$1K 68 Sportomatic

I'd like to introduce myself, I'm a high school teacher of 27 years in Northern Virginia. I have always loved the 911 but being a teacher they were our of my grasp. I've been a builder of old Jeeps for a long time and recently started with MG's.

I acquired this 1968 Sportomatic a few weeks ago and her is how it happened.

This started Feb 11, 2019
I was not there when this all went down. All done by my Fiance = Awesome Girl.
So my fiance and i just bought a new house. She wanted a whole house generator so I was seeking bids for it. I picked a company and when she met to finalize the deal with the owner of the company they got to talking about what i did. She told him about all the old jeeps and an MG I built. She told him I did all the work myself and really enjoyed it.
He said he has an old car that his wife is nagging him to get out of the yard. He needs to make room for a boat and an old Ford Bronco.

She was curious and asked what it was. He said an old rusty 911S. WHAT? how much?
she was thinking he was going to say $20K or something out of our budget.
It has been in the family for a 40 years or so and he wanted it taken car of and not parted out.
She agreed we would do our best to get it back on the road again. He liked that idea.

He said how about $1K? What? Deal!! Ill take it.
He asked "don't you want to see it first" Nope! I'll write you a check or cash tonight. He can pick it up tomorrow. She was thinking what a great Valentines gift.

They shook on it, and he said he would bring it out when he installed the generator. Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. We had to wait 2 months before permits and the generator arrived. she would text him asking about it but it would be a wee or 2 before we would hear back. Driving me crazy. I was sure it researched it and knew what he had and the handshake deal was done.

Well one Sunday he texted and said can you pick it up today around 5 pm. Hell yes!!! Went there with my trailer and winched it up. Had been sitting so long the tires sank into the earth to the rim. Turned out not to be an S but a Sportomatic.
Got it home and into my garage.

So that's how i ended up with a 911. I have always loved them but kind of gave up on ever getting one. We were not even looking it just happened.

SWEET!!!


1968 Sportomatic
54K miles
All original except for a respray at some point.
Missing original wheels.
Been off the road since 89
I pulled it out of his yard.

Welcome Carl.... Good luck on the project

Amazing deal any way you look at it for $1,000...:p

very cool!

love a good find and good story.

Looks like a big project as they most always are. But for that money you can enjoy just taking it apart and picking away at it.
At the end of the day, it is tags and title with matching powertrain. worth 15-20k.

Congratulations on a killer deal and welcome to the sometimes confounding world of Sportomatic ownership! Sadly, the website that was a trove of info is long gone, but there are enough owners here that can offer technical assistance.
Some parts are hard to find, but if you choose to keep it original, once properly sorted there's little to worry about. Ours is a dependable daily driver with over 225,000 miles on the clock.

Finally!

A fair buy on a Sportomatic.


Congrats. An adventure awaits.




Russ censored?

The end is certainly near.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frank Beck

Russ censored?

The end is certainly near.

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Apparently rendering you as our Patron Saint was too small "c" catholic. Either that, or mentioning Sepia. And we wonder why we can't have nice things anymore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frank Beck

Russ censored?

The end is certainly near.

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i`m sure it was only a typo corrected by the tower...or did you screenshoot any plain-talking


Carl,welcome...great colour!!

Congrats and best of luck.

Nice steering wheel.

Thank you so much for the welcomes. I plan on performing most of the work myself. I have dealt with rust with building Jeep CJ7 rock crawlers. I plan it taking 3-4 years to build and as stated just chip away at it. Besides the rust that is visible, it will need suspension pan, floors, rear seats, pass side rockers, door sill patch. The metal is thin due to the original rubber floor mats keeping in the moisture and rusting from the inside out.
I'm used to rust so that's not a big deal due to dealing with the older Jeeps. I can weld, fabricate, paint etc. so should be able to save $$$ there. I have a friend who teaches auto body and agreed to take on the doors, trunk lid, fenders. Might need to replace pass fender and rear lid.

It is all original except for rims and it was resprayed. Original color is Ossi Blue. I will be returning it to the original color.

Engine has 51000 with a awesome leak down test performed in 1977. 400 miles since test.
8% 6% 4% 4% 2% 4%

The plan is to drop the engine, strip the chassis, build a rotisserie, and start rust removal.

Will keep it Sportomatic.

I pulled the wheel and striped it for new lacquer. it is amazingly clean. not a single crack. I am waiting on my special order Lacquer paint. I'll post pics when I return to school.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Carl S.

