Author: P3 Autokrafte

Single-owner 911, and the stories of Jack Dougherty

1972 911T 2.7L

Long time client and all-around great guy, Jack Doughtery, stopped by to tell us a little more about his ’72 911T, and we managed to pass a few hours soaking in stories of Iwo Jima, leased car adventures,  and his love of his 911… from day one.

Sitting in his relaxed , cross-legged  manner with a memorable, endearing smile, and donning his Marine Corp League – Dayton Detachment mesh hat, he clearly has a few years of experience. With his quick wit you’d never guess he’s surpassed the 90 year mark. We invited him in to talk about his car, and discuss what’s kept him in love with his car for the last 43 years, but we got way more than we bargained for with stories of all kinds.

His story starts in the years ago joining the Navy, being called up by the Marines, and going back to the Navy. He was a guy in demand for his specific skills, and that later translated into graduating from the military, and going to college, and become a very highly respected oral surgeon.

 Jack Doughtery

 

“Had I known that, I may not have come for you!”

Beyond being good at his craft, he was a lucky guy. As a Navy Corpsman he found himself right in the middle of the storm on Iwo Jima, and in one of the fiercest battles on the island near the southern tip by Mt. Suribachi. Young, vicarious, and driven to help those in need, Jack and his guys landed in a situation of one man left behind in a bunker under fire. Jack volunteered (more correctly insisted) he go and rescue his fallen comrade stuck in the trench. Asking for smoke grenade and heavy cover fire, he  made the battlefield dash to dive into the trench. Only to find the guy had a branded line on his back from a bullet that grazed him. “Had I known that, I may not have come for you!” Jack recalls yelling at the gent. From that moment, they proceeded to get pinned down under fire for the subsequent nine hours. Strategically, they fired and returned fire, then, waited, and managed to take out the last of their opponents. Making the dash back, he recalled, was nerve-racking, but finding all the foxholes that previously housed his company were all empty, was even more so. The field promoted Lieutenant, was not a the caliber of leader they were use to, and Jack insured he made it back to the group to give him a piece of his mind. Jack’s demeanor and laugh, gave great insight of how his likes things done… by the book and without fear.

Jack followed his passion, and frankly what his excelled at, graduating from college to become an oral surgeon, and jumped into his residency. During his time travelling back and forth at a practice in Northern Ohio, he realized that he wasn’t good at maintaining cars, and honestly it really wasn’t his thing. Leasing became his go to way to drive a bunch of new cars, and never have to really ‘take care of them’. A friend  turned him on to leasing, and $187 later he was driving a brand new Ford Convertible,… and that covered the first TWO months! He was hooked.

…eventually the sloshing of water in the floor boards got to him.

 Over the years, when the his cars needed something addressed with maintenance, he just got a new one to start all over again. Having owned Fords, Pontiacs, and a couple Thunderbirds he decided to make a change, and go after something that caught his eye years ago, and this time own it. His friends gave him a hard time when he’d leave the top down in the rain, but eventually the sloshing of water in the floor boards got to him in his last and final big iron lease.

In 1972, Jack broke down, and brought the Porsche 911T he still owns to this day. Originally purchased from Century Motors located on Dixie Drive in Moraine, the beautiful tangerine color struck his fancy. With rebates at the time, his total purchase price came to $10k. He drove it for many years, enjoyed it, and in many ways was his daily transportation. After a few mechanical engine issues with the early generation mechanical injection he decided to take it to Ray Thacker. Thacker was the man behind, Stuttgart Automotive, and the guy to perform the tuning. Once inside the project, Ray made a few recommendation, that Jack was apprehensive about, but trusted his judgement. With Jack, giving the ‘yes’ to proceed, the car became a 2.7L, Weber fed motor. “Seeing all the parts of my motor all over the place, on the bench and in buckets didn’t give me a lot of hope, but I had great trust in him, so I kept my mouth shut.” Having fits with the early mechanical injection was a thing of the past. Jack got his car back as promised and BETTER. “I was relieved to actually get it back all in one piece”, Jack recalls, and has never regretted it in the least.

