DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Mitch wrote:Just been catching up with the last few pages.... it's EPIC!
Good job you've got NOS, nerves of steel.

Thanks Nigel.

So, now we've got the doors and wings going back on.

More lovely spot welding.
And just look at that fresh metal. Beautiful.
Untarnished and super strong.

Keep referring to the book as to how it all goes back together....

So, nearly a complete car again. Just a roof to go.
At the bottom centre of this photograph you can see the cant rail, ready for installation.

You may recall this shot of the rotten cant rail:





Well this was it's replacement:

Beautiful….and built on that Celette it'll be as straight and true as it ever was.

I can sense a green envy colour over us all as this takes place, and in my case a worry just what in going on inside all those tight box sections in my shell!
Oddly, it does feel that the shell is very close to being broadly done, seems quick and I guess this down to all those new panels with little intricate patching?

Time to see those upper body jigs.

The cant rails pictured above help illustrate the conundrum of 'patch & repair' vs 'new Porsche panels'.
Chesterton’s thought they were NLA. In fact they had invested many hours repairing those panels on an earlier car seen here on DDK (I hope Garry won't mind me illustrating the fabrication in the photo below).

But with Nick Moss's expertise in searching the PET, we discovered that you could still get them with a 993 part number.
I'd never seen such a pressing and there was no chance of a 'sale or return' so I chanced my arm and purchased one side to see if would be of help. And sure enough it was a godsend.

The bulk of it was just what was required although (being for a 993) the front pillar was wrong for the early cars. However, with most of the frame rail identical to the part we needed it made ecconomic sense to buy the other side too. So, another order went in to Porsche.
They cost approx £350 each side.

The equation is simple: if the rusty steel to be replaced demanded more than 10 hours fabrication (i.e. 10 hours x £35 an hour) it would pay to buy new. And those steel pressings are horribly complex to make by hand, they would be very labour intensive.

And the familiar roof line starts to appear.

As observed earlier the ’74 Carrera coupe is a valuable car because of its similarity to the ’73 RS.
You can – quite reasonably – expect a driving experience that is almost identical to the RS.

However, in that regard there are Carreras even within the 1974 model year that are more sought after than others.
And those cars are elevated in rank because they share even more in common with their exalted brother.
The fact is the very early cars in the production series were built with remaining RS shells.
They have RS style tunnel reinforcements.

That feature disappeared as the stock of earlier shells were used up.
It’s apparent that the Porsche plant took care to use up any available RS style shells before switching to the new ‘SC’ bodies coming down the line.
It’s reckoned that at least the first few hundred chassis were configured with the tunnel reinforcements as per the RS.

My car is number 0197. And my 1974 Carrera shares the reinforced transmission tunnel of the ‘73RS.
This feature was introduced for the RS and I assume it was a strengthening meant to prevent any flex?
It disappears early in the ’74 model year as the RS style shells were used up.

It’s a point of interest for a few individuals who like this sort of thing (Mike 210bhp) but I can’t say I understand why Porsche felt the need for the reinforcing, nor why they soon chose to delete it.
All I know is I have that feature on my shell.

You can see (in the photo below of the stripped & dipped shell) the extra plate around the rear tunnel access point. The sheet metal goes through the rear bulkhead and welds to the torsion bar. The tunnel & its reinforcing was retained during my restoration (in fact it remained affixed to the torsion tube throughout).
The other photograph shows the plate from below.

Quite remarkable. A few days away and I miss all this....so a quick skim through and bookmark to go over in more detail. I cannot believe a shell has been as comprehensively rebuilt like this anywhere.....there is a book in this How long did it take the team at Chestertons to do this ?

Highfield wrote:I cannot believe a shell has been as comprehensively rebuilt like this anywhere.....
How long did it take the team at Chestertons to do this?

Less than 12 weeks.
I waited a while in a queue for my allocated slot but once that opened up (which happened exactly when predicted earlier by Chesterton's) they were on it to the exclusions of others.
They started and didn't finish until they were finished. Can't say fairer than that.