Thank you so much for the welcomes. I plan on performing most of the work myself. I have dealt with rust with building Jeep CJ7 rock crawlers. I plan it taking 3-4 years to build and as stated just chip away at it. Besides the rust that is visible, it will need suspension pan, floors, rear seats, pass side rockers, door sill patch. The metal is thin due to the original rubber floor mats keeping in the moisture and rusting from the inside out.
I'm used to rust so that's not a big deal due to dealing with the older Jeeps. I can weld, fabricate, paint etc. so should be able to save $$$ there. I have a friend who teaches auto body and agreed to take on the doors, trunk lid, fenders. Might need to replace pass fender and rear lid.

It is all original except for rims and it was resprayed. Original color is Ossi Blue. I will be returning it to the original color.

Engine has 51000 with a awesome leak down test performed in 1977. 400 miles since test.
8% 6% 4% 4% 2% 4%

The plan is to drop the engine, strip the chassis, build a rotisserie, and start rust removal.

Will keep it Sportomatic.

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restoration design have great replacement panels and this forum has great classifieds for stuff.
If the sporto gives you issues, you can always box it up and install a manual box.

I have a 1972 sporto and it is really interesting to drive. Excellent around the city in traffic!

Good luck with the restoration. My "first" 911 was a rust-bucket '70T targa sportmatic I bought from a colleague at work back in the '80's. Couldn't believe how well it ran considering it looked like it was going to fold in half! (Think I even paid about what you did at the time.) Got a good replacement engine for my 914-6 and sold off all the special sportmatic parts.

Should be an interesting project!

I was able to compare Stoddard and Restoration Design parts at the Hershey Porsche swap meet in PA. I'm going with Resto. Their parts just looked a little tighter.

We just moved and my garage is not set up at all. Only has 3 120 outlets that are connected to my dining room. Need to add a ton of electric. I have 2 houses to finish then i'm free to dig into the 911.

Hopefully my engine is fine. I will most likely pay someone to go through it as I want to make sure it is in good condition.

Thanks for the support.

Congrats on a great find, not talking about the car of course! My wife would have screwed up this deal.

Plenty of knowledge on this site to help you, hope your are not the sensitive type.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mfitton

Congrats on a great find, not talking about the car of course! My wife would have screwed up this deal.

Plenty of knowledge on this site to help you, hope your are not the sensitive type.

---

Ha!

My wife would have said “You want how much? But isn’t it a Sporto?”

The deal took a loooong 2 months. By the time it actually happened we were beginning to think there was no way it was going to take place.

Yes, it's a Sporto, Not sure that's a good thing as I really enjoy driving my MBG - has a clutch. But I'm very thankful and appreciate what we lucked into.

Stripped the steering wheel this week. Now waiting on some lacquer.

Ignore Frank... Sportos are cool no matter what he says. Seriously, once you've gotten to that aspect of the restoration, plenty of us will be happy to walk you through the unusual bits.They're less complicated than the myth.

A properly set up Sportomatic is a lot of fun. Besides, your MGB will exercise yer left foot, you'll find clutchless shifting to be a unique driving experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bullethead

Ignore Frank... Sportos are cool no matter what he says. Seriously, once you've gotten to that aspect of the restoration, plenty of us will be happy to walk you through the unusual bits.They're less complicated than the myth.

A properly set up Sportomatic is a lot of fun. Besides, your MGB will exercise yer left foot, you'll find clutchless shifting to be a unique driving experience.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pjJJnz2_85w

Hi and welcome; awesome find! What did you strip the wheel with? Did the black stripe get damaged at all? What lacquer are you going to use?
Look forward to following your journey!
Best
Stephen

Thanks for the support. I am excited to get going on it.
I used Kwik strip from Lowes. it took quite a few coats to get soften the lacquer on the back side where the finder ribs are. I think the original finish pooled a little in the low spots and was quite a bit thicker. Whatever finish they originally used was very tough.
Nope, black strip was fine. It took probably 10 coats of stripper and a some scrubbing with Scotch pads to finally remove all the thick spots.

I asked a professional guitar builder what he uses and he recommended Mohawk so that is what I am going with. Figured if it was good for guitars it should be fine for my wheel.

AS for the center metal part I am going with Cerakote. I read quite a few posts about people sending their Porsche parts to get Cerakoted so I going with that. The Cerakote it quite expensive- about $140 a quart but I will used it on other parts as well so might as well bight the bullet. I purchased a detail paint gun to spray with.

I'm planning on sandblasting the center section then painting with the Cerakote. Once that cures then hit the wood with the lacquer.

I'm glad I have the MG to keep my left foot happy. It's not fast but sure is a blast to drive.
I bought a 78 MGB with a bad clutch. Pulled the engine and trans,some cleaning and paint paint, new seals and hoses and clutch, de-smogge and it's back on the road. Not very fast but fun.
Planning on swapping the single carb for dual SU's, and exhaust from a 69 MG. Should do much better.

Cant seem to get my pics to rotate correctly.

