DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Thank you for all the comments on this build everyone, they are very much appreciated!

Graham, I think over the last ten or eleven years and 40-45 911's I've been through most stages: terror, frustration, boredom and so on. As you know, 90% of the body metalwork is just good old grotty slog. Frankly, that's why so few people do it at all, and even less stick with it for any length of time. You get it right, and they say 'wow, who did the paint', if it doesn't look right, it's absolutely always going to be down to the panel man .

As for the last 10%, I'd say 3% is talent and the rest is experience.

Where am I now? I'd say that 911 shells are my comfy slippers. I know them pretty well, and on the whole little surprises me. I've seen quite a few of the issues and have never failed to complete a project, there's always a solution to be thought out. Lot's of things keep it fresh, the top one being the desire to always be able to fabricate to get out of trouble. Some of my tooling is now third generation as ambitions, techniques and standards develop. Simply, if I was told I couldn't fabricate, I wouldn't do restoration. I've always believed that the difference between a restorer and a panel fitter is that a true restorer can make what's not available, rather than chop it out of an ever diminishing supply of donor cars.

There is nothing so satisfying as working out how to make a seemingly impossible shape, make the tool, make the part and then see it welded into place. The next thing for me is gaps, I could just tweak and fettle gaps forever. Commercial limitations stop me just going on and on, they are like therapy. Sad I know, but it's that whole problem solving / technique thing I think. I'm just off in my own little world when it comes to gaps. What a sad git.

Overall though, I just like the 911 shells. They are beautifully made for their era, very well thought out and a truly lovely, lovely shape. They have just enough pressed features to make the above fabrications a challenge, but not so much so as to make things impossible. I wouldn't really consider any other shells (although do have a certain E-Type visiting later in the year). I do have a much more creative (non Porsche) project being developed very slowly in the background, and that will break cover at some point, possibly during next Winter. It's nearly 100% fabrication, steel and alloy mix and a very different proposition.

Anyway, back to this one, I had a feeling I would enjoy it when I first saw the car last year. We're only six weeks or so in to date, and progress has been pretty healthy so far. Since I'm keen to keep on top of my waiting list (18 months), and Adam is keen to see it develop, we might as well make the most of the momentum. We have done the majority of the fabrication work now, although there are some detail areas to tackle yet.

Thanks again, and apologies for the amount of radio silence during past year or so .

Oh, should probably mention that the customers are quite nice as well .

Doh

Nice one Barry

Barry, of the 40-odd shells you've worked on do you know how many still grace the pages of DDK?

Cheers,

Interesting comments Barry.
I think many specialists get in a similar groove be it body or a (real) chassis or engines etc.

Not to the same lofty heights but I get the same from my Lola race car and the recent Lambretta and Honda restorations I've done.

As said by KS not so long ago, the journey can be better than arriving at the destination.
Your work certainly gets many through their journey!

Barry, would you want to use one of those nice big high resistance spot welders? Over here (USA) bigger shops use them alot; ProSpot is the brand I normally see. Not inexpensive, of course, but nice pieces of kit for replicating factory spot welds quickly and without the finish work that plug/rosette welds require. Thanks again for sharing your skills with us. John in CT/USA.

Darren, do you know, I'm not sure, guess I might get a chance to count a few at CLM though.

I'd think there must be half on here, although many are lurkers, or not as active although they do still belong to DDK and have their cars. Of course a few of them were for Alan at Canford, and therefore weren't DDK'ers in the first place.

Graham, I think groove is exactly the word. Like you, I find there's a real advantage to the familiar. In my case it means every job leaves me with another tool, method, trick or pattern to carry on into the future. I'm sure you are the same.

John, I do in fact have a couple of spot welders, one little hand-held one. That's very useful indeed, and perfect for going in for a quick one or two welds. Then I have a massive Weilander And Schill water cooled three phase 11500 amp welding power machine. Darren knows this well, as he was kind enough to support the business (to put it mildly) at a critical turning point. This machine had Porsche approval when new (as does the Celette bench interestingly, at the time the only one I believe).

The big welder is absolutely fantastic, and very powerful. It also has long reach arms and a useful single side welding gun. It can also shrink and stud weld. BUT, spot welders were developed for welding new or nearly new metal, not forty year old material with potential slight pitting, and often old e-coat etc in-between layers in the case of triple layered areas. Additionally, although I have arms that are nearly two feet long (sorry, the welder!), even they won't reach the inside areas of the floors, and even the outside edge is tricky. Then there is the rear flange by the rear bulkhead base, the very front and a load of completely hidden seams.

