Back in beige

[Darren65]

From those photos your shell looks incredibly solid Jamie .....

.....2-3 weeks to completion?

[jamie]

Something like that. Months, you say?

Barry and I have discussed completion dates, but I'm not going to jinx the project by mentioning them!

Just been on the phone to Barry.

All of the rot in this car is on vertically-facing surfaces and I suspect came from lack of use, with the car sat outside, probably on a gradient from nearside to offside, with rainwater trapped inside the cabin, front trunk and engine bay.

He said the trickiest part of the work will be the offside rear chassis leg, which has tiny pinpricks of rot through the top. Getting at this area will involve removing the inner wing, then addressing the leg from outside the car (if that makes sense), without disturbing the outer wing. In Barry's words 'like welding at the end of an oil barrel'.

Will post more photos as they arrive...

[murph2309]

Looking good Jamie - it's great to see another Barry-saved car on the go. It's an amazing experience

[jamie]

More smudgings from the B-Meister...

This is the corner between the rear seats, the inner wing and the parcel shelf. Nasty.



... and this is the chassis leg in the engine bay on the other side. I think the car was left stationary outside in the rain, probably parked on a slope from left to right. Vertical surfaces have collected water and rusted through.





Barry gets busy with the air saw...





... right through to the crossmember in the engine bay. Fiddly!



Repair made to the crossmember in the trademark invisible Barry style



Handcrafted repair panel tacked in place



Ground-down, will be invisible once painted



Next bit...





Luckily he stopped before he had the urge to cut an ear off. Here's the next bit - back-dating some modern sills:





Lovely. More to follow when he send the next set of pictures.

[jamie]

Recent etchings from Maison Carter...

Rear chassis leg repair is now complete:





I have no idea why or how this bit rusted...



... but it has, so:















Note the rotted-out seatbelt mounts. I'm still deciding how to approach seatbelt installation.

Usual manky parcel shelf is present on this car:













There are still a few bits left to do at the rear - relatively small repairs to light cluster housing and the driver-side chassis leg - but for now it's time for Barry to attack to the tetanus-farm at the front...



Battery may have leaked...



This is a nasty crash repair made from sheet steel. Obviously never took one of Barry's metalwork courses...



(and from the underside...)



Small but annoying bit of rot near the tank surround:



Ugh.





These are the front suspension-to-chassis pick-up points. I drove the car from San Francisco to LA, at motorway speeds for a whole day, with my wishbones attached to the rest of the car by these. Scary shite.





Still, I made it without drama, so now it's just a story. Lucky I didn't decide to take Highway 1.

And now the big stuff begins. Front tank support and surrounding nastiness drilled out:







That's all for now. More as it comes.

[johnM]

Brilliant. Barry's work is just magic. You must be looking forward to getting your new shell back.

[Darren65]

Class work as ever

Great to see so much good original metal being retained.

Thanks for sharing.

[Bez1]

Looks great Jamie. Seeing the tooling that Barry uses to make the various patches is very interesting to witness.

All the best

Matt

[haasad]

Its been said so many times but Barry is absolutely sh*t hot isn't he...

[jamie]

He is. He's also pretty good value when you consider what you're getting - a Porsche body shell, hard-reset to as close to factory spec as modern panelling will allow. It's a load of money (and I'm really feeling it), but there's a load of time and skill and experience going into the job, which makes it easier to rationalise. I feel OK paying for good stuff.

[Mitch]

He's also pretty good value when you consider what you're getting - I feel OK paying for good stuff.

Looking terrific Jamie and as the old saying goes "quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten". I'm sure that doesn't make the pain any easier along the way, but what a great job... and what a shell to match that work of art engine with!

[Darren65]

He's also pretty good value when you consider what you're getting

Best money/value I ever spent on my restorations…..

....bar none!

[jamie]

Cheers guys. Makes it easier to rationalise the frivolity.

Mitch - I can't wait to put the two together

[jamie]

With the shell progressing at the current rate, I suppose it's time to start seriously investigating paint options.

After months and months of indecision, I've decided on a colour. Barry confirmed my choice with wise words; 'if you choose a colour that looks good now, it could go out of fashion or you could change your mind about it over time. But you can't argue with sticking with the original colour, because it's the original colour'.

The other great thing about brown paint is that it will prevent me ever selling the car if I feel that I want to sell it. I've already made that mistake once...

Turns out the hard decision on colour was actually the easy bit. The much trickier part is finding someone to do the work. I've contacted a few paint shops that I know, and they're all quoting around £10k for the finest job known to mankind. Great, except I know this car wouldn't have rolled out of the factory back in 1968 sporting the finest paint job known to mankind.

My last Porsche, a blood-orange 1972 911T, was, for the most part, original paint. There was slight orange peel underneath the rain gutters, and the paint was blockier (the only word I can think of to describe it. 'More solid looking') than you see on modern cars. It was imperfect, tough, and lovely.

From what I've read, Porsche used a Glasurit 'Glassomax' enamel system on these early cars. It's no longer available, but it appear that Rustoleum enamel, as used in the famous '$100 paint job' (modelled in grey by Jury's 'Mod Rod' 912), is a pretty close match.

For now, I don't fancy applying three thousand thin coats of Rustoleum to my car with a roller, but I won't discount it completely until I've found someone who can spray the thing with a modern paint system and still have it looking like the 50-year-old car that it is, and not something purchased from the Apple Store.

Looks like the closest thing readily available now would be a single-stage urethane, perhaps reduced down to dull it down a touch.

Any thoughts out there?

[Gary71]

Looking good so far Jamie, Barry working the magic

Irrespective of the top coat, put the money into the rust protection, sealing and cavity waxing. At least whichever top coat you chose will then remain on the car and Barry's work will last.

The quest for original style paint is admirable, but if it comes back from a paint shop less than perfect how do you know you haven't just paid for a quick blow over that won't last rather than original style paint that will?