Corrected photos.....If you are posting with an iPhone, use the landscape orientation , using the navigation button on the camera to snap the photo, having the navigation button on the right with the volume buttons on the left facing downward. You can also google this problem to get a lot more info on this annoyance........and the fix....( I think Android is the same fix as well )
These two pictures, I just sent yours to my photos on my computer & rotated them and reposted them here....
one nice deal on the S Soft Window Targa........less than what I paid for my 66` 911 in 1995 by about two hundred $

I have been advised that SEM trim paint is closer to what was used back in 68.
Going to save the Cerakote for other parts and go with SEM.
Still sticking with the Mohawk lacquer.

Now have to wait till the new paint arrives as I want to paint inner part first. Then do the wood last as it is the most important to get right.

Had a little time at school this morning before I have to proctor a SOL test.
Masked out the wheel and applied first coat of paint. Have to wait 10 minutes between coats so had some time to post.

Tomorrow is clearcoat.

Applied the Lacquer today. Still adding coats.
Pictures are after 3 coats, 8 coats and full wheel with 8 coats.

Planning on applying a few more to build up the finish but looks good.

I have a few tape marks on the black I need to address. Can said it was cured in 24 hours. Dang!

I originally masked all the zinc metal parts but after looking at my old pictures mine was originally painted. I have no reason to believe it was ever repainted so I went with what I had. Maybe wrong decision.

I originally saw this on Restoration Design and ran across a post on Pelican that used the same rotisserie. Looks perfect for a one man show. The dimensions are on their site and looks like I can build it for under $300. Should be a fun project.

I have to upgrade the electric in my garage. There are 3 120V outlets and all connected to the dining room. Run the air compressor and the dining room lights go out. In the process of adding 14 20A - 120V outlets, 4 20A-240V and a single 30A-240V Dedicated welder outlet.

Have to wrap up a house to get on the market so progress on the garage is slow.

I was not happy with the way the steering wheel turned out. It bothered me, the lacquer was not quite thick enough and the black paint was too soft. It easily scratched.
Ordered a Gallon of ready to spray Mowhawk gloss lacquer.

Took some stripper to the black and 320 grit to the wood. Super smooth now. Should be what I'm looking for.

It was probably fine the way it was but it bothered me as it was not the best I could do and I would have to look at it every time I dove the car. Dang!

MAJOR lesson learned. I left the blue painters tape on the steering wheel over the weekend to make sure the black paint was fully cured before removing. To my surprise, when I tried to remove the painters tape it was bonded to the wood wheel. It peeled off but left the adhesive stuck to the lacquer painted wheel. 100% of the wood was covered in tape adhesive.

I had to use WD40, Lacquer thinner and Acetone to remove it. Took 2 hours to remove and sand down again.

After doing a some internet research- turns out that Blue painters tape and Lacquer do not like each other. I actually used a magnifying glass and read the tint type inside the roll of tape and it actually does state not to use with lacquer. Who Knew?

Turns out the solvents in the lacquer dissolved the adhesive of the tape and now the adhesive stuck to the wood wheel instead of the tape backing. DANG!! what a mess.

That would explain why there is also yellow and green painters tape. They resist solvents and should be used for this instead of the blue. Glad I did not learn this lesson on the fender or hood.

Been busy with other projects. Finally had a chance to set up the garage and play a little.
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Wil get them in primer tomorrow.

Started on the dash speaker grill. This is a 2 piece dash so I thought I'd start with the easiest piece first.
I'm using 2mm model aircraft plywood as the base. New tan leather. Going to change the black to tan with Black Wash Tartan.
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Amazing work

WOW !!!! ……. Outstanding !!!!

Thank You, Learning as I go. Never did anything like a Porsche Build.

Is this thread in the correct forum? I will be posting my progress. Technical?

Thanks.

Great project. I bought a 911 from a long term owner (44 years). It provides a rare opportunity to know the car’s provenance. For that reason, I strongly recommend that you get as much of the previous paperwork along with any period photographs from the long term owner, as it will be of great interest to you and others down the line.

Unfortunately the is very little documentation on the car. It was purchased by a lady that live at the Watergate hotel in D.C. in 1968. I have the original
I have a tune up report and leakdown test from a shop in Fairfax VA from 1976. All leak down results were between 2-6% with 51k miles on it and only 400 more since.
The Son in Law got it and was not interested in it so it just sat.

The good news is it is 100% original except for the wheels, He sent them to the dump a few months before I got it.

Well, I completed my first attempt at leather upholstery this evening. Time for a glass of wine as it was a little stressful at first. I did not want to punch another 676 holes because I screwed up my leather.

Good news, it turned out just fine.
This is cool, I kept the branding on the hide. hidden in front of the dash.

