Hi folks -- here are some of my first bills related to my 1971 "shit brown" Porsche. In looking at them after all of these years, they bring back some dark memories, yet also a learning experience that stayed with me to this day. Note the first bill -- two hood struts for the car. Frankly I have never been able to find hood struts that have lasted more than a year or so before they weaken and the hood falls down on your head when you expect it least. The long hooded Porsche 911s made between 1969 and 1973 had hoods that were just too heavy for the strutts. I have purchased lifetime strutts from Automotion (now Performance Products) and then had them replaced under warranty, but after a year they also fail and so I have given up -- but next time I buy anything from Performance, I will call them on the strutts again! At the first sing of cold weather these things weaken and fail. So I always carry around a sawed off ninja stick, just to hold the damn hood up. Porsche quality?
The hood strutts remind me of some of those early challenges in restoring my car, or 7/8 of a car, since there were a number of parts missing. This was especially true of the heater defroster unit in the front hood compartment that was missing. Note a following bill that details my purchase of right and left defrosters, a heater box, and the control unit. All kinds of other miscellaneous stuff were added at this time as well, from a door check on the drivers side to the fuel tank sender to a wiper switch to wiring issues.
I should have cut my losses then. But I am a stubborn person, and what I would gradually come away with is that if this project were to succeed at all, in the long run, I would have to do much more of the work. An academic who had very little mechanical experience, I was forced into a new role that did not come easy, and which I struggle with to this day, especially now that my near eyesight is failing. The car took me out of the library and into the garage.
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