2.2s Targa rebuild

[murph2309]

So, a 450 mile round trip yesterday.

we're back from the blasters.....! This is how she looks....









Then on to Barry's





The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that the bonnet isn't sporting the same zinc primer look as the rest - and indeed is still green underneath.

Well the reason for this is that there are a good 4-5mm of bondo over the entire surface! (Remember this is an ex-American car....) No wonder the bonnet struts would never hold the bonnet up - it must have several pounds of bondo on it.

Anyway, the blasters were worried about what was underneath and (quite rightly) not wanting to be accused of damaging what could be quite messy underneath, decided to stop the process half way through. So now I think I'll have to strip this by hand to see what's underneath. I'm hoping that it can be saved, but won't know til we get underneath all of that.

[murph2309]

By the way - tip for all you transporting a shell....the straps from the front suspension struts and crossing over to the opposite side is a great way of making sure it's solid on the transporter. However - big note of caution! Make sure that you have some padding where the strap reaches the lip of the fuel tank hole. On the way down mine was padded with cling-film.....on the way to Barry's it wasn't and within 10 miles had cut right through the strap and the car shifted right over on the trailer.....eeek. But all OK.

So much, much later than anticipated I got to Barry's and it's now in it's new home for a while.









Overall, it's looking quite tidy - no more surprises other than the bondo excesses. The metal is looking pretty good in most places, we might have to re-skin one of the doors as it's had a repair in the past and there are lots of time-consuming repairs to be made to all four wings, but I'd rather spend the time and have pretty much all of the original metal if I can.

Underside, torsion-bar area, floor (apart from round the pedals) all looking good. Parcel-shelf is a thing of joy.

So having been on the road for about 12 hours I ended up at Barry's. We unloaded & put it in his workshop. He takes a good look around, sticks his head underneath and takes a good long look at the torsion-bar area.

"I'm afraid I've got some bad news" he says.....stomach lurches, what can he have seen that my untrained eye missed?

"I'm not going to be making much money out of you...."

Thanks Barry!

Thanks also to Alan, his cleaning company have done a great job and I can also say at a competitively good price.

[impmad2000]

Underside, torsion-bar area, floor (apart from round the pedals) all looking good. Parcel-shelf is a thing of joy.

You see, I think the Parcel shelf woes are a coupe thing !
TBH, the Targas I've seen stripped back are actually in better condition than the coupes. Certainly the ones we've recently seen go through Barrys hands. Good news though !
Tim

[johnM]

Hi Richard

It all looks good. I bet your pleased about that.

Now for the road to recovery best get your bits and pieces sorted.

Kind Regards

[jury]

Nice one Rich! Look forward to seeing Barry work some more of his magic.........again

Maybe all that bondo on the bonnet contributed to your listing issues at Spa

[murph2309]

Ha, ha Chris...I think you might be right - but there's so much on the ENTIRE bonnet I think it would have just been pressing on the whole of the front - it's certainly a radical way of improving the front-end grip....

Thanks John, I agree, plenty to be getting on with - need to sort all the bits to take to Alan for plating, coating & chroming - that's the next job. I've also just realised that now it's properly back into the re-build, I've spent so much time taking stuff off, it seems a bit strange to be putting it back on again...but you're right, this really is the road to recovery.

I agree Tim, I do think the Targas have different issues with rust - it seems all the water from the screen ran down and sat under the chrome strip at the roll-over bar - hence the rust there.

Overall, if we (read Barry) can save the bonnet, I'll be very pleased - I'm keen to keep as much of the metal as possible - and although shiny new panels don't in any way take away from anyones resto in my opinion, I am pleased to be able to keep as much as I can.

That said, it does look like it will pretty much be a whole new front end - so that bit hasn't fared so well

[murph2309]

Oh - such lovely bling.....

I have been searching for ages to get some NOS turn signals, this has been quite tricky, there's a lot of stuff out there that seems to be NOS but is actually NOR (repro - just look at my NOR Durrant.....)

Anyway, the postie came and delivered these today....exciting.












As Bob says (& does!) and Andy & Mike do - it's all in the Satanic detail. Look at the lovely orange hue on the light coming through the lens....

[Lightweight_911]

Great news about the Targa shell Rich - & nice score on the lenses!

[marksgtv]

Great job Richard. BTW... Did you receive my PM from early S?

[murph2309]

Thanks Mark, appreciate the words from stateside! - I did get your PM....if you can keep an eye out for an 'aged' 380mm 914/6 steering wheel, that would be very much appreciated - If I get anywhere near your rebuild quality I'll be well chuffed...having said that there are some great builds going on this side of the pond too....the bar is really high at the moment on the re-build threads isn't it!

Great to see all these fab cars coming back to life.

[murph2309]

OK - the Barry bit.....first pack of photos received yesterday - it's great to see how it all comes together.

Firstly the bonnet - we can save it and it's worth it as it's rust free and fits well - but it does look like this:





Bit of a mystery why it's like this, hail? jilted lover? probably an American body shop hammering out some high spots...much less glam We'll deal with fixing that later. It will involve many, many pull studs to get this straight again...

So first job was to get the car on the rotisserie and fix the floor - both the holes and the buckled bits. On the passenger side, I had a load of holes behind the gusset in the footwell & the pedal area







Fixing it was apparently both simple and satisfying, although there was quite a large area to go after it was 'bread and butter' repair - so the holes in the passenger area 'instantly' turned into....









While on the pedal side, drilling out the reinforcing plate





Fabricating a new piece, welding in place & grinding flat to make good, fixing the plate back on and welding a new stud in place so that the pedal board will fix in place







Followed by a similar repair to the big hole in the floor



Then onto the tunnel area to straighten some dents and dings. Some were done by welding on pull studs, but around the back of the tunnel, it's all very stiff & rigid, so studs weren't working. Solution?

Cut it out, straighten on the bench, weld back in and hey presto an unbent floor







And that's it - floor fixed. Great start and Barry pleased with progress. So am I - Barry makes it look so effortless, but the skill & care that goes into this is breathtaking... Onto the Celette next to check alignment.

[johnM]

Wow fantastic stuff. This is a great time seeing all the repairs going in. Its on the up now. Before you know it it will be back in the garage.

Kind regards.

[murph2309]

Up on the Celette, we found pretty much what was expected. Front end messy & miles off as a result of the agricultural repairs in the past (also explains why I couldn't bolt the dolly on properly)





Good news is that front strut towers bang on, so no accident damage here





Back end a bit droopy - sort that out with 10 tons of bending power



Interestingly the torsion bar mounts are about 2-3 mm different on each side, no explanation, no damage, so suspect could be 'production' issues. As this holds the spring plates, we can dial out any issues there and leave as is - would probably cause more issues than we would solve if we tried to bend the car into shape. (at least I think that's what Barry said - please correct me if I didn't fully get this...)



So there we go - onto the rest of the work. Barry commented that the inner shell is in extremely good shape, one of the better ones he's seen, but we will have a lot of fiddly work to do on the outer stuff, wings, A-pillars (which are messy), bonnet, rear cross-member, targa hoop, front-end tank support & suspension pan etc. But all in all what it takes in one area, it gives back in others, so looking good to keep the majority of the metal...and within hours budget

Next step probably to get the sills sorted and then onto the front-end.

[911hillclimber]

Very interesting to me and a lot more!

Please keep the pics coming.

[Darren65]

Wonderful stage to go through Richard as the car just keeps getting better and better - enjoy the moment

Those weekly updates do become addictive