Spring Cleaning

Life is complicated, and the more you do, the more you need to do on top of it. Something like that.

Since that is the case and I have no time to write much at the moment, this post will mainly be a pictorial exposé of recent events, Porsche related, that I am trying to complete before getting the car back onto the road. The winter that just finished here was the coldest since 1977, so the authorities say, and there was plenty of snow, too. As a result, the dirt road I live on has yet to fully thaw, and the first kilometer has many springs in it that force water to the surface, adding to the salty mud on top. No Porsche driving for me until it all dries out. So, I continue to fiddle with my car, as you see below.

There is more to do on the bottom than on the top, so the car is up in the air once again. It spends half of its life like this. Including the tires, there are eight support 'devices' under the car. This makes it awkward to work on some things, but at least the car should stay up in the air, rather than fall on my head. That could ruin the car.

This was/is a black-centered wheel, while on my car. A previous owner bought four wheels from several other cars to replace whatever my car had previously. The two front wheels had polished 'pedals' that were then painted black. This one was painted with a brush (badly), and the paint was coming off. It was very easy to remove the residual paint and I am going to repaint the wheel. However, having the 'silver' spoke color extend to the rim is not typical on old Fuchs wheels and I rather like it, but it won't stay. 

The other front wheel had been sprayed with a much tougher paint, but it was still shabby and the edges of the polished pedals had a sharp line that showed through. I filed the edges off and smoothed everything to my preference. I'm going to carry a rear wheel with me to a professional auto paint shop so that I can get some tough wheel paint to match exactly. I hope.

I didn't want to use this product on the wheels, but it worked well
 enough on the black valve covers, that looked grimy and grubby.

Wheel paint, and a clear coat over it, is tough. I used it on the fan and

 it has worked well, so I used the same thing on the valve covers.

The finished product. Very shiny, but it doesn't show here. I like it. Notice snow and ice still on the ground - April 22.

Much brighter than the original dirty, cracked black paint. Now I have to clean everything else.

Nice to have neat covers down here, too.

I warmed the transmission for 4 hours with an infrared lamp. Not too hot, and the thick oil drained easily and completely.

Inside - I don't like the roughness on that gear. I'm going to check this out. 
It is a bad fourth gear; it will run okay, but will make noise.

I use BP8ES, because they run nice and clean in my engine. But, there might be a small oil leak on the valve stem oil seal on the number two cylinder, and this fouls that plug. BP6ES is two numbers hotter. We'll see if that helps #2 to burn clean for the short term.

Scrape, scrape, clean, clean, paint, paint.

 I'm refilling the transmission with oil using that hose and funnel. Nuts to the bad 4th gear, it's been there for years, maybe.

And finally, May 5, this is the result of the repainting of one of the above wheels.  I like it.

There's more, but I ran out of pictures. The valves have been adjusted (see Kirk tool post below), I'm touching up stone chips in the paint, all the filters have been changed, I will shortly readjust the clutch cable - again, and the shift coupling, etc. A good amount of work needs completion, but I will hit the road on the first day that it dries up. Today it's snowing, still.