You'll need to trust me on this, Rick. That "no guilt" finish looks a whole lot better in pixels than it does in person.
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Do yourself a favor and pack that original 400mm away and don't bother recovering. Buy a 380mm stock wheel either a 914.347.806.10, 914.347.805.10 or 914.347.803.10 and send it to Don at Dallas Custom Steering wheels for a recover with added padding. You can use a hockey puck or butterfly horn pad and it will look stock, also gauges will be more visible. I will post a picture of my setup when I get to the office.
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That's certainly an option as well, Mike. Not going to rule it out, although I don't mind the 400mm size at all. But no hurry on this at all, my goal in testing this was more to decide if I wanted to keep the 370mm Abarth for the future. And I think I'll probably sell it instead, as while it was a good option on the '84, it's not what I'm looking for here. Shouldn't be hard to sell, since the 370mm are NLA.
Just a quick update to document the car, as I pulled the passenger kneepad the other day. Stamped production number is 1020446.
PCA drive today. A bit over 150 miles, good Oregon backroads. Oldest, smallest, least powerful, smallest tires. Rattiest looking, too. And still great fun...
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Let's see, what have I been up to since last post.
• Corner balance and alignment was done provisionally, as we found the right strut housing/spindle is bent and can't get camber dialed in correctly. A replacement housing has been located and will be here in a week or so.
• Fresh air vent system has been gone through, including the blower fan motor. It all works properly now, even the little blue light when the fan is switched on.
• Still picking away at the oil leaks, and I am making progress. Getting close to being drip free.
• Got tired of dealing with lights that don't work because the sockets are so badly worn that bulbs almost fall out when the car hits a bump in the road. Not ready to restore the original light housings right now, so as a (possibly) short term fix I bought a full set of plastic housings from Sierra Madre. The fronts actually fit better than I expected, the rears not so much. But now all the lights work all the time, including the small euro parking lights for my euro front lenses. I may not keep these long term (especially the rears), but for now they are an improvement.
Since last post:
• More oil leaks dealt with. I don't know if I can make a mag-case 2.4 be as leak-free as the 3.2 in my '84 was, but I'm getting closer.
• Picked up a nice used LWB standard (not S) bumper. Was local enough that I could drive to get it, so no shipping past a couple gallons of gas for the Audi. Much nicer fit than the rather crude fiberglass S the car came with. See picture below.
• My wife and I took a short drive to visit Scott Longballa earlier this week. Primary reason was to look at the soon-to-be-sold '72 S to see what Glasurit silver looks like in person. And to be awed by the '72 S, of course. Also did a little horse-trading with Scott and got some decent driver-quality interior parts to replace some of mine which were either very ratty or missing completely. The interior is much improved with the addition of these parts.
• Plan to replace the bent strut housing over the next couple of days.
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Another 150+ miles on a PCA drive (Cascade Region) today, on a twisty forest road with which I am well familiar. So I could compare the driving experience with that of my former '84 Carrera.
The end result is that I'm going to declare the 72T as having graduated to fully functional Porsche status. No, it's not perfect. It is still running a bit rich, and my continuing work on the oil leaks has not eliminated drips but has diminished them greatly. The new right strut housing and raising the ride height in front has dialed in the ride and handling, it feels much like the Carrera did but more nimble and responsive.
The brakes have bothered me ever since I started driving it, having had a soft pedal feel and mediocre (at best) stopping power despite everything being new. That has been corrected with a change from some generic, no-name ceramic pads to a full set of Pagid Orange (RS4-4) that I was given. The change was like night and day! The pedal is firmer feeling, and the car (finally) stops like I knew it could/should.
I've now put close to 1,000 miles on it since it arrived. I'm about to end the engine break-in protocol, but really, restricting the car to 5000 rpm at first, and later 6000 rpm has not really hindered my enjoyment of the car. My wife asked today if I was still happy with the move from the '84 to this one, and my answer was, "Absolutely." I'm nearing the end of the mechanical work, and expect to start gathering parts in preparation for glass-out paint soon. My budget won't allow me to completely finish the car all at once, but I'm hoping to get the paintwork done over the winter. Wish me luck!
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Very much enjoy your chronicling of your car, your identification of areas and items not correct, and your process to solve and repair.
Thanks for your sharing Arne.
Another ~150 miles or so today, on a trip to the coast for the day. The car is running and driving very nicely, very fun to drive. All it really needs to be a great driver is better seats. The comfort seats in the car now (apparently from a later '72 or possibly a '73) don't look bad, but are a bit broken down internally. More support would be better. At some point I'm going to end up with either a pair of reproduction sport seats, or possibly a pair of semi-vintage aftermarket Recaros. No rush on that, as what I have will do for now and there are more important things to spend money on.
Yeah, paint is is very high on the "more important things" list. While the car is plenty good to drive as it is right now, functionally and mechanically, continuing to drive it this way indefinitely would require me to not care at all about appearance. And that is not the case. I've begun the process to gather the parts and things that are absolutely needed during and immediately after the paint. I'm focusing on the 'must-have' parts now. To soften the budget hit, if a part can be accessed for refurbishment or replacement later, it will be done later. Things that must be done in conjunction with the paint work (seals, dash pad, headliner, new glass) have priority. That's where a lot of my time related to the car is going right now.
Because... I'm looking to disassemble it and deliver it to the shop in October, or possibly early November, with an estimated time in the shop of 4 months. So by next spring it should be silver again.
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