Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

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Bill Sargent
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Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#1 Post by Bill Sargent »

After following Rusty and Justin's threads for the last year+, and making various posts on parts of my project on the main talk forum I decided it was time to start a thread on my project. When I purchased #151489 I was not looking for another project, just trying to help a fellow registry member sell his 59A cab. He purchased it in 1981 from a bank who repossessed it in Wasilla, Alaska (yes, Sarah Palin's home town). He other interests in life and wanted it to go to a good home. I went to look at it and, given the very solid body, I ended up buying it in November 2009. This is my first look at the car in the prior owner's underground garage.
Got the roller skate wheels with the car
Got the roller skate wheels with the car
The prior owner (PO) was kind enough to let me store the car in his underground garage until April 2010 (takes a while for snow to melt here.....). The PO said it had been ~3 years since the car had run. I had a flat bed car hauler take the car to my home and it took about 3 weeks of work to get the gas tank flushed and pressure tested, replace all the soft fuel lines, rebuild the carbs and brakes and adjust all the various linkages. I got the car running and drove it most of the 2010 summer until October of last year when the car developed a rear main seal leak.
Along the Old Seward highway near my house in Anchorage, October 2010
Along the Old Seward highway near my house in Anchorage, October 2010
When the PO purchased the car the original motor had thrown a rod thru the case so he sent it to Stoddards as the core for a rebuilt 1960 super motor that was in the car when I purchased it. The COA received later indicated it started life as a normal and was sold by Hoffman in New York. No clue how it got to Alaska, but when soda blasting last Friday a California State Park day pass came out of the driver's side heater tube. It was dated April 1, 1966, so I know where the car was that day! My guess is that someone working on the trans Alaska oil pipeline in the mid 70s brought the car up from California. Based on condition it had to have come from a dry place.

This thread will bounce around a bit with some posts about present day work and some on things I have done so far. Friday 8 July saw the car wrong side up getting the last of the soda etc out of the nether regions.
Jeremiah the soda blaster cleaning stuff out of the crannys
Jeremiah the soda blaster cleaning stuff out of the crannys
Last edited by Bill Sargent on Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - a faux cam build

#2 Post by Bill Sargent »

So after reading the first post, you may be asking how/why the car went from a nice fall day drive in October 2010 to wrong side up with no suspension, drive train or interior on last Friday. Well, I spent most of the 90s restoring my other car, a 64 C cab and I was a slave to originality.
TUB 2 above Anchorage Email.jpg
I wanted to do something different with this car and since the original motor was long gone, it would never be "numbers matching". I have been collecting parts for a "hot" motor for a number of years and one day when looking at 356 Talk postings I stumbled across Ibrahim Kuzu's name and his reproduction 4 Cam cooling system. After talking to Ibrahim I came up with the idea of recreating a carrera GT using one of Ibrahim's 4 Cam cooling units on a large displacement pushrod motor that would be twin plugged and dry sumped and use the full carrera oil system. Basically a clone of Freddy Rabbat's car with GT touches on a budget.

The car was originally messian blue with red upholstry and oatmeal carpeting and was a hard top only delivery. Fortunately the hard top is still with the car, together with the soft top purchased by the PO in the early 80s. The car will go back to its original color and the hard top will be light ivory - just like the factory photo of a 1957 carrera shown below - See Conradt's book.
58 Carrera Factory Photo.jpg
Some of the parts collected so far are shown below:
4 Cam cooling system from Ibrahim Kuzu
4 Cam cooling system from Ibrahim Kuzu
Pushrod Seabring exhaust in stainless from Jim Constas
Pushrod Seabring exhaust in stainless from Jim Constas
Custom filter from Jim Ansite and thermostat out of a 69-72 911S from LA lit meet swap meet
Custom filter from Jim Ansite and thermostat out of a 69-72 911S from LA lit meet swap meet
New Carrera Lines 3.jpg (10.44 KiB) Viewed 22840 times
Carrera oil tank purchased from Tom Tate
Carrera oil tank purchased from Tom Tate
Attachments
Carrera hard & soft oil lines from Warren Eads, coolers and mount blocks from Peter Hoffman
Carrera hard & soft oil lines from Warren Eads, coolers and mount blocks from Peter Hoffman
New Carrera Lines 1.jpg (9.7 KiB) Viewed 22840 times
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - a faux cam build

#3 Post by Bill Sargent »

I have to thank Vic Skirmants for part of this thread title. The original 716 tranny in the car seemed to work OK, but had a pretty good whine. Given the additional power the new motor would have I elected to send it to Vic in trade for a late 741 box that would use the original A nose cone and axel tubes to allow me to keep the drum brakes. In one of our conversations about the tranny and my project the name "Faux Cam" came up and we both had a good laugh.