I decided to extend the one end to fit better. I copied the original pattern but did not like how it fit. I added 1/2" to the glove box end and another 3/4" to the drivers side.
I think it is much better.
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Carl,
Interesting thread. Keep posting. Just curious- where did you pick-up your varied skill set. Your work and results are impressive. Also, tell us a bit more about your teaching career.
Happy New Year!
Regards,
Bill
P.s., My wife would have said “Whaaattttt, why do you need that thing!!”

Hey Bill, thanks for following along. I should be able to dedicate some time to it now. Umm, as for my skill set, I have always done a little bit of everything and then fill in the gaps between. I'm very patient and pay attention to detail. I am not afraid to try new things. The leather work, first time.

I have been teaching High School Engineering for 29 years in Northern Virginia. I have worked at the same school since 1992. Crazy! I have always been on a teacher budget so I did it myself. That is going to be the same with the Porsche.

As for the Wife, She is AWESOME!

So I took off the front suspension, only took half the time as the front 4 bolts were not attached to anything and just fell off with a tug.

The crazy thing is all the bolts were free. I am used to Jeeps were they are rusted solid. Amazing after so many years.

One of the castle nuts was ground flat, I assume from a previous accident.Attachment 540697

Took the suspension apart today. Amazing, all the bolts came out easily, Never happened when working on my Jeep CJ's. Usually snapped off or stripped.

So cool that bolts that had been in for the care for 52 years were in really good condition.

Spent the day stripping and wire brushing parts.

Almost ready for primer, few more to go and then POR 15.
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After some more cleaning and some primer it was ready for POR 15.
I used Semi-gloss, the shine will die down once dried.

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Thank You.
Spent the day cleaning parts to be plated at a later date.

Wire Wheel, Blast Cabinet, Wire Wheel again.

I need to ground out my blast cabinet. I keep getting static shocked in the chest. Got old after a while.

Tried my hand at some powder coating as well. Kind of cool. I need a larger over though. Have to look for a free one.
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Static shocked? that's kind of crazy. Who would have thought.....
Stay safe man.

It is, I think I figured it out though. The cabinet is grounded through the electrical box. BUT, the bolts that hold the gloves on are not. They pass through the plastic ring thus not grounding out to the cabinet.
I am going to try to cover them up with electrical tape and see if that solve the problem.

Nope, I was wrong. that did not work.
I added s specific ground to the blaster box and that did the trick. I had thought the ground in the electrical box was good enough, Guess not.

Spent the weekend cleaning nuts and bolts. All ready for plating.
Soaked in Acid for 20 min, media blast, then wire wheel to shine.

The clamps were frozen solid. A quick electrolysis and they were freed up.

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Can't say I've ever heard of using electrolysis to free up hose clamps.....nice thinking on that one.
Are you sending your hardware out to get replated, or DIY?

I plan on plating myself. I made a plating table at school last year. Have not tried it yet. I will be picking it up tomorrow.
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Everyone that does plating at home....do you need to heat treat the parts after plating so they don't lose strength or become brittle?

Not that I am aware of. When re-plating all I am going to do is strip off the thin outside protective zinc and chromate plating. This coating is not structural, mealy to protect the bare steel from the elements.

The highest temperature used is 190 degrees. Not enough to take the temper our of the bolts.

Hopefully, I will be able to try it this evening for the first time. Should be interesting.

I am using the Caswell system and chemicals. Mikes Restorations on Youtube has a pretty good video on how he did it.

Fellow sporto owner here checking in. Making nice fast progress. Looking forward to following along and seeing end result.

Thanks,
It is a Sporto. I am not sold on the idea of no clutch though. I am torn between keeping it stock or swapping to a manual for what I enjoy driving. Then keep the Sporto stuff to switch back in the future if desired.

Had a little time to play in the garage. I fixed my sand blaster so it does not shock the hell out of me any more. Finally.
Ran a ground wire to the trigger handle. NO more zapping. That got old. The static was arcing 1/2" to my chest. Annoying!!!

Back tracked on my front spindles. It was suggested that they are a weak point. So I made some 1/4" plate steel gussets and burned them in.
I will admit the first side is not quite as nice. I'll blend in a little better with some body filler and should look good.
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Had a heck of a time trying to get my plating to work. I tried everything all week. Very Frustrating!! Best I can tell at this point is that my electrolyte is bad. Will need to order another set of chemicals.
That should do the trick.

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Did some final sanding and some touch up POR-15.

Almost looks factory.

Well, finally got something to show. I had a hell of a time over the last 2 weeks getting this to work. Turns out my chemicals were bad and I had the wrong anode. (rather not discuss that one) Can't plate zinc with lead.

The pic is not great but I managed to get some good results.
Produced some Blue Chromate, Black Chromate and Yellow Chromate.

