Time for a change: Porsche 986 repairs

After seeing a small release of coolant on a short drive, I found the Boxster had a pin-hole leak CRAP!   Oh well, thats the car hobby...it's either drive 'em or fix 'em.

Step one, remove front bumner cover to get at the rads....

With the cover off you can see the years of dirt and debris that gets stuck in behind....

It's like a prairie natural museum in here...

The one one the left - behind the AC condenser was the one giving me the problems...

Due to the pin-hole (?) leak, debri had been collecting and turning into mud....which would have been blocking the cooling ability of the rad as well.

Getting the rad out wasn't too much of an issue. One the fender skirt and cover where removed and the hose clamps loosened off, 3 bolts holds its frame to the main inner structure. Then it's just upper and lower rad hoses, a vent hose and the fan wire. I recommend applying wd40 or similar to loosen the hoses from the piping.

As you can see below, I tied the AC condenser and out of the way with a wire tie.

Here's the rad from behind out of the car and on the floor...

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Restore and repair: original steering wheel: 1956 International Harvester

Restoring and detailing all the bits and pieces is the dun part of any restoration.

Today I tackled the steering wheel. These old wheels where made of bakelight or similar plastic that had a habit of separating and spreading apart from the underlined steel frame. Luckily they're easy enough to repair which includes grinding and beveling out the separated areas and filling with appropriate materials.

 A grinder is used to rough out the gaps and bevel the edges that need to be filled.

 Vinyl hand sanding is done to bring sanded area further out from the repair.

For the largest areas I mixed up some kitty hair which includes a fiberglass resin.

 The kitty hair is packed into the largest areas and allowed to cure.

 Once hardened the fiberglass is rough smooth with the grinder. I'll smooth it down with some hand sanding and then we'll put a final skim of filler across the repairs before priming and painting to perfection.

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1956 International S120 - Color sanding

Color sanding a fresh paint job is fairly common practice now - especially when you want to bring the overall restoration into the highest categories of superb paint work. The procedure starts with 600 or 800 wet paper to knock down any dust nibs or rough that is really rough clear  including orange peel and dry spots. Once that is carefully knocked down you move up in increments and finer sand papers through 1000 grit than 1500 then 2000 and 3000. Often 1500 up is done with the DA sander.

 Here it is after sanding with 600 grit wet paper. The white residue is the clear that is sanded off.

Looking closely, you can see the spots that are sanded down to flat. This is ready for sanding with 1500 and 2000.

Once DA'd with 3000 grit, we'll be ready for the final (although very time consuming) polishing stage. More on that next week....

1956 International S120 build - Detailing parts for re-installation

"Restorated" and painted all the heater, dash and suspension parts today...

Now have to have the seats upholstered...

The rad boiled and combed...

New tires all around nxt!

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