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!

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

Overhauled Jaguar XKE Engine

Its been years since we have overhauled a Jaguar engine and are pleasantly surprised at how many high quality parts are available for reasonable prices with instant availability. We have been struggling to get parts for Ferrari engines over the years, each piston set has to be custom made which takes 10 weeks, hardware isn’t available, what a pain to keep the motivation. The only thing that takes time on the Jaguar engine is scheduling time with a machine shop to hone the block, perform a valve job, and grind the crankshaft.

The shop that sold us the parts had Mahle Pistons sitting on the shelf and kits to replace all of the hardware, core plugs, sealing washers, lock tabs and timing chain guides and sprockets. We were all blown away at how little clearance needed for these Mahle pistons to fit into the block, only .02″!

Of course there is the labor at our shop, first removing the engine and breaking it down which makes a huge mess, then cleaning all of the parts in our awesome new hot water dunk tank. With Ferrari engines, we have to drill out (destroy) the crankshaft plugs in order to clean the passages but on the Jag, the plugs are re-usable. Plus the passages are huge and easy to clean, have a look at all the metallic sludge built up in there. We also removed the engine block core plugs and got the huge amount of rusty crud out of there.

The engine is almost finished now, probably by the end of next week it will be finished up and ready to test run. I’m excited to hear it run again.

Crankshaft full of Sludge

XKE 4.2 Engine block

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.

And it looks outstanding. We haven’t installed the front seats because we are working on a better set of seat belts but check in later for photos of the complete interior. The headliner looks amazing too, but Jim cursed the project because the material is much thicker and extremely difficult to work with, you’d never know by looking at the arrow straight pleats and detailing

Ox blood leather Ferrari

Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 ox blood red leather

This is a very nice Blaupunkt Radio that is period correct for late 50′s  to early 60′s European Cars. It has all the little details such as the knobs, facia panel and amplifier. If you are interested in purchasing it let me know.

Frankfurt Blaupunkt

My plan was to remove the engine and perform a “major service” on the ’79 Ferrari 308 GT/4 but after a leak down test revealed that a few cylinders were weak, I decided to break it down. The combustion chamber leak was from a few valves that weren’t closing so I knew it needed a full valve job. When removing the main bearing caps to inspect the bearings, we found evidence of an improper line hone or some major grit which scratched the journal. It’s irritating because main and rod bearings are super expensive and I was hoping that we could just re-coat them for a fraction of the cost. The machine shop will check the cylinders and hopefully we wont need new pistons!

Nate inspected the transmission and found that 3 of the 5 synchros are worn to the limit so we need to spend another $2000 on the transmission! Yuck, why do I think I can purchase and make money on re-selling these cars?

Engine Ferrari 3.0

308 GT/4 crankshaft