Aga Blue 67S

[210bhp]

Looks like a replacement mirror. A 67S mirror is slightly different (like Marks picture previously).

Regards
Mike

[stretch]

Early 67 extended stem with a post -70 replacement mirror.

[MarkIII]

Been a while since my last update, the car has now been with the paint shop best part of 12 weeks and I am glad to say they are making good progress.
As I mentioned at the start of this thread my intention was to always restore the car back to as an original spec as possible. So well in advance of the car reaching the paint shop, I have been researching what the correct paint finish would have been for a 67S. Porsport.com in the US unearthed a couple of original 67S cars a few years back and have many photo’s on their web site which has been a great help, I also quizzed a number of current owners who either have original cars or are in the throws of restoring them.

So the following areas are finished in underseal:
Underside
Engine bay
Luggage bay
Inner wings/wheel arches

Interestingly enough from speaking to Mike (210bhp) and seeing a number of pictures of original cars you can clearly see signs of body colour in these areas, which suggests that the car was painted body colour first prior to having underseal applied, so this is the approach the paint shop has used on my car, so with lots of use and in years to come you may start to see traces of body colour coming through in some of these areas.



Another area of the car which has proved difficult to nail down in terms of final finish is the cabin, I believe early swb cars cabins were finished matt black, my approach was to try and establish if 67 cars were any different, such as being painted body colour first followed by a light dusting of matt black in certain areas, like you can see in many of the LWB cars which have been restored over recent years. After several requests and conversations, I have not been able to categorically confirm the internal cabin finish so I have decided to take the same approach what some of the US experts have done on their cars….so matt black it is, and at the end of the day the car is going to be fully carpeted so not something I am loosing to much sleep over.

This then brings us to final body finish, the car is not going to be a garage queen or a concours car, however given how much the paint work on these cars is now costing I wanted a finish that reflects the money spent. I know that many cars nowadays follow the US spec of clear coat and many hours of polishing to get a mirror finish…… my car will reflect what Porsche did back when it left the factory so a solid top coat paint with a light polishing will be in order
So a few snaps of progress, firstly showing the car in epoxy and then the final underside, engine and luggage bays, inner wings/wheels arches all completed, now its on with final prep and getting some colour on the external of the car…..hoping to have a fully painted car on its way for final assembly by early March… fingers crossed

A few of the car in black epoxy before a snap of the engine bay in body colour ahead of underseal being applied




I think the underseal finish is a pretty good match when compared with the original finish on the smugglers box.....

[210bhp]

I would say that looks pretty darn good Mark. Nice texture.

Regards
Mike

[Lightweight_911]

Very nice !

[inaglasshouse]

Mark, that looks great.
Please can you let me know what underseal product and application method your painters used to get that texture? Looks spot on to me.
Many thanks, Richard.

[TimB]

Fantastic Mark, must be great to see the progress now after all the hard work and research.

[Darren65]

.......which suggests that the car was painted body colour first prior to having underseal applied.....

That's an interesting theory Mark........underseal (stonechip) is messy stuff that gets everywhere when being applied so I'd be surprised if the factory went to the trouble of masking up freshly painted shells to apply this?......were the early cars painted black under the hood and engine bay etc over the underseal?.......If so I would have thought the process would have been underseal-body colour-black which would explain why you may sometimes see colour (overspray) under the black paint as you often do in the engine bays of LWB cars......obviously very hard to be sure as so many 'reference' cars have been re-painted and touched-up over the years and when this was done 30+ years ago it's hard to tell what really is original......no doubt there were a lot of production process changes in the early years as the factory worked at becoming as efficient as possible so maybe some things were sometimes tried back to front?

Fantastic progress, the texture of that underseal does look really sharp and the car is looking great

Looking forward to seeing it being assembled.

Cheers,

[911hillclimber]

I looked at a ver y very early 1965 red 911 this morning undergoing a body restoration.
Same colour and details, stunning car rebuild.
The front suspension struts were solid into the body, no adjustment etc.
Magic cars, and a pleasure to see just like yours will be!
Great thread.

[inaglasshouse]

......If so I would have thought the process would have been underseal-body colour-black which would explain why you may sometimes see colour (overspray) under the black paint as you often do in the engine bays of LWB cars.....

A later car so not directly relevant, but here's a 70 car. Speaking with the owner who had the full history, he was very certain the engine bay paint was original (and he chose not to touch it during his resto).



Based on this, I agree with you Darren that it's definitely underseal-body colour-black. (The black has obviously worn away over the years in this example).
I'd say that the extent of body colour in this photo suggests more then overspray. Looks to me as if the engine bay was deliberately painted body colour before the black was applied.
What do you reckon?

[MarkIII]

Thanks for your comments
The swb cars that I have used as a reference have only shown very slight body colour in the luggage, engine bay and underside, probably talking of a few small areas no more than a few centre meters here and there, nowhere near to the extent of Richards last photo of a lwb car.

Would be great to get other people's views on paint finish in these areas of swb and lwb cars

To apply underseal followed by body colour and finally black paint seems like a long drawn out process to me..... given the longevity of underseal and its final appearance once applied, would you need to then apply black paint to something that already is black in appearance.

Cheers
Mark

[Darren65]

I'd say that the extent of body colour in this photo suggests more then overspray. Looks to me as if the engine bay was deliberately painted body colour before the black was applied.
What do you reckon?

....when I say 'overspray' I mean these areas weren't intentionally painted, I think it will have varied quite a bit from car to car on any particular day........when we stripped Richard Huckle's (original and upainted internally) 72 shell there wasn't a great deal of colour in the engine bay and with all the cars I've stripped there's hardly any colour under the rear parcel shelf........but then when you look at this video around the minute mark you can see how much paint the pressure fed (rather than air) spray guns pumped out so easy to apply a lot of colour everywhere!...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leis5zazeXY
The black paint was only ever a masking coat to hide the poor finish seen under the arches and in engine bay etc and the factory even did away with that when they started fully painting these areas in 73MY.

......To apply underseal followed by body colour and finally black paint seems like a long drawn out process to me.....

....that was certainly the way it was done when the LWB came about and once the factory had honed it's production process.

I think it's a lot harder referencing SWB cars because there was obviously far fewer of them to start with and a tiny number that have remained original and untouched plus I'm sure there will have been many production process changes at the factory in the early years as they ramped up production numbers......you'll be far more aware than I of the finish on early cars, as I said I don't know if the underseal was painted over in black, if black already then you could well be right and underseal may have came after paint back then......not logical imo but who knows?

There's no harm and makes no difference either way as far as the final appearance is correct and I'd say yours is looking as good as they come

[MarkIII]

Happy to say that my car is now fully painted, a few days of final polishing and it should be ready for the next stage of the process. The shop have shared a couple of pictures of the car ahead of me visiting next week for final sign off:

Quite chuffed with the way shes looking:







More photos to follow after i visit the shop next week

[Darren65]

Looks yummy

[DarthMJH]

Looking great Mark !