Those are my finger prints. I was just trying to get it to work and did not let it dry completely.

The latch pieces look amazing in natural light. just a slight blue tint when angled correctly. Pretty cool for being 52 years old.

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Finally some good results. Dang, that was not easy.
A lot of trial an error with the chemicals, time, amps and temp.
I am pleased with the small plated parts. Should be interesting with the larger parts. Hope it goes as well.

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Hello,
Spent the day plating some parts. Only took 3 long weeks for me to get if finally working.. Loooong story, but now I have it. You have to do each string separately to get the plating correct.

This is what I got plated from 9:00 am to 7:30 pm. Nothing fast about doing it yourself. Sure is satisfying though.

The parts look better than an original bolt I purchased for reference.

Did some Blue, Black and Yellow Chromate.

Had a great day. What a cool project!!!!

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It has got to be faster to take a bucket of parts to a shop. Doing it by hand, and only a few pieces at a time is very time consuming. I am still going to trudge on and perhaps if I can not keep up, I will drop some off at at plater about 2 hrs. away. I have to visit for the first time and maybe after that I could mail off the pieces.

Here is my weekend bounty of plated parts. I know, it's not a 5 gal bucket full. Please don't make fun of me, I am very sentimental about my little progress, but, I did it myself and I sure do know where each bolt goes. Found a few missing washers. Need to check the media in the blasting cabinet
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Not to bad for a novice.

Before
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After:

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Nice work Carl! What did the whole plating rig (chemicals and equipment) cost?

I did the math and if I had to buy everything it was $433
However, I worked it into my teaching and it was quite a bit less. I think out of pocket, I'm at about 150.00

Hey guys, had some time this afternoon. I already had the pump stuff purchased and connected so that took no time. I had a hell of a time adapting everything to the brake line. They are not meant to go together.

So it only took about 2 hours for the complete job - well, what you see.

As you can see, they were a bit rough. Anyway, I did some electrolysis on them before I went grocery shopping.
Next was some muriatic acid. Love that stuff, have not found anything even close to what it can do.
Warning: Never try the low oder stuff. All they did was dilute it so it does not smell nor does it work!!!.
20 min in the acid. A water bath and air hose. Looks pretty good considering where we were this morning.

My pump worked awesome. I picked it up off ebay for $80 or so. Had to adapt the high pressure fitting to the brake line. Not an easy task. Had to return a lot of fittings before I got it right.

Simple, plumbed it into the brake line fitting. Pumped full of water till one popped free. Once one was removed I installed the rubber plug I purchased for the job. Clamped in place and pumped the other free.

Super easy and clean, as I was using water. Good 2 hrs. work.

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I also have a Sportomatic 1968, L version.��

Awesome. Are you a fan of the Sportomatic trans? I never drove one but I'm a huge fan of a manual transmission, Not sure I will be fond of this trans. Thoughts compared to a regular manual trans?
I am leaning towards keeping it Sporto and try it out. Then swap out if I am not a fan. I have a few years to decide on that one.

For me it is important to keep conform to origin. A few 911 stay in sporto. I have tasted 2 differents before buying mine 2 years ago and I love it. It was very modern for the period, in 1967. You can drive both classic (manuel) or automatic. It is incredible and very confortable.

My plan is to keep the car original. Well, mostly, I want to redo the interior in a high quality tan leather.
It was originally black, but a tan leather with Black Watch Tartan is so Sexy. So I plan on changing that.

The important part is it is number matching original otherwise. I could always change it back for resale, but I plan on driving this when finished and want to totally love it.

I plan on keeping the Sporto due to originality, hope I enjoy it.

You will, I'm sure !

Does your Sporto have the Sporto emblem on the engine lid?

Yes it does.

I'd like to post a picture but I don't know how to do. Anybody to help me ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ludovicmeffre

I'd like to post a picture but I don't know how to do. Anybody to help me ?

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In your next reply, click Go Advanced, then Manage Attachments, choose a file, upload and then close window. Let us know how it goes.

I quick list of steps to follow/click
Post Reply
Insert Image
From Computer
Choose File
Select a file from your computer or phone
Upload file

This should then insert a pic into your reply.

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My SWB 1968 Sportomatic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Carl S.

Yes it does.

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You can see writen "sportomatic" on the back...

Outstanding !!!

WOW!!!, I have a bit of work ahead of me. Most impressive.

This pic is where she sat for 25+ years until I became the new owner.

The license plate is dated 1976.


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Finally have some plating updates.
So, I have learned some more about plating. The small stuff is easy once you get the hang of it.
Throw in some cast iron caliper halves and WHAM, no luck. It turns out that my 10A power supply is not powerful enough even at full power. I probably could use another 5 A. anyway.

