A 1971 Porsche 911 came in with a melted main wiring harness. A number of shops advertised new-old stock  harnesses on their websites but when I inquired they admitted that these parts haven’t been available for years. I called some used parts shops such as CarQuip and a place in CA, cannot remember the name…. and they had nothing. It seems that these harnesses get damaged and need replacing frequently!Tom at CarQuip did send me a used harness for a ’71 but the wire colors and gauge of wire didn’t match which I thought was very odd.

Y-nZ’s has supplied us with spectacular harnesses for 356 Porsche’s and most recently an amazing harness for a 1952 Chrysler Imperial but they quoted a larger price than I thought it worth so here is Casey making one from scratch! We bought all the terminal ends and had the PVC housing so for a major cost savings, here you go, a harness with factory color wire and correct appearance harness!

Main harness Porsche 911

Porsche 911 early wiring harness

We had an open house over the weekend so I took some photos of the shop all cleaned up and looking sharp.  With the floor so clean, it appears that the cars are floating, especially that copper colored Maserati Ghibli!

In the past, our open house has been to show customers what is going on with their projects but this year we geared the event to be more of a fun party where we ended up eating clams and shrimp right off the BBQ grill and enjoyed some cold beers. Since we have survived these last few difficult years, we certainly needed to let loose!

Maserati Ghibli

Restoring a VESPA

Over the last few months I have been pecking away at this 1966 Vespa 150 Super to get it ready for a final finish. It had been crashed so the front fender was dented and warped and the front “leg shield” area was all dented and nasty so I spent some time on the sheet metal and locked down the metal with epoxy primer.

I just finished overhauling the transmission and engine so once it is painted the assembly begins!

It was an unfortunate day when this beautiful BMW CSi was side swiped buy a tractor trailer backing into a loading dock. This is a spectacular car with a recent re-paint and an engine and engine management system from a late model 535 as well as many other subtle modifications. We are looking for door parts and a right front turn signal side marker but I believe we can salvage the fender and other sheet metal. The RH side of the car looked fine until I found a crack in the paint near the side marker from where the car made contact with a small trailer so we have to re-paint the whole front end.

BMW CSi

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

A friend of mine has a mounted swordfish that he caught in Florida that looked terrible because the paint job that replicates the skin is lifeless. The fish that Homer is making are amazing because even over a 2 dimensional panel, the colors look deep and alive as well as reflective as though you are seeing them underwater.

Here are some more photos of his fascinating work

Painted Fish on Aluminum

More painted fish

When we needed a new camera last year, I asked Johanne to get us a new “bomber” camera and she came back with a Canon D10 which is designed to take the shock of dropped and handle the everyday abuse of our shop. It turns out that the camera can also shoot under water! I took these photos of Homer’s newly crafted fish under water, notice the trout that are swimming up next to the shiny painted fish!

Homer is really enjoying making these fish and would like to sell them so if you are interested in purchasing one let me know and I can connect you with Homer

Fish real and fake

Underwater fish

Here are a few more panels that Homer worked on.

Clear coat tint

Tinted clear on aluminum

Last night a friend called me to take a look at his newest obsession, creating a water effect with sheet metal and paint. These panels are beautiful to see in person and I am impressed at how great they look in photographs. The technique for painting the fish is amazing.

Clear coat is not intended to go over bare metal, it typically needs primer or some sort of surface prep but the stuff is so high quality and hard, I have a feeling it will hold up great.

Fish in Clear

Water panel

Clean brake fluid is a must for proper operation of a brake system, proper operation of brakes, reliable brakes? Ferraris 250′s with the Bendix/Bonaldi booster had a reservoir cap with a steel mesh under an aluminum disc to allow the bottle to vent. Under the mesh is a small hole directly into the brake fluid reservoir. As you can see, there is lots of opportunity for crud to get into the fluid from this rusty build up in the mesh. I took the aluminum disc off, made a new spacer ring and welded it onto the cap. I sent the part of to be cad plated and made a new aluminum disc, installed stainless steel wool under the and wrinkle finish painted it. Voila!

FIAT Reservoir lid

Wrinkle finish reservoir