2.4E From IKEA to Blut Orange

[squirdan]

Overall I'd say those of you (Dan/Hamish) who passed on this one can probably feel vindicated in your decisions. In my opinion this car needs imminently to receive what it is getting/about to get - namely a full strip and repair. Although none of the damage is fundamentally structural, it does all add to a weakened shell, and there is corrosion around the roll cage mounts that I haven't shown (let me know if you'd like to see it).

Not going to be a quick fix, but I already have new bonnet/doors/f&r wings that I got from Alan D when I got the car.

Metal Mickey starts off again tomorrow....[/quote]

Mick...i very much doubt that any car of this era would be much better...am q convinced that when people say "rot free" what they really mean is that it hasnt been stripped to bare metal and discovered yet

have a look at the shell photos on my thread...plenty of holes!

the key therefore is a cost effective purchase and from memory for a car with a nice bit of (race) history that is matching numbers, you'll be fine with this one

[jtparr]

Hi Mick

What is the black finish on the shell....an etch primer..?

Keep the updates coming...it's getting interesting now....

Regards
Jonathan

[MT]

Hi Mick

What is the black finish on the shell....an etch primer..?

Keep the updates coming...it's getting interesting now....

Regards
Jonathan

Yes Jonathan, black etch primer. Not the ideal colour as it's not as easy to see where you've been with the POR15 later on as you'll see below!

Anyway on with the update.
After a good review of the shell I've decided
1) the floor is sufficiently poor in enough places to merit a full replacement. As you will see below where the plates had been welded to supposedly strengthen the shell and support the cage, in fact they had created a 5* rust environment, and also the vertical sides on the centre tunnel, the rear kick plate below the rear seats, and along the outer edge had all thinned in some places to require repair. So 2 half floors delivered. As an aside I used this lot in France. Well pleased, and their prices include shipping. Arrived in 2 days, tracked.

http://www.rosepassion.com/en/sel

2) the car undoubtedly had a RH front corner shunt, and the RH inner wing, and the base of the door pillar are sufficiently gone that I decided to replace the lot now that they are available from Porsche. I use Porsche Glasgow (Danny Anderson if you want to try them) as they are very competitive on price and will ship for free.

3) as there were 10mm spacers fitted on the front A arm mounts I am a bit concerned about the replacement of the front suspension pan that was done after the shunt, so I am going to borrow a Celette jig and fittings to mount the car when I fit the front inner wing. Just got to find a way of getting it here! I'm not concerned about the rest of the repairs as the roll cage is still in there and everything sits square according to my levels.

So first of all a few small repairs to the rear inner wing:

The surprising rot around the oil filter housing mounting



Cut, shape, weld, grind, paint



Need to drill the third mounting hole, then that's done, although you'll see there is a hole in the upper oil hose connection through the inner wing that will need repair as well!

Then a localised hole in the rear quarter panel



A bit more complex a shape so a quick template out of mdf. Bash it with a beech mallet for a few minutes



More cutting, welding, grinding and painting



The LH inner wing is good, but the battery box area was just not good enough, so off with his head, faff about drilling out those darned spot welds in the recess, and then repair the base



The new battery box fits well, but is not welded in yet (Rose Passion again, and the box (and the door pillar) turned out to be genuine Porsche parts = £96 and £172 inc vat and delivery respectively ). Fitting is awaiting a recent early Xmas present - a second hand spot welder and a range of electrodes off ebay. Collecting that next week. We'll see how good I am at that!

Then on to the main event of the week......

[MT]

...... which is the floor replacement ...... with a supporting cast of:

1) repairs to the front and rear corners where 'jack attack' has completely crushed the outer sill.
2) replacement of the inner and outer sills and kidney bowls
3) replacement of the jacking point
4) repair to the A and B post bases

I decided to tackle the LH side first, because it's closest to my workbench when the cars flipped.... and I don't have to mess with the pedal box area first off.
A few before pics:

The 'jack attack' - note the worse rot where the strengthening plates were.





So out with the spot weld drill bits (sigh) and a drilling we will go..



You will see I have decided to remove and replace the inner sills even though they were both in good condition on both sides. This is mainly so I could get access to the jacking point and check and coat in the heater tube void, but also because the joint to the floor edge had been seam welded as well as spot welded so unpicking it was going to be a pain and likely leave me with a very mangled edge to work from.

Having priced the jack tubes (they were both excellent on the Doctors car), and realised they are just 30 x 30 mm square mild steel tubing, I bought 1.5m from my local metal supplier (Rudgwick Metals if anyone wants a recommendation 01403 822471) along with a load of other stuff from their off cut pile for a few quid. Cut, bash, weld - made two prototypes - both work fine



A repair to the rear edge, and a couple of other spots



Coat the inside of the centre tunnel, and the void around the heater tube in POR 15



Mark the lines, and drill and drill and drill ......



