Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Denver MCM garage expansion

[ducatithunder]

Thanks for that link, it's very informative. Like most of the country, it's freezing out so I'm spending my Saturday morning with quality internet time. I'm looking into the solder/powder coat approach to repairing the light housing - one thing that I haven't figured out: the powder coat bakes at 375-400 degrees which is above the melting temp of the solder. So mutually exclusive?
Does it boil down to repair with epoxy then powder coat vs. repair with solder then use other reflective surface treatment?
Any thoughts on these are appreciated

I get what your saying. I would say powdercoat is for a housing that isnt repaired with solder. Chrome paint is more DIY. You could also just paint the housing if you get a good solder repair. The other option is to have them re chromed or plated which doesnt require any heat. Depends on how much you want to spend and the quality of the repair.

When I get me housing next week I will have to figure out how to get a nice backing to hold the shape and support the repair until it cool. I may try some hi temp hvac tape. That stuff can take heat up to 600 deg.

 

[kwyjibo]

ducatithunder - I have a few calls and emails out to get some advice and pricing info. I'll post what I learn later

Small update: I pulled the dried and torn leather cover off the steering wheel. It is actually a 38cm 914 wheel but fits the 911 column and comes close to the wheel used in the RS. I still haven't decided who I'll use to recover it. There are a couple upholsterers that are known to recover these steering wheels with the correct leather and stitching but I'll first look for someone local
The stitching that was still intact was easy to cut

Here it is free of the leather cover. The 50 year old hard rubber was nicely protected by the leather and is in good condition

 

[Arclitgold]

Sweet! That wheel will look nice with a fresh coat of leather


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[kwyjibo]

I finally got around to something that I've been putting off for a while. I needed to remove the fuel tank but it was about 1/3 full of varnish. First up was a quick trip to the local Harbor Freight to pick up a (disposable) transfer pump. Not completely unexpected but the pump only worked for a short time - just long enough to get most of the fuel out. Next step was to dispose of the ~5 gallons of varnish. Luckily I found a shop that was more than happy to take it and a few jugs of waste oil off my hands for their oil burner heating system. Last was a trip out to the local radiator guru. Based on the look of the 20+ year old gas and what I could see with a flashlight, I was afraid that the tank wouldn't be restorable but he said it would be "no problem".
I hope that the garage quickly loses the varnish smell now that the stale gas is gone
Here's the tank, ready to stink up my wife's car during the trip to the shop

I was happy to see that the metal under the tank was solid

 

[Arclitgold]

Awesome! Feels good to knock those things out


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[gearhead1960]

I bet that's a relief the metal is good underneath and the tank will be recoverable. We all know how deep our pocket's really aren't.....

 

[ODIS]

Feel your pain on the gas tank. My '71T had a squirrel nest in the bonnet (they lived there for years) and the mess and stink was monumental. Further, the tank had a ton of rust in it. Researched having it cleaned and coated but the reports were not all that good with problems down the road. Opted for a new tank to ensure that once the work was completed, would never have to go back to the tank to fix other problems.

Think this work was discussed on my thread starting on about page 46-49 or so.

After the "frunk" was cleaned with lots of different chemicals, finally coated the whole area with shellac which killed the stink and could move on to treating the surface rust there.

Really good to see the progress on your Porsche.

 

[kwyjibo]

Thanks for the comments!
I've moved on to the slow work of removing the sound deadening on the floors. The method of choice at the moment is a heat gun and scraper. I haven't made much progress yet. I was happy to see the solid metal under the rear seat area pads

The paint and metal under the residual adhesive looks great (at least on the upper side). The darker patches are glue and foam, not surface rust.

After a long talk with a body/paint guy, I've decided against a rotisserie. The costs involved couldn't justify the single use. So I will go with a body cart. I'm still not sure about buy vs. build. But I'm leaning towards buy: after buying a new cart and selling when done, it should cost me about $300-400.

 

[gearhead1960]

Thanks for the comments!
I've moved on to the slow work of removing the sound deadening on the floors. The method of choice at the moment is a heat gun and scraper. I haven't made much progress yet. I was happy to see the solid metal under the rear seat area pads

The paint and metal under the residual adhesive looks great (at least on the upper side). The darker patches are glue and foam, not surface rust.