Unfortunately the 716 box was pretty well trashed with spalling on the pinion and serious wear on the ring gear, as well as chipped/worn 1st & 4th gears and a worn input shaft. Not too much of a core discount, but I now have a good to go 741 with tall 4th gear and a GT touque biasing diff.
New Tranny.JPG
Car will also have the GT brake set up with the 60 mm GT drums up front and GT backing plates all around. Dario Calandra up in Vancouver supplied me with the GT scoups and a friend here in Anchorage with a CNC milling machine in his garage (Gary Tone) helped me with the 132 total 14 mm holes that need to go in the backing plates
Milling the holes in the backing plates
Milling the holes in the backing plates
Scoops welded on - used my mig welder
Scoops welded on - used my mig welder
Brass screens installed using JB weld - good to 500F and powder coating only goes to 420F.
Brass screens installed using JB weld - good to 500F and powder coating only goes to 420F.
Thanks for following along so far. I will try to keep up with the great examples Rusty and Justin set and post every few days.
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Adam Wright
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Re: Restoring #151489 - a faux cam build

#4 Post by Adam Wright »

Bill-
You are doing it right, buying all the right stuff, not getting cheap, should be a very cool car.
www.unobtanium-inc.com
Check out my Barn Find column in the Registry magazine, always looking for good stories.

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Re: Restoring #151489 - a faux cam build

#5 Post by Justin Rio »

Hey Bill,

Glad to see you finally decided to post your build. Great title by the way. Your post will no doubt inspire many with all the trick parts your using. I really like that blue example car you posted a picture of. Its going to look great! looking forward to your updates. Thanks again for all the help over the last couple of months!

Best Regards, Justin

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - a faux cam build

#6 Post by Bill Sargent »

Adam - yes, good parts are not cheap, but I have never been disappointed by a good part. Justin - thanks for the kind words. Wish I had your metal work skills.

I think my biggest challenge on this project may be my 19 month old assistant, Hana. She took an interest in 356s at about 8 months......
Hana Driving.JPG
The slippery slope to the car being upside down with the soda blast guy probing her nether regions started with the rear main seal leak and the whining tranny I figured while I had the motor and tranny out I might as well do the suspension as it was all original and very worn. Rear swing arms bushings were shot, with the arm contacting the metal cover. Front was no better with obvious play in the king/ling pins even after adjustment and grease. So got some large castor wheels and fabricated brackets to bolt on where the rear torsion bar covers go. On the front I used the sway bar mount points.
Rear swing arm - groove on tubular part is from where it was resting on the metal cover due to shot bushing.  Part has already been blasted and powder coated
Rear swing arm - groove on tubular part is from where it was resting on the metal cover due to shot bushing. Part has already been blasted and powder coated
DSCN1106.JPG (79.08 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
The groove on the rear swing arms was on the top of each side. I will simply swap sides so that it is on the bottom. Front suspension had many worn parts. The link pin bushings were worn oval and the oil seal surfaces on both spindles were grooved.
Note oval shape of bushing (top to bottom)  probably 0.25 mm
Note oval shape of bushing (top to bottom) probably 0.25 mm
DSCN1116.JPG (85.58 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
Note grooves on old spindle oil seal surface
Note grooves on old spindle oil seal surface
DSCN1109.JPG (102.55 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
Fortunately Stoddards had the oil seal surface parts. Purchased the king pin kit from Sierra Madre but they sent the VW kit with steel bushings. They refunded the $159 and I got the proper kit with the bronze bushings from NLA. Once I got the swing arms out they had slight wear on the end that rides in the bushing, but it polished out OK.
Note wear on the end of the swing arm where it rides in the inner bushing
Note wear on the end of the swing arm where it rides in the inner bushing
DSCN1107.JPG (74.71 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
I then pulled the bearings and inner bushings. My Friend Ralfy Quepons had the correct puller for the bearings, so that took 20 mintues. I then used the home built puller I made when I did my 64C to extract the inner bushings. You can see the wear on the inner bushing.
compare the wear on the lower right to the unworn part on the lower left of the bushing
compare the wear on the lower right to the unworn part on the lower left of the bushing
DSCN1111.JPG (76.17 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
Bearings were OK and advice from the list said they last for ever, so they will be cleaned, repacked and reinstalled. The original type micarda bushings are NLA so the new type phenolic bushings will bo in. Ralfy has the factory tools to check their ID and ream in needed. Will post on that when we get there.
Original double row needle bearing, original bushing and replacement bushing
Original double row needle bearing, original bushing and replacement bushing
DSCN1113.JPG (87.46 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
Ralfy also has all the factory tools to install and properlly ream the king pin bushings etc. All the work to replace the ol seal parts on the spindles, install and ream all the king & link pin various bushings, clean and paint took ~ 8 hours. They now await installation. Used POR 15 gloss on the front spindles and trailing arms after cleaning them to bare metal in my blast cabinet using Aluminum oxide. Rear swing arms were powder coated along with the backing plates and tranny hoop. Most of the other suspension parts will be blasted and painted with POR 15 satin black.
Completely rebuilt front suspension ready to go back in
Completely rebuilt front suspension ready to go back in
DSCN1118.JPG (100.45 KiB) Viewed 22682 times
Thanks for reading this!
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Joris Koning
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#7 Post by Joris Koning »

