Taking the shit apart
When I purchased the mess, I didn’t really check neither the engine nor the gearbox since my buddy told me it isn’t running. Whenever I get a new car – running or not – I put it on a lift and checked everything. I was pretty surprised when I checked the undercarriage. At first sight, it was in a very good shape.
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Well, even though it’s a California car, you never know what happens in the 40 yrs. Later I found out it spend most of its live in the Los Angeles area, about 40mls. from where it is now.
I even got the engine running and checked the clutch, everything was working – though the engine didn’t pull strong. Later it turned out the compression wasn’t that great anymore. But I had other plans in terms of the engine but we’re coming to that later. I started on the outside, back to front, I wanted to get rid of all the ugly body kit parts. They’ve had cracks here and there and I had no intention to re-use them at some point so I took them off as fast as possible if you know what I mean.
In the next step, I took the engine and gearbox out, took me 30 minutes this time. Turned out engine and gearbox are from a 1981 SC, so a 3 litre 180hp engine and – surprise – a original Porsche LSD (Limited Slip Differential) gearbox with the /12 mark. As you can imagine, I was surprised and very happy.
In the next couple of days I took out all the windows and the entire interior. Since I didn’t want to use it and it was in a good and reusable condition, I sold all the parts over pelican, seats, door cards, parcel shelf, steering wheel and dashboard. The car was pretty empty at that time but it was still rolling. Then I stripped the exterior, all the strosek fiberglass parts.
Next step – new body parts. As I said, I had some ideas in my head so I’ve sourced the parts for the front first. The parts I’ve sourced are JP Dansk. I wanted to go all metal for a lot of reasons. First, safety and second, I didn’t want the paint differences. Had that experience with my 911 race car built. May be it’s just me but I see the little differences, whether it’s metal, plastic or fiberglass underneath.
Fitment was great so I started the rear, much more complicated since there was welding involved. Sourced – surprise – narrow body parts, rear fenders and the bumper section parts. So everything was set on the back as well. Next step – remove all axle parts. Took me another half day to remove all the axle parts, suspension, and brake parts.
I had my welder build me a dolley so I could still move the car around. And there it was. Ready to go on a little journey to a friend’s shop. He’s going to do a lot of nice stuff to the car. But we see that later. Okay okay, I did something more before the car went to his shop. As you can see, the last picture is black & white. For a reason. I messed around with paint a little, wanted to see different parts of the car in that particular paint that I’ve picked and it looked great. Had a paint shop mix it and they made me a rattle can so I could play around myself.
And yes, that will be the final colour. A colour I picked at day one when I went to Kitchener, Ontario to buy the car. And I haven’t changed the colour choice ever since. But that will be a surprise for you guys.
