SkellyPeg the London outlaw

Nice, really nice.

First thing was to sort out the fact it was mainly running on two cylinders. 

The carbs were full of rust and crap, the fuel lines were rusty, plugs fouled, leads turned to dust and oil had turned to jelly

.For now I changed the oil, filter and bought but not fitted a bypass filter from a 356. Changed the plugs and leads, new SVDA distributor and drilled the Kadrons for vacuum. I stripped and rebuilt the Kads with new everything including squirt tube, floats and pump check valves. Made some new copper fuel line upped to 8mm and installed a Filter King regulator and subtle gauge. Flamethrower coil de-badged ready for a Bosche badge.

installed new shift bush and new she starts and drives great and shifts like new. 

It's a start. Still no roof or curtains, or interior or paint or.... But drivable now.

I bet it really felt good to get out on that first drive!

Keep at it, Blake.  It's all worth it in the end.

Gordon - The Speedstah Guy from Massachusetts

Cheers Gordon. Been to Massachusetts last Fall. Drove around her and a few other states. Lovely part of the world.

Next up was the name sake, why she's called SkellyPeg. Got a few of these made so after paint I can reinstall. 

Blake? (Is that your first name?)

Looks great, mate!  Can't wait to watch the progress. If you picked it back up after it sat for nearly 20 years, it was meant to be. No pressure.

Ted

Watch out for those Sleeping Policemen!

The roof.   

I was was not looking forward to this. Pictures tell better than words but it was all about measuring five times, tension tension tension and gluing once. 

Came out well and I'd recommend the bungee method to anybody trying this alone. 

All done. 

Then out for a drive by the river.

To accept the genuine Fuchs I've sourced I need the brakes to change, then prep and paint them. So I have! 

When I bought my Fuchs the had just been 'refurbished'. 

This meant they had been powder coated with such a thick coat of paint that they looked like repro's. They had lost all definition!

In the USA I hear or read a lot of people complain the the government is too controlling. Trust me here, it's not. Here in England anything more powerful than hand soap is pretty much banned unless you are a business. The individual is not allowed to buy anything that actually works!

Chaps in the US be very thankful you can buy easy off and Aircraft paint stripper and all those good, banned chemicals!

took me 3 months and on off to get the powdercoat off using useless UK chemicals. Wasn't long ago we could buy proper stripper here.

waiting for them to harden before adding the black detail.

I love the idea of a hood ornament but this car will not be a replica of a Porsche, and will not be badged as a Porsche. More inspired buy the 356 speedster than a true recreation of one. 

Looking at early hand built Gmund cars the hood ornament looked smaller, and flatter and like a alloy material. So I made my own with a nod to the handmade Gmund ones. There will be a few nods to these early VW based cars as the link to them seems stronger than the 57 production cars. 

Door handles!

my doors are fitted with lovely beetle latches and for some odd reason Austin Mini handles. Don't like the mini handles and was going to drill some 356 ones Magnus Walker style but they don't quite look right. Not like 911 ones do. 

Scrap that then and go for something new. 

Coach builder and design house Zagato had lots of work with Porsche and VW back in the day. Worked with Italian makers too and made some beautiful things. 

Fiat decided to use some truly beautiful Zagato door handles as their base for some pretty door handles on their soft top. 

So im going to use these fiat handles and make them look slightly more like the pattress design of the Zagato with the polished alloy look. £40 for a pair off eBay starts me off nicely! 

Lastly for now!

i won't badge the Speedster as a Porsche but I will badge it!

How can I get a couple of those stickers? Really dig em.

crhemi (Bill) posted:

How can I get a couple of those stickers? Really dig em.

I sent the artwork to these chaps and they sell it now.

https://www.isaydingdong.co.uk...Stickers-6-Pair.html

Would I get in trouble if I had them copied here in Hawaii (for my own use only)? Or maybe it's better to ask for forgiveness rather then permission...

crhemi (Bill) posted:

Would I get in trouble if I had them copied here in Hawaii (for my own use only)? Or maybe it's better to ask for forgiveness rather then permission...

I hope not as I copied the idea from an LA graffiti artist!

I have seen ones like it on old Porsches. Very cool look. 

