A very good customer showed up last fall with one of my favorite cars, an early Porsche 911 Coupe. While the car did run and propel itself down the road, it needed lots of mechanical attention to remedy oil leaks, weak compression on a few cylinders and a huge list of other things. We decided that in order to enjoy the car in the future, we needed to go through the engine, transmission, brakes, clutch and other less dramatic things such as the heat and vent controls and … windshield wiper blades!

Here is a video of the engine running on the test stand to check for leaks and the adjustment of the ignition system and carburetors. This engine has German made Solex/Zenith carburetors, an Italian produced Magnetti Marelli distributor in combination with a French S.E.V Marchal Alternator.

Here’s a youtube link to see the engine running on the tabletop

Rebuilt 911 engine

One of the last details on the 911 Targa restoration project is to bolt on the newly refinished Fuchs alloy wheels. I sent these to a specialist who uses the same anodizing and paint process that was used from new. I’m really pleased with how they look because the gloss of both the aluminum and black paint is just right, not over polished.

Refinish a Porsche FUCHS alloy wheel

Here are some photos for Derek who seems to get very turned on by Ferrari engine photos, mostly the “basamento” which translates to “base” and in this context it stands for Engine Block.

Testa Normal

Bassimento 250 GT Ferrari

Here is a early Porsche 911 Engine that Casey has finished and will hopefully be running later this week.

Steve Maxwell “Max” works in the “second building” next door to our main shop and makes spectacular parts out of Carbon Fiber, Kevlar and other composite materials. This is a complete front clip to a Triumph Spitfire, one of many body panels he’s made molds for. He makes tons of body panels for Datsun 510 Race Cars as well as Formula Ford’s, Hyundai and Subaru  Rally Cars and the occasional Classic Italian parts for me. I’m always blown away with the quality of work that Max churns out and amazed at his attention to detail to make the parts very rugged while staying extremely light weight.

Later this week I’m going to show you photos of brake cooling ducts that he makes for a major Catalog that sells race car parts so stay posted for these incredibly light weight and rigid examples of “black art”.

Body parts for Triumph Carbon Fiber

We did tons of work on this 1956 Jaguar XK-140 this summer, between waiting for parts and correcting some stubborn little details and then cleaning it all up, we spent some hours on this beauty. Now that Mike has his car back, he has been driving all over the place including to and from work, a 50 mile drive one way!

Jaguar XK-140 DHC

Cylinder heads 911 Porsche

Porsche 911 Crank Case

Inside view of the 911 engine

Over the last few years we have overhauled a bunch of Porsche 911 engines that have the same description as this one, it runs OK but smokes and leaks a bunch of oil. Once we get inside and check things out we find a whole host of issues from collapsed chain tensioners, broken piston rings and wiped out bearings. This engine has a few severely scratched piston skirts and hosed thrust bearings and intermediate shaft bearings.

It’ll be great to get all these parts cleaned up, freshened up and dialed in so the customer can have the car rocking and rolling for the spring. The engine is equipped with Weber Carburetors which seem good but are they better than the Bosch Mechanical Fuel Injection?

Well, I did it, I finally convinced the original owner of this spectacular original 1972 Porsche 911 to sell it to me. 3 years ago we did the top end end of the engine, shocks, brakes and tires and replaced a few rubber seals. The only thing  that isn’t original on the car are the wheels, we painted them silver as the original chrome was peeling and nasty, so to make them silver was an attractive solution. If someone made me a strong offer I may be motivated to sell this sweetheart but when something this great comes along, it will take a strong offer!

1972 911T

Even though this Porsche 911 has been in Colorado from new, it has some major rust issues that need to be addressed. We had to replace the front suspension pan and decided to prepare the car for a full paint job after finding rust in the doors, the fenders and in the RH rocker cover. Overall, the car is super solid and clean, making it a nice project to work on and, when it’s finished, a wonderful early 911 Targa. As anyone who has been reading this blog knows, early 911′s are some of my favorite sports cars and feel that they are becoming valuable enough to justify putting some money into.

911 Targa Paint Job

Suspension Pan 911 Porshce

911 Susp pan Porshce

Mr. Garfield organized a tour through our area last weekend and scheduled the participants visit our shop. It’s odd that all of the cars were 911′s, I thought there may be a few 356′s or front engined cars but most of them were heavily modified 911′s. There was a totally stock looking early 911 with an engine sound suggesting a displacement of well over 3.0 liters and a beautiful 1979 SC with a late model 3.6 liter and subtle modifications to keep the car on the ground at speed.

I really like this orange car

911 Orange coupe

Tour of Porsche