There are a couple of schools of thought when it comes to eradicating rust.Ferry Man wrote:So, my first job was to start buying some panels for the rebuild.
One way is to carefully cut out the offending sections, shape and contour replacement patches, weld in the repair and grind down the welds.
That needs to be done well to make sure the rust doesn’t return and obviously considerable care must be taken to ensure the fit and finish matches the old.
Barry is a fine exponent of this method and I’m a big fan of his work.
In the hands of such an artisan the repairs can be as good as new.
The other method is to remove corroded panels and replace with brand new.
This provides a guarantee of complete rust elimination and means that panel fit should be perfect.
Using the first method is cheaper on parts (and helps retain more original steel) but invariably demands more labour.
Whilst buying and replacing full panels can be pricey, hopefully some of that cost can be offset by less hours billed.
I settled on largely replacing panels.
That was driven by the realisation that the shell was pretty rotten.
Understandable on a 40 year old UK car but nevertheless, bad, even for a RHD car used on our salted roads.
Guided by Nick Moss I also decided to only use genuine Porsche panels.
That would ensure the quality and fit of the components was as good as original.
And hopefully would demand less work in fitting.
Plus it seems appropriate to replace any discarded parts of your old Porsche with new bits of Porsche.
I didn't want to end up driving around in a Dansk.