Blake:  I stripped and polished a set of original Fuchs a few years ago and, believe me, NOTHING I tried chemically would get that black anodizing off.  "EZ Off" oven cleaner was useless.  They laughed at aircraft stripper.  I even tried the chemical used for cleaning printing platens - that was about as good as just using water.  Finally, I bought a bunch of small grinding/sanding disks and mounted sanding points, started with 120 grit and kept on grinding all the way up to 2000 grit pads until the spokes were polished, then spent several more hours per wheel with polish and buffing pads til they were done.  All told, about 3 - 4 DAYS per wheel with the tools I had.   They look terrific, but that was a ton of work.

You have a lot of vision in your car's details, and details make the Outlaw.

And those door handles are wicked cool..........

I spent ages picking a colour. I love Slate grey but a few people have done that and a few companies on the net seem to churn them out. All the original Porsche colours are beautiful but as I'm departing from a recreation I looked to other shades. 

Here in London we have a lot of cars and I started spending my commute looking at the colours. More or less everything is silver, grey or black except Fiat & mini. Everything is metallic except fiat and mini. 

Trouble is.... I really like grey!

Mini, fiat 500 and Audi seem to do nice enough flat greys but even they blend in a bit. 

After months of collecting images I came down to two cars on the internet that for me really stood out. One was the Slate grey 911 of Steve McQueen in the sun and over exposed, one was a Ferrari grey RSR 911under spotlights. Look different on every screen! 

Out of these colours RAL7031 and Pantone 444C looked the best. Time to order rattle cans and eBay some models!

The RAL 7031 (with the hardtop) got my final vote so that is the goal after everything else is done. 

Fashion grey?

Phil IM356D posted:

Fashion grey?

 

Somebody has got to mention the 'man from Chile' grey soon!

its a lovely early colour. I think  Jerry Seinfeld has a PreA in that colour. 

I found with this shade an outlaw could only hold the look with dark wheels as above. And oddly current Porsches hold it better!

Cardboard trial for lexan curtains. 

Question chaps. When do you put the curtains in,  can the door in with them in? Your inside when you fit them? 

Cheers. 

Blake:  I wrote an article up under the "Resources/Knowledgebase" tab (How to install a convertible top) that also talks about how to fabricate side screens.  

https://www.speedsterowners.com...e-top-in-a-speedster

You may have to be a "donating member" to see it.  If you can't see it, then send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you a WORD copy.  It's fully illustrated and talks about a couple of ways to fit the side screens so that they seal better AND allow you to just simply close the door without fiddling with everything to get the door to shut.

Gordon

Front Wheels are done! I'm so happy with them. 

The wheels looks great!   Motivation, fortitude, and good old elbow grease gets you where you want to be. 

Damn!! Those look awesome.

Keep the pictures coming, I love to see all progress you guys are making...It might motivate me to tighten that loose screw or two.

Robert M posted:

Damn!! Those look awesome.

Thanks mate. I was worried. Not normally into 'bling' as it were. But I just thought this would work as long as I keep the gold soft and low it should 'stay classy' c."Ron Burgandy" 

Just got back from Hong Kong. Tired and jet lagged but I HAD to know what the wheels would look like on. Only got one on and that is enough for now. 

I have genuine caps but I'm really liking the exposed new dust caps. The long lug studs and nuts look better than I'd hoped. Really got me going for more on this car now. 

Very nice! 

Ok the rear end is shaping up. The badging is done and so is the plate light. Just need to get a smaller motorcycle plate on there and tint the rear lights so they are very, very dark red. 

Move trial fitted the 1500 Single Port badge and plate light but I won't know final positions until I have the plate. Then it'll all position for good. 

Very nice look, Paul.  And I feel right at home looking at the badging.  

I live in Grafton, and we're surrounded by towns like Uxbridge, Douglas, Shrewsbury, Upton and Worcester (where there is a "Clafflin's Garage"), and we're about 30 minutes from West Acton.  You'd like it here - all the towns sound familiar and less rain 

Gordon Nichols posted:

Very nice look, Paul.  And I feel right at home looking at the badging.  

I live in Grafton, and we're surrounded by towns like Uxbridge, Douglas, Shrewsbury, Upton and Worcester (where there is a "Clafflin's Garage"), and we're about 30 minutes from West Acton.  You'd like it here - all the towns sound familiar and less rain 

Gordon, me and the missus did a tour of the area last year, started in Boston, went as south to Essex, west as far as New York State and north as far as China lakes. 6 states in all I think. We constantly looked at each other when map reading. It's all very familiar!  

New custom seats are nearly ready for shipping. 

Those don't look very comfortable.