Frankly, by time you factor all that in, when it comes to the floors, it simply isn't worth getting it out. If I want to add a spot weld detail, I can go in later with the single sided gun. I've got some tricks to getting the floors marked out for drilling, and my little Kemppi MIG is so nice to use, it's not a hardship. The cleaning up is definitely tedious, but it's just the pragmatic approach.

Why not single side? Because it's absolutely NOT for structural welding, despite what you might see people doing. It has no repair approval, and I'd suggest no manufacturer or importer would suggest otherwise. You simply can't get that amount of current accurately aimed, let alone the clamping forces, when you're dealing with large panels. It's great for wiring tabs, aesthetic welds and perhaps some light brackets. No more than that. The problem is that although you are introducing the current at one spot, in the other half of the equation the current is finding all sorts of routes back to the welding tip area, only some of which is directly at the attempted weld site. In short, single sided: sounds good, ain't that good.

Generally, if it's structural I'd rather plug weld first, as I absolutely know how each weld has gone, then I'll run over the top with the spot. It's another reason why my jobs might appear to take a few more hours than others: each car is largely double-welded. The client ends up with the right look, I know the thing's safe. There is absolutely nothing worse hearing, as you put the welder away, the ping of a failing (new) spot weld. It's worth noting also that 'our' cars, if un-restored are now driving around with many failed factory welds. In fact a RS I've just sent out had about thirty just around the floor edges that had completely gone. I often see otherwise excellent cars where the factory welds have failed at the top of the inner / centre sill interface.

Now, around, say the front end, where you've got new-to-new with good access, I'll perhaps plug every few inches, as this give me little 5mm 'windows' to make sure everything is fitting snugly (good trick for the outer sills at the top as well, this one). After that, I'll fire up the three phase generator (much cheaper than having it put in to my rented workshop, only to leave it for the landlord), and have a great big welding session. The water cooled nature of the welder means it stays stone cold throughout, tips included, irrespective of the number of welds or time in action. In fact, that's it's main advantage over the tiny hand held one. The welding power at the tips isn't actually that different between the two, as the little one is a transformer with arms on the end of it, the big one is effectively a transformer on end of 2.5metre 'arms' (leads plus arms). It then dumps a ton of that low voltage power as EMF all around except at the weld. The very latest welders are putting the main transformer right at the head for operator safety (big magnet, bad health), but currently at the cost of weight and manoeuvrability.

Anyway, you guys have made me late, Adam is going to be furious . That's why I dare not log in at the moment, I'd be here all day!

Gotta run ....

Great posts Barry, thanks for sharing.

Barry wrote: Anyway, you guys have made me late, Adam is going to be furious . That's why I dare not log in at the moment, I'd be here all day!

Not only Adam
Back to work now, Mr Carter, have a great day!
Cheers, Richard.

While Barry is busy earning a crust, I rented one of those small spot welders he mentions to do a lot of my 911 and some others before, mainly MGB's.
You can now buy them but they really are good once you master the manual ones. They sell a version with a weld timer now I think.

I used a lot of gas welding when I did my 911 back in '88......

Thread drift, but relevant I hope.

Well, another round of updates already!! Funny how Barry decided to post on ddk after so long where he has been working 12hr days 7 days a week for past few weeks unbelievable work rate and he's been flat out as you will see!
I'm just so pleased with the shell and how it's coming on, have reached a milestone I feel having a real solid foundation for all the big new shiny bits to start being assembled around such great fabrication so far. I'm sure Barry would remind me there's lots for him to do but just wait till you see this next lot of photos.....remarkable!!

Next step barry gave the 'rear end' a good tidy up!

Then it was time to clean up the inside







He loves this job

Next step....detail.....mixture of old and new







Time for a refuel

Now this next bit is amazing....

It starts with a sheet of metal



To this...










And then same on next side







Tadaaaa

Now Barry finished off tidying the inside, the most impressive part for me is when shot blasted you could see every repair over the years. With Barrys work you just cant tell and without the progress photos you just simply wouldnt believe it!!!












Total overload of shots but soooo happy with the result!!!