The Bare necessities ....

Finally !!!!   a plain Jane stock paint job....

Or is it???
Even though a new project comes in as a stock, nothing out of the ordinary, there are always a few little surprises waiting for us.

From Santa Barbara to our shop......Let's get busy

First things first,  all panels, trim and glass has to come off;  All rubber  will be replaced

Next:  that mid 80s respray job will have to come off as well.  It would be difficult to guaranty a high end paint job without going all the way to the bare metal

And since we are in luck,  this is a 1979.......galvanized metal........To some it is a great thing, but to painters and body men, it could be a nightmare, all thanks to EPA  that banned the use of some great products that did not meet Los Angeles standards.

After striping the body and found only some waves and door dings,  looks like we are in pretty good shape,  we will apply our direct to metal primer and then our surfacer.   Next will be the prepping and disassemble of it to give it a bath in Grand Prix White.

Rude Awakenings

Time flies.....even if you are not having any fun....

Imagine this, you don't drive your car for a month........and then another month goes by and another;  Next, you find yourself wondering if you can go another month, like trying to kick a bad habit you dare yourself to do it

Soon you discover that months have turned to years and when remember that is going to be a decade, well, now you start to realized that some things are going to need changing and that is going to take money,  will have to wait a little longer.

In all the years that I have wore the grease monkey hat,  I have seen this many times.  it is a work in progress,  I'm in no rush, not enough money, not enough time  and so forth

So here we are, July 2012,  when I hear from my boss, there is a car coming today, it hasn't been started in a while...................License plate has tags of 1991, the gasoline in the tank went back to be crude oil,  the top notch lacquer paint job from the 80's help up pretty good, but it was no match for the galvanized coating of this upgraded 69 ex-long hood.


Time can be cruel to rubber and plastic and after replacing and repairing and refreshing the necessary parts, we were able to check the vitals and presto !!    purrrr like a kitten.   It has been given a lot of love and I think we are in the right track to recovery.

Horror stories

They do happen from time to time

If one researches a shop, or one is recommended to one,  why is this the result ??

A 1974 911 that is in need of some TLC goes to a shop,  a promise of an excellent job is made and price is agreed.   After months and a lot of unhappiness, the result was not what was promised, sad to say but it was just make up.

I know I've had my shares of mistakes throughout my years of grease monkey, but to put 4 different bolts to hold the engine lid.....really, the most basic of things.

The horror of it is that the suspension pan was just tacked, I was surprised that the suspension did not fall off.   As luck would have it, our customer finally found TRE Motorsports and they recommended us to take care of Greenie,  we were supposed to take care of the suspension area and a few small things.

This car is special, it deserves the proper job and my customer said, I want the car the way it was on July 30th of 1974.

Stay tune..........

It's alive !!

After a few rounds with two insurance companies and lot of intense negotiations,  the go ahead was given and the painful process begun.

We decided to fix the existing part because frankly we ran out of patience waiting for the fiberglass company to make us a new piece.  It took about 2 1/2 years to build this thing the first time, so now we are not in the mood to make our customer wait that long again.

The body has been regenerated and it will have its shiny new skin tomorrow.  The Boss has been busy building a new set of headers and all the plumbing.

And we also added a few little things,  just to make look pretty.

There is a big Porsche show in 6 days time,  our customer would like to show off this silver bullet.

It's all hands on deck, will we make it?  I have no idea, but I can tell you,  we will give our best shot,  If I can make it without cutting any corners.............I will be done.

Have to reinforce the engine bay

Light of day

Angel eyes........

It seems like everybody wants them, and they are available for a number of vehicles, but not for the air cooled Porsche.  For this application,  we have to make them ourselves.

It is my opinion, that angel eyes, only look cool if you have projection headlights.  After a few little experiments,  this is our version, it can still have some variations, as you can see, one headlight is black, the other one is white.  the inside of the light can painted, powder coated, chromed or just as it comes.

So far we have sold two sets, and I will continue to find other ways to work with.

Keep an eye on it.

We can make it stronger....we can make it faster.....

We have the technology........

 After having a few rounds with two insurance companies, we finally got approval for the repairs needed.