I was able to plate them and get some results that will be just fine. there are a few slightly duller areas in the low spots. The calipers actually look better in person than the photographs.
I originally thought I was going to have to replace the pistons. They cleaned up after a night in the vibrator, now they are in with some walnut shells and corn cob.

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So, this is really awesome. I picked up another headlight bracket due to one of mine was not the original style and did not match. EBAY for $20 delivered so that was fine.

The problem was it was powder coated. Looked good but not does not match my other one.

Next challenge, How does one remove powder coating?

Blasting Cabinet? = NOPE
Bench Grinder? = NOPE
Paint Stripper? = NOPE

OK, Drastic measures.

Years ago I used some Aircraft Stripper that worked great. I picked up some a few months ago and it wan nothing like before.. Did not do squat. I researched why, seems they had to remove some of the chemicals that did the stripping.

Methylene Chloride- Well, why cant I put it back in.

Ordered some online and some Formic Acid. Another ingredient.

Seems Methylene Chloride dissolves powder coating.

I mixed 50/50 Methylene and Formic acid and HA!

Soaked the piece for 15 minutes and the coating fell off. CRAZY COOL!
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Your a brave man....looks like pretty spooky chemicals to me.
I always worry about how to dispose of this stuff as well.
Looks like it worked well tho.

Our local dump has a Hazmat drop off day 2 time a year. I have the nasty stuff in milk jugs and drop them off. Not too bad as long as you make the date.
I wear a respirator, gloves, jacket, goggles and did it outside. Only brought in to take the pictures. I will strain the chemicals and pour them back into the glass jug for safe keeping. I do not plan to use this much. More of a 1 or 2 times a year kind of thing.

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Yeah Baby, Upgraded power supply , 4 anodes, rotate every 5 min, hand and flip. May have had the amps up a touch too high but looks good.

That looks pretty good. What amperage did you have it set to and how long overall?

I'm finding the anodes on all sides or in the very least larger make a big difference. I recently purchased more. I hadn't noticed how thin and ragged mine had become. Better then half the overall thickness was gone.

I ran 14.5 and plated for 20 min. rotated and flipped every 5 min or so.

Dang, old thin gauge sheet metal is tough to work with. The metal is so thin, there is not enough to weld to. Keeps opening up. I'm using thin filler rod and low amps on the TIG machine.
I twisted 2 pieces of MIG .030 wire together for the filler rod. I have 1/16" but even that is too thick.

I had to do a little rust repair. I have plenty of time to locate another if I can't get this. I would be fine if I was going to powder coat it. I could finish sanding and fill the rest of the pin holes. But I plan on plating it and need it to be solid.

Maybe for now I will get it the best I can, powder coat it and call it god for now. Pick up a good one some day and all will be good.

Attachment 545148

Did some powder coating today in my Easy Bake Oven. Looked good.
Attachment 545164
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Attachment 545167

Finally after many attempts to get it correct. The larger power supply helped.
The calipers are complete. Well, almost. Still waiting on some pads, clips and bleeder valve
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Attachment 545328

The brake pad retaining pins and spring look horrible.
They look too rough.
Just buy new.

But you did a nice job on the caliper itself.

Thanks,
I have new pins, clips and springs on the way with pads from PMB.

Finished the brakes, now to start on the steering rack.
It was nice and tight but still wanted to clean the bearing and repack.
Dang, Had a heck of a time getting one of the inner tie rod ends off. The large nut was rusted the the locking plate and would not budge.
Had to take a grinder to the tie rod end so a 3/4" drive socket would fit. Some heat and and 3/4" impact gun was able to break it loose.

I made a quick puller fashioned after the original one in the Porsche manual. However mine was made from a 1/2" bolt, nuts, a metric coupling, and a piece of exhaust pipe. Worked like a charm and for under $4. SWEET.
Cleaned and plated, now ready for reassembly.
Attachment 545925
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Attachment 545927

OK, so here is some rust.
Not even going to try this one. I picked up a used pedal assembly 2 years ago at the Hershey Swap meet. That was the first piece I bought for the car.
$50.00. Yes, another easy fix. I am waiting on the bushings to complete then off to the basement for storage.
Attachment 546098
Attachment 546099

Attachment 546212

Score! Some sport seats for the ol Ossi.

I trust you realize those sport seats are not correct for '68.

No, they are not. I plan on having both originals as well as my sport seats. These are mid 80's I think.
I had a chance to get these for $500 delivered. I could not pass it up.

I will be able to go back and forth if I wish. At least that is the plan for now.
The originals need complete new innards. Looking at over $800 just in foam alone.
Thought I'd have a little fun with it.

Peanut butter leather with Black Watch Tartan.

