Whatever floats your boat

It was somewhere amid the hail of sparks gently caressing my face Sunday morning that I became acutely aware of the fact that I never pull out the angle grinder after something’s gone right.

 

Lesson #1: Even the lightest of hammer taps will inevitably degrade the initial threading pitch of the alternator.

 

Lesson #2: Taking a cutting disk to your Porsche for the first time is exhilarating in so many ways.

 

But first, allow me to back up and start from the beginning. Yesterday began the eagerly anticipated re-assembly of my engine bay. After pulling the carbs for a rebuild, I bit on the “while you’re in there” bug and went after some components that were in dire need of a refresh and attitude adjustment. I stripped the paint from these pieces and re-painted in a variety of finishes that, in my opinion, better suit the car and better suit my tastes.

 

The offending color scheme:

 



 

And a quick test fit of the finished product:

  



I only ended up painting the fan, housing, fan shroud, and rain hats but the difference is night and day for me. As a bonus, my fan strap turned out to be a Rennline aluminum one that was previously installed upside down!

 

I had a quick scare bolting the fan back in place, but luckily the threads cleaned up without calling the grinder back in.

 



 

After a quick break to conceptualize, I set about task #2 for the day – fitting the MSD units to the relay panel. The units were previously mounted to the firewall with wires hanging everywhere. I can’t exactly shave the bay like a MK1 Volkswagen, but I can try to clean things up a little better.

 



 

Before:

 



 

Mock up:

 

 



With the MSD mocked in place and daylight fading, I jumped ahead to stretch task #3 – turning the key!

 



Well the key turned, the fuel pump pumped, and the right carb transformed from a freshly cleaned horsepower vortex to a beautiful fountain of gasoline. “oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck!” I whimpered while dashing back to the front of the car to turn the key off. It wasn’t clear at first, but something from the back of my mind slowly crept to the front..

 

Remember that float with a kink in it? It’d be fine right? Wrong. The introduction of fuel lead to the float being stuck and consequently the needle valve staying open. Rats! Shoot! Gosh darn it! I have a new float ordered that will hopefully be here by the end of the week.

 

Womp womp