“I was relieved to actually get it back all in one piece”

Many years that have passed since the 65k mile motor rebuild and repaint (in the original color), and Jack continues to keep his 911 in top mechanical condition. The odometer reads a youthful 95k miles and no signs of slowing down.

Jack also tossed in a number of stories of vacation, travel, National Porsche Parades, and a good 360 degree spin at Putnam years ago that got his blood pressure up. He’s no stranger to enjoying the Porsche lifestyle.

It was a pleasure to sit down with a gentleman that has graced our shop for years, and get (as they say) the full story. We are proud to service this time capsule 911T, and more so to call Jack a good friend of P3.

 

Also we want to extend a THANK YOU to Jack for his military service.

 

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Post/Pre Purchase Inspection

We love to see avid enthusiast and daily commuters alike get new cars. Being excited about the purchase, and having good knowledge their dream car is just that, not a nightmare.

For years, we have been doing PPIs (Pre-Purchase Inspections) to help buyer confidently put down healthy sums with confidence. With the desirability of some of the air-cooled Porsche makes we have see values climb at a staggering rate, and the number available shrink leaving the price to go up. With this elevation of desire and market value comes the wild claims of originality, and people trying to sell through dishonesty and misrepresentation. Recently, we had a vehicle come in to our shop that illustrates this very well.

We received a call from Texas to help a gentleman out who had found his dream Midnight Blue Porsche 993 Turbo here in the region. It really was a stunning car, and it’s no wonder why these beautiful cars continue to climb in value. At initial glance, it was a clean car that was not being sold as a salvage title or was sold as wrecked. No damage really to speak of, it was seemed to be an honest car. Clean Car Fax with no indication of collision.

With the PPI process we look over the vehicles with keen eye on the details, corners, any over-spray especially in the rocker panel regions or place where their are post-paint body plugs. These areas can tell many stories about the past of a car. The car was being listed at approximately $90,000 USD, and was high for the market. This was not being listed by a private owner, but a business.

This is what we found:

Rain Guards: Tack-welds the entire length when they should be smooth. This indicates that, at one point, the car had been split at the seam to allow a panel replacement.

Door/Door Sills: The sills had a bump/step in them likely from the replacement panel overlap. The door gap wasn’t uniform. Under the door sill was where shops will hide the welds… we found welds.

Back deck Rail: Where the rear quarter panel meets the trunk stamping it was not factory clean spot welds, but a smoothed over area with body filler to hide the repair. In addition, this area had paint cracking the entire length.

Tail Lights: The three lights that make up the rear didn’t align properly, and was a clear indicator that the angle of one panel in the replacement wan’t quite perfect. The passenger side rubber gasket wasn’t touching the body to seal this area. In stead the gap was too large, and not able to be rectified correctly.

Rocker Panels: The rockers revealed non-factory over-spray that had been sprayed over air-conditioning lines. These are installed after paint at the factory and should be clean, bare aluminum. There we found the primered replacement panel fresh edge that didn’t receive paint. This is a key indicator that this car was clearly wrecked.

After deliberation, we called the client to tell them the news. We advised to not perform a leak-down test on the engine after this gross misrepresentation. He was clearly disappointed with the findings, however, he saved money by not performing the leak-down test, and furthermore, tens of thousands of dollars in a car that is not worth the asking price.

The following day we performed a Post-Purchase Inspection for a young man that had purchased his first M3. The car was a great deal to begin with, and he needed and oil change. He had P3 Autokräfte inspect the car, and insure that he had a solid car to start with, and let him know if there was anything that needed addressing. He had found a quality car. Money well spend, and good peace-of-mind.

If you are looking at a used vehicle please let us know how we can help insure that you receiving the car of your dreams.

Call today 937.312.9950 to schedule an appointment for inspection of your newest love to insure that it was meant to be.

