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Alex, please come to my house, stay a few days and make my engine bay look that nice!!!! Well done!
Thanks Jim.. I quite enjoy doing this kind of work and find it both relaxing and rewarding.. Even more so on a special car like minty or a Riviera blue 968..
Today I added a few more things to euro minty.. First some black lettering for the fuel rail cover. I was considering some colored letters like I have on my coupe, but with such a colorful exterior as mint green, I decided to keep it subtle og go with black. I also installed a KLA strut tower brace to help stiffen the front end, and because it was used one I gave it a clean and polish before installation..
Clearance is tight especially with new motor mounts, so its important to install the brace itself on the front side of the brackets to give just enough space to allow the engine to move up and down during driving. If the brace is on the other side, there is only clearance to slide a piece of paper underneath and it will touch.
With a full leather interior I decided it was important to properly look after all that leather, so next up was to give it a proper clean and leather treatment. I used products from Colourlock and it worked really well. Both seats and the interior itself were in pretty good condition to begin with, so it was not to hard to make them look really nice..
Got the first seat on the work bench which makes working on it much easier..
This side bolster on the driver seat was the most wear anywhere, so not bad at all.. After a deep clean, I lightly sanded the area, colored it in a couple of times and finally treated it to some leather conditioning and UV protection product.
And back in the car again.. Leather looks great and feels very soft and smooth..
Door handles, arm rest and steering wheel needed several rounds of cleaning, but came up quite nice in the end..
Steering wheel was completely glossy and slippery from years of dirt and skin grease, but came up surprisingly good..
I have started to collect suspension parts in order to refresh them at some point.. But for now there is not much else to do, except getting the aircon recharged.. I just need to find a place who still service older aircons with R12, which is not easy here in Europe. But being a cab its not really urgent I guess..
Thanks Yogii, I do like my stuff to be reasonably neat and tidy.. I have looked at the wiechers brace, but I am not sure if it will require the fuel rail cover to be removed.? Also, I like the look of the KLA brace a bit more..
Looking good, I swear, your interior always looks black in many of your pics but I know it is blue. Don't forget to treat the other leather areas, lower dash, console and lid, the rear seats, and even the e-brake handle is special and all leather on a full leather 968.
Jeff
Looking good, I swear, your interior always looks black in many of your pics but I know it is blue. Don't forget to treat the other leather areas, lower dash, console and lid, the rear seats, and even the e-brake handle is special and all leather on a full leather 968.
Jeff
Thats exactly what I did Jeff.. When the seats were out I gave the rest of the leather parts a good clean followed by a treatment with UV protection and moisturizing. Also gave the vinyl parts some protection to keep them supple and not cracking..
The leather is quite difficult to photograph accurately, as its always seems darker and more shiny than it actually is.. Especially so in indoor light which is where I took these pics. Outdoors pics with natural light should be better I think..
One item that's still letting Minty down is the old soft top. I believe its the original one and its showing various little tears, scars and general wear. The screen has also yellowed and has an old tear in it which has been repaired with a patch. The top is still doing its job of keeping the elements out, but its not looking pretty anymore. So I want to replace it but there are really no shops here in little DK that has any experience with the 944/968 cabs, as they are so rare here. So I had found a very experienced shop in Germany that both make their own tops, sells to all over the world and also does the installation in their own workshop. I had booked an appointment with them in April, but that had to be cancelled due to Corona and closed borders, so another appointment was booked for late June.
As you can see the old top was letting the rest of Minty's appearance down..
Badly faded rear window and with an old patched up tear..
So on a sunny morning I headed out on the 725 km journey to CK-Cabrio's shop in Germany.
And arrived late afternoon at my accommodation in the local town. The owner had told me that they would probably need 1-2 days to install the new top, depending on the condition of the roof mechanism and how much extra work was needed.
When I arrived at the shop the next morning, first thing the technician did was to check the roof mechanism both for function and wear/looseness. He deemed it to be in good working order and adjusted correctly, so that was a relief as apparently our cars can have all sort if issues with the roof as they are a bit finicky. Later in the day the owner called me though, to tell me that they had found a hairline crack in one of the top bows and he was afraid that it would break completely with the added stress of a new and tighter top. So they would need a few hours extra to remove the bow, weld it, sand it and then repaint before installing again, which of course was the only sensible thing to do. And I was glad I had chosen to take Minty to an experienced shop that could do all necessary work in house. And since the owner was driving a 944 S2 cabriolet himself, I felt I was in very good hands. Once the bow had been repaired, installation of the new top could begin..
