DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

You may have noticed in the last picture the corners were also inexplicably missing from the floor panel so I added these.



I've taken to trimming half a millimetre for the butt clamps to going, so edges can be perfectly flush.





Seems to work nicely.







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Since the old speedo cable was broken, I checked if the speedo turns before fitting the new one - lucky i did, it's siezed.



A bit of a game feeding the cable through, made easier by pulling this bunch of apparently redundant wires out of the bulkhead hole. Judging by the thickness of the cable they were for something pretty powerful - electric air con, maybe.







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I've spent about three full days now just preparing the rear floor to go in. Cleaning the flanges, repeatedly offering it up, measuring and drilling for the seat support welds, painting inside the sills, extending the floor panel slightly to make sure it will fix on to bright, clean, full-thickness floor. Subtly bending panel edges to get everything to meet perfectly.

I still have a good bit to go - one jacking point to sort out, and the front edge of the rear floor to cut to meet the original front floor.

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If I had my time over, I'd buy a Porsche genuine panel. Not for the fit, but for the better coating. I was advised this green paint can't be relied upon and it took a couple of hours to sand it all off.



A few good coats of epoxy primer on both sides, extra thick wherever it will be within a chassis member. Perfect hot dry weather today for it to set nicely. I masked off where I will need electrical contact for welding. I'll repaint once on the car, but the spots I can't get to will have to make do with cavity wax.






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I got the car up good and high today on these ramps. I think that's a van ramp at the back. It transformed the job.



I finally broke the back of the job today - the floor's in. I sanded off the unreliable coating.



Repainted everything in zinc and epoxy.



All the grinding exhausted the patience of my neighbours so it got painted with a couple of welds left to grind later.



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I got a bit more done this weekend, despite minor distractions. Mostly stripping back.



Roof looks in good shape, the brown stuff is glue.



I ground back some of these welds and pushed seam sealer into the seams.



A good vacuum up of (more) sand,bits of bitumen, carpet remnants etc.

I'll use the black roof liner as a template for a lighter-coloured one.



And the right wing off gives me better access to tidy up the fix around the battery box from this side. The outer wing is in great shape but the top of the inner wing needs repairing.



And the floor got some very thorough painting, both before the seam sealer and after, with zinc primer on the inside and outside. I'm going to seal that in with epoxy both sides, then Schutz over with stone chip protection.

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It's been a big job replacing the floor, along with repairs to all the bottom edges of the inner sills and tunnel that adjoined it.

It was still in epoxy primer and I was keen to get it sealed in and watertight before any rain comes.

I spent about dour hours just masking and meticulously cleaning inside the car ready for paint. Swept and vacuumed, wiped down, washed down, washed with water and dried, and washed with isopropyl alcohol.

A quick break to look around the roof of Lichfield Cathedral.



Which left me actually painting it a bit late in the day. After all the most thorough cleaning, can you guess what happened half way through? That's right, the air from the spray gun caused a load of New Mexico sand to shoot out from some cavity all across the fresh paint.

Anyway, it now has several very thick coats of epoxy mastic inside and out.





It's going to seem a shame to cover it over with stone chip protection.

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With the wings off I stripped back the underseal and had a good poke around the battery boxes with a screwdriver where I was able to make a few holes.



I cut back to shiny metal.



The spot welder lent by a generous ddk-er sped up the job significantly.





More left to do tomorrow.






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Adjusted the spot welder and got a couple of better-placed spots on the front corner.



That's the metalwork finished in this corner - some painting to do.



And on to the other side, which was in better condition - just one edge corroded.















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The orange epoxy under the floor has set rock hard and is good and thick. I gently sanded for a key and covered over with stone chip.



And the same over the battery boxes.





I'd stripped away any loose paint inside the front and epoxied orange with the battery boxes. It had originally been stone chipped under the factory orange paint up to a certain height, just above the tops of the battery boxes, so I replicated that.



And got started sound deadening the floor. Around the driver’s seat first, so I can get the seat back in, to drive it up back into the garage.



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Impressive commitment as always and in an age of £150k restorations it’s so very nice to see an early car being done at home.

Kudos.

Not a huge amount of progress lately, due to other commitments. However I did find time to tinker with all the original nuts and bolts taken off the car.

Electrolytic rust removal at 24V with some washing soda:



Then a good scrub and strip in hydrochloric acid.



Zinc plating at 10V, 5A in a bath of zinc chloride and ammonium chloride with zinc electrodes.



Wash off.



And passivate in this green stuff. None of that deadly hexavalent Chromium involved, apparently a big cause of cancer.



And dry off ready to go back on.



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Good going Rob, and not to use Chrome 6 all the better, now banned.

Very nice work on your nuts and bolts Rob, oh and the rest of the car also..

Karl

Great progress. Well done.