73 RS Restoration #0339

[thenewgarage]

In the process of restoring a 73 RS 2.7 - 911 360 0339

Color: 2323 - Tangerine
Interior: 11 - Black Leatherette

Engine Number: 6630358
Trans Number: 7830336

A quick intro to the car...

The car was originally delivered in West Germany then imported into the US in the early 1990's. Sometime in it's life before it was imported the car was painted white/blue and had the original seats pulled and Lightweight door cards put in and the rear seats were deleted. We assume this car went through the Kremer facility at one point in time due to to badging and decals. I reached out to Kremer regarding this car and nothing has been dug up to clue into any more of its history. An aluminum roll cage was installed as well with MOMO racing seats at this time as well. We presume this was all done in the early/mid 80's. We do have some original records (title history, who imported it into the US) to the car but nothing has been confirmed on when or who converted the RS to it's state before disassembly.

The front end had some collision evidence and the battery boxes were cut out and patched - maybe they were banged up then cut out!

When we were stripping the body several layers of orange were found on certain areas, so the car was sprayed Tangerine again before it was white. The doors were not original and the rockers and quarters had been repaired as well.

The bottom side was sprayed with a rubberized coating that we removed before sanding it down. We found scrapes going sideways on the bottom side of the floors...so someone was driving the snot out of this thing! Being that this car was in Europe until the late 80's and the modifications we presume it had some time in rallying and racing. I have been researching this but I have not had any success. Maybe the power of the internet can help?

The engine and transmission are original to the car and are in the process of being rebuilt. The RS trailing arms were missing and in their place were later style aluminum units. The front cross member was also swapped for a later style front suspension with later style sway bar mount. Fortunately, we have found the correct RS parts for the front and rear suspension and these will be showing up soon.

There are other things I am missing to list in this initial post that we will cover as they come up. We disassembled the car here and the tub is currently at J3 Restorations in Columbia TN for the metal restoration.

I am looking forward to sharing this restoration with the community here and hoping to have a few questions and concerns answered along the way!

Here are some pictures to get this thread a rolling!







Bolted to the transport cart, headed down to J3

[thenewgarage]

So while the body is down at J3 for the metal restoration we have been diving into the next big time suck, the wiring harness. Luckily the harness was in pretty good shape and just needed some cleaning and freshening up. Some wires were spliced for some US type equipment - the center dash was replaced with a 74 and type with a seat belt light (for US DOT ??). The tail lights and fog light housings were replaced as well so some of the wires in that area will need to be replaced.

Here are some shots of the chassis harness, trunk harness and dash harness. We went through and diagrammed everything as well as photographs an then disassembled the harness. All tape was replaced with nearly identical tape in thickness and appearance from Tesa and we kept the original wrapping direction. This may be a little over kill but while we are here, why not make the harness look brand new.

A lot of the wires had white overspray present. We gently scrubbed these with a mild solution as to remove the over-spray but not the painted wires from the factory.

We laid out each harness and hooked them back up to the fuse panel then started taping. Even though we measured it all out, this double checked that we didn't have any of the wires pulled out of order. We then redid the factory waxed lacing wire at the fuse panel.

Here are some photos of the harness restoration thus far...

Logging/documenting fasteners and plating items...












We have a few more hours to put into the wiring harness and it will be complete and ready for install in the car. It will have to sit in a container for a little while until the car is back. My next big challenge is sourcing the correct interior bits for this car as it was originally an M472 car. Some things are available new but I would like to get as much original/period equipment on this car that I can.

[928cs]

Thank you for sharing the restoration process of this car.

A lot of Rs 2.7's were modified during the 70's and 80's to improve their performance on the track. This is funny to see the reverse now.
But it was a pleasure to see such cars in action during the 80's

[RSTarga]

If it was raced and damaged, now would be a great time to put it on a chassis jig to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be.
Great project.

[recarno]

what seats do you install? sport seats or lightwight?

best

[thenewgarage]

If it was raced and damaged, now would be a great time to put it on a chassis jig to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be.
Great project.

Yes J3 Restorations is putting in on a Celette table and getting it back into factor spec.

[thenewgarage]

what seats do you install? sport seats or lightwight?

best

We will look for a nice set of standard seats to keep on the shelf if a set comes up, but we are going to install Sport Seats with corduroy

[72targa]

VIN search reference = 9113600339

[Frank Beck]

Nice hobby shop.

Find it hard to believe someone did a mastectomy on the battery boxes; maybe a later partial clip?

Who's doing the motor and gearbox?

Good luck with the project. You're in GREAT hands with Rich.

[thenewgarage]

Nice hobby shop.

Find it hard to believe someone did a mastectomy on the battery boxes; maybe a later partial clip?

Who's doing the motor and gearbox?

Good luck with the project. You're in GREAT hands with Rich.

Thanks.

Yeah it is a pity...hard to find original metal for those!

KMW Motorsports in Florida is doing the engine and transmission. I will be picking that up in May.

Yeah I am pretty excited to be working with Rich on this car. His work is pretty incredible and they do things the right way.