After cleaning/treating and finish, what will you do for sound deadening?

 

[ODIS]

You are lucky on the lack of rust in the back seat buckets, especially with an "open" car. Great progress!

Re the light housings: This from Frank Amoroso off the Pelican site;

"FWIW, if you upgrade to Spikeworks LED tail lights, brake lights, etc., the don't rely on the housing's reflectivity.

Your work looks satisfying tho!"

 

[kwyjibo]

After cleaning/treating and finish, what will you do for sound deadening?

I'm not 100% decided yet, but the bottom surface will be a Wurth schutz-type undercoating. And because it will be hidden by the carpet, the interior surface will be covered with a modern foil backed material, like from Dynamat and others.

You are lucky on the lack of rust in the back seat buckets, especially with an "open" car. Great progress!

Re the light housings: This from Frank Amoroso off the Pelican site;

"FWIW, if you upgrade to Spikeworks LED tail lights, brake lights, etc., the don't rely on the housing's reflectivity.

Your work looks satisfying tho!"

I was expecting the worst given that 1) it's a targa and 2) I have no idea how it spent it's longterm storage (but I can say that it was obviously not stored "correctly"). A friend of mine is restoring a '71 coupe that spent some time outdoors. He replaced the package tray/window sill and most of the pan, including the rear seats, because (among other things) the rear window seal was leaking.

I was initially hoping to leave the original material in place with just a few exploratory cuts. But after talking to a few friends they convinced me that it would be best to rip it all out to be sure that wasn't any rust forming. I'm going to build a rear seat-delete storage unit so the foam padding won't be missed by any passengers.

Thanks for the light info. I plan on getting back to mine when I have some downtime.

 

[Arclitgold]

Scraping that stuff is the worst huh! Glad you’re making progress on it!


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[kwyjibo]

The rubberized tar (or whatever it is) is definitely not fun. The problem is that the undercoating on the bottom is worse. I'm not looking forward to that

Here's where I left off yesterday afternoon. Most of the back 2/3 of the driver's side is scraped. So far there is only a couple signs of rust near the drain holes.

 

[kwyjibo]

quick update

The passenger side is now completely scraped. Once again I'm very relieved to see that there are barely any signs of rust

I need to finish the driver side footwell area but otherwise done. Next I'll go to town with an abrasive disc to clean it up.

One thing ruined the afternoon and kept me from finishing today: the turbo in my wife's VW Golf Sportwagon kicked the bucket. 2 years and 35k miles. And of course, it didn't happen close to home. So I drove out and we had burgers nearby while waiting for the tow truck. Happily, the turbo replacement is covered under warrantee.

 

[getbentMUSTARD]

How has tackling this undercoat with heat been versus say using dry ice? I have a ton to remove shortly and usually see people going the dry ice route.

Thanks and I absolutely love the garage and the house!

 

[Trapps]

Turn signal...changing lanes back to your shop for a minute....

How's the formica working out? As I get to the next phase of my shop build I am starting to think, again, about finishes. Granted I have a soft spot for your Zenith Blue and Tangerine, but I'd be using non-color colors of black and white.

Thanks!

 

[kwyjibo]

How has tackling this undercoat with heat been versus say using dry ice? I have a ton to remove shortly and usually see people going the dry ice route.

Thanks and I absolutely love the garage and the house!

Thanks for following along!
The dry ice method was going to be my Plan B. To he honest removing the sound deadening with the heat gun wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Once I dialed in the Goldilocks temperature the material was soft enough that the scraper cut right through and it lifted easily enough. The body and paint guy that's acting as my teacher/consultant/mentor told me that in his experience the superchill and smack it with a mallet method was hit or miss: sometimes it would come off in sheets, other times not at all. I can see how this variability could happen because on my floor there were small sections that lifted easier and cleaner than others and it turns out that the paint/primer was not adhering to the metal. You can see this as the bare metal patches on the left side of the last photo I posted. So my guess would be that the success with shattering the mats depends on their condition

I'm really not looking forward to the undercoating. But first I need to make a decision on the body cart so that I have enough room to work underneath

 

[kwyjibo]

Turn signal...changing lanes back to your shop for a minute....

