To the finish!

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Everything was coming together nicely. I was giving the mechanical side of things a bit of a rest while I take on the cosmetic side. I had everything laid out so it was like putting together a TECHNICS LEGO set. The first part to go in was the charger cooler radiator in the nose of the car. After that, I took on the lights. None of the main light got damages in the crash so they just got a good clean up and went back in. The Original fitment of the lights wasn’t too great so I spend some time sorting this out.

While I was busy in the nose of the car I redid the plumbing for the charge cooler. I also mounted the 100 liters per min pump for the charge cooler system. I designed 3D printed solid mounting clips for the cooling pipes to that they are properly mounted and secured.

Charge cooler and pump fitted, and piping is done.

Let the body shine!

I had to give Duncan some space to that he could wet sand the body and prepare it for a buff. He brought all his specialized equipment and very expensive polishes for buffing from home to make my dream a reality.

It was a few days that my side of thing did not go that fast as I had to work around Duncan. Only a few more days and this build will be complete. It would be a good but sad day when the car is done. This is now more than a year since the crash. There is no sign of the crash ever happened. Duncan was done with the wet sanding and started doing the magic of getting the ultimate shine out of the car. I was amazed to see that the car could shine more than it did.

The Porsche was looking absolutely beautiful. Still, a bit to do to get it done but just looking at the car inspired me to get it done.

Back to building

Now that the paintwork was done on the car I could focus on getting everything fitted back. I got some stickers made for the car just to break the black color a bit. It wasn’t much but just enough. I had a few occasions that people asked me what type of car this is. So I decided there is nothing better than the car answering that question.

Porsche 917 Stickers on the sides of the car.

The windshield and side windows could go back in. This was a very time-consuming job. I first had to clean all the aircraft-grade perspex windows as they have been gathering dust for over a year now. I eventually got it cleaned and fitted to the car.

Time to start

The car was almost ready to starts. I filled all the liquids. The cooling and charge cooling system took about 25 liters of coolant and the oil was about 10 liters of oil. Yes, this car takes allot of liquids. Next up was bleeding the brakes and the clutch. Once all this was done all that was left to do was fuel. The Porsche was mapped on AVGAS as the octane of pump fuel wasn’t high enough for the boost we were running. I filled up the tank and put the ignition on. The fuel system primed nicely. There were no leaks and the car was ready to start.

I pressed the start button and spun the engine over. Guess what…nothing happened. Not even a fart or a bang. I plugged in the laptop on the ECU and found that there was no crank signal. I checked and the sensor was plugged in. This was the same sensor that came out of the car on the strip down. I still placed the sensor into a separate bag as I knew it was a good sensor. I had some spare sensors and I swapped the sensor out. The Porsche burst into life after the first swing after that. It was really great to hear the car run again. I let the car warm up to temp and made certain it stayed on temp. The oil pressure was also good.

It has been so long since I drove the car that I took it outside for a shakedown.

First Startup and Test drive of Porsche 917 after rebuild.

Finishing the car

Now that the car was done from a mechanical point of view, I just had to complete the bodywork. The shakedown test went well and I just had to go over the suspension to make certain that nothing came loose in the test.

Photo Shoot

This was a really sad day for me, the Porsche 917 is complete and in the best shape it has ever been. I have to say thank you to Uncle D(Duncan) for helping me make the car look as good as it did.

Uncle D and myself next to the competed Porsche 917

Mike this is for you! The car you loved to drive and that put a big smile on your face. May the next owner get as much pleasure out of this race car as you did.

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