They offer both different types and materials for their tops, and I went for the their 1-piece Acustic Luxury top and made from the same Sonnenland fabric that all the German car manufactures use. The one piece top is their own design and it looks exactly like the original one with a seam around the rear part, but just in one piece. The inner layer of the 3 is a bit thicker than original and insulates better, and this along with the one piece construction should also provide a quieter top. They also offer this top with a heated glass window which I almost opted for, but it comes from the Boxster and is smaller than the plexiglass version, and since I want as much light as possible into the cabin I stayed with plexiglass version.
Minty also got a lovely new headliner in dark grey alcantara, which looks heaps better than the old one..
Its always a pleasure watching a true craftsman do his work, and I would definitely not consider this a DIY job as there is much fine tuning, adjusting and trimming done during installation to ensure a nice even tight and factory looking finish that will look great and last for years.
Nice marine blue color as original.
And its almost done and looking SO much better.. Minty is happy..
And some hours delayed it was time to drive home to DK again.. Driving into the late sunset..
And heading across the big bridge between the two main parts of Denmark.. Sorry for the poor quality but it was dark outside and taken with my old phone..
And here she is with her new fancy looking top and all the bugs from the long drive washed away..
Please excuse the guy in the picture.. He is car journalist from a Danish Classic Car magazine who is doing an article on Minty and first thing on his agenda was the photo shoot when the light was perfect.. He was driving a 2001 Boxster S himself, which as we all know was the successor to our 968, and he was very impressed with how well a 968 is driving. He said that the driving position and the sport seats were better than his Boxster, and so was the gear box with very smooth, positive and slick gearshifts. He also felt that power and acceleration was almost on par, but of course with the flat six having a much better sound. Another thing he found better than his Boxster was the wind protection and lesser noise with the top down. He really liked the feel of the 968, driver involvement and feedback, and was pleasantly surprised at how fresh this 28 year old girl feels, and could easily see himself driving one of these for long distances.. I know he is preaching to the converted here, but it was still nice to hear such positive feedback from someone who has driven a lot of classic cars including Porsche's, but never a 968..
And a few more unedited shots from the photo shoot, including a mug shot of the owner..
Very nice Alex, The next time we have a mint green 968 convention here in the US you need to figure out how to get here. BTW, Alex has one big fix to do on his Minty. It was factory equipped with 17" cup1s in Mint green! So he needs to source a set.
Congrats Alex and enjoy.
Thanks.. Its starting to be at the condition I'd like, both cosmetically and mechanically.. Only a few smaller things to do now.. Oh, and one big one as Jeff mentioned.. Finding a set of 17" Cup 1's and have the center spokes painted in body color like it came from the factory..
Well done!
Great job. Yes those Germans did a wonderful job, looks fantastic.
Could you please tell use what you used on your interior leather?
What UV protection did you use?
Well done!
Great job. Yes those Germans did a wonderful job, looks fantastic.
Could you please tell use what you used on your interior leather?
What UV protection did you use?
Thanks again for posting your progress,
-Yogii.
AKA 968 Novice
Thanks Yogii.. I used this product in the pic below.. Its from a leather specialist business in Germany, but Colourlock also have a US website where it can ordered. I talked to the owner at their stand when I attended the Stuttgart Classic Car show earlier this year, and I was quite impressed with their products and experience. Especially their leather cleaning product is really easy to use and leave the leather with a nice clean and matte surface. I also got their touch up color, which they stock in all Porsche colors, mostly for the steering wheel that was a bit worn and bruised, and it works really well too.. The UV protection is what you see in the bottle on the left. Its like a thin clear liquid that is applied in a thin layer and rubbed in with a soft cloth. It protects leather and vinyl against drying out and UV damage..
Looks great Alex. Were you happy with the Dark Blue top material color?
Yes, very much.. The color of the new top compliments the mint green beautifully, and its also a very close match to the old one, minus the fading.. So I am quite happy with it..
Thanks Yogii.. I used this product in the pic below.. Its from a leather specialist business in Germany, but Colourlock also have a US website where it can ordered. I talked to the owner at their stand when I attended the Stuttgart Classic Car show earlier this year, and I was quite impressed with their products and experience. Especially their leather cleaning product is really easy to use and leave the leather with a nice clean and matte surface. I also got their touch up color, which they stock in all Porsche colors, mostly for the steering wheel that was a bit worn and bruised, and it works really well too.. The UV protection is what you see in the bottle on the left. Its like a thin clear liquid that is applied in a thin layer and rubbed in with a soft cloth. It protects leather and vinyl against drying out and UV damage..
05-16-2020, 04:48 AM
I have looked at the wiechers brace, but I am not sure if it will require the fuel rail cover to be removed.? Also, I like the look of the KLA brace a bit more..
