DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

RHS inner wing is now fitted!!!

A bit of fettling before fitting


Trial fitting


welded in


Tank surround also welded in


Inside the inner wing


And the front


It finally came off the jig on Friday and the front end is now on a dolly in preparation for painting. Tim has a bit of tidying up/grinding to do, but its finally looking straight and rust free. Once its tidied its going off to be painted......

Now the front end is almost done, the next question is what colour should i paint it? My car is currently a Porsche 356 silver colour (code 6206). However, it was originally Tangerine (code 2323). I would like to get the whole car repainted tangerine, but given that my minor rust repair has turned into a significant (ie expensive) restoration project, that will have to wait a bit.
I've been reading quite a lot of online content regarding what the factory did at the time. Given my car is a 70T (April build, so also 70MY), it was built in the Karmann factory. From what I've read, Karmann painted the body in the exterior colour, but the inner wings, bonnet and engine bays were black. I've read other posts that state that there was overspray in these areas from the main body painting, but they were painted black satin over the overspray.

Given the sanding that Tim has been doing, it would appear that there is a layer of Tangerine colour in the boot, then Albert Blue and black on top, possibly with black over the original tangerine.

Here's some of the reference sites, there is a lot of conflicting information from people who swear their car has never been repainted.
http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums ... 36161.html
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/paint-bo ... k-eng.html

So, given that the Tangerine would be overpainted black and won't be seen if I do go ahead with that, I could get the inner wings and engine bay painted tangerine and then painted black on top.... However, it is possible that my car has been resprayed more than the 3 times I know about, so I'm interested in thoughts regarding spraying; should I:

1) Assume that there was only some overspray from the main body painting and not worry about the original tangerine at all.
2) Paint the inner wings black but the boot tangerine, which would obviously look bad until I repaint the rest of the car.
3) Artificially put some tangerine overspray in the boot, then paint it black on top.

If there is any definitive confirmation of what the factory did, then I would like to know and will probably go ahead with that.

Many thanks
Paul

Its off the jig

Its done!!!!

I picked my car up on Friday and spent a couple of hours chatting to Tim who did all the body work and Jez who has tuned my engine. I'm very happy with the result. The body was primed then painted in the original Tangerine. Over that black was painted in the inner wings and under the bonnet as per the original paint colour for a 1970 Karmann built 911T, with stone chip painted in the wheel wells. Only the external parts, such as the slam panel and along the tops to the inner wings were then painted on top in the current silver colour. All this will make the respray easier if/when I get round to that.

Here's a few pics of the final bodywork in primer.













There have been too many other changes to list, but the other main improvement is tuning as it was never really ran perfectly. It feels much more solid and now runs like a scalded cat. My RS spec 3.2SS engine really is awesome. Pics of the finished article to follow....

Quite a comparison

Before


After

Other bits and bobs that have been done:
- New gearbox support
- Loads of parts replated or repainted
- 915 gearbox properly fitted as a minor modification needed to be made to the tunnel to make it fit properly
- Front S bumper painted and fitted with a bespoke bracket made and plated for my front Swiss numberplate
- Lots of small bits like a new earth strap as the old one was corroded

Here's a picture of the underside

Looks great

Thanks Darren,

A few under bonnet pics. Lots of lovely straight metal





img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4450/374 ... a1f3_c.jpg[/img]

Next dilemma. My car is now on a slow journey to be less RS like and closer to its original look. I put on an S front bumper rather than the T one, as I prefer it, despite the fact that in 70 even the S didn't come with the lip.

Should I go with the original chrome parts or keep the black? I bought the chrome air grills from AFS in the states a few months ago and have a complete set of chrome surround indicator lenses. Whilst my car still has a ducktail the chrome surround parts look a bit out of place at the rear, but I prefer the chrome at the front.



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Deffo Chrome!

PMNorris wrote:Thanks Darren,

A few under bonnet pics. Lots of lovely straight metal





img]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4450/374 ... a1f3_c.jpg[/img]

Could I suggest some sort of insulation between those +ve terminals and the battery boxes. Wouldn't take much of a front-end shunt to make contact with the chassis - arc - spark - fuel tank nearby, possibly ruptured by same shunt.

Just saying...

Mick

Agree, there are special clip-over covers by Porsche for the purpose used in period.
Available from Type 911 @ £4 each., like the original ones, almost solid thick walled mouldings. (up to 1973)

Looking good Paul.
Agree re covers for those terminals. The +ve -> carelessly-wielded spanner -> earth circuit offers potential for disaster too. Not that I'd know, of course, dear me no.
Cheers, Richard

911hillclimber wrote:Agree, there are special clip-over covers by Porsche for the purpose used in period.
Available from Type 911 @ £4 each., like the original ones, almost solid thick walled mouldings. (up to 1973)

I bought a pair of these from Type 911 and if I remember correctly, they were marked as Porsche items on the packaging. One weekend I was surprised to find my battery was flat and it turned out the battery cover was made out of some conductive material and was shorting against the chassis. I could see the spark and also confirmed this with a test meter. They are a good idea but I would check these before fitting.

911GP wrote: ... turned out the battery cover was made out of some conductive material and was shorting against the chassis. I could see the spark and also confirmed this with a test meter.

Ludicrous.
Thanks again for the quality parts, Porsche!