Attachment 546277

Attachment 546276

Since my car is no longer a matching numbers car. I am disappointed in that. L:ooks to have a replacement case. No engine number. I am a little more open to some fun changes.

As they say....make it your own and enjoy it!

Steering Rack complete. Waiting on some turbo tie rods. I will keep the originals for later use if desired.
I think my steering shaft it tweaked a bit.
Attachment 546561
Attachment 546562

Did some larger parts yesterday. I used a trash can and some roofing zinc for anodes. Worked well. I like to be able to run the anodes as long as possible. I tried using some roofing zinc I purchased off Amazon. It was 99.9% pure so I should have worked. Yes it did. And cost way below Caswell's anodes. SWEET!
Attachment 547068Attachment 547069Attachment 547070Attachment 547071

It's been a slow week. Not much to show for a bunch of hours. I did remove both doors and hardware, cleaned and readied for plating. Funny, its over 100 pcs. Who would have guessed.

I'm considering Cerakote for the door regulators. The would be trick to plate because they would overlap and not plate well. I am not interested in removing the factory rivets just to plate. I think Cerakote is just fine for this. I will plate everything else.

I do have some rust issues. Yes, real Issues. I think I will start on them once the car is stripped. Looks like another order to RD.

OH, and my doors are toast! Both doors have over 1/4" filler in the middle. Evidence of dent pulling from the inside. Lines of holes with filler oozing from them. DANG!!
$500 for new skins=$1000
Found Pelican out of CA, rust free, filler free and matching #'s, orig. paint and 68's and a steering shaft for $1350 delivered to VA.

Attachment 547500
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Yikes. It's scary for sure, but look how far you've come. Hope these images make you feel a little better. Fuch cancer!

Attachment 547506

Thanks,
Yes, there is a bit of rust. I will start to tackle it once I get it stripped. More plating today. The plating is not as exciting as it was a few months ago.

Only 136 pieces to do today. Yellow Chromate, Blue Chromate and Black.

OK, so it was more like 150 pieces. Not as fun as it was at the beginning.
Spent the day plating the door parts. It's very time consuming but will admit is is gratifying.
Plated some yellow, black and blue chromate. It is nice to be able to knock out the parts when you want. I have all the door hardware plated and did some Cerakote painting on the regulators.
They were just easier to paint than to try to plate. Satin Mag. Looks nice. I know, it's inside the door. Going to do the best I can.

Seem all I do is plate. I will get to the RUST at some point. I am working my way front to rear. Restoring as I remove.
I think I will have a better understanding of my car when I try to put it all back together.
By the time I get to the engine I will have it ready to go back together. I hope.!!
Attachment 547561Attachment 547562Attachment 547563

My brake bushings finally arrived. Not much to post here but can close out the brake pedal assembly. Might be for nothing as I may end up swapping out the Sporto anyway at some point.

Attachment 547943

Attachment 547944

That's a great looking pedal assembly. Well done.

Thank You. It was pretty easy.

Removed the windshield today, and cleaned some more parts.
Check out the rubber windshield seal.
Just broke apart.
Attachment 548184

Started getting it ready for a dip. Lots of rust just about everywhere. Hopefully there will be something left after it is dipped. Looks like a 5-6 week turnaround on the dipping. Looking to have it ready by the end of April

Attachment 548432
Attachment 548433

Back in 2013 my metal man saw a car like yours and said it will be a 20K job to fix the floors and seat pans etc. Get ready to spend $$$. That was John Esposito he is expensive but knows how to fix the car right the first time.

IT would probably closer to $100K to pay someone to do the metal work required to bring this back at this point. Therefore, that is not an option.

I have placed 2 orders from Restoration Design thus far: New- rear seat pans, floor pan, foot area, suspension pan, front fender rear mount wings, lower door sills, inner and outer rockers, headlight tubes and mounts, jack mounts, hood seal strip, and 2 rust free doors from CA. This was under $4K

I will be doing the metal work myself. Looking forward to having a rust free slate to work with after dipping.

Yes, it will be a ton of hours and careful measuring to get it back. Most likely build a frame bench to make sure it is as close to factory as I can get it.

Once on the bench, if it is way off due to a prior accident, I might have to get it to a Celette bench prior to metal work. If it is not too bad, I will straighten it myself and move onward.

Just a quick update. Taking this car apart is taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. I have the front wire harness and fuse panel free and labeled.
The doors are removed and are in poor shape. There is a ton of body filler on each door. Saving them would require re-skinning and a lot of rust work. Quality skins are not cheap. It will be more cost effective to get some rust free doors and move on.
I found a set that will be arriving shortly form California. Much better.
All the seals are dry rotted and basically crumble. Put those on my shopping list.

I tried to polish the anodized aluminum frames- Dang, that surface is hard. Not sure hot to get the oxidation off and restore them. Ideas?