How's the formica working out? As I get to the next phase of my shop build I am starting to think, again, about finishes. Granted I have a soft spot for your Zenith Blue and Tangerine, but I'd be using non-color colors of black and white.

Thanks!

Hey Trapps! The formica is working out great for vertical surfaces and low-impact work areas. Resists staining and scratches better than finished wood. But, there are a few obvious scratches on the large bench where I've worked on heavier or sharper edged objects. In fact, some of the scratches are from small rocks or shavings that got dragged under some other 'innocuous' object.
I'm terrible with paint so for me formica was a good choice. Maybe next time I would incorporate a work area with a steel surface. Good luck

 

[E12-535iTurbo]

I'm really not looking forward to the undercoating. But first I need to make a decision on the body cart so that I have enough room to work underneath

That would be one of the main reasons to go for a rotiserie. Working overhead while scrapping things in your eyes is not fun. I've a lot of welding to do underneath so I guess my path is clearer. I understand with such a nice chassis your path is leaning towards a cart.

 

[kwyjibo]

That would be one of the main reasons to go for a rotiserie. Working overhead while scrapping things in your eyes is not fun. I've a lot of welding to do underneath so I guess my path is clearer. I understand with such a nice chassis your path is leaning towards a cart.

I have a cart on order now. I took into account the large price difference and that as bad as it will be to lay on my back to work on the bottom, it is for only one car. I hope to recover the expense by selling the cart when I finish.

I've been quiet on here because there hasn't been a recent garage-related update. And I have been busy with a big update: we have a new addition to the household. We're fostering an Akita rescue. This happened very quickly when a neighbor reached out to us on behalf of a friend that runs a rescue organization. He looks a lot like our old girl but bigger... and without much training. He's good hearted but doesn't know how big and strong he is, so he needs to learn discipline

only targa update - the fuel tank has been relined and I'm now removing the undercoating before I get it recoated. The tanks were originally "painted" with the undercoating so I'm having a friend spray it when he works on the bottom of another Porsche

 

[ODIS]

You are making great progress!

 

[nicholam77]

Nice pupperz. Still love that credenza you made. And I guess the Porsche is alright, too.

 

[kwyjibo]

Thanks for the comments.
I thought that while I had a minute I could explain my total absence from the site. All of my projects have been put on hold. The dog is taking all of our time. We need to keep an eye on him 24/7 because he will tear up anything he gets into - which is everything because he's big, strong and smart. We should rename him Jekell because he can flip from being a great dog to a complete pain in the **** in an instant. I can only imagine what kind of **** the previous owner put him through. We're working with a trainer so I hope that to get back to work soon

 

[ODIS]

Wish you the best. Keep after this one. He looks like a keeper and will develop a bond with you guys that no one can shake.

Great shot too!

 

[Arclitgold]

Good luck!


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[kwyjibo]

Thanks for the encouragement. I haven't been able to work in the garage since taking in the dog. But I have some landscaping updates

First, Kimo, the new dog, has been a handful. He's much better than a few weeks ago, but still a handful. When he isn't causing trouble, he is a great dog. He follows me everywhere but just needs to learn impulse control so that he isn't tearing into everything.

Our last dog went on more drives with me than my wife. So most of the time my cars didn't have front passenger seats, just a dog bed on the floor. I'm hoping Kimo will enjoy long drives so that I can take him out on road trips. We've started taking him on short car trips, which so far, he seems to like. Here he is posing in some sculptures from our trip to the CU Medical Center

Kimo behaves better outside than when he's inside. So I've been able to work on some of the landscaping with him tethered nearby. First up was a hole in the ground in front of the gate. I prepped the ground last fall but decided not to plant the Japanese maple because it didn't seem like there was enough time for it to establish before the winter. I got it and the moss planted just in time to get hit by a spring snowstorm. Actually, two storms now. The freshly sprouted leaves are now wilted and dying from the 20 F weather. I hope it recovers.

