Over the last few months, I have been around a number of Porsche 912′s. Anyone who frequents this website knows that I really like early Porsche 911′s so it seems natural that I’d like 912′s but to be honest, I’ve only worked on a few of them but really don’t remember much about them.

This winter, a local man needed his 912 appraised to help settle his fathers estate. His father bought the car new and kept it in impeccable condition. It wasn’t restored, had a weak re-paint in the original color but everything else was tidy, solid and the car was complete with the books and tools and tons of records. Driving the car was a delight, it doesn’t sound like a racing car the way a 911 does but 4 cylinder 912 feels as fast as the 6 cylinder engine of the same year.

1969 Porsche 912 in original color, one family ownership history

Original interior for 1969 Porsche 912

In February I visited a friend who just got another dark red, one owner 912 in his shop that he offered to sell me. He needed a month to clean the car, polish the paint and make sure it ran like new, then he would let me have first chance to buy the car. He sent me photos of the car after the clean up and I had to have the car and immediately sent him a check for his asking price. A few days later a very good customer of mine called and I told him about this 1968 912 and he held his hand high in the air for the car. It turns out that he bought the last “one owner” 911 that I had in 2011, the car I affectionately called ‘ol silver, a ’72 911 T Coupe.

Now Michael has two of my favorite “901″ cars, both of them under fastidious care from new and the tradition continues

'68 912 Porsche

In the shop, next to 911 and Ghibli

Engine in the '68 912, original and immaculate

A few weeks ago I saw a beautiful 1976 Triumph TR-6 on ebay. I bid on the car but the next morning realized that I wasn’t the high bidder, I was off by $750. Fortunately, the seller, Branden in Seattle, called me the next to day to offer me the car because the high bidder needed a loan to buy the car and wanted the title sent before paying for the car! I pulled a muscle in my arm as I raised it so high for the car. Branded asked me if I was looking for other cars and I sent him my “must have” list. Within a few days he sent me photos of this 1968 912 in its original color, Polo Red. This car looked outstanding in the photos because it has a gorgeous interior without holes cut in the door panels for speakers and a perfect dash pad. The front pan, floors and longitudinal sections are absolutely straight and perfect, the bottom of the doors are perfect and other than the thousands of stone pecks on the front hood and old paint, the car is damn near perfect.

The car arrived on May 6th and I was absolutely blown away with the car and equally impressed with the care of ownership since 1968. There is a 3 ring binder in the car with EVERY reciept from new! Every part purchased, every oil change and service job! It has had a few owners but they all continued the tradition of maintaining the car and keeping record of every detail. What is it with these 912′s?

Polo Red 1968 Porsche 912

Original interior for the 1968 Porsche 912

912 Porsche records for maintenance

1985 Ferrari 308 GTSi QV

308 GTSi Quattrovalvole LR

GTSi QV interior from the Top

For the ultimate Ferrari 308 enthusiast, I have located and purchased this spectacular 1985 Ferrari 308 GTSiQV with only 5600 miles for re-sale. It is totally complete with hand books, tools, jack roll, trouble light and often missing boot for the removable top. It even has the original Goodyear NC/T Tires!  This car is truly amazing and needs nothing to be shown or driven, except maybe tires that aren’t 25 years old!

So often we try to repair old parts to maintain originality or because new stuff isn’t available and if I tallied up the hours spent patching the often rusted and mangled brake fluid reservoirs for Ferrari 250′s I’d get really depressed. I found a few of these New Old Stock reservoirs with the correct caps and quickly bought them all! Since I have a few more than I need, I’ll sell a few.

Ferrari 250 Brake Fluid Bottle

GTE/Lusso/SWB/PF brake fluid bottle

Ferrari Air Conditioning

Awhile back I published a post on reproducing the often broken or missing vents and knobs for the Ferrari 330 and 365′s that showed the  prototype to review before the final production. The final order of vents have arrived in a box and I challenged myself to make the delicate and finely detailed knobs that go in the middle of them.

