A 356 project was my first Porsche, followed by a very attractive used 1968 sand beige 912 soft window Targa. Having just sold the 912, I had decided to grow a down payment for our first house. London, Ontario in the 1970s wasn’t rife with Porsches or experienced service establishments. British cars were in vogue so I had to make contacts in Buffalo, NY. I advanced to parting 911s, but a request for a 914 front glass was received. No problem.
A week later, I came home to meet the customer who was already in the house. I was a neglectful host! I kept circling the silver 911 coupe that was in my driveway as if in a trance. The owner was Hans Gramlich. Inspired by what he had recently witnessed in Germany, Hans applied his fabrication genius and created steel versions of the RS F/R spoilers. During a planned pick-up of the windshield, I heard an interesting statement from Hans: He was building a car and the 911 might be for sale. How could anything top this car? I must have blurted out something to
the effect of “Let me know!”
Two years later the call came, but the timing was not ideal. I was comfortable without a Porsche, and money was earmarked for a house. Out of politeness, I agreed to a test drive (in Kincardine, of all places) but was hoping to
find a fault so that I could refuse it; I couldn’t, so I agreed to the purchase. A week later, in June of 1976, while driving my new acquisition home, I realized what a great vehicle I now owned. And I still do.

Ray Kazoks

Cleaning up old gas tanks can be a dirty, smelly and potentially dangerous job; for you and especially for the environment. We've found an effective way to remove rust and avoid all the caustic cleaners and environmentally hazardous chemicals. Molasses. The same molasses farmers put on feed to aid in cow's digestion and it's available at any co-op feed store.
It's a relatively slow process but the results have been quite amazing. Once the part has been submerged for a couple of weeks it's removed and washed down with a pressure washer. All the loose material can be gentle brushed or scrapped off and it's ready for priming or repair. We've found this process is far more gentle on the product than sandblasting or wire brushing as both those methods can warp the metal.
You can try this at home on some of your smaller parts or bring the bigger stuff to us and we'll soak them for you. We have the advantage of access to fairly large tanks so we can submerge several gas tanks, suspension parts and body panels at the same time.
For more information or to see this process, give us a call.

Thank you to Brent Fishlock from Golden BC for sharing his recent 911 adventure.

My 1987 911 Carrera needed an engine rebuild when I bought it as well as a suspension overhaul and various other updates. After a long search and with the help of Randy at Whaletail Canada I found Terry Cleland who agreed to take on the project. The car was shipped in a covered trailer from my driveway in Golden BC to Whaletail in Kitchener Waterloo. Randy drove the car to Terry where it spent the winter in various states of work until my arrival in May. My friend flew form Vancouver to Toronto and our cross country journey began.
 
The car drove like new. It tracked straight and felt tight going over railroad tracks. The sound of the engine was modified using a Terry muffler mod and ported manifolds. The crank was ground to a rally style for increased lower end torque. We crossed the border in Windsor with no wait at all and the border guard wanted the engine shut off so he could hear us speak. We spent our first night in Jackson Michigan at a motel that had a few issues with noise so we decided to pay a bit more the next night. There are so many hotels to choose from in the US it is mind boggling! The car got looks everywhere.
 
We drove to downtown Chicago on Memorial Day weekend which is the busiest driving weekend of the year according to the internet! My co-pilot Darcy is an art teacher so we went to the museum of art to see many one-of-a-kind art pieces-it was awesome. Darcy’s phone guided us downtown and then out of town without a hitch. Even the predicted traffic displayed by the phone was bang on accurate. We cruised out of Chicago and made some time before stopping for the night in Rock Falls Illinois and another massive meat and potatoes American meal.
 
The next few days we covered Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming where we stopped in Casper to fish the North Platte river. Our fishing guide was a master because I caught fish and I’m not a fisherman. We had a starter issue in the car that was intermittent, perhaps heat related due to hot daytime temperatures and 80mph speed limits-Americans drive fast. We became bump start experts when had to. The drive from Casper west through Jackson through the Grand Tetons then up to Island Park on the western side of Yellowstone was a great day of spectacular scenery and roaring flat six sounds all the way up to 9000 feet elevation and down again.
 
We backtracked to Idaho Falls then headed north into Montana for more spectacular scenery. We had lunch in Missoula and bump started the car again to resume our drive north on highway 93 past beautiful Flathead Lake(apparently the largest lake west of the Mississippi), Kalispell and Whitefish to the border. This time we didn’t want to shut the engine off for the border officer and he didn’t seem impressed by the burbling flat six. We were quickly on our way and arrived in Cranbrook BC. Darcy flew home the next day to Vancouver and I drove the last 3 hours solo up the Columbia valley to Golden. I had a new starter put in the next week and the car has been purring along on subsequent trips to Vancouver and Fairview Alberta. Gotta love the summer driving season and the great sound of the Carrera.
 
Thanks Whaletail!