I was also able to get out long enough to hit my favorite rock yard and pick out some granite boulders. The delivery guy did a good job placing the boulders in the holes I dug but it still took me another few hours with a rock bar to get them positioned how I wanted them. We also drove the donkey lift across my neighbor's lawn so I had some reseeding to do. I had solid plans for a grass-less yard... until Kimo came along. Now I'm planning on a central square patch for him to sit on and guard the street. Here's a photo of the right side of the yard at the end of the second day after some more groundwork and planting a serviceberry shrub. This area will have more beach pebbles and a few more plants but I'm still waiting for the nurseries to stock up.

I hope that my next update will include something about the targa....

 

[The J]

Interesting landscape plans - will stones and boulders make up the whole front? Is there a design or reason for no grass (except a Kimo patch now)? It’s refreshing to see a rock landscape and it provides a clean aesthetic to tie into the style of your house.

Great updates and have fun exploring with the pup now that weather is getting nice.

I laughed at you taking out the passenger seat for your dog copilot but totally get it. Sunday drives to nowhere are something few non-car people can enjoy!

 

[hewey]

Nice work on the landscaping, and sounds like you're making good progress with the dog's behaviour, even if its not as quick as you'd like.

 

[Bone Stock]

Nice work on the landscaping, and sounds like you're making good progress with the dog's behaviour, even if its not as quick as you'd like.

Second all of that. I like the stone features.

Nice to see progress on the Porsche too. Mind sharing the steering wheel shops? I'm considering getting one redone soon as well.

 

[kwyjibo]

Thanks for the comments. It feels like a long time since I last logged on. Kimo's training is progressing, but not quite to the point that I can work in the garage

Interesting landscape plans - will stones and boulders make up the whole front? Is there a design or reason for no grass (except a Kimo patch now)? It’s refreshing to see a rock landscape and it provides a clean aesthetic to tie into the style of your house.

Great updates and have fun exploring with the pup now that weather is getting nice.

I laughed at you taking out the passenger seat for your dog copilot but totally get it. Sunday drives to nowhere are something few non-car people can enjoy!

I've always disliked lawns. The maintenance. The water. The plan for the front yard was to have a pseudo-Alpine rock garden with some Japanese garden influences. Or, in other words, lots of rock with ground cover and evergreen plant accents. Now it will be a square lawn flanked by condensed versions of that. I'm not fully convinced that the hybrid design will turn out to be anything but awkward. But I think it will be nice to have a nice, partially shaded lawn for Kimo to hang out on.

Here's a photo from a few years back. Normally there would be a dog bed on the floor and a seat cover on the rear bench but I took them out for this particular Cars&Coffee

Nice work on the landscaping, and sounds like you're making good progress with the dog's behaviour, even if its not as quick as you'd like.

Thanks hewey! He is doing much better. But he does manage to surprise (and frustrate) us occasionally with some bad behavior

Second all of that. I like the stone features.

Nice to see progress on the Porsche too. Mind sharing the steering wheel shops? I'm considering getting one redone soon as well.

Sorry about the delayed response. I've decided to go with Tony at Autobahn Interiors but I haven't sent it off yet. The wheel is boxed and ready to go but I haven't been able to make it to UPS for the final step. I compared a few recovered wheels (two local, Autobahn and Dallas Custom) and the Autobahn one looked closest to OEM, but it is also the most expensive - about $50 more than Dallas

 

[nicholam77]

I like the landscaping! Grass is overrated. I've always liked Japanese Maples but have always doubted they would do well in MN where I'm at.

 

[Mpower5266]

I have a very similar Japanese maple. I have two in my front yard actually, one red and one green. Thankfully they both survived the tornado. How is the E9 doing? I have finally started driving mine.

 

[kwyjibo]

Sorry about the delay in responding
I tried to drive the E9 a few weeks back but when I got in to start it, the clutch pedal went straight to the floor. It took a while for me to find the time to crawl underneath but ultimately, and predictably, I saw that it blew a seal in the clutch slave cylinder. Bad news: it's a $250 part, not a $30 one used in newer models. More bad news: it could take a while to get here from Germany. Luckily a friend of mine found one in Texas so I should be able to pick it up from his shop next week.

