70 S, RHD, Signal Orange, UK->Australia->UK

[Tp81]

Really great work, very jealous of having complete confidence in the craftsman at work. My own shell is almost complete and finishing touches are all that is really left.

Barry has kindly pointed out some areas that need work and refining. I have agreed to send on detailed images of the areas that are of concern and on a consultancy basis Barry has agreed to offer advice and assistance where required. Not quite the same as having the car in his workshop but the next best thing I could hope for.

Enjoying following progress, how is your engine coming along?

Cheers

Tom

[inaglasshouse]

Hi Tom,

Hope all is well with you.
(Used to be off topic but now just the wrong DDK section). I got my 993 back this week after a bit of cosmetic fettling and one or two niggles sorted out. I'd forgotten how good it is. Hope your more exotic variant is going well.

Barry has kindly pointed out some areas that need work and refining. I have agreed to send on detailed images of the areas that are of concern and on a consultancy basis Barry has agreed to offer advice and assistance where required. Not quite the same as having the car in his workshop but the next best thing I could hope for.

Sounds good. I imagine it's only details (rear slam panel, by any chance?) that most people would never notice. So I doubt it's worth stressing over, but still nice to get it right while the opportunity is there.

how is your engine coming along?

It isn't! It's in the man cave at my house. I've removed the ancillaries, done a bit of cleaning up and inspecting, looks superficially quite decent.
I have 2 or 3 engine build candidates but I'm not 100% comfortable with any of them.
Remind me - who is doing your engine? (PM if you prefer).
More importantly: for various good reasons (demands on my time) I think my project is going to have to pause / go very slowly after paint. If the painted shell comes back home in summer 2017, I think I won't have any serious time to spend on it for at least 8 months, probably a bit longer. So it won't be ready for an engine until mid 2018 earliest. No rush...

Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

LH Torque Tube Area (again)

Over to Barry:

Various puzzles are now solved as folows: We need the floor in to give the point at which to aim the new inner member base around the new RD inner wing repair. We need to mount the inner sill and use the floor jig to establish the floor position. Once the inner wing repair is screwed into place, the inner member base by the anti-roll bar mounting can be scribed in and tacked. With that in place, that central web can be positioned. With the floor, inner wing repair, central web and ARB mount area all in place, I can make sure that all of the various flanges meet without gaps or stress. I.e., they all lie naturally together with no undue gaps.

It's a classic case of a lot of time going back and forth getting everything re-worked until it all fits and is screwed into place. Then all but the final layer be be removed, the final layer becomes the first layer to be welded in, and the whole area welded layer by layer outwards. The welding itself is probably 10% of the time, if that.

BTW, you'll see the various flanges at the bottom of the featured area hanging well down. These will get trimmed much later on, as will the floor / sill flanges etc. In the meantime it's much better to leave everything ragged, rather than trying to second guess the very final position of everything. Once all finally welded up, it's a simple matter to go round and trim / file everything to the correct dimensions.

[jamie]

Saw your car at Carter Industries today. The repairs are beautiful - as per usual, you can't see any of the sections that Barry has let-in. You're going to like the result!

[inaglasshouse]

Thanks Jamie. I've not seen it for a while, should rectify that next weekend.
You, Chez Carter? Another project? Haven't you got enough to keep you out of mischief?

You're going to like the result!

Hope so. Would be a shame to unpick it all and get it reworked. "What cowboy did that for you?" (sucks through teeth)
.
Seriously - the metalwork is the only bit (other than my matching numbers case) that I never, ever want to touch again. Don't mind repainting it in years to come, don't mind an engine rebuild or two, anything that bolts on is fair game.
Barry's doing his bit. I just need to get it painted properly and keep the humidity under control in the garage. And not crash it ....

Cheers, Richard.

[911hillclimber]

Great to see this complex area un-picked and re built.
Tricky panels!

[Tp81]

Richard,

All good thanks. Hardly driven the 993 but when I did its an absolute delight, really pleased to have the car and intend enjoying it for a long time to come. Aiming to do a two night run to Wales this year in September so will be asking Darren and the like for some advice on routes and stops.

My engine and gearbox are with Mike Bainbridge, I emailed him recently and things are progressing albeit at a slower pace than I would like.

Do you still have your M5, mine is due to change at the end of March and not sure whether to try the E63s or not? Probably wait for the new M5 due at the tale end of the year.

Cheers

Tom

[inaglasshouse]

Hi Tom,

Yes, still have the F10 M5. Quite good, aren't they? I've not yet done the Merc thing. You're never too old to drive a Mercedes!

