Benny and the jets - a coming of age tale about a '77S rebuild

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Looking good, good luck with your build...

Thanks, Mike. The major parts from TRE are on en route from California now, so it's about to get much more exciting.

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Chapter Twelve - September 2015

Being a non-traditional (in my opinion) Porsche enthusiast, articles and stories about other non-traditional Porsche enthusiasts are irresistible. When I say non-traditional, I'm referring to anyone who's not your typical older, wealthy white guy wearing loafers and a straw hat. Luckily for me, we're in a golden age of online automotive content, especially Porsche related content. As I continue to read more and more stories, it's seems like a consistent part of the message is always this "some day" desire.

The 911 was the poster on my wall. Some day I have to have one.
The 911 was always the most iconic sports car to me. Some day I have to have one.
The 911 has such a rich racing heritage. Some day I have to have one.

I'm no different and have probably aligned with each of the above statements at some point. With that being said, it's certainly no easy task to finally bring one home. I think that explains all the old white guys. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is my own story which involved setting a deadline of having the car, in any condition, in my possession before kids. In my mind I knew that once a family came along, the dream would die then and there.

As luck would have it, I became incredibly fortunate to make that dream a reality a little over a year ago; plenty of time ahead of my beautiful new due date who turns 1 month old later this week. What I didn't plan on, obviously, was the pending rebuild project that will now have to be completed in 1 hour increments without making too much noise.





And now for a proper project update:

Over the past few months I've been working with TRE motorsports in California to coordinate all the necessary parts I'll need for the longhood conversion. The reviews are no exaggeration, and the owner, Dave, is truly a wealth of information for all things 911. Much to my millennial frustration, however, the parts wouldn't be available to ship for some time. This holding period has therefore resulted in some additional projects and of course some additional spending.

As you saw last time, I hit the classifieds hard to pick up any second hand body panels I could find. I scored on a fiberglass front bumper and steel fender. Both had plenty of wear so I've been slowly performing some bodywork on them. Fortunately this project won't see my trademark rustoleum paint work, so hopefully the professionals will be able to clean up my beginner bodywork.



With the front bumper more or less cleaned up, I set about spraying some test color to see just how intense signal orange would be in person.



I've been seeing a lot more of the trunk recently so I also ordered and installed Rennline's air box cover panel:



It was about this time when another small itch crept into my brain. My daughter had just been born, Porsche was flaunting a Gulf Racing 917 at Rennsport, and H2Oi had me nostalgic for my old baby blue rabbit. A challenger had emerged.



Even my bicycle has a thing for blue and orange...



Anyway, I sprayed more test paint and decided only to sit on the blue vs orange paint color thing for a while.




Project #2 is something I've been putting off for a while, only because it involves draining the oil - not cheap when you need 12-15 quarts. A common failure point for many early 911 engines is the spring loaded chain tensioners. Later models, improved on the design by adding a flow of oil to dampen the tensioner. These are effectively called 'Carrera Tensioners' and are one of the best piece of mind upgrades you can do for the car. The install requires removal of the muffler, so I also used this an opportunity to switch to a Dansk sport muffler.



My new tool cart!

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These pictures are all spread over numerous evenings where I've snuck a quick hour out in the garage while mom and baby are napping. I finally have the new tensioners in place and the replacement covers bolted on. All that's left is routing the oil feed lines and torquing everything to spec.







whoops! brb!

[jsandak]

Awesome post
terrific story
great life balance
congrats on all fronts - especially your amazing attitude and desire to fix

[draab29]

Great thread!!! Looking forward to following along! The color combo on the BMC is perfect

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Wow. It feels like a lifetime since I've posted an update. I suppose that's because it has been, just not my own. It's amazing too because between now and then we've had one of the more significant events occur; that being the delivery of my much anticipated body panels and accessories.



Before we get carried away though, lettuce close up the tensioner and muffler project first. As mentioned before, while waiting for the parts to come in I opened up the timing covers to install pressure fed tensioners and also set about replacing the muffler. There wasn't really anything wrong with the old muffler, I've just wanted the RSR style tail pipes ever since I first saw them, AKA because racecar.

The old muffler is available in case anyone is interested:


So with some great morning sun shining into the garage I was able to finish buttoning up the chain covers and get the new muffler bolted in place. The paint had also finally dried on my Vitaloni Sebring mirror so I mocked that into place as well.











Top tip: The trick about using longer bolts for the muffler straps is no joke. There's absolutely no way you're getting those straps in place for the short bolt to thread. Make life easy and get the straps threaded with a longer bolt, then wrap a zip tie around it and replace the long bolt with the shorter one.

Less top tip: I should have expected this, but I didn't take into account that changing the muffler would affect the exhaust flow and therefore throw my carburetors' mixture settings out of whack. As you can imagine, mommy and baby weren't too stoked when the garage erupted into a war zone of backfiring.


Now the main event: Inside those two giant cardboard boxes were a hood, rear bumper, metal fender conversions, turn signal housings, lenses, seals, horn grills, all kinds of goodies... Step one was getting out a step stool. Step two was digging everything out and "organizing" it on the floor.











Everything was accounted for, undamaged, and they even threw some tow hooks as a gift! There are quite a few vendors that you get these parts from now, but I'm very pleased to have gone through TRE. The conversion hood, especially, is a really well put together piece and fit perfectly when I went to test fit.

The fender conversions are likely to be the most challenging part. Measuring twice and cutting once is a new concept for me, but I'm hoping to put it to use as much as possible. The hammer and dolly will also have to come out again. The conversion pieces are well put together, but unsurprisingly aren't factory perfect.

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Finally, in order to test fit the rear bumper it's time to get my old friend, the cutting disk, out again. This time the reflector panel needs to be cut out. In hindsight, I probably should have covered the engine compartment for safety. Idiot.

[Tp81]

Greta thread, love the pictures. What lens / camera are you using. The light is great.

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Greta thread, love the pictures. What lens / camera are you using. The light is great.

Thanks! I use a Nikon D7000 and most often either a Nikkor 35mm prime or Tokina 11-16 wide angle. Lighting is always tricky in my garage so I often recruit my shop lights to play double duty as both work lamps and "studio" lamps.

[draab29]

This thread is awesome!! The backdate threads have diminished as the value of the cars have risen. It is so refreshing to see an already badass 911 being hot rodded to perfection. Keep the pics coming!