I've killed a couple Japanese maples by now. It's an expensive experiment in finding out what can grow here. The red maple in the earlier post is recovering, I'll get a photo when it looks better

I've been continuing with the landscaping. I don't want to turn this into the Garden Journal so I'll use this photo of my friend's E30 M3 to distract from the fact that my most of my post will not be about the garage or it's contents

The lawn edging is now in place and I mixed a load of organic matter into the clay where the sod will be going. I thought about renting a tiller but a 16x16 patch didn't seem to be worth it to rent. My sore back would argue otherwise. The M3 pulled up just as I was cleaning up. btw, that is our white E30 on the neighbor's driveway - I've been parking it there when I need the space for work

Kimo's training has been going well. I've been able to squeeze in a few minutes of garage work with him watching from the courtyard or house. I'm slowly extending the time so I might be able to get something done soon. Here he is on a recent run around Red Rocks with my wife

 

[E12-535iTurbo]

Amazing house, cars, scenery. Thanks for sharing

 

[TahitianGreen]

Honestly would not have complained about garden imagery. Having sold my house a couple of years ago I find myself missing my garden/flower beds as much as I miss my garage.

 

[Glemon]

Like you taste in houses, cars, and dogs. We always say "a tired dog is a good dog"

Greetings from another MCM owner.

 

[kwyjibo]

Amazing house, cars, scenery. Thanks for sharing

Thanks for following along.
I drove the E12 this week! Unfortunately, it was only have the emissions tested and then to renew the registration. The good news is that it qualifies as a collector car in Colorado so I have the option of pre-paying for a 5 year term (meaning that I also only need to have the exhaust tested every 5 years)

Honestly would not have complained about garden imagery. Having sold my house a couple of years ago I find myself missing my garden/flower beds as much as I miss my garage.

The funny thing is that the landscaping projects from our last place in NH are the only things we miss. Oh, and the lift

Like you taste in houses, cars, and dogs. We always say "a tired dog is a good dog"

Greetings from another MCM owner.

Thanks! Kimo is much better when he's tired and fed.
Do you have a thread with photos of your house? (here or otherwise)

 

[E12-535iTurbo]

Thanks for following along.
I drove the E12 this week! Unfortunately, it was only have the emissions tested and then to renew the registration. The good news is that it qualifies as a collector car in Colorado so I have the option of pre-paying for a 5 year term (meaning that I also only need to have the exhaust tested every 5 years)

I'd love to drive mine again but there is a house renovation and an E30 restauration in the way.

 

[Glemon]

I don't know if this will work, renovation album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/uCooN1caoBnZ4MDV6

 

[kwyjibo]

I haven't updated for a while (almost two months!) because I didn't have any updates. Then we took a quick vacation and I've been able to do a few noteworthy things once we got back.

But first, a garage-related photo. This past Sunday was the return of our local, annual Italian car show, Automezzi. It was unpleasantly hot out so I didn't stick around for too long. Funny thing is that neither did the owner of one of the biggest draws of the show,

He preferred to go on a drive through the nearby mountains rather than stick around for any award. I had to deface the photo to protect his identity, but he's also the owner of the Carrera GT that made an appearance in a post earlier this year
... Back to reality
About a month ago, it was above 100 degrees throughout most of the West. Unfortunately we had planned a drive out to Washington to visit the inlaws. Amazingly it was snowing on Mt. Rainier. After sitting in a rolling oven for a couple days Kimo enjoyed the snow

We took him to the ocean, but he didn't like the waves or the salty water. But he was perfectly happy to walk on the sand or the docks.

We spent a week in WA and am happy to report that Kimo was a great travel and camping companion.

After driving straight back from Seattle I got to work on the front yard. I was originally planning the sod work for late May/early June but didn't want to burden any of our neighbors or friends with lawn care responsibilities while we were gone. The extra time did allow the soil to settle so I think I got it as level as possible. Here's a couple of before and after photos of the grass patch


Targa update
Kimo is less destructive and anxious when left alone so I've been able to do some work on the 911. The bottom of the gas tank is now down to metal and the top only has a small patch of the protective schutz left to scrape.

I also got my hands on an original "rear seat delete" - basically a wood shelf with a couple doors that replace the rear seats. These were an option back in the day and are rare and expensive today. This one is kinda beat up and has some terribly cut holes for a couple of door mounted speakers. But it's good enough for me to make a pattern off it (then I can finally put some of my woodworking tools to use again)

I hope the next update will have more content (and be sooner)