'72 911T Restoration

[sladey]

Thanks for the comments chaps: really not sure I deserve them TBH.

I will admit to being very pleased with that little dented area though. Can't for the life of me figure out what could have happened there? Anyway, I tried to get the shape back on the car, but it was no good, the dent rods just couldn't even start to move it, and I was beginning to put tiny 'outies' (outward dents) in it.

With it on the bench though, I was able to work the dent inside-out with a nylon drift (doesn't stretch the metal further). After that, it was a case of floating the metal back downwards into the correct shape, and weld it back in. It's still my favourite part of the car, silly as it might sound. Just was a lovely metalwork excercise.

I hadn't fully appreciated that these were the same pieces of steel! So the Nylon drift doesn't stretch the metal further - is it just that it doesn't hit it so hard or that it's not strong enough to push it beyond it's original shape but it is strong enough to push it back into shape?

The other huge advantage is that it's never been welded. This makes my job very much easier. All in all, so far it's been a rather good project ....

No welding, but plenty of pop-rivetting

[Madrat]

Scary repairs!....probably one the most rotten parts of the car was the rear seat and parcel shelf areas....























The only way to deal with this issue was to remove the problem areas!

[Madrat]

Many thanks to Dan Squires for supplying a rear seat pan / parcel shelf repair section....

[Madrat]

With a surprising amount of work, the replacement bulkhead was ready for installing. Areas included: both bases to the kick panel, turn up and braze in new earthing point, incuding correct brass earthing washer. Fabricate new N/S corner of parcelshelf, repair lots of the side flanges, weld on new wiring loom tabs (pictured), weld up all of the extra holes drilled into it, zip off remaining underseal, repair parcel shelf to screen frame upstand, plus numerous trial fits (fifteen at least)!

With all of that done, and the flanged areas primed, it was ready for fitting. The Celette jig was leveled dead-level using an engineer's spirit level (as the rear bulkhead really stiffens the car up, so you want it to be dead-straight), and the bulkhead was clamped before being welded into place.

[911hillclimber]

Crickey!
That is one serious panel to put in and what a transformation.
The surrounding metal looks remarkably good considering the proximity of all the corroded steel now removed.

So interesting to see. I guess the panel came from a donor car?

Progress you might say 'by Barry'.

[Madrat]

Yep....the rear seat pan / parcel shelf section did come from a donor car.

The next jobs that Barry tackled after this were some floor and front bulkhead repairs. The buckled floor was straighten out and after that the two holes on the RH side floor were sorted.


































After that it was time to tackle that nasty hole in the bulkhead. The hole was taken back, and a whole new area fabricated. With this welded in and dressed up, the result is very strong, and the inside of the car has improved no end.

[Madrat]

The next stage was to repair the nasty flange at the top of the RH inner wing.

A length of inner wing flange some 3ft+ was fabricated and welded in, plus a small area over the battery box.

[Darren65]

Quite special that Carter chap, isn't he

You're really getting into the swing of things with these updates Richard......

....at this rate I'm expecting to see a photo of you driving the finished car come the weekend!

Looks great,

[Madrat]

Quite a bit to go yet Darren so I don't think I will be driving it this year let alone this weekend!!!!

Next it was on to the floor edge. As the original floor had been left in place in one area as a reference, Barry could weld on a little tab, just to locate the new floor flange in the same position as the original. The old floor edge was then removed and Barry fabricated up a section that replaced the corroded area underneath the passenger seat reinforcement (the wavy bit), and welded that in. After that, the whole area was given a good clean up, and an initial priming with black etch primer.

The new floor edge was welded in, and the whole area given another dose of primer.

Barry then moved onto the inner sill after the heater tube had been re-fitted. The jig was levelled front and rear (to eliminate any twist that might be transferred to the shell), and the inner sill prepared. With everything double-checked, it was welded in and the whole area tidied up, and treated with weld-thru primer where appropriate. Finally, the infill between the rear inner wing and the inner sill was offered up.

