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

[210bhp]

Hi Richard

Your thinking on paint is similar to mine. I am just about through paint now but yet to see it in the flesh.
If I got my act together it should have been up on my thread but like you I'm way behind. Paint details will be different 69 to 73 I think. I also have gone for factory replication with extra protection. Pictures look good so far.

Happy to help in any way.

Regards
Mike

[DustyM]

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

They have been available for a while now Dave.

[911hillclimber]

I've often wondered what the steel frame is bolted to the inside centre tunnel is for?
Is it to lift the shell off the jig etc or is it some stiffening added when so much gets cut out? (in addition to the Cellett).

Such a good repair to that corner. I hate looking at my repairs to that section when I do the pre-MoT checks...after seeing this lot!

[inaglasshouse]

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

Hi Dave,

Yes, now 911 503 401 01 GRV (used to be 965 503 401 01 GRV).
Depends what you mean by interesting! List price is 158.95 + VAT.

I hear you are off on holiday to the land of hipsters and palm trees soon. Have fun!

Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

is it some stiffening added when so much gets cut out? (in addition to the Cellett).

I believe so.

[Project 911]

Yes, now 911 503 401 01 GRV (used to be 965 503 401 01 GRV).
Depends what you mean by interesting! List price is 158.95 + VAT.
.

Fantastic work, almost shame to cover Barrys work under paint!

Can I ask if pressings on these new sills are as sharp/good as on oem 964 ones? (i.e correct)
Saves fair bit of work if backdating and filling holes is not needed anymore.

[inaglasshouse]

Fantastic work, almost shame to cover Barrys work under paint!
Can I ask if pressings on these new sills are as sharp/good as on oem 964 ones? (i.e correct)
Saves fair bit of work if backdating and filling holes is not needed anymore.

Hi Ville, thanks for stopping by, nice to have a visitor from Finland.
I believe little or no remedial work was required to these, to reach a standard Barry was happy with. So I think they are good. Unlike several of the other Porsche panels...
Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

RH Sill

Making a start on the RH side now, beginning with the sill.

Another example of the previous work - a weld approx every 100mm. Barry tells me one every 20mm is about right.
They had also left the freshly-opened seam as bare metal.
At least it came off easily!



Barry fabricated a new sill flange to replace the battered old one. Same as the other side.

[inaglasshouse]

RH A-Post Base (and surrounding area)

The bottom of the A-Post was removed, revealing what lurked beneath:





There was also evidence of some welded holes further forward, in the lower part of the inner wing.
I find this stuff a bit of a cautionary tale. Pre-blasting this area looked pretty solid. When cut out and viewed from the back, it's far from OK.





Never mind, you know the score. Barry's going to make it beautiful again. He said:
You can buy this panel, but I have the tooling here, so can make it out of full 18swg, which gives plenty of meat.
Frankly most of the time is tweaking the fit to suit a particular car, and this would be the case with either my panel or a bought-in one. This way, I can tweak it as I make it.
End fit has ended up fine, and you can see what those MIG welded pin holes look like from inside. Definitely better off in the bin.

[Darren65]

Glorious!

A wonderful detailed thread Richard......I'll never tire of looking at Barry's genius, always incredible.

Thanks so much for sharing

[inaglasshouse]

Hi Darren,
Thanks. I shall take that as high praise, coming from you. The Mongrel build thread remains my all-time favourite.
Mine treads no new paths (...yet...) but folks do seem to enjoy seeing Barry at work.
Cheers, Richard.

[Barry]

I've often wondered what the steel frame is bolted to the inside centre tunnel is for?
Is it to lift the shell off the jig etc or is it some stiffening added when so much gets cut out? (in addition to the Cellett).

It's a lifting frame, and works in conjunction with my engine crane. When I'm in full flow I have one (of the two) pair of rotesserie brackets bolted up to the shell when all of the centre work is underway. I can go from jig to rotisserie and back in very short order, and this might happen five or ten times during a restoration. I can also easily lift the car into most body dollies using the lifting frame, and indeed can lift a fully panelled car without touching any of the new undersides.

