The Manhattan Project

[AndrewSlater]

I have in the past loosened these rear nuts with just the handbrake and in 1st gear, but they had been off before...

..damn!! no longer have a handbrake or gearbox fitted!!

[Bruce M]

I can remove the big nuts with the trailing arm sitting on a bench with an impact gun. If.... The nut / thread is not very rusty. I use an mains electric impact gun (Clarke). If they are very rusty, I use a grinder & chisel (very very carefully).
With working handbrake, you can use 3/4" breaker bar and long pipe (scaffold pipe or similar).

[AndrewSlater]

Thanks for the advice Bruce - always good to know what is achievable.

I first tried my air powered impact wrench but no joy ( I thinks its specced at 350Nm - which is less than the Clarke electric ones ).

I then tried my 1/2" breaker bar but no joy - I've ordered a longer 1/2" breaker bar so will see how that works out.
I'll keep periodically spraying with penetrating spray.

May have to resort to grinder and chisel when removed.

[911hillclimber]

Bruce has reminded me, my first strip-down I had to grind the one face to a millionth of an inch to the thread and the resulting heat and WD40 had the nut off with a 600mm/1/2" breaker bar with an air gun socket.(black, 6 face designed for the stresses of an air impact driver). I didn't have an Impact driver then.
The other side just came off with the bar/socket ( ) maybe it had been off before my time.

If you can give it some real heat then worth a try. Nuts are cheap to buy new.

[hot66]

get a bit of scoffold pipe on the breaker bar + someone or something to place some weight over the rear wheel so it doesn't turn / slip

[AndrewSlater]

So I'm at a bit of a crossroads in terms of how to go forward.

I finally got my bodywork guy to look at the car and give his comments.
He painted my 912 and did a great job so I have a lot of respect for his work.

He felt the car wasn't in too bad a shape and he suggested minimal welding repair to panels rather than a full out and out replacement - which sounds a good approach as it retains as much of the original car as possible. He would rather fabricate repair pieces than fit new panels so maybe my mountain of panels I have been slowly ordering might not get fully used.

He also felt that a lot of the undersealed area were in good nick and probably didn't need disturbing.
However I think I would like to see the bare metal to know that everything is sound - so I am veering towards my original plan of using Envirostrip ( or similar ) and then recreating the paintwork as close to factory as possible.

Obviously this adds the cost of removing the paint/under seal and seam sealer and then the cost of putting it all back - but I think it is worth it for peace of mind.

Two items are worrying me/us with regard to the Envirostrip process.

One thing that my bodyshop guy is worried about is losing the original sound deadoning panels on the floors as in the following photo.

Does anyone know whether it is feasible to remove my old floor panels for refitting later?

Secondly should I be concerned with the heater tubes in the sills if I go for this process?

As always any advice much appreciated.

[AndrewSlater]

So I have pretty much decided ( I keep changing my mind ) to go down the Envirostrip route - so tried to start removing access panels in the interior sill to remove the heater tubes as per Nicks suggestion [ Thanks Nick ].

However my 3" air saw bought from eBay had different ideas - the cutting discs barely took the paint off let alone cut into the metal - so need to get some real discs I think.

In the meantime I have now secured two replacement wings for the car.

The one with the fuel filler is slightly different to my '74 one and has an extra bracket around the filler neck as highlighted below.


I'm not sure what the bracket is for.

Can I check that this was added to later cars and that I should probably cut it off to backdate to '74?

Secondly I've noticed that the offside wing has only one headlight fixing point in the headlight bowl - whereas my others all have five fixings points.

Is this just a different variant of the headlamp bowl?
If so what variant?
And if so what's the best way to sort it out - swap the headlight bowl or swap the brackets over?

As always any suggestions much appreciated.

[Berny]

The extra bracket is for the screen wash filler do which ever looks easy'st

[AndrewSlater]

My '74 wing has the screen washer filler tube - but no bracket around it - is the bracket a later feature?
Thanks
Andrew

[AndrewSlater]

So I've now taken out the heater tubes.

I couldn't source any new cutting discs for my air cut off tool in time so I ended up using my handheld Dremmel!
Don't ask hoy many 1" discs I went through

The first cut out I made a little small which meant I have cut the brackets in two and the tube was a tight squeeze to remove.
The second I made a little bigger to prevent cutting the bracket.

The bad news is that the heater tubes are a little fragile and I slightly damaged them getting them out.
The good news is the channels are pretty clean and rust free so the inner sills look sound.



My concern is that when the access panels are welded back what stops the tubes from being burnt?

[AndrewSlater]

The car is now booked in with Envirostrip so I have a new deadline to work to in order to get the car to a bare shell.

This weekend my son and I pushed the car back up the garden hill back to the front driveway.
Surprising how light the car is now compared with when we made the trip in the opposite direction with a complete car!

The plan is to drop the suspension off the car next weekend and leave it on axle stands ready for collection.

After realising what a lot of space we suddenly had in the workshop with the car gone, we decided to strip the engine a bit further to reduce the weight ready for putting on the engine stand.

On removing the parts associated with the fuel injection inlets we found where else the rodents had been storing their nuts!



There was a good inch of nuts and newspaper sat on the cylinders covering every aircooled fin.
Glad I didn't try running the engine first - as it all looked very combustible!!

So todays questions are:-

1) Is my Ferm ES1 engine stand rated at 350kg sufficient for this monster engine?
2) How exactly does BeetleJacs engine Yoke fit to the engine ( do I use the existing fastenings or do I have to remove two of the studs ) ?
3) Whats a good technique for raising the engine from the floor to the 800mm or so height of the stand? ( I have no engine lift only a quad bike jack )?

[cobb911]

So todays questions are:-

1) Is my Ferm ES1 engine stand rated at 350kg sufficient for this monster engine?
2) How exactly does BeetleJacs engine Yoke fit to the engine ( do I use the existing fastenings or do I have to remove two of the studs ) ?
3) Whats a good technique for raising the engine from the floor to the 800mm or so height of the stand? ( I have no engine lift only a quad bike jack )?

1) See http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche- ... eight.html It suggests a weight of 175kg so looks like the answer is yes
2) Having discussed the same with Jack today when I collected one from him (top bloke by the way) it connects to one half of the engine so you can strip it. I am sure there is actually a picture that shows that if you look at his thread about the yokes. I believe some have thought he got the measurements wrong but have missed the point and tried to connect to both halves.
3) Get some mates round, a corner each and the offer of a couple of beers after should sort it.

Regards

[AndrewSlater]

Well the car is now fully stripped ready for Envirostrip to pick up on Thursday.



Once the shell is gone, the next job is to strip the suspension down and refurb it.
Anyone know what is a good value alternative for the balljoint removal tool?

Thanks
Andrew

[AndrewSlater]

Good news - Envirostrip have collected the car.

Thanks to Alan who made loading the car onto the dolly and heaving up my steep driveway a breeze.
So far impressive service and really nice and helpful staff



Lets hope there are no nasty surprises on its return

[911hillclimber]

Just used them myself for some scooter sheet metal.

Yours will be about the 4th 911 in there. BIG place, very busy.

Great company with good communications.