Late production 330 GT 2+2′s had optional Air Conditioning with 3 louvered vents in the middle of the dash with little thimble sized knobs that you twist to both direct the air flow and operate the fan speed and temperature of the A/C system. The middle vent had a blank knob and the outer vents said “aria” I II III (for the three speed fan motor) and the other outer vent had a knob that had the script “freddo” that controls the temperature of the air outlet. I found some very good original knobs and cleaned them up, chipped the white paint out of the script and sanded the delicate fluted lines on them to make a good mold. Then I made tooling to make consistent parts time after time to fit the “D” shaped switch shafts. The results are amazing, I am so impressed at how great everything came out.

I didn’t make the louvered vents, these parts were extremely complicated because the outer cylinder of the vent is on a different angle than the louvered slats, how do you make a mold that not only pulls apart straight but allows the louvers to be on a 45 degree angle! Since I paid the big bucks, I own the multiple piece mold and may tell you the secret someday.

The only part I have not made are the chrome trim rings that go on the outer edge of the vent. Later this month the tooling will be finished up to stamp them out of brass and have them chrome plated to match the rest of these lovely little parts.

In this photo you can see the simple little tool to make the fluted knobs. I can only make one at a time but the same tool makes the “Aria”, the “Freddo” and the blank knob. Since I am using the slow cure plastic, I can only make two knobs per day but will experiment with faster cure resins to churn them out a little more rapidly. (if anyone actually orders them)

330 or 365 Air Conditioning vents

Original Dino 206 seats

1969 Dino 206

Ruby and I had a look at the 206 on Friday, I really like the car. The interior is so cool because unlike most 206′s, it has the original seat upholstery with a loose weave pattern that can easily tear from a rivet on your jeans.

Dino 206 GT Ferrari

On Thursday, my daughter Ruby and I are going to Europe to look at a car that I put a deposit on, this super rare and original 1969 Ferrari 206 GT.  When I asked her if she wanted to go she said “no” but I don’t care, she’s going with me. We’re flying into Vienna and renting a car to tour around a little and see a city that my friend Pete says is outstanding, Bratislava in the Czech Republic. Pete has traveled all over the globe and loves Eastern Europe so much that he has pitched his travel show idea to a number of networks in the last few weeks. This guy is a real character and I think he has a sure shot at being on T.V. with amazing stories that he’s posted on Motley Planet.

Anyhow, this car is supposed to be exceptionally original with low miles and only two owners from new. It even has the cheap orange crushed velour that is vaporized on almost all other 206′s which is testament to its originality.

If the car meets Ruby’s ultra critical standards, the freight forwarders I use in the Netherlands will get the car to Port Roosendaal for delivery to Port Elizabeth in New Jersey by vessel. Ruby and I will take a bunch of photos so we can share them while the car is locked in a container with containers of tulips and wooden clogs stacked on top and all around it for 3 weeks.

Ferrari Grigio Notte

Earlier this week I visited the passionate owner of this extremely nice 1966 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 in its original color called Grigio Notte. Typical of Italian Style and complexity, Grigio Notte (dark silver) has a tiny drop of green mixed in to give it that exotic hue unlike “grey” colors that you see on other cars.

The owner picked me up at the airport and we drove the spirited car about 25 miles to a friends shop and then to his house to check out all the other parts and documentation he has acquired with the car over the last few years. After all this we went to an outstanding BBQ joint where Nachos were based on thick cut potato chips with beef brisket and the shrimp sandwich was out of this world.

I was blown away at how well the Ferrari drove with a very strong engine, smooth drive shaft and all electrical components working as they are intended. Equally amazing was the ownership history and service documentation that the owner pulled together as well as the often missing handbooks and pouch to make this a very complete and sorted car.

