1966 RHD Porsche 911 (UK Car) Restoration

[Nick Moss]

I have a Car Bench system, and AFAIK there are no spare towers available. Try carbench.co.uk

[redrobin911]

Shell arrives at Envirostrip - long deep breath.................and see how it looks in a few days

[Gary71]

Good luck

[redrobin911]

Just back this morning on the Liverpool-Belfast ferry after collecting the shell from Envirostrip. The guys said it was the worst 911 shell they had ever seen - while it may have been a shock to them i already knew it what I was letting myself in for!

The good news, to offset what is a lot of bad news, is that i've managed to source an incredibly good (LHD) 912 shell which i left at Envirostrip when collecting this shell - needless to say i'm going to need most of it to repair this shell. I'm due to go back to collect the 912 shell in early December so will probably wait until i have both sitting side by side before cutting and welding commences.

Below are a few pics from yesterday, take a deep breath and look..................

Clearing showing that the rear inner panels are completely shot, but again I kew this before sending the car over. Rear slam panel also knackered.


Rear seat and parcel shelf in considerably better condition than that the rest of the car - I'd hoped these would be OK and it seems that they're fine and apart from a few minor repairs they're good.


Nice to see that the previous restoration had used some modern plastic, in between the fiberglass - very tasty work!!!


Floors are totally shot, centre tunnel looks OK, innermost sills are also OK.


Front bulkhead and dash are good. Bulkhead needs a few repairs where it meets the floor but the dash is nearly perfect.


The front is F**ked, we were going to cut out the front slam before sending it away, but thought nah, lets leave it in, well it sort of fell out!


Moving forwards it's really about cutting up the 912 chassis and the 911 chassis and making one good chassis from the two. i've now also bought a car-bench jig so armed with lots of enthusiasm, deep pockets, work will commence soon.

[DEEMAN]

And I thought mine was bad!!!

You're a brave man Robin but I have every belief you will do it. I will watch the developments with great interest.

Off to the bodyshop right now to see the progress of Blue Belle. Will post some updates later.

Ian


________________________________________

1965 RHD 911
2001 3.2 Boxster

[redrobin911]

And I thought mine was bad!!!

You're a brave man Robin but I have every belief you will do it. I will watch the developments with great interest.

Off to the bodyshop right now to see the progress of Blue Belle. Will post some updates later.

Ian


________________________________________

1965 RHD 911
2001 3.2 Boxster

Thanks Ian - looking forwards to seeing your updates.

[911hillclimber]

Well...
Lots to keep you busy this winter.
Astonishing to see but will be great to see your progress too.

Lots of pics and details as you know!

[redrobin911]

A few pics of the 912 shell being dismantled prior to going to Envirostrip yesterday. It goes without saying that with this as donor life is going to be considerably easier. The shell dates from 1965 so many of the panels are identical to the 66 cars. I'm very confident that we can make good progress once the two are sitting side by side.

[Darren65]

Best of luck Robin

[stretch]

That shell will sure make this process a whole lot easier Robin. Good luck with it. I love a good metalwork resto thread. !
A question regarding the envirostrip process ? I can appreciate that one needs to strip the shell to see what metal you have to work with.

Would you then dip the shell again once the metalwork is completed. ? I ask this as i assumed that these shells that come from envirostrip would be in an etch holding primer whilst the welding was undertaken. ? I ask this as all the factory primer is obviously gone from within the box sections and these areas will maybe not be wax treated for a year or maybe 2 in some cases.? If you do intend to re-strip, is there a discount for this re-visit. ? Do they recommend it.

[redrobin911]

That shell will sure make this process a whole lot easier Robin. Good luck with it. I love a good metalwork resto thread. !
A question regarding the envirostrip process ? I can appreciate that one needs to strip the shell to see what metal you have to work with.

Would you then dip the shell again once the metalwork is completed. ? I ask this as i assumed that these shells that come from envirostrip would be in an etch holding primer whilst the welding was undertaken. ? I ask this as all the factory primer is obviously gone from within the box sections and these areas will maybe not be wax treated for a year or maybe 2 in some cases.? If you do intend to re-strip, is there a discount for this re-visit. ? Do they recommend it.

I'm still pondering over the re dipping process as well.

I'll start by saying that we didn't want the shell etch primed leaving Envirostrip as we wanted bare metal to weld to, to that effect the shell is coated with an antirust inhabitant - what exactly it is I don't know but will ask Vaughn tomorrow. With both shells stripped the process of rebuilding the car becomes much easier as all the guess work over the quality of the metal has been done. This and the fact that the dipping process goes in all the nooks and crannies is why i chose the process over media blasting.

Once we're starting to weld and rebuild I'll have to decide whether or not to send it back for a final dip and have them etch prime, or perhaps to use something like Por15 as we go along, using it with chassis black for aforementioned nooks and crannies. The 66 doctors car resto used this process and the end results were very good.

I think when I'm speaking to envirostrip I'll ask the same question regarding final dip and etch primer and see what the costs are before deciding. I'm also keen to hear from all you other resto guys for your thoughts on the matter.

[kvinyl]

Best of luck with this Robin, only spotted this thread today. I've known of the car for a few years, primarily when John had it but had a whisper of it before John purchased it all those years ago. Delighted that it's gone into some caring hands, I briefly considered it myself once upon a time but figured I could never do the car justice - looking at the uncovered pics I'm glad that I never ventured down the path with it, definitely wouldn't have the resolve to press on..!

It's a very rare car and one definitely worth preserving, I was chatting with John after it went and he was very happy it went to yourself as he recognised your genuine intentions for it I guess, afaik he had a lot of interested buyers in it but he was holding out for the right person to be the next custodian, glad he found him in yourself.

Re. the engine, I'm assuming he filled you in on the urban legends and thoughts around where that is expected to have ended up but drop me a PM if you want me to relate what I've heard in relation to it.

[Darren65]

I'll start by saying that we didn't want the shell etch primed leaving Envirostrip as we wanted bare metal to weld to, to that effect the shell is coated with an antirust inhabitant

Good choice not having the shell etch primed, far better to see exactly what you're dealing with…..if the protective coating is similar to that used by Cleaning Consultants you might find you don't have to re-dip, I have a bonnet blasted 3 years ago still in bare metal that's perfectly fine.

A really good quality epoxy is favourite as your first coat of paint.

Cheers,

[stretch]

The reason i asked was a few DDK friends are thinking of going down this route. I am trying to understand the process. Is the shell immersed in this anti-rust solution or just sprayed .? I would appreciate it if you could ask during your visit. Sorry for the thread hijack.

[redrobin911]

Well its been some time posting on this tread as many other 911 related things have got in the way but I'm please to say progress is now being made. First the not such good news. The 912 didn't offer up as many usable parts as fist thought - yes we can make use of many smaller pieces of metal work but the floor wasn't as good as hoped so I've ended up ordering many more panels than I first though (sound familiar?). Johnny has started with the floor and inner/outer sills - all screwed together until he's happy with fit then will be tack welded before transferring from the spit to the jig.. I've inverted the pic from inside to show the floor and tunnel area. We're going to reform the lower part of the tunnel where it meets the floor as what was in the car was a tad rusty! More pics to follow over the next months!!