A Dream Fulfilled - MY 904FF
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:43 pm
This dream started way back in the 1960's when the first 904's appeared on the English club racing scene. I owned a 1958 356A cabriolet at that time and had pals racing TVR's so the 904's were very conspicuous on the club circuit at Silverstone.
I fell in love with the 904 at that time but realised I would never be able to afford a genuine one but could dream that one day it might happen - you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket! Years passed, marriage, kids and a career took priority but in 1993 my wife joined me in USA for our 25th wedding anniversary and brought a present for me - a Les Leston steering wheel which she had bought at the local auction house in Banbury. As it turned out this was the start of the "Project" but I didn't realise it at the time. Whilst in the States, I had had a mid-life brain storm and had bought a 356SC coupe from the original owner to remind me of the good old days!
I retired in 1997 and moved to the south of Scotland in 1998. Amongst the items which moved with us was a 1967 912 as well as the 356SC which had been shipped from North Carolina in one end of the container of household effects. Before that, it's engine had been rebuilt by Harry Pellow and it had been re trimmed in leather in Raleigh. The 912 was to replace the 912 which we bought in 1972 on our return from Australia and which ended up being used more by my wife than by me. The latest 912 had been used as a racer and came with a spare engine but was in pretty poor shape so there was quite a lot of bodywork repairs necessary. However it was finally finished and on the road by 2000.
So whilst there was a 356 and a 912 in the garage, there was still room for something else and I needed a Project to give me a challenge. I had been collecting book, magazines and pictures of the 904 and boring my pals rigid with my obsession with the 904 to the extent that on a visit to South Wales, my oldest pal present me with a print of a Porsche GA of the 904. This had been obtained through an industrial designer contact who had worked at Porsche on the 928.
I now began to realise that there could be a possibility of realising the dream of owning a 904 not by buying one but my making one and so the "Project" was started.
The first purchase was a 8 ft x 4 ft 25 mm block board on which a centre line and two transverse lines 2300 mm apart to signify the wheelbase were drawn. The next purchase was a small drawing program "Deltacad" for my computer with which I could draw the chassis and body. The Porsche GA was scaled at 100mm intervals to allow the body shape to be drawn. By this time I realised that the difficult part for me would be the body since I had done nothing like this before. The mechanical side was considered to be easier but perhaps this confidence was misplaced.
The idea was to build the basic shape of the buck in wood. Over many months a wooden buck was made so that the critical dimensions could be finally attained by building up the final shape in Plaster of Paris over an expanded metal mesh. The critical dimensions were obtained from all the published data that I could find giving height, width etc. but also by scaling the Porsche GA drawing.
I fell in love with the 904 at that time but realised I would never be able to afford a genuine one but could dream that one day it might happen - you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket! Years passed, marriage, kids and a career took priority but in 1993 my wife joined me in USA for our 25th wedding anniversary and brought a present for me - a Les Leston steering wheel which she had bought at the local auction house in Banbury. As it turned out this was the start of the "Project" but I didn't realise it at the time. Whilst in the States, I had had a mid-life brain storm and had bought a 356SC coupe from the original owner to remind me of the good old days!
I retired in 1997 and moved to the south of Scotland in 1998. Amongst the items which moved with us was a 1967 912 as well as the 356SC which had been shipped from North Carolina in one end of the container of household effects. Before that, it's engine had been rebuilt by Harry Pellow and it had been re trimmed in leather in Raleigh. The 912 was to replace the 912 which we bought in 1972 on our return from Australia and which ended up being used more by my wife than by me. The latest 912 had been used as a racer and came with a spare engine but was in pretty poor shape so there was quite a lot of bodywork repairs necessary. However it was finally finished and on the road by 2000.
So whilst there was a 356 and a 912 in the garage, there was still room for something else and I needed a Project to give me a challenge. I had been collecting book, magazines and pictures of the 904 and boring my pals rigid with my obsession with the 904 to the extent that on a visit to South Wales, my oldest pal present me with a print of a Porsche GA of the 904. This had been obtained through an industrial designer contact who had worked at Porsche on the 928.
I now began to realise that there could be a possibility of realising the dream of owning a 904 not by buying one but my making one and so the "Project" was started.
The first purchase was a 8 ft x 4 ft 25 mm block board on which a centre line and two transverse lines 2300 mm apart to signify the wheelbase were drawn. The next purchase was a small drawing program "Deltacad" for my computer with which I could draw the chassis and body. The Porsche GA was scaled at 100mm intervals to allow the body shape to be drawn. By this time I realised that the difficult part for me would be the body since I had done nothing like this before. The mechanical side was considered to be easier but perhaps this confidence was misplaced.
The idea was to build the basic shape of the buck in wood. Over many months a wooden buck was made so that the critical dimensions could be finally attained by building up the final shape in Plaster of Paris over an expanded metal mesh. The critical dimensions were obtained from all the published data that I could find giving height, width etc. but also by scaling the Porsche GA drawing.