904-090
December 20, 2007

The oil lines from 090 were a little bit on the tired side. We blueprint lengths for the oil lines that will be used in the 6-cylinder engine conversion.

The picture on the right shows the brake line bracket.

This bracket holds both copper coated steel brake lines from the reservoirs to the master cylinders.

Here Bret is using his cute little forming tool and a wooden hammer to shape the little guys.

He's making enough for all three 904's.

A little bend here, a little tap there, and ready for the plater. We found these brackets painted, plated, and rusted, so we do one of the above every time we do a 904.

More shots...

and more shots.

Here is the front cover for the 6-cylinder engine that we will use. The later 904's, with 6-cylinder engines, used the Carrera 6 type magnesium center mount. We are not going to weld a center mount in Tom's car because Tom has the original engine that connects to the outboard mounts. We left these mounts in the car, so we have to make a special beam that attaches to the front cover to hold the engine in the front. Here is all the parts to the rebuilt wiper assembly to be installed.

Andy has bolted it all together now and it's being installed in the car.

Andy is now making new reservoir lines for the master cylinder. We can still buy the same master cylinder, so if you remember the pictures of the old rusty one, this is the same style but new.

Andy will install these lines on the bench because doing it in the car is nearly impossible.

So you look at these fittings (photo on left) and you say, "How long will it take me to make these look like new?". Kevin says, "about a day". And at Gunnar Racing, that's 9 hours. What's 9 times 100? It all adds up.

Here, the wiper mechanism is installed in the car and a picture of the same lines Andy was making for all the 904's.

More shots.

The gas tank has been cleaned, sanded, and polished. It looks really good, but there was some pitting from the elements over the years. Unless we sand the tank through the spot welds, the small pitting will have to become "patina". Remember, "patina" is a good word these days.

Here is a mock up engine to get the measurements for making the engine beam. The beam will be hand made to a perfect set of tolerances. The tolerance is level from left to right, and forward to backward.

You can see the beam is just about finished.

We use a digital level to figure out the tilt of the engine. The photo on the right shows the original deck trunk cover to 090. If you can remember that far back, this car was white when we got it. Jeff Kline raced this car for Rudy Klein (Porche Foreign Auto Wrecking - the first Porsche wrecking yard in America). Jeff raced at the SCCA National Runoffs. Here are the original stickers from Road Atlanta and the SCCA.

I was able to remove these stickers in one piece, so Dave, our sticker guy can remake them.

Even though the car is now painted silver, Tom might want these stickers on. At least we will have them made new.

Here I am stripping the paint off the cover layer by layer.

So first it's white with a base of gray primer, which was applied on the red.

Then, the red is applied on gray primer, which is painted on neutral gel coat...the original base.

After the part is completely stripped, the cracks are repaired and it's ready for gray primer.

If these cracks aren't repaired, they will show their ugly face someday later in the car's life. All cracks must go.

Wow, after a week of fingerprintless sanding, I finally get to apply the final silver paint. I have to wait until after Christmas to paint 068's wheels, because my fingers can't take any more sanding around kidney holes & rivets.

We made headers for the 904-6 Carrera 6 and 910. Here the headers have been heat coated and pre-fit.

The baggies on the right are about 30 pounds of plating for the two 904's. Seems that we always think that we're finished with the plating until we look one more time. In these baggies, are door latches, oil line fittings, etc. etc.

More etc.

The rear cover has now been primed twice and I am starting to restore the rear window frame, which will take a day.

Fuel pumps for both cars, and new 5.50-15 Dunlops mounted.

We stuck one on just to show Tom that we're trying to get him outta here, even though we won't deliver the car on his birthday, which is Saturday. "Happy Birthday Tom. I hope I look as good as you when I'm 65", Kevin.
Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

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