DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

This Thread was called 'It was only supposed to be a minor rust repair.....' but I've decided to rename it as the rust was chopped out last year and I have a few more projects on the go. Its was originally an RS clone, but It's been going back to a more original look over time 'right dating' it, rather than backdating.


So..... I've posted various pics of my car before. But to give a little history before I get to the point, I bought it in 2012 in Germany when I was living in Poland. Its a 1970 911T, with the original matching numbers engine. It was originally Blut Orange (Tangerine) but was restored and resprayed a couple of years before I bought it to resemble a 2.7 RS look. It was a private sale, but through a classic car dealer / broker who had the car in his garage. I had the car inspected by a local Porsche specialist who gave it a clean bill of health and claimed they could find no rust on the car anywhere. I really didn't want a resto project, but did want to put my own mark on it.



Uninspired by its performance I bought a 79 SC engine, which I rebuilt myself and slipped in the back

Before


After


Work in progress

This Thread was called 'It was only supposed to be a minor rust repair.....' but I've decided to rename it as the rust was chopped out last year and I have a few more projects on the go. Its was originally an RS clone, but It's been going back to a more original look over time.


My engine might of looked pretty, but unfortunately it didn't run too well and leaked oil. My original rebuild was a strip down to the long block, a clean and a replacement of the ancillary parts. So after much research and many attempts by specialists in Poland and Germany to get it to work properly, and another change of country from Poland to Switzerland, I decided to get the engine fully rebuilt to a 3.2SS, essentially a 3.0RS spec with lots of lightweight parts but with 3.2SS P&C's. I managed to almost swap my 40mm PMO's for 46mm at the same time. The engine is now great, albeit it is now due for a retune.

Getting to the point of my story, I'd known that there was a teeny, weeny rust hole by the petrol tank for some time. Despite the original inspection stating the car was rust free. I didn't think there was a serious issue so I decided to get it fixed.

However, I also wanted the rear slam panel backdated and had a 'backdate kit' fabricated by Barry. Here's the offensive G style panel.


Backdated and now in primer

Looking forward to this one but there's something I don't get...how can a 1970 car have a later G series rear panel....was it re-shelled at some stage....?
Jonathan

Not reshelled. You can't buy the earlier panel. So if you replace it as part of a restoration project, then you have to backdate it. Darren also did this recently on his car.

Here's the rust, just beside the petrol tank. Its about the size of a 5 pence piece. I'm not quite sure how it was missed when the car was inspected in 2012, but it was hidden under various bits of carpet and what was a tangled nest of wiring, all of which I've tidied. I did have a very good look at the car myself and also missed it. However, I doubt very much that it would of changed my overall opinion of the car and stopped me from buying it.



I found the hole and its been bothering me for some time. As my wife and kids moved back to the UK in August and I'm now commuting between Switzerland and the UK, I decided to bring my car over to the UK for a winter refresh, to sort out the rust hole, 'right date' the rear slam panel, tune the engine and change the front bumper to a 72 S style one as I think the RS front bumper looks silly with the tiny Swiss front number plate in the middle of it.

I had some recommendations to take my car to CarreraPerformance (aka:GCS Engineering) in Horsham, W.Sussex, so I left Switzerland at 3am one Saturday morning in December before the snow started to fall, blasted across France, and arrived at my house in Cobham just in time for lunch. I had had a detailed discussion with Tim at CarerraPerformance over the phone and then a very long chat with Jez when I took my car in to them just before Christmas. We ran through all the work that I wanted to be done, which all seemed pretty straight forward at the time.

The rear slam panel 'right dating' was done quickly and has been left in primer until the front of the car is repainted. And then I got 'the call'. My car had clearly had some front end damage in its life and there was a plate that had been welded on top of rust, together with some slight creasing of the floor. Both battery boxes are also slightly out of shape too.

Here's the hole after the petrol tank was removed.


They then cut out the rust and blasted the area. That was when they noticed there were plates welded in. Clearly some previous poor repairs.

Closer up on the plates that have been welded in:


So they cut it out:




Which revealed more rust to cut out

Whilst they were blasting the area they noticed that the battery box was out of shape and there were signs of other poor repairs beneath the battery box.



As you can see, a later style front clip panel has also been welded in, albeit quite badly. We had already agreed to fit the correct panel here as they are now available.

Oh dear... previously 'restored', I got a bad feeling about this.... assume not a documented resto?

And now onto the other side. The inner wing shows signs of an accident as there are creases in the inner wing.



With a bit of blasting you can see there are numerous creases around this area.

This is where we are as of the end of Feb. I will be replacing 2 inner wings, 2 battery boxes, the front clip / petrol tank surround together with a new front bumper. It will also spend some time on a jig to make sure its all square.

I'm seriously thinking of getting the parts repainted in its original colour of signal orange rather than silver and then getting a friend of mine who owns a commercial garage and spray shop to repaint the rest of the car. I then intend to replace the RS duck tail with an aluminium deck lid and replace the horn grills and indicators with period correct chrome surrounds. However all those projects might need to wait until I find out how much the current tranche of repairs will cost.

Given that the car has had the rear crossmember replaced at some point it would be prudent to have a close inspection of the rear for accident damage also.

Orange would be an excellent choice....sorry to read about all this bad news though....