1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

[Alan @ CanfordClassics]

Hi, if you want them I have a lot of pics of this car when I viewed it 10 years ago. From memory it needed a lot of bodywork but nothing the guys at Chesterton have not seen before. Also remember it had a steering cover used with a plastic tank but see from the COA it did not have one.

Great to see another 2.4E being saved.

KR

Alan

[911GP]

Hi Alan, that would be very kind, thank you. I recently found out that the steering cover was a faux leather plastic instead of the real thing. Jonathan Parr is addressing this. Not sure about the plastic tank you mention though. I'm pretty sure there is an old metal one there now but I will find out.
Thanks
Gitesh

[911GP]

I left the car with Gary to strip down and John removed the wings before sending the car to be blasted. Some thought went into which method of paint stripping to use but in the end I left it with John to use whichever method he was happy with. Whilst Gary was stripping the car I was told that we have a problem with the doors which I will cover later. John had noted that the floor was fairly new but hadn't been installed well although, with a bit of luck, we may be able to use is again.

When the car came back from blasting I was told it was in a pretty sorry state but nothing Chesterton's couldn't handle. Many areas of the car looked like a combination of fine metal lace where work was desperately required and a patchwork quilt where work had been bodged previously. In short any work that had been done previously was rubbish. Somebody had even used silicone sealant! Here are some post blasting photos:














































That last picture was quite interesting to me. I used to wonder why the rear left window didn't close properly and had thought it was due to the rubbers needing changing. Looks like it was something more sinister.

One bit of good news that John reported was that when the car was put on the Celette jig it was absolutely straight and required no manipulation.

Gitesh

[murph2309]

Yowsers....that's a holey one..... Good job you've got some experts on that. The good news is that it can only get better from here on.

Thanks again for sharing - it's good to see the warts and all stuff...

R

[sladey]

Yep - got their work cut out, with 'cut out' being the operative phrase. Looking forward to following this

[inaglasshouse]

Yes, that's going to need a couple of panels.
But I'm sure you are right that Chesterton's can handle it.
Keep posting the pics, looking forward to seeing the transformation.

[Tp81]

It's incredible what can be hidden underneath

[911GP]

There certainly was a lot of cutting. The holes I could deal with since the car was old and I was expecting this. Less forgivable was the poor workmanship carried out in the past. As I mentioned, the floor was quite new and we had planned to re-use this. However, it had only been tacked on and not properly welded which had caused it to prematurely deteriorate at the edges. It was a shame because it was a genuine Porsche floor that had been converted to fit RHD so poorly that the sensible approach was not to use it. The gentleman working on the car is Roy (is in his 70s and has been working on Porsches for many, many years) who upon seeing the previous work carried out remarked that he had never seen such utter nonsense in all his life. It is infuriating to see work like this where something perfectly good is mutilated and only worthy of the bin. Here are a couple of shots taken from the skip but I believe the other areas were far worse:





Anyway, after much cutting out, work began at the rear of the car:







New rear cross member aligned...





...and backdated





Gitesh

[Andyleach]

Gitesh - can we see some pictures as it progresses and the final result? I an also interested in what you think of Chesterton. I need to have some work done in a 73 911t targa.

Interested in any recommendations for a bare metal respray. Any idea on cost anyone ?

[911hillclimber]

I was recently quoted £8k for a prep and exterior only paint in a solid colour.
I delivered the car glass out, trim off etc and did all the reassembly after paint.
Company is in the West Midlands.
Price inc materials.

[Andyleach]

Were you happy with the job - any pictures ?

What was the name of the company ?

[911GP]

Please excuse the odd angle of the next shot! I can only think that John was trying to get the whole of the roof rail in the photo. We were expecting the roof rails to be in bad condition but John appraised them to be ok to reuse:



The other positive surprise areas were the rear parcel shelf and rear seats which all seemed reasonably ok. This was odd since I'm told normally these areas suffer and judging by where the car was stored previously, with the back of the car exposed to the elements, I would have expected these areas to be considerably worse. In the next photo you can just about see the condition of the rear seats and rear parcel shelf.



So after all the cutting out, how much of the car will remain? From the photo above the roof still needs to be replaced so I think around 20% remains. The inner rear wings would have been replaced if they were available from Porsche but since they currently are not being reproduced they will be repaired by Roy. 20% is a lot less than I was expecting/hoping for and makes me wonder what I paid for originally I'm sure everyone that goes through this process probably asks themselves the same question around this point but still a bit concerning. Oh well, no turning back now.

[Bigfoot]

Yeah I know how that feels, genuinely gutting to cut out so much 'originality'. To be honest tho, I rationalised it by using quality parts and a true craftsmen, then it's every bit as good as original. The end result will be the same once painted and if new parts backdated you have a 100% solid shell which will last for many years . Before Barry did his magic my shell looked really good with all its original panels, turned out many were already replaced and several original panels knackered...what else can you do, 'commercially'

[Bigfoot]

Gitesh - can we see some pictures as it progresses and the final result? I an also interested in what you think of Chesterton. I need to have some work done in a 73 911t targa.

Interested in any recommendations for a bare metal respray. Any idea on cost anyone ?

If you want a really nice job, unless you know a good painter locally and can vouch for his work I would budget £10k +\- £2k. Ask Jason as he may have found a cheap painter?

[inaglasshouse]

20% is a lot less than I was expecting/hoping for and makes me wonder what I paid for originally

A VIN . People have paid more!

Seriously though, you presumably have lots of nice oily bits, of which >20% will be usable? And your interior looked largely intact and original (except front seats) from memory? An interior, instruments, suspension, engine (plus auxiliaries including MFI), gearbox - lots of value there.

I think it's time to post my favourite photo again.
Remember this one, the Canford resurrection of another RHD 2.2S, as performed by Barry?:


Could be worse!
As you say, no turning back. And you are in good hands.