most beautiful 911 inside/out and top to bottom.
If it hadn't been discussed, do contact your insurance and establish an agreed value. Your receipts are a good tell-tale, but also 'try' to account for your time and labor. Realistically parts are about 1/3 of such an investment.
So very well done.