Mini Cooper – Chain Tensioner Troubles

P3 Autokrafte is primarily a Porsche and BMW facility which also services Audi and Volkswagen. We can’t forget the fantastic little brother under the BMW umbrella; Mini.  Without a Mini specific dealer in the Dayton Area, some Mini owners may feel a bit underserved. That’s where we come in to help.

If you are on the Mini forums, and are enthusiasts like we are, you know about the potential damage of a tensioner failure. With Mini Coopers, Clubmans, and Countrys on their second, third or even fourth owners, sometimes critical info doesn’t get passed down about the items in a recall or recommended dealer services. Not everyone in an enthusiast, so we want to spread the word. Preventative maintenance is key to trouble-free years of use, and ‘failure’ will not be in your future.

Depending on how you search or what part you believe to be the first to fail they are all interconnected; VANOS, cams, tensioner, vac pump, chain, pulleys, guides, etc. Each one of these can be affected with a catastrophic failure, and you can then throw in the valves, head, etc, etc. This is not a pretty picture to be painted, but we wanted to bring this to light before it’s the case for your Mini. There have been recalls on the chain and tensioner since the inception of the Mini, they have made a change to the tensioner and the chain to hopefully prevent this in the future. When it comes to Minis with the R56 motors we recommend changing the tensioner, and closer oil change intervals.

We see the chain, tensioner, and guides as a routine maintenance items that should be replaced (before 100k for the standard Mini and 60k for the S). Some recommend it sooner, but keeping a close ear to any rattling before these intervals; especially noises within the few seconds after start are good indicators that you should have it inspected. It’s a fairly inexpensive service, and should be considered like a water pump replacement or other long duration component in your service intervals. The Mini the tensioner, chain, and guides are relatively inexpensive parts. This can cost-effectively be added into your Inspection 2 services.

We recently received a Mini that had gone ‘a bit too long’ before addressing. The result was not pretty, and the service became a major overhaul. When the first component failed it caused the chain to break, the motor to skip timing, bend exhaust valves, fail the vac pump, etc, etc. It was a mess. After a re-machining on the head, full top-end re-build, new tensioner, VANOS actuator, vac pump, and a number of other affected items, and re-sync the cams, and VANOS sensors, it is back on the road like a champion.

We wanted to make this information as accessible as possible for Mini owners, so we can keep you on the road and out of the shop. Below is a breakdown for a widely accepted Mini Service descriptions  and intervals. Please feel free to call us to schedule and appointment, or discuss the details of your Mini.

 

Mini Maintenance Services

Mini Coopers have 3 types of service: Oil Change, Inspection 1, and Inspection 2. Service notifications are in displayed in the middle of the speedometer. Similar to a BMW this mileage will countdown to next service interval.

If display is flashing and mileage is negative you are in need of service. The applicable service should be performed. They are performed in the following order; Oil change (x3), Service 1, Oil Change (x3-x4), Service 2. Repeat.

Service 1 is also known as a Minor service and service 2 is also known as a Major Service.

P3 RECOMMENDS CLOSER INTERVALS ON OIL CHANGES THAN MINI HAS BUILT INTO THEIR COUNTER/INDICATOR

Oil Change (5000 – 7500 mile increments)

Change oil and oil filter and reset the oil change indicator.

Inspection 1 (Minor Service) (25k miles)

Includes services in Oil Change (above) plus: change Interior Ventilation Filter, change Transmission fluid if CVT, add Windshield Washer fluid, check Wipers and Washers, lubricate doors and locks, check Battery condition, Suspension, CV boots, Exhaust System, Manual Transmission fluid level, pressure check Cooling System, and reset Service Indicator and road test for overall performance.

Inspection 2 (Major Service) (50k miles)

Includes services from Oil Change and Inspection 1 plus: change Air Filter, Engine Coolant, flush Brake fluid, and mileage. Model dependent add on’s include: Spark Plugs (100K), Belt change (100k cooper 60K S) and Oxygen Sensor (100K).  ADD tensioner to this list with the belts

 

If you have any questions, feel free to call, email, or send a PM on Facebook or Twitter.

Best,

P3 Autokräfte