Prep the join, spray with weld through primer. MIG on full chat, and a plug welding we will go for an hour or so. A light grind, and some Metal Ready to prep in for POR15 over the weekend. Job done. Well pleased with the fit of the panel - needed no fettling at all. Mind I have removed the outer edge at front and rear, and will build then up to the join now I've pulled out the huge indentations from the jack misuse.

Et voila!



and from the inside ..



That will be next, along with the inner sill, repair to the B post base and jack support plate.
Then the other side. I plan to wait for the jig before fitting the RH inner wing, door pillar, door, outer sill, KB, rear wing ..... in that order, unless anyone advises otherwise.

To feed my numerate inner self I have decided to keep a count of spot welds drilled on this project. Total stands at 346 up to now!

[Tosh]

Awesome

Makes my evening sitting with laptop, a glass of red and bad footy on telly look like a criminal waste of time

Well done!

[Darren65]

Superb as ever Mick - does nothing faze you!

[jtparr]

Top effort there Mick...... ....kind of thought that black primer might be too dark to work with, but it doesn't seem to be holding you back ..!

Keep it coming...

Regards
Jonathan

[72911E]

...... . Cut, bash, weld - made two prototypes - both work fine:

Great stuff Mick!

[MT]

Just to complete side one...

The front and rear repair sections to the damaged corners were all done in the same manner that I have documented below as a few people have asked how you get the basic shape of the repair piece. I tend to use the old fashioned 'dirty finger' technique. Get a piece of stiff paper cut the approx shape, then rub the afore-mentioned 'dirty finger' along the metal edge in the manner of a brass rubbing until the profile appears.

This was the second part of the front repair. You will see the profile of the floor edge marked as well.



Allow an extra 15mm or so for the upturned lip, cut out the paper template, transfer to sheet metal and cut out. I use an old jenny to crimp the flange edge, but with care you can form it with just a panel hammer and a sharp metal edge. If you get a few thick (10mm thick) off cuts from a metal supplier and get them to shape a French curve on one edge then that's an excellent start.



Punch or drill some 6mm holes in the lip, spray both edges and the underside of the repair with weld-through primer and weld in place



Repeat for the rear section




And for the base of the B post/second layer of the jacking point



Fit the inner sill, add the jacking point support and get out the POR15 and coat it all - looks great when it's painted and quite a contrast to where it was when I started.





So that's one side done - repeat for side 2!

[MT]

Superb as ever Mick - does nothing faze you!

I have spent two days trying to think of a witty, intelligent response to this compliment, Darren, but as usual I have come up empty ....... so I'll just stick to 'no, not really' , and 'thanks'.
Really looking forward to seeing your E in the flesh.

Mick

[Lightweight_911]

Looking good Mick - at this rate the car will be finished by Christmas !

[MT]

Spot weld count - 479

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump ... "Well that's all I've got to say about that..."

[911hillclimber]

Really good stuff, love DIY restorations, man after my own heart.(having done a few)

When I repaired my 911 in '88 I hired a spot welder, and it was so easy for the sills etc.
I measured my welds in time not welds, 8 months of spare-time welding. Still all together too.

Keep it coming and get your finger out!

[MT]

Digit removed as instructed......

RHS of floor needed more edge repairs. The earth connection to the gearbox had virtually disappeared, so a bit of fabrication was required



and a bit more near the roll cage reinforcements



then drill, clean, spray, fit, self-tap, seam weld the join, plug weld the rest, grind, treat and POR 15 the new floor per the other side





then a repeat of the rear corner repair





and the jacking point. More POR15 and that's finished



Then on to the mangled front tank support, The RH front mount, front support was bent - not that easy to see in the photo. I tried to put a bolt in the mount and use that to straighten it, but all that did was bend the bolt! So off it came ..... another 12 spot welds to the total''



Took quite a bit of straightening in the press with assorted old bearing races and old sockets. Plug welded back in place
Then to the mangled central support and agricultural towing point.



I cut off the towing loop, then sliced down either side with a thin cutting disc, then removed the mangled bit




Bashed it back into shape, straightened the edges and welded it back in. While it was out I replaced the missing captive nut for the front fuel tank clamp, and treated the inside. Actually it was in very good condition, and I checked the reinforcing plates were present on the front A arm brackets



Fit the new towing point



and paint the whole front end



Good as new!

Next phase is to replace the RH front inner wing and the RH lower windscreen corner. This is new to me and will be interesting - not least because it will involve this beast....



With two willing (?) assistants I collected it on my Ifor James dodgy old car trailer along with all its many, very very heavy attachments last Sunday from another DDK'er who has kindly offered it to me on loan as part of the barter economy. It is one heavy MFer. Anyway by the end of tomorrow I hope to be able to report the shell is off the rotisserie and onto 'Celette'. Just got to make sense of the instructions now ...

[haasad]

Absolutely brilliant work and what a milestone onto the jig is......nearly done......loving this