My family car purchases alternate between fast and sensible. Every time I do the sensible thing I end up getting a ludicrous fast one next time. Every time I have a fast one I remember it's a bit pointless because I usually have children or beloved wife in the car, so am pottering along like my local vicar.
My last 5 family cars are RS4 (fast) - allroad (slow) - RS6 (fast) - 535 touring (slow) - M5 (fast).
Given the restoration money pit, I think it's time for slow and sensible again. Lease ends November for me.
Let me know what you think of the E63 or new M5...

Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

Back to the resto
LH Torque Tube Area (continued)

There are various ways to repair the torque tube itself. Barry felt that, in this particular case, the best approach was pretty clear:

With access as good as it'll ever be, the end of the old torque tube was removed, and a replacement piece welded on. As mentioned before, as the rest of the tube is perfect, as it the surrounding metal, a butt weld is perfectly fine here (not to mention pragmatic). The sleeved type repairs definitely have their place, but not needed this time. Later on I'll make you a new torque tube backstop and weld that in.
As can be seen, the jig bracket moves very freely.











So far so good. But another setback was now evident.

[inaglasshouse]

LH Torque Tube Area (continued)

As the above pictures show, the big hole in the middle is perfectly aligned with the jig, and lines up fine with the rear arm retainer (into which the spring plate rubber bush will eventually locate).

But there is a problem. The 4 threaded holes for the spring plate retainer bolts are in the wrong place (per the jig). About 4mm out in rotation.





It's a manufacturing error in the resto panel.
Barry says:

the Restoration Design panel for this area (sadly) comes pre-welded. The 'studs' fit a torque tube cover just fine, and with a cover bolted on, the cover and tube look pretty well aligned. As you can see though, the studs are off relative to the jig by about 4mm rotation. I can rectify this by grinding out all of the factory welds, filing out the mounting holes, and then re-welding everything together. Frankly it's a PITA job which will take about 2-3 hours per side.

I'm happy to rework these, or we can choose to say the cover and tube align O.K., they are rubber bushes with a bit of give, let's live with it.

I think my advice would be that if you are retaining rubber bushes, we leave alone (the current position won't affect suspension travel). If, on the other hand, you are going for any solid type bushing / bearing, then I think we'd better bite the bullet and re-work the area.

BTW, there's no way that this is down to the position of the actual panel on the car, everything else fits just so, including where it meets the actual tube.

I decided to re-do them. A PITA job that takes 2-3 hours per side. Sorry Barry.
And thanks a lot, Restoration Design. Your panels live up to the high quality standards set by Porsche (which are also pretty crappy)
At least the RD ones are cheap(er).

[inaglasshouse]

LH Torque Tube Area (surely it must be finished this time)

Barry rectified the manufacturing error in the Torque Tube area. The jig bracket now fits.

Last job here was the backstop:
If a new end to the torque tube is welded in (as I have done) I usually replace the backstop as well. This means I can tuck the TT join almost out of sight, plus both backstops were poor anyway. I press my own versions, that look stock once installed, but allow them to be welded from inside the tube with a MIG welder.

I'm quite glad to have reached the end of the LH Torque Tube area.

[210bhp]

Hi Richard
I still have my rear torsion tube area repair by Barry to post up on my thread. It looks remarkably similar to yours but I think mine wasn't quite so bad. I'm slow at posting but it's nice to compare notes on the same repairs even though our cars were months apart in the maestro's workshop. Everything on yours looks to be coming together nicely now. Enjoying the thread.

When you see the pictures it's brilliant work isn't it?

Regards
Mike

[inaglasshouse]

Hi Mike,

Yes, lovely to receive the pics, and great to be able to compare with others. I think Barry is very generous to allow them to be posted - if it were me I'd be jealously guarding my trade secrets!

Re posting lag, I am also well behind the actual work. Trying to catch up.
On that point - I'd be really interested to see / hear what you're doing about paint, in detail. I'm pinning down the spec of the various finishes - underside, inside, engine bay, luggage compartment, etc - aiming for concours finish but superior corrosion proofing (better primers and sealers than existed at the time, more carefully applied).
Let me know if you have any info, or perhaps I could send you my draft paint spec document for review?

Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

LH Inner Sill

The end of work on the nearside, for now. Inner sill prepped, (new) heater tube in place, welded up and goodnight.

[stretch]

Good progress Richard.

Am i mistaken or is that a new Porsche classic outer sill i see that requires no backdating.? If it is, i remember seeing it on the Porsche stand at Essen last year. Interesting price...?

Best Regards

Dave