Great posts Bill, looking forward to following this built. When you get to installing the front oil coolers and plumbing shoot me an e-mail, I can help.

Joris
'56 Coupe
'57 Coupe
'59 Cab 
'60 Coupe

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#8 Post by Bill Sargent »

Hi Joris,

Thanks for the offer! It hit me over the weekend that with the car on the roll over frame it would be a good time to get the coolers and plumbing up front installed - way better than working on my back. I already have the oil line clips weded in the right front and rear fender wells and the lines fitted, including holes into the engine compartment. Gerry McCarthy supplied paper templates for where the oil line clips went, as well as where to put the holes in the front and rear closing panels & engine compartment side wall. The whole front cooler installation and plumbing remains to be done.

Bob Garretson was kind enough to part with a complete set of the A carrera cooler shrouding and ducting made in alloy, including the steel mount part that goes on the battery box side wall. He said a friend in Belgium made it for him 20+ years ago. And Mike Smith dug in his stash to provide a pair of original carrera metal bracket that mount the alloy cooler mount blocks to the fender braces. So I think I have most, if not all, of the parts.....but I am lacking details of exactly how things mount to the battery box walls and fender braces (weld nuts or simple holes & bolts etc.) I also do not have exact positions for everything - so your assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Nick Daffern
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#9 Post by Nick Daffern »

Hi Bill,

Glad to see you're making progress on the project. Enjoy your summer.

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#10 Post by Bill Sargent »

While I had the entire suspension out of the car, I also removed the steering dampener and the ZF steering box. I think the car has ~ 100K miles on it so I purchased the Koni steering dampener which is the correct length, but costs $160, vs the shorter Boge one that limits your turning radius on one side for ~ $35. I had previously rebuilt the ZF steering box in my 64C so felt comfortable doing this one. I even posted an article to the old talk list back in 99 on how to rebuild ZF steering boxes, drawing on the factory shop manual and what I found doing mine. see
http://porsche356registry.org/resources ... -box-.html

