A sort of Barn(es) find

[911hillclimber]

Good grief!
What an up date.
You must be ready for a few beers after that lot.
Great progress.

[Parkview911]

Good grief!
What an up date.
You must be ready for a few beers after that lot.
Great progress.

Thanks Climber.
I admit to having had several during the process!
I find it helps quite a bit.
About a year's worth of work there, all condensed into a few updates.
Cheers,
Matthew

[Parkview911]

With the little MIG back online it was time to do some welding (and cursing!)





My little blue friends









All done



A coat of the red stuff.



Some jewellery from Southern California.



Time to close up the inner sill.
Clean and prime the tube.



Take the sill back to bare metal and etch prime.



Fit...at least 100 times





Clamp and weld.



Missed a spot!
What i decided to do was leave every second plug along the top edge so that I could drill through, thus allowing me to weld in the outer sill from the inside.







Floor cleaned and seam sealed.



Only these few bits left to complete the sill



Another jacking tube support



This one even got a little drain hole at the top.





Ready for the outer sill.





Clean steel left for the outer sill weld area (now I know that thinners removes etch primer like a wiz)



And the backdate on the 964 outer sill.
On the other side I did this the proper way: cut, bend, planish and weld.
This time i did it the other way: cut out the pressings and weld in a cover.
Not sure which is better.









Three jobs ticked off the list.

[Parkview911]

Has been a while since i updated.
In the meantime I've been busy with working on the car / albatros.
Good news is that I'm only 5 months behind on documenting the progress....as I like to call it.

On with the story.

Patching the 964 trim mounting holes in the sills.





Then clean and prep for etch primer.



On they go.

[Parkview911]

This little bugger has become very very pricey.
Not sure why. I got mine from RD and they were reasonable at the time.
Now in excess of 200US each.





Panel gaps not bad - even with a wonky door (this door was almost the death of me....but we'll get to that)





Introducing my patented sill aligning tool.
Very high tech.



Here it is in action









Another job crossed off the (ever growing) list.

[Parkview911]

Now to reconstruct the lower door lock panel and reattach the fender corner.
Sealed and ready to be covered up.



Here is what came out.



Making patches (eggs are good for the brain, and the body...)







The lower door lock post patch from RD is a nice piece, if a bit short.







The lower wheel well, where the heater tube bends around the wheelhouse was rotten. I thought I could get away with a surface patch but cutting the section away it was clear the tube and the steel around it were properly rotten. Getting in there to clean and weld is a bit tricky.

Took me a while to figure this out (one of Barry's threads came to the rescue)













My grinding of welds is still not very good. Not sure how the hell Barry gets his so smooth. I just don't have the courage to get the seams flat without worrying about thinning the surrounding metal.

At least my shaping skills are improving.
The addition of a shrinker / stretcher has helped.
Here's the rear part of the patch - no pie cuts!!!

[Parkview911]

This is what it looked like when I opened it up.
Only a few pinholes on the outside.





And all closed up after patching the tube.



The lower portion of the fender joining panel.
I tried to patch it.
But i couldn't get it right.





And closer inspection of the panel revealed too many rotten spots.







Will have to come out.
No way around it but to order a new panel.

Managed to score this piece in a trade.
Factory Alu engine lid.
Nice condition too.

[Parkview911]

Finished up the rear quarter and sill join.





The distortion from heat is obvious welding in these pieces.
There is a fulcrum, where as you move the edge against the locking plate in, the edge against the wheel arch moves out.
Probably too much steel, heat and not very accurate cutting, but amazing how a mm here equates to 5 millimeters somewhere else.

This lower piece was hand made, not bad.



A few other rotten bits. Around where the support for rear bumper is welded to the fender.



All done, with the fender clip held in place



Now onto the door.
Bad patch.





Rusted steel left underneath.

[Parkview911]

Love the old Coke bottle top

[Parkview911]

To try and keep the door shape right I cut a template from 3mm steel.







First work up a patch for the lower part of the frame.
Enter the trusty anvil





Simple tools.



And a piece from a greenwood stove





The rotten bits and the patch.



Profile is pretty good.







Front seam was rotten.
Here's where the shrinker stretcher helps.

[Parkview911]

Outer skin patch.
Use the template to work the edge of the pinch seam.

[Parkview911]

Cut to fit



On to the welding.





Panel gap needs a bit of work.

[Parkview911]

Took a break from the steelwork (the endless steelwork) and did some spray can photoshop.
Some gold pin striping tape and a set of suitable patina'd CIBIES from Portugal.



RSR rubber hold downs are also a nice touch.
Thinking of trying to cover the R grille's with a bit of mesh...



And then I decided to add some 'outlaw' detail: bandoleer with a gold pinstripe edge.











Still not sure whether to go with the primer grey or ivory white.
It's been sitting in primer for so long that the light grey has grown on me.
Sometimes I am indecisive other times I am just not sure....

Any comments welcome.

[Parkview911]

LHD fender joining panel, as I mentioned, was beyond repair.
A new one arrived from RD.
Out with the old, in with the new.



Lesson learned in cases like these: if in doubt, save time and cut it out. The time spent trying to patch a rotten piece is a false economy. Especially since my car is never going to go into a museum or concourse display somewhere.

[Parkview911]

And all those little bits you overlooked....they come back to haunt you.
The driver's side floor pan is not great. Solid, but it doesn't look great.
But if I had had to justify buying a new floorpan I would have been divorced!

So, we make the best of a bad situation. It'll be strong in the end.
As Bart Simpson said "Bones heal and chicks dig scars"....surely this applies to old Porsches with stories to tell?



And the pedal box



And the lhd outer sill patch



And the knackered spot on the rear seat pan where someone had fitted a 915 box...





And the tiny little patch on the seat pan that I had to do twice, because the first patch was ambitiously small and the steel was rotten along one edge.



You can see the little seat pan patch...





The other thing that took up a whole bunch of time was cutting off and grinding away all the little semi-rotten carpet fasteners....all the dull grey areas.
What a palava. Thank goodness for the Dremmel.
About half a kilo of tiny clasps and brackets.