All the glass is out and in good shape. I found more rust on the rear seat bulkhead and parcel shelf. NICE!!! More $$$ for metal.

Next is to remove the gauges- kind of tight in there to get at the back of the oil pressure gauge. I need smaller hands.

I did manage to powder coat my door arm rests. They are now ready for leather work. I plan on doing some of the small stuff while my car is at the strippers in North Carolina. They said it would take 4-5 days to fully strip and coat with rust inhibitor.
Plus they would need it for 5-6 weeks to work into their schedule as they so mostly large industrial parts now.

I'm shooting for the 2nd weekend in May to drop off. That way it will be ready for pick up when my school is on summer break.

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Take out the tach, then reach thru that hole and get the combo gauge, then reach thru that hole and get the fuel gauge.

Gotcha! The tach is already out- will try reaching trough. Thanks!

It has bee a while since I had an update. I had this idea that there was a opening in the Porsche marketplace.

Seems that it is hard to find a good restored door striker and hood latch.

I decided to take this on myself. Not a easy task. It has been a month now. Dang!!!.
I had some problems with my chemicals. After a few weeks of testing I figured it out.
Needed to add an extra distilled water bath to eliminate the trace transfer of muriatic acid to the plating solution. Thus lowering the PH and stopping the plating process. Yes, this is is the short answer to my issue.
Now to the plating. I tried 20 minutes with a turn in the middle. looked good. Then I left one in for 30 min. Looked even better. DANG!!! Now I don't like the others.
So, I have gotten the striker plating down.
Attachment 552142Attachment 552143
I am pleased that I can now offer a plating service that is spot on and can be proud of.

Need Small batches plated? I'm your guy.

I have been collecting parts to swap the Sporto to Manual. I will be posting them soon.

This was a heck of a time getting these to work out.

First, I could not get them to plate. Not at all, they were grey and rough. After many days of trial and error it turns out that my PH was low. So the solution was to add ammonia to bring it back up. That worked and my PH was now at 5.85 which is perfect.
NOPE, still not working..... DANG

Long story short, once the PH in the solution dropped below 4 the starter chemical stops working and will not start back up.

New chemicals and a fresh restart and now good to go.

I added an extra water bath and changed my order of plating and all is good now.

Here are a few pictures of my newly plated and restored strikers. These are bright zinc, I will have some yellow and blue chromate ones as well.

Hopefully, now I can get back to the 911.
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That looks great, but I'm anxious to see how you're going to weld that body shell back to life! :)

I hear ya,
I am trying to get $2500 to have the shell dipped once it is stripped. I finally will have a little time to start removing parts in a few days.

I think it is worth the $$ to have a clean rust free slate to work with. Yes, no rust, just a lot of holes. Will save me a ton of hours of grinding and stripping.

Hi Carl.
Great continued work! I've read through your plating posts a few times. I'm interested in zinc plating at home. Mostly clear zinc to start (sometimes called blue zinc) - same finish as basic hardware nuts and bolts. There's a plating business not too for from me in Oregon, but I have the "small batch" problem - even single pieces. As an example, I want to zinc plate the following piece. Attachment 553504 - the unplated one - to achieve the result of the plated one. The bracket is 9 inches long.

Could you write a brief summary giving me some direction on what to buy and basic do's and don'ts?

Thanks so much.

Regards,
Bill

Hello, it's been3 weeks now working on getting the plating correct. I pretty much nailed the zinc and it looks great. Now plating for 45 minutes and rotating about every 10 minutes or so. Turns out the was the easy part. I tried to make some yellow zinc strikers and ran into a major problem. The yellow Chromate was not sticking to all of the strikers. It took a bit to realize that it is great on #2 and #3 strikers. BUT, does not adhere to the #4 strikers. The #4 strikers is a thicker plate due to safety. Talking to 911TES today, It cam up that it might be made from an alloy of some kind and thus reacting with the chromate. DANG!!! I went and checked the other and they are just fine. ONLY the #4 are having the issue.

How did I not notice this earlier. So, did some more research and discovered that Nitric Acid is also used as s etching bath. Orders some from Texas and will give it a go.

Three weeks on this and this is the issue. Good thing I have been doing other house projects as well.

I am making an entrance to some lawn steps I built last year.

Check the plating...
Dig up some dirt...
Check the plating...
Dig up some dirt...
Check the plating..
Cut some pavers
ETC...

You can see where it was scratched. I did that with my thumbnail. The other striker is just fine. Weird!!!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Carl S.

I am making an entrance to some lawn steps I built last year.

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Now, you must bring us shrubbery! A path! A path! :D

Nee!!!

I contacted Roger the Srubberer and he recommended these. WE may now pass.
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