Carl, Glad to see that you are back at it. Is it your New Years resolution to get this car done this year ? :evilgrin::icon107: Happy New year. 77Tony

Carl,
Can you share with us the source for your recovered seat covers. Thats the first I have seen with the gathered pleats. All other covers I have seen look to be smooth. Looks great.

Hey Mr.Smartypants!

Tony, the goal is before my 45th birthday, if sooner,even better :)

Dean:
I bought the seat cover kit from Dave Roberts, I believe it is made by Gahh, and is called the "supple insert leather option", although I think the official Porsche option was called "draped leather". I can't remember the Porsche option code for it at the moment. The other option is the tight, "perforated inserts" which I think is the most common.

Cheers!
Carl

Got some time to finish some smaller items the past few days:

Pressed the old bushings out of the rear upper links, and after media blasting the aluminum, coated them in high temp cast aluminum paint, along with the wiper assembly. The shifter linkage received a similar treatment in high temp semi-gloss black.

Also managed to finally get the door hinge bolts off, and this needs to be emphasized: DON'T STRIP THE BOLT HEADS! The bolts are very easy to strip, and even after heating each bolt for 10 minutes they refused to come out. So it took a welder to weld a helper bolt on, followed by a 6 foot breaker bar...

Currently stuck at the crash sensor bolt, which requires some special tool it seems. Anyone have any luck removing these bolts?

I found a torch applied directly to the door hinge bolt head and heated until it glows allows for the bolts to come out easily. It will take the paint off but that is easy to fix. A small tip minumizes the paint damage.

Drilling them out is another option but they take a very good drill bit to cut the metal. They have to be some kind of alloy. You can buy replacement bolts for very little.

Good job on the car so far.

The weather has allowed some more work and preparation for the complete sanding to metal, with body priming hopefully by the weekend or early next week.

During sanding, all spot welds that are visible will be filled in with a metal filler (aluminum particles) that mixes with a hardener and is much stronger than typical body fillers. Only downside is the very fast set time, giving only a 3 minute window to apply it before it hardens. In the picture some of the spot welds have been filled, although is is hard to see from the picture. To make sure there is no shrinking or swelling, I let it sit for a few days before sanding again and priming.

During sanding down the window drip channels, I found some surface corrosion where the drip channel meets the a-pillar, which (hard to see) will be addressed with sanding as much as possible, and then an acid treatment to neutralize the corrosion before any primer is applied.

The body is mostly down to metal now, in the picture some blotches of factory primer can still be seen. It is one very tough coating, and it eats through the DA sanding discs very quickly.

I recently received my used headliner (big thanks to 77Tony for parting with this rare piece) for the no-sunroof panel, and it will be stripped, coated in a West Marine epoxy to seal the fibers. It will then be sent out for a recover in Alcantara, which will match the A-pillars, rear roof liner and hatch pieces. Still debating if it will be black as the leather seats and dash, or a contrasting color to match the medium/dark grey carpet. Any suggestions?

My springs arrived as well, which are the stiffer Weltmeister springs (apps. 400 lbs/inch front, 245 lbs/inch rear), and will be matched to the re-valved Bilsteins that I hope to send out soon. That will be complemented by Dave Roberts' 1st generation sway bars, which will be powder coated a semi-gloss black. Behind them in the picture is the front bumper, surfaced and painted a cast aluminum.

Hopefully the weather (and schedule) cooperates and I can post some pictures next week of the primed body.

Cheers!
Carl

...and the sway bars and bumper:

your gonna have a car thats too pretty to drive ,
thanks for sharing your restore with us your doing a great job!

Mrmerlin,

Thanks for the kind words, although I do intend to not let it sit...it is meant to be driven. Will probably find all kinds of excuses to go for a drive :)

Cheers!
Carl

Roll those fenders just a tad and you may be a bit happier.

It's a 90 GT shell, aren't the fenders are already rolled & maybe even flared a bit :confused: Looking good Carl, keep the pics flowing.:thumbup:77Tony

Thanks Tony!

BC:
Yup, the fenders are already rolled on the GT, so they fit 295/18's just fine. And they do have a slightly more pronounced outward flare to them , as compared to my 86.5.

Carl

Well, then, very nice.

I actually miss doing some of this. Its hard work but ultra rewarding.

Following this with great interest... I would love to do something like this someday....

Man..thats looking great!