It does also give me a hard point to pull from, anchor to or reference from during some of the works. It can be mounted / dismounted in about a minute with the help of a cordless.

It's worked out well, and came about when I moved to the new unit. There are no dependable beams here for the block and tackles I used to use. I wouldn't go back to those now.

[Barry]

Yes, now 911 503 401 01 GRV (used to be 965 503 401 01 GRV).
Depends what you mean by interesting! List price is 158.95 + VAT.
.

Fantastic work, almost shame to cover Barrys work under paint!

Can I ask if pressings on these new sills are as sharp/good as on oem 964 ones? (i.e correct)
Saves fair bit of work if backdating and filling holes is not needed anymore.

Yes, they are excellent. Truly a rare and surely unintentional departure for Porsche, and I'm sure they'll realise soon and the reduce the quality / increase prices to achieve the quality - price ratio that we've come to 'enjoy' recently .

It's funny, as fast as I make my special tools and hammerforms, new panels render them obsolete. In terms of actual tools, I've got around 100 at least, and more than the same again in various patterns. Best one so far was the parcel-shelf upstand. I needed a complete one on a recent RS. None available, I checked all round. Made some hammerforms from 10mm thick steel, two days plus materials. Say £800 investment. First one came off perfectly. Three weeks later, Restoration Design list them for no money £700 loss. Oh well. Similarly, I have two tools for the sills, the sills drain conversion set and a stake dolly which is the same profile as the top 3/4 curve of the outer sill. Made it very easy to reshape the sill, removing the five retangular inserts.

At least with the sills tools, lots of people (me included) have sets of 964 ones still needing converting, so they'll get some occasional use.

Anyway, to recap, yes these new sills are excellent, and save quite a bit of time on a fiddly job.

[Barry]

Hi Mike,

I think Barry is very generous to allow them to be posted - if it were me I'd be jealously guarding my trade secrets!

Cheers, Richard.

I'm more than happy, it's all good from my end. Frankly, what I do is 2.5% knowledge, 2.5% skill, 95% hard, dirty and unhealthy graft. That's the bit that's the real barrier to entry to possible competitors. As Richard knows, I'm up and running at 06:30 most mornings and at moment the workshop is 2.0 degrees when I walk in. I finish around 17:00 - 17:30 and work many weekends.

I like what I do, but you won't get very many people with the qualities to make this job work, who also want to actually do this work.

Lot's of people talk a good talk, but we can all do that. At the end of the day, there aren't that many high quality people coming in, and sticking with, this trade. Most restorers are older than me, and even I look older than I am . I reckon few newcomers would be expecting to invest the time and money on the detail stuff / tooling that me, Chesterton or whoever might have done. It's not good enough to do a so-so repair and jollop it up with pug. My mission is to get that message out there. If it's not in bare metal, there's a reason. Bare metal sits perfectly happily for weeks in a workshop, you only need to cover it if you don't want your client to see it.

So, there are very few things I'd hold back from talking through publicly. Of those, I share probably half of the remaining 'secrets' via mail / P.M. This week I have written three of four detailed explainers for people in the U.K. and elsewhere this way, and am very happy to do it.

There is another thing of course, I love the feedback, who wouldn't when the comments are so generous? Thank you

[jtparr]

Hi Mike,

I think Barry is very generous to allow them to be posted - if it were me I'd be jealously guarding my trade secrets!

Cheers, Richard.

I'm more than happy, it's all good from my end. Frankly, what I do is 2.5% knowledge, 2.5% skill, 95% hard, dirty and unhealthy graft:

Bollocks...you undervalue yourself Barry.....

95% knowledge
95% skill
95% graft

Ask yourself where many of us would be without you....

I would have made it 100%...but there's always room for improvement...!....

J