[Madrat]

Some more floor repairs.....smaller dents beaten out and some smaller holes dealt with.......

[Barry]

Thanks for the comments chaps: really not sure I deserve them TBH.

I will admit to being very pleased with that little dented area though. Can't for the life of me figure out what could have happened there? Anyway, I tried to get the shape back on the car, but it was no good, the dent rods just couldn't even start to move it, and I was beginning to put tiny 'outies' (outward dents) in it.

With it on the bench though, I was able to work the dent inside-out with a nylon drift (doesn't stretch the metal further). After that, it was a case of floating the metal back downwards into the correct shape, and weld it back in. It's still my favourite part of the car, silly as it might sound. Just was a lovely metalwork excercise.

I hadn't fully appreciated that these were the same pieces of steel! So the Nylon drift doesn't stretch the metal further - is it just that it doesn't hit it so hard or that it's not strong enough to push it beyond it's original shape but it is strong enough to push it back into shape?







The nylon is great because it doesn't marr the metal like steel tools do. I just order up a metre at a time off of E-bay (white nylon, 1 inch round). It can be cut to a handy length (usually 3-6 inches depending on the job, obviously you end up with a load of different ones), and the working end linished to whatever shape you want.

In the above case, I just used a fairly radius, blunt chisel sort of shape. If I'd used metal straight down on the bench (with the work inbetween obviously) it would have marred the metal, and stretched it.

The main use for the nylon is for the hammer-forming: the two sections ahead of the battery boxes are hammer-formed from one piece of metal, and have no welds in them either. The metal is just floated down over the (primitive) hammerform. Same process for the parcelshelf corner. Note in the above photo, the only parts of the parcelshelf repair section that are fully formed are the areas I knew I would use. That's why it looks a bit 'soft' in some of the more central (middle of car) areas. Basically I get the best shape I can with the nylon, and then go in with various steel tools, all ground to different radii. These are used to chase into all of the detail: there is a formal name for this final finishing process, but it's slipped my mind: it'll come back to me as soon as the P.C.'s switched off .

Anyway, nylon: useful stuff and cheap as chips, so you can just make up a custom tool for each job. They do say that it can shatter, but I have to say I've given this stuff real welly (both of the above hammer-formed parts are in 18G steel, and you need to use a heavy hammer), and it's been fine. I would think you'd probably want to bin very heavily abused tools after a while though, just to be on the safe side, and wear goggles as well.

Damn, that phrase is right on the tip of my tonque .... what the hell is it?

[stretch]

Nice work Barry. chasing or caulking ?

[Barry]

Caulking would fit the bill, but isn't the word I'm (still!) looking for. I've been through a number of my panel-beating books, and can't find it there, so perhaps it's just a term that my tutors used that's not widespread. Not that it matters anyway: the point is that I use the nylon to get the best shape as I can, and then follow up with steel to chase into the corners and details.

It basically means finalising the work. I'll sleep on it

[jtparr]

I'll give you a word....

craftsmanship.......an often lost art in this world

A pleasure to see it unfold...


Jp

[Madrat]

The underside of the torsion tube area also need atttention....







In order to gain decent access to the whole area, the inner wing was trimmed up to the next natural cutting point, which would help to give a nice join later on.





The heater tube is buried right in the pressing of the rear chassis leg, so the only way to remove it is to first remove an access panel ....




then grind away around one of it's securing welds, before removing it (there are other welds to deal with, but according to Barry these were straighforward). This is the final layer to deal with ....




And the same layer from the other side: these are the holes that the blasting hadn't revealed, and the compacted rust was concealed with etch primer. It was only because it looked a bit rough in texture that Barry went in with a pointy tool and went through. The other side is completely different.




This is the hammer-formed part that Barry made up: a lot going on in this shape, and very tricky to make!




Clamped in, the next stage was to scribe around it, before cutting out the shape.




And welded in: Barry didn't fully ground back these welds as he wanted just a little more strength here than usual. They're not seen, and the next layer goes right over the top anyway. The other side is dead flush though.