904-090
December 7, 2007

Grey primer has been applied to both doors and the hood. Now, Andy is making sure that the hardware and doors all work properly before final paint. Since this photo was taken, the hardware has already been sent to the plater.

The hood fits perfect, but will stay on while the gas tank is being installed. The opening for the gas cap is important. So, silver paint won't be applied until everything is fit perfectly. That's Monday's project. I have now made the fiberglass sheet metal for the 6-cylinder engine.

Once the parts are trimmed, I'll fit them to the engine. Here is Tom's new defroster control.

This is the headlight backing cover. It goes in the inside of the fender well and protects the back of the headlight bulb. These have been replaced or altered because of the size of a different light bulb. The main cause for destruction is that the wheel kicks anything it can and damages this part. I had one good original cover so I finally made a set of molds to re-make the part.

This is red tooling gel applied to the mold, which was made from the above cover. The photo on the right shows the negative and positive mold, which has got black gel coat covering the surfaces.

The part is made with two layers of 3/4 oz. mat and one layer of the light ounce German weave cloth. This part was originally plastic, which is why they've all since disintegrated. With the two piece mold, the part is smooth on both sides, retaining the exact shape and surface as the original, but 20 times stronger. I guess I could have had injection molds made, but then the part would be plastic again and not as durable. Making the two piece mold is not a simple project, but after paint, no expert could tell the difference without a saw!

After the layers are laminated to each side...

the mold is squeezed in a vise, which will induce the perfect part.

This is the last headlight cover for 090 because 068's have already been made. I only have two more to make for 119, but that could be ...who knows when.

Here is the engine for 090. We used fiberglass sheet metal to keep it light and to give it a semi-official look. Of course, this car has its original engine (4-cam / 4-cylinder) sitting on a shelf. The 6-cylinder engine is a better power plant for any 904. In fact, the 904 was designed for the 901 type 6-cylinder engine. Porsche had an abundance of 4-cylinder power plants, so they were the chosen engine for the 904. Of course, some of the later 904's had 6-cylinders installed and a few of the earlier 904's actually had the 753, 8-cylinder Grand Prix engine installed. This made the 904 pretty versatile to drive and to race.

We use an oil filter instead of the factory grenade filter. This way you can just change the filter and disassembly and clean the micron filters. Remember, this engine didn't come with the car, so changing a few items to more modern parts is a necessity to keep the car more serviceable.

The engine is a twin plug with more compression and more camshaft, but simple enough to be a 50,000 mile engine. Dependability is important because this car will be driven in rallies and track events. I'm sure it might even make a few trips to the super market. Note the small fan. We like these engines to have some coolness too....get it?

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