 One of the biggest challenges was that there are no replacement parts available,  you can buy the whole kit, but that would be overkill.  We had a price to buy the one half, but somehow, it is higher now, and the insurance said, no supplements.
We have no choice but to use our skills to repair it and make it stronger.

First things first,  We have to relive all the pressure from the fiberglass by cutting the areas that were folded from the impact, then attach anchors to hold the body in place.  Hey !  I think doctors fix bones this way.....

 To insure strength we are going to sandwich this portion between coats of long strand fiberglass reinforced body filler,  it is a product hard to work with, but it the strongest one.

 Once the easy part is done, then we start shaping the area, smoothing and making sure there are no bubbles that may come back to hunt us later on.

Of course, we have to reinforce it from the inside too, we used a polyester mesh along with our filler.  In the end, this repair cost more than the insurance paid for, but the important thing is to get our customer rolling again.
Now that the body has been mended and we have made it stronger,  it is time to make it faster.    stay tune.

I'll tell you what I want.......

What I really, really want....

After a few moons of working on this Golden Targa, we have changed a few things, and now that our client has road tested, a few things came under review.

Though the whole interior has been re done with suede, leather and the skin of some exotic birds, a few things seem to be out of place or out of date.

From this angle, the shift knob is really an eye sore. so much difference from the LED courtesy lights on the foot well, we are going to keep those and replace the knob.

Now.  from this angle you can agree that the steering wheel really needs to go, even though we gave it some skin, still, it does not cut it,  We are going to need MOMO,  Millennium Evo to be exact. It is a cool looking wheel that will go the modernized version of this Targa.

The E brake handle was not made to our client liking, so a billet piece will have to replace one half of it to avoid wear and tear.

In a few days we will see the delivery truck with all our goodies and our list will get shorter, should be fun, we also order new front blinstein sports struts, and our second test should take place.

Are we having fun yet.....

Just venting.......

So that the intercoolers can get some air

They are going to be inside the quarter panels, though they are going to have cooling fans, we still need to create some flow.

I have seen other versions of vents and frankly, they look like holes to me.

 So we need to be creative, by opening the quarter panels that high allows the air to travel through the wheel well and reach the intercooler and at the same time it will give some to the brakes.

 Stainless still mesh was used to dress it up, because we still have to be stylish.

I was thinking of using the torsion bar opening to do a brake cooling thingy, but for now it's only a thought.

 Now we turn our attention to the other side, for this application we went with louvers just to give it a hot rod kind of look.  We had some pieces done and then we graph then to the quarter extensions.

With everything in place, now it's time to hang the intercoolers and air intake.

It won't be long before this big dog starting barking.....and who knows maybe a bite or two.

Hang around, it won't be long........

Cool it baby.......

It's always fun to see the delivery truck, that means we are going to build stuff....

This week, we will be busy doing some intercoolers, and size does matter.  The two little ones are going to be hidden under the quarter panels of the REINVTD twin turbo. the larger one is to replace a name brand that, although expensive, is not very efficient.  We must take care of that problem, after all, nobody wants to be full of hot air.

 Since we are taking care of the temperature of the oil, by adding an extra oil cooler and fan, we might as well take care of the temperature of the air, so we are going to replace that name brand one with one of our custom made.

 Since we are restricted by someone else's measurements, we can install it in the must efficient way, insuring that the airflow receives the must amount of cooling before it hits the intake.

At the end of the tunnel....

...there is light...

 We got a little sidetracked while waiting for parts and dealing with the drama sometimes this place goes under,  needless to say, morale was a bit low this week.

But there is no need for crying over spilled milk, a set back can only make us stronger.

So let's get back to the fun side of Axiom,  the reinvention of this 74 former Targa.

 The 3.1 litre is in and now it's time for some fabrication, the intercoolers will be placed under the quarter panels, with custom plumbing to the 70mm throttle body,  twin oil-less turbos attached with V band and custom exhaust with a center outlet.

 Pro 128 ECU with all the goodies in it, capable of  using flex fuel without changing maps,  this is how the big boys play....



I know it is taking longer than anticipated,  but I can see the light now.