Going to look at a fantastic 1973 911S tomorrow. Need a bit of advice.

[NorthernThrux]

What do you get a 49 year old mature lady for her birthday? How about new shoes? Five CN36 tires to replace the 10 year old XWXs.
Courtesy of our friends at Stoddard.

Happy birthday Hildegard. Or should I say happy birth month as her actual birthday is TBD.

Ravi

[Chuck Miller]

I've driven a couple of early 911's with these 'new' CN36's and I think you'll REALLY like'm Ravi ....

Cheers,
cm

[lkadams]

Ravi - where did you source your new tires from?

Cheers!

[NorthernThrux]

Stoddard. You can get them in Canada through your Porsche dealer. Sometimes things are remarkably well priced at the Canadian dealers, especially for the classic cars, but this wasn't one of those times.
I couldn't find any other source in Canada.

Ravi

[NorthernThrux]

While waiting for my locks to get here (stuck in customs clearance) I figured now was a good time to address the bulge in the two arm rests where the material had separated from the metal frame, particularly above the door release handle. Just looked ugly. I've seen this in a lot of interior pictures posted here. Just used a putty knife, dug some of the loose foam out and filled the gap with high strength construction adhesive. Used a flexible piece of wood to follow the natural curve of the armrest and clamped it at the two ends of the arc. Not terribly difficult.

Also used a stiff wire brush (about the size of a toothbrush) to turn the grey door release latch back to black.

[Rick Cabell]

That looks great.

[govols!]

Simple solutions to common problems. Congrats Ravi !!

[dirk07]

the cheaper swabian solution is superglue and plastikwrap for the bulg and sunflower oil for the latch

Simple solutions to common problems. Congrats Ravi !!

[NorthernThrux]

the cheaper swabian solution is superglue and plastikwrap for the bulg and sunflower oil for the latch

Lol. I learned a few swabian tricks from my very frugal colleague Dr. Merkle in Minnesota years ago. In fact my car is named after his wife Hildegard because she adopted many of us research trainees who were new to Minneapolis from the various corners of the world (mostly Germany, Netherlands and Canada). I did this repair with superglue 5 years ago and in 2 summers of driving it failed. The construction adhesive will outlast human existence on this planet. The adhesive allows you to really fill things and then have it ooze out as you clamp with the wood. Scrape off the excess and let it cure for 24 hours and superman can't pull it apart.

Total repair cost was $6.50 for a tube of adhesive. I'm OK with that !!

Ravi

[NorthernThrux]

Well, the goodies are back from Tony Eugano. Then I discovered that the mechanicals in my ignition switch/lock were binding. What to do? Drill out the cap on the switch/lock assembly and try repair an almost 50 year old part, or ?

I had bought a complete lock and key set (ignition, doors, glove box and targa handle) with the aim of putting those in my car, expecting it would be years before I were heard from Tony based on this thread. https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...6-Tony-Euganeo . However, after a lot of chasing and phone calls, I did get my locks back with new keys cut and everything working as the Porsche Gods intended.

So instead of messing around with the old assembly, I drilled out the pin that holds the lock cylinder in the new one, pulled the lock cylinder out from the new one, and inserted my original lock cylinder instead. Rather than try to put a pin in the hole I drilled out, I just drilled a new hole, pounded a nail in as a pin and cut the protruding part off with a Dremel. So now I have a chrome lock cylinder in a 964 assembly. Once it is in the dash, no one will know the difference as it looks original and I will have a far more reliable part (see below as to why I believe this). For those who don't know, from 1974 the lock cylinder face was black and that's the only way Porsche has sold replacement parts since AFAIK. So if you see a black cylinder in your early car, you know it is a replacement. At any rate, Hildegard will have proper master and valet keyed doors, ignition and glovebox this weekend if I can find a day to get it done.




As to why I think this will be more reliable. Well the older 911 part has a Rube Goldberg spring, pin and slip ring assembly behind the lock cylinder that controls the start/run lockout that fails after many years. Also the details of the internal mechanicals on the steering lock and how the cams link it to the lock cylinder are prone to wear. The 964 part number incorporates the start/run lockout and the steering lock mechanism in a visually similar external housing, but an internally somewhat different approach which is more robust. But bless Porsche's frugal heart, the lock cylinders are identical between the 911 and 964 part numbers and are completely interchangeable** despite the different internal mechanicals.

**Subtle mods needed. You have to pry a plate that rides on the sliprign off the back of the cylinder with a screwdriver. Trivial.