Body shell of Porsche 356

It was a busy day yesterday with the guys hustling around the shop to keep what seems like 1000 going at any given moment. We finally got the Porsche 356B body shell out of the back lot and en route to Georgia. Nate and I were going to put the longer forks on the Skid Steer loader but since we couldn’t find them we just used the shorter forks which worked just fine, reaching the upper level of the truck with ease. I pity the fool who has to take this lump off when it gets to GA!

Car Hauler Fire Truck

One of our customers bought this Seagrave Fire Truck from Washington State and asked us to arranged shipment to our shop to make it into a custom car hauler. When it arrived we loaded it onto our friends ramp truck to get it off the flat bed trailer. Needless to say, both kids and adults were crawling all over this thing. It has a Detroit Diesel 8V-71 engine and Allison Automatic transmission

Maserati Front Suspension and steering stuff

Ghibli 4.9 Liter S.S. engine

Rolf is managing the Maserati Ghibli project which means getting all kinds of parts sent off to the sub-contractors for various things like plating, rebuilding, etc.. We are sending the interior panels to Italy for upholstery while our local guy is going to replace the top and carpets.

Sandblasting various Parts

Andy is sandblasting all sorts of Maserati Parts, today he was pecking away at the leaf springs and doors. He has spent the week blasting the Ford 8N parts and Maserati parts such as front suspension and rear axle

Inverted Ferrari V-12 type 168

Nate is assembling a Ferrari Lusso engine, we finally got the correct piston rings and a new high tech piston ring grinder with dial indicator, super trick. He is also getting all sorts of parts painted on the Ford 8N project and has assembled the transmission and final drive and put them in epoxy primer. He found the correct shade of red in PPG acrylic urethane aka “Concept”.

Maserati Spyder seat Rails

Maserati Ghibli Air cleaner housing

Eben is contemplating how nearly every part on the Maserati Ghibli project  car is damaged or hacked up. The bolt holes for the seat tracks are broken here and there, a threaded ear on the brake pedal is broken, and the air cleaner housing has been hacked up at the top for some reason. Why would someone go after this area with shears? Maybe once I get the entire car together it will become evident.

Casey and Syl worked the day on the blue 365 GTC/4, installing the front and rear glass and polishing a few odd marks out of the paint. Casey spent the week getting all the A/C hoses routed and other things together on this car that’s been apart for way too long (embarrassingly long time).

I dropped my kids off at school and picked them up later in the day. I also bought and sold the Jaguar XKE Roadster. I also packed up a complete A/C kit for a Ferrari 330 GTC in a huge and heavy box and developed a lead on a Jaguar XKE Series I 2+2 and a XKE Series 1 3.8 liter Coupe. A friend stopped in and we discussed all kinds of cars he has for sale, an Alfa Sprint, Lancia Flaminia S.S. Zagato, what else… He is looking for a Jaguar XK-12o Roadster and a Ferrari 250 GT PF Cabriolet S-II.

Our Bookkeeper Johanne was busy keeping our shop up to date with US Gov payroll status and all the million other bills she keeps on top of.

Peter was making some part, I just can’t remember at the time of this post… He was getting all the paperwork together for a Ferrari that we just sold.

Under the front engine area

Floors from an XKE Roadster

Drivers door bottom, solid

It looks very good to me, solid and straight. There is more “top rot” on the car than deterioration on the undercarriage.

About 5 years ago I took a photo of this car after it showed up unexpectedly from Louisiana. Out of sight, out of mind the adage goes, we put it on the back corner of one of the buildings and after asking the owner what he wants to do with this XKE, he informed me that he wants to sell it. Does anyone out there want this thing or is Gullwing Motorcars going to pick it up! Later this week I’ll get it up on the lift and check out the car but I think its solid and complete except for the soft top frame. Even though the owner had the brake system gone through awhile ago, there isn’t a firm pedal and the clutch doesn’t work but I pulled it around the shop in gear and the engine turns and we should be able to do a accurate compression test.

Once was ivory, now is red, a solid XKE

Series II 4.2 liter Jaguar E-Type engine