1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

[inaglasshouse]

Hi Gitesh,
Thanks for posting the pics.
Really nice attention to detail. Love the deliberately imperfect welds in that front pan / slam section, looking beautifully factory. Great stuff.
Cheers, Richard.

[911GP]

Completely agree Richard. It is beginning to feel like the car is coming back together again rather than being just parts, panels, sections and bits of metal. It is difficult to describe but may be due to the detail like this welding that you highlighted.

I mentioned earlier that when the car was stripped of its interior Gary informed me we had a problem with the doors. It would appear that the doors had been replaced previously with ones from a later car and in order to remove the side impact bars someone had cut them open from the inside, removed the bars and then welded them up. The end result was a pair of wonky doors. This would explain why I had to slam the passenger side door quite hard to close properly. Here are some photos of the old doors and the scars from the welding to the inside:









So, annoyingly, the doors were binned and the search was on to find replacements. Gary had a good donor door he kindly offered me and John, after many calls, managed to find one from a later car with a side impact bar. The bar was removed (the correct procedure, I am told, is to remove the door skin, remove the bar and then replace with new door skins) and cosmetic adjustments made to backdate the doors to be correct for the car.













Gitesh

[911GP]

Moving back to the cabin area, the floor is pretty much completed:



Work began on refitting the transmission tunnel. Poor workmanship in the past had resulted in damage to the transmission tunnel flanges:









These were repaired and the floor area was prepared for reinstalling:









And the transmission tunnel back in place:












Gitesh

[911GP]

Roy has been busy continuing work around the torsion tube and sill:



Heater tube produced and acid etch primed for corrosion resistance:



Welded into place on the car:





Torsion tube panel he produced is also sprayed for protection:





Repositioned on the car:








Then welded into place:



And lastly, bolted back to the jig:



Here is shot of this area taken from the reverse side:




Gitesh

[911GP]

Moving a little forward (both physically and metaphorically) to the side sills:














Etch primer sprayed across the area:









Apologies for the piecemeal updates. Photobucket is driving me mad!

Gitesh

[911GP]

Here are some similar shots of the work performed on the left hand side of the car:





























And finally:



That's all for now. We are about three quarters of the way through and I have been told there is about a month's work left. I will update you when I have another batch of photos.

Gitesh

[911GP]

Almost finished with the rear inner wheel arches, Roy etched primed the areas and then applied stone chip protection before fitting the outer wheel arches. Roy informed me that the factory cars didn't have this protection but any defence from rust makes sense to me especially in areas that can't be easily cleaned.

















Wing attached and welded up:






Gitesh

[murph2309]

Hi Gitesh - this is quality work. And a lot of it too. Looks like they are really looking after you and are building a great shell for you. Congrats, this is going to be (already is) a lovely build.

[jtparr]

Lovely work Gitesh....Interesting approach to applying paint systems before final welding...does the stone chip resist the welding heat and remain pliable or do you still have to paint again over the joints where inner and outer wings meet for instance

Great progress...looking forward to the rest.!

Jonathan

[tangerineT]

Hi Gitesh ,,,it's looking great !

All I can say is how lucky we are to have guys like these who know their stuff

John and Roy fixed my shell too ,,best money ive spent so far. its so great to have that peace of mind that your metalwork is as good as it was when it left the factory and of course jig straight !

I was lucky that my shell was in such good shape ,but having chesterton do the obvious front pan and jig work then give it a clean bill of health is very important

You're in good hands and I'm sure it's going to be fabulous when finished

Yeah it's a roller coaster so just remember to hang in tight ,,, and keep hold of your wallet !

[Gary71]

I've somehow missed this build thread. Another fantastic resurrection! Amazing what these guys can do.

It's good to see the painting inside the panels and with weld through primer on the flanges.

As Jonathan says you probably need to go over the welded areas again but at least you have proper coverage you couldn't get otherwise.


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[PMNorris]

Looks like its coming along really well. Fantastic metal work.

Paul

[911GP]

Lovely work Gitesh....Interesting approach to applying paint systems before final welding...does the stone chip resist the welding heat and remain pliable or do you still have to paint again over the joints where inner and outer wings meet for instance

Great progress...looking forward to the rest.!

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,
I questioned this with John at Chesterton's who said the rear wing is spot welded so no heat transfer. There is however a small seam about 40mm in length that is mig welded and here they try to keep the area as cool as possible and then re apply if necessary. Porsche never treated this area and they only gave it primer so any extra protection we can add now is a huge bonus to the original. John has suggested Waxoyl to be the best option once it is painted and it is something the painter would handle.
Kind regards
Gitesh

[jtparr]

Hi Gitesh
Sounds good..warm the wax oil before spraying...helps it spray a penetrating fine mist...
All the best
Jonathan

[Parkview911]

What an amazing body of work.
A jig and a proper craftsman is a brilliant investment.
Look forward to the rest of the story.