chrisbchips
Trainee
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2014
- Messages
- 50
Spring refresh.
The old girl has been treated to a bit of a facelift through the spring. The cars nearing 150k miles and is used as my daily driver so deserved some TLC.
What started as some front bumper repair works soon led into a total front end respray. I had managed to pass a road gritter travelling at high speed, (the road gritter) in the opposite direction this winter so the the front end was peppered with stone chips. The works included removing the windscreen and sorting out the rust in the scuttle panel edges.
The car came back looking so good that it wasn't long before I started contemplating tidying up the targa cover bar. The paint work was looking tired and the weatherstrip had debonded at the top edge.
After studying the various online writeups I decided I would go for the backdate, stainless steel look instead of a repaint. Any targa pre 964 had various right ups how this task has been tackled in a matter of an afternoon or so, no such luck with the 964.
The only mention I could find was "don't do it if you don't have to". The oil tank prevents access to the hold down bolts underneath the rear wheel arches and has to be removed to complete the targa cover removal.
Not deterred I decided to to spend a morning to see if I could first gain access to the hidden bolts in questions. In short it is achievable without removing the oil tank but takes a lot of patience and a myriad of small gauge socket connections. If anyone is interested in a full right up, removing the targa cover bar on a 964 let me know.
In short the targa bar was removed, stripped and polished. I have a early 1990 car so it looks like they used all of the old stock stainless steel covers with the side vents before changing to aluminium covers without vents at a later date. Needless to say that I am quite happy with the end result which I think complements the colour of the car.
I have also removed the third brake light hoop as it didn't do anything for the lines of the car in my opinion. I've yet to decide weather to get the fixing holes made by the bar welded up but in the interim will make up some small plastic cover plates, colour matched.
So I decided to give the car a good clean and polish this weekend and so far I am very happy with the results.
The first two photos below are of the car two years ago for comparison.
Let me know if there's any item above you would like more details on.
The old girl has been treated to a bit of a facelift through the spring. The cars nearing 150k miles and is used as my daily driver so deserved some TLC.
What started as some front bumper repair works soon led into a total front end respray. I had managed to pass a road gritter travelling at high speed, (the road gritter) in the opposite direction this winter so the the front end was peppered with stone chips. The works included removing the windscreen and sorting out the rust in the scuttle panel edges.
The car came back looking so good that it wasn't long before I started contemplating tidying up the targa cover bar. The paint work was looking tired and the weatherstrip had debonded at the top edge.
After studying the various online writeups I decided I would go for the backdate, stainless steel look instead of a repaint. Any targa pre 964 had various right ups how this task has been tackled in a matter of an afternoon or so, no such luck with the 964.
The only mention I could find was "don't do it if you don't have to". The oil tank prevents access to the hold down bolts underneath the rear wheel arches and has to be removed to complete the targa cover removal.
Not deterred I decided to to spend a morning to see if I could first gain access to the hidden bolts in questions. In short it is achievable without removing the oil tank but takes a lot of patience and a myriad of small gauge socket connections. If anyone is interested in a full right up, removing the targa cover bar on a 964 let me know.
In short the targa bar was removed, stripped and polished. I have a early 1990 car so it looks like they used all of the old stock stainless steel covers with the side vents before changing to aluminium covers without vents at a later date. Needless to say that I am quite happy with the end result which I think complements the colour of the car.
I have also removed the third brake light hoop as it didn't do anything for the lines of the car in my opinion. I've yet to decide weather to get the fixing holes made by the bar welded up but in the interim will make up some small plastic cover plates, colour matched.
So I decided to give the car a good clean and polish this weekend and so far I am very happy with the results.
The first two photos below are of the car two years ago for comparison.
Let me know if there's any item above you would like more details on.