I got the box from the 59A apart and things looked pretty good:
ZF Steering Box apart
ZF Steering Box apart
DSCN1121.JPG (96.63 KiB) Viewed 22533 times
Peg on the shaft looked good, no galling or visable wear:
Steering box peg - shiny with no real wear
Steering box peg - shiny with no real wear
DSCN1123.JPG (80.96 KiB) Viewed 22533 times
Worm shaft also looked good. No wear, either visable of by feel at the center point where there can be a flat spot. Guess I am lucky as the box was still filled with gear oil. Al Zim, Brad Ripley and others have told me most of the boxes they see either have low oil or grease, which leads to flat spots and/or galling on the peg and worm. With old rebuild kits or the new tapered roller bearing rebuilds running close to $2,000 everyone should keep the oil in their steering box topped up.
Worm shaft out of ZF steering box - shiny but no bad wear
Worm shaft out of ZF steering box - shiny but no bad wear
DSCN1126.JPG (95.66 KiB) Viewed 22533 times
Then I found a problem. There are two caged ball bearings, one located on each end of the worm shaft. There is a race pressed into the case on each end and a machined surface on each end of the worm shaft for these bearings. All the race surfaces looked good, but the brass cage on one of the bearings was starting to break up.
Note wear just to the right of the balls on the cage - metal sticking up
Note wear just to the right of the balls on the cage - metal sticking up
DSCN1128.JPG (78.83 KiB) Viewed 22533 times
I checked the bearing and found a marking "Star C111" and thought they would be easy to find - way wrong. I must have called 10 specality bearing houses, and posted with no success on the talk list. These bearings are seriously NLA. But interestingly the balls are 6.25 mm diameter - i.e. exactly 1/4 inch. So if you find that only the balls are worn you can buy new loose 1/4 inch balls and simply pop the old ones out and put in new ones. Unfortunately my cage was worn. I then went to look at the ZF rebuild kit I brought from Stoddards in the early 90s for ~ $500, which was outrageous then. Did not need it for the 64C and with them going for close to $2,000 now, I did not want to steal the bearings from it. I then started looking at the various rebuild kits and noticed that Eleven Parts in Switzerland had a kit using the original ball bearings, vs the tapered roller bearings. I contacted Chris Tanner at Eleven Parts and although he did sell new bearings except in the kits, he did have good used bearings - so I purchased 2 sets with races. And they have steel cages to boot.
Used bearing from Chris Tanner at Eleven Parts in Switzerland with steel cage
Used bearing from Chris Tanner at Eleven Parts in Switzerland with steel cage
DSCN1130.JPG (85.2 KiB) Viewed 22533 times
So once I get the steering box reassembled I am good to go on the suspension reassembly.
Suspension parts ready for reassembly including GT brakes etc
Suspension parts ready for reassembly including GT brakes etc
DSCN1120.JPG (99.39 KiB) Viewed 22533 times
Thanks for reading this!
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Joey Bautista
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#11 Post by Joey Bautista »

Very inspiring thread Bill ! Just love all the little details esp with the carrera oil cooler lines. Hope to do a bentwindow project with a fauxcam someday. :D

Pls keep the photos coming and thanks for the inspiration Bill !

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#12 Post by Bill Sargent »

Earlier in this thread I posted a shot of the car bottoms up in the roll over frame with the soda blasting guy cleaning stuff out. I was very happy with the work he did. We used granular soda on the inside of all outer body sheet metal and crushed glass (no silica) on the more structural parts. The soda was extremely good at paint removal, but very mild on the tar paper sound proofing. See the chassie number and note that only the paint on the tar paper was removed by the soda.
Note tar paper only had paint removed by the soda
Note tar paper only had paint removed by the soda
DSCN1134.JPG (83.37 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
It will not take off rust though and you can still see the spot weld heat coloration marks.
Note chassie plate was cleaned but not damaged by the soda.  brighter area toward center of the car from the ID plate was blasted with crushed glass to remove rust
Note chassie plate was cleaned but not damaged by the soda. brighter area toward center of the car from the ID plate was blasted with crushed glass to remove rust
DSCN1136.JPG (68.5 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
Note weld marks still visible and surface rust not removed by soda
Note weld marks still visible and surface rust not removed by soda
DSCN1138.JPG (86.88 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
We used fairly fine grit crushed glass on the bottom of the car and inside on the floor pan as well as the engine compartment. Only rust in the pan is in the depressed areas at the rear, with only one small pin hole. Will likely patch these areas rather than do a full pan replacement. Car will need longnitudinals though. The glass exposed a lot of small holes where the metal had rusted from the inside out.
Floor pan mainly blasted with crushed glass, but with soda around the tar paper.
Floor pan mainly blasted with crushed glass, but with soda around the tar paper.
DSCN1137.JPG (66.43 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
Battery box with very little rust, but a 4" square hole on the drivers side where someone needed to get the hood open.....easily patched.
Battery box with very little rust, but a 4" square hole on the drivers side where someone needed to get the hood open.....easily patched.
DSCN1139.JPG (85.31 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
Engine compartment.  Holes on drivers side are for the dry sump oil tank.  Friend in town has a 56 coupe in bare metal that I was able to use as a go by for the carrera bits
Engine compartment. Holes on drivers side are for the dry sump oil tank. Friend in town has a 56 coupe in bare metal that I was able to use as a go by for the carrera bits
DSCN1141.JPG (81.4 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
The wiring was protected by first wrapping in aluminium foil and then duct tape. The foil lets you get the duct tape off much more easily! I will need to take some time to wash and neutralize the soda residue before painting, but the process has worked well so far.

