Having a good look around the body to see what has been done, what lies beneath and what is needed.
Bottom of screen corners, a bit of work on the floor and some work around the door latch and bottom of B posts. Overall, not a bad shell to start with.

 

I really wanted an all steel body to start with. As it evolves over time, it could go lightweight with FG panels but I wanted to start with all the correct body parts first, get them fitted, gapped and painted. These panels are all good and solid. I'm retaining the PORSCHE and 911T lettering on the engine lid

 

That will a very fun car when completed. Signal Orange is one of the best colors for sure. Interesting that I was just looking at a thread on the Early S registry forum about recreating the Signal colors. I know you are a ways away from this step but still some interesting reading.

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...-Signal-colors

You probably already know of this but there is a great group of early Porsche owner's from NZ on this Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/early911nz/

No doubt someone here would know the history of your car.

 

Yeah, should be fun. Looking forward to it. The part that excites me most is probably the interior. And the torque from the 3.2 going through a fresh 915.

I took a look at the NZ Facebook page, will hook up some time soon. Thanks for the link.

 

Couple of wheels finished. More work than I thought. No machines used here, just hard graft through a few grades of files then wet and dry, then the scotchbrite. I also tried a stainless steel wool finish which is quite nice and then progressively finer wet and dry for a more shiny finish option. I will leave them un coated - except for the black out - so might be a bit of regular upkeep needed. Very happy with the finish compared to the start point. Deep 6's are a lovely thing.

 

The interior is the part that I'm going to do. I can't sew but I can make the stuff that goes under the trim and some of the dash and door furniture. Signal orange would take a black interior quite easily but one thing I like about early 911's is the light and airy openness of the cabin. I like the way the floor is uncluttered and no Centre console is present. I want to emphasise this with lighter colours. Signal orange will take a brown and cream theme quite well if it is done right and that is the challenge. There will be leather on the seats, door panels, rear side panels and up and over the back shelf. I will keep the black dash top so this will mean carrying on around the belt line of the car with the black door caps, rear side panel caps and across the back shelf.
There's brown leather and there's brown leather. Plenty to choose from but some are just not right with signal orange. I figure it has to be medium dark, and not at all chocolate. Needs to have a more of a saddle look to it which points to aniline leathers. I've learnt a lot about leather lately and the consensus is that aniline's are not that good at being on the inside of cars, but it's the look I want and a bit of patina will come on earlier.

 

Looks great!

 

A bit more digging to see what's underneath. Over here in NZ, cars that come from a "dry state" in the USA are revered for their lack of significant rust. UK sourced cars seem to suffer the worst fate, no doubt through salted roads and a good deal of rain.
I still have no idea which state this car came from but it looks pretty good and original underneath.

 

Haven't talked about seats, but IMHO, if you are going for the look, there are several supplier such as GTS Classics that do reproduction period sport seats.

Not cheap, but not expensive either and really add the cool factor to a car like this.

 

A run around town to start the leather search. I know nothing at all about leather. There are plenty of automotive leathers available at a good price and they are no doubt very durable and able to withstand hot cars and direct sun for years.
I found these quite nice if they are in a BMW or Merc but a bit out of place on an early 911? They tend to look a bit fake with the corrected grains and even colours. Black is fine but the brown shades don't really work.
This sample here, with the very cool name of Mad Dog Tobacco is starting to get somewhere. Could be a bit dark and heavy but hard to judge on such a small piece. There is a risk that the interior will look like a gentlemans club if the leather is too antiquey.
The sample is an Aniline pull up leather which will mark and age but that appeals to me. It's not a good grade to have in a car but its not like the Orange T is going to spend any significant time outside in baking sun.
The other thing I'm interested in is having some of the seat panels in perforated or embossed leather to take some blandness away from larger areas, possibly the door panels too.
I will need a couple of hides and they can be sourced from the supplier perforated so I'll probably get one hide plain and one with holes punched. There is plentiful leather supply in NZ but there is no one who does perforating so it will need to be imported or a hide sent off overseas to be processed. Plenty of cows in NZ but none with holes....

Not convinced on the carpets in the picture, just there for a look at shades. I'm a fan of German squareweave which has some texture to it

 

Thanks for the lead, I've been looking around at what is available and I like their stuff. The car didn't come with the original seats so I will have to sort out something that works with the interior plans. I quite like the RS or ST buckets. Those in leather would be something else.

 

An original set of OEM Recarro Sports Seats can run $2-4K and need to be restored, so this is a good option.

 

Check out the interior in this car. May give you a few ideas. I like your idea of keeping some of the black along with brown. This car has a little too much brown for my taste.

http://www.autokennel.com/AutoKennel...che_911_T.html

 

That's a lot of brown. Still to decide the carpets but it will be a sort of tan squareweave which will hopefully give it a bit of a lift from brown on brown everywhere.

 

Took a bit of time to study those pictures a little closer. The leather colour itself isn't bad, perhaps a touch red? I think you are right, needs a bit of something else to break it up a bit. The carpet possibly doesn't help nor do the seat inserts.
It worries me looking at that how difficult this will be to pull off.
Black is easy.