Plan is to get all these areas in epoxy primer and repair the pan and battery box, but not the longnitudinals yet. Then black paint to preserve things. then get all the mechanical parts back in the car and drive it with the new motor, tranny etc to get things sorted. Outer body sheet metal will remain the puke yellow for a while. Likely until we move to Seattle full time in a few years - they know how to work on snow mobiles up here, but not 356 bodies.....

While cleaning up from the blasting the car gave up some secrets. Out of one of the heater tubes came a California state park day pass dated 1 April 1966, so we know where the car was on that day. Also found a 1959 US penny in the heater tube. Inside the rear clip under the black paint the soda removed we found hand painted in about 8" high numbers "1489" - the last four digits of the chassie number.
California state park pass dated 1 April 1966
California state park pass dated 1 April 1966
DSCN1132.JPG (56.22 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
"1489" painted inside the rear clip under the blackpaint - typical German "1"
"1489" painted inside the rear clip under the blackpaint - typical German "1"
Number inisde rear clip.JPG (74.37 KiB) Viewed 22419 times
Thanks for reading this.
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Luca Bogoni
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#13 Post by Luca Bogoni »

Hi Bill,

My compliments for the work you're doing... Fast, easy and clean. I love your choice for color combo. Good job!
I have a question for you: Has your cab still his original wiring?


Best Regards
Luca and his T2 cab
Luca Bogoni
'57 A-T2 cab #150046

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Bill Sargent
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#14 Post by Bill Sargent »

Hi Luca,

Although the PO said he did not replace the harness, it has the little numbers on each wire like a YNZ replacement. Based on wiring in the headlight buckets, I think it has had a new YNZ harness at some point, but at least 30 years ago. Saves me some money.
Wiring looks new and has the screwed terminal block, not bullet connectors.
Wiring looks new and has the screwed terminal block, not bullet connectors.
headlight bucket.JPG (21.57 KiB) Viewed 22311 times
Note YNZ type wire numbers.
Note YNZ type wire numbers.
headlight bucket 1.JPG (19.82 KiB) Viewed 22311 times
Since all A wiring harnesses were set up for carrera use it aready has the wire for the electric fuel pump I will use, as well as the wire for the second coil. Justin's thread showed me where to drill the holes for the wire to the fuel pump as well as for the fuel lines to/from the electric pump - thanks Justin.

I will need to add wiring for the oil pressure gauge I will use - I have one of the Palo Alto Speedo 904 type triple combination gauges (gas, oil Temp, oil Press & oil idiot light). I will also have to add some wiring for my accessory front lights - I plan to run 1 x marachal fog and 1 x marachal driving light. The fog will be switched thru an original fog light switch. The driving light will be run thru one of the twin stalk turn signal switches that were a factory option with wood steering wheel delivery cars to provide headlight flash capability. The right hand lever flashed the lights in either the up or down position. I plan to have the driving light in the up position and headlight flash in the down position.

Thanks for following all this.
Last edited by Bill Sargent on Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Regards,

Bill Sargent
#151489 59A Cab - Faux Cam
#159176 64C Cab
#460603 67 912
904 clone in the works

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Tom Tate
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Re: Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

#15 Post by Tom Tate »

Bill, outstanding story and great photos as the story unfolds. I always wonder when I send out some of the unusual parts that I have (i.e. Carrera 2 oil tank) if they ever see the light of day. It's nice to see the great progress that you are making, I'm sure that the completed car will be a joy for all of us to enjoy as you drive by. Keep it up and KTF

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