USA 1970 911T - the Tangerine Dream

[RobFrost]

The inner wings were a lot better than I expected, given the way water collects in the seals down the sides of the bonnet there was just some limited pitting down the top of the right hand inner wing.



I replaced it in short sections as I only have a short bender, and so as to carefully follow the original shape.





The job was surprisingly easy because the reinforcing panel immediately underneath is there to follow. I painted both and cleared spots for the spot welds to make a clean contact.







And got it all flatted down tidy.



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[RobFrost]

I have these holes in the right hand inner wing, possibly from an aftermarket air con which has since been removed. I assume these are non standard and probably best welded up?



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[911hillclimber]

Agree, and that patch screwed on is also non standard I think.

[RobFrost]

Onwards to the next spot. On the menu I have two wing support panels, two sills, two front wings, and a rear bumper bracket. Next up I tackled one of the wing support panels.



Lacking proper metalworking tools, improvisation is often the name of the game. I used some threaded rod as a dolly to bash a groove into this repair piece.



Managed to get a nice fit with my makeshift methods.



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[RobFrost]

It turns out this is a very noisy panel to grind, with only one edge being fixed down. So I worked most of the day with one eye out for incoming neighbours and a karate chop at the ready. But fight club was not in session today..

I am now in the garage to be fair, although often with the doors open for ventilation.

The making of this panel was only possible with the use of a shrinker very kindly lent by a ddker.



A third hole to repair.



And done.



Highly frustrating schoolboy error here. I forgot to tack on the t-nut before pinning the repair piece in place.



Thankfully I was able to sort it with a spot welder, very kindly lent by another ddker.



Pleased with the end-result. The flange will need a dolly behind it once the door's off.



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[RobFrost]

Sadly this last little corner has me beat today. I was hoping to get the whole thing finished and painted but that will have to wait for next weekend.



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[RobFrost]

I entered the weekend with a renewed vigour, enthused by not having too many projects on the go, and the prospect of making good headway.

One of the first jobs of the weekend, to finish up the bottom of that front wing mounting panel.



Not without some difficulty though. The mig was simply depositing fat blobs of steel on the surface. I was a bit slow realising what was up.

On the other side, the wing mounting panel wasn't saveable, so I drilled out the welds.



I marked the positions of the bolts before taking it off.



I switched the welder over to tig to free up this brazing. Which explained my later welding difficulties. I had left the polarity the wrong way around.



...and into the recycling.



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[RobFrost]

The bottom corner where the panel mounts was a bit pitted and thin, so I cut it out and made a repair piece. Making this took as long as removing the original panel. It gave me an opportunity to get some paint inside the inner sill.



And I stuffed the vacuum up the outer sill, sucking out about an ounce of sand! The hole is also visible here, cut out for the repair piece in the picture above.



I originally planned to mix up some epoxy and paint the recent welding with a brush, a job I would have finished today. But knowing I will need to epoxy a couple of other areas, including the previously repaired and stone-chipped boot:



...I elected to go for the bigger job with the spray gun. So I prepped the front of the car for spraying with epoxy. Thus will also remediate some silver overspray around the tip of the boot area, which I sanded back to get a good key.



a job which will have to wait for another day.

Part of the prep included applying mastic to all the seams. This polyurethane sealer is seriously sticky. I think originally they applied it directly to the metal, with paint over the top. But I've gone for two part epoxy paint direct to the metal, followed by joint sealer, followed by stone chip, with black epoxy over the top.



It would have been rewarding to finish but it'll be great to get the whole front in epoxy rather than just paint the bare metal I just welded. The outside of the car will be professionally painted but I'm painting the interior and underside. I want the car to last another 50 years, and nobody will be particular as me in sealing everything.

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[RobFrost]

I managed to get the front painted in epoxy this weekend. Sadly it's a little thinner than I'd like in places, and there are the wings and bumpers to paint too so I've ordered another couple of litres for a second coat.



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[911hillclimber]

Some serious progress Rob.
The weather must have been kinder over there, sunny but cool here.
Nice to see that even orange!

[RobFrost]

Some serious progress Rob.
The weather must have been kinder over there, sunny but cool here.
Nice to see that even orange!

It was much the same here Graham. Sunday was good and dry but I didn't want any issues with the cold so I ran the fan heater in the garage for a couple of hours beforehand. With the car and the whole garage warmed up, I painted it inside the garage and left it to cure with the heater on. The lack of space wasn't really a problem as I was mostly painting inside the boot - no concerns about brushing against it.

It does indeed make a huge difference seeing it in an even colour. It unites the repairs with the original, clears up the silver overspray etc. and makes it look new again. This orange isn't quite right for the finished colour but I've used the orange epoxy base coat as it will hide any scratches etc. which may happen later in the floor & boot. I'll gently sand and go over with the final colour once I pick it. The orange epoxy is very close but the original signal orange is a touch more pumpkin-coloured.

[RobFrost]

While waiting for the offside wing mounting panel I gave some sensitive areas some special attention with the epoxy mastic.





Taking special care of these little spots where water can collect in the corners of the windows.



I had a sample of L20E on order, supposedly Porsche Signal Orange but when it arrived the colour's so far off as to be unusable. Here's the original orange taken from a spot shielded from the sun and weather - closest to Pantone 152.



Whereas the sample is much lighter, closer to maybe OKWO-C.



The proper 68-71 wing mounting panel, which has the oil pipe pressings in, is over double the price of the generic one and a couple of weeks wait, but I wanted it to be right. Sadly, when it came, the shape deviated from the original quite a bit.

I left the topmost point of the original panel brazed into the body, so I could position the new one precisely. But when i positioned it over the spot welds, the top point missed the position of the old one by about a centimetre.



And when it was apparently in the correct position, the two wing mounting nuts sat about a centimetre lower than the marks I made from the original.



I had to put it across my knee and give it a little bend. Thankfully I was able to take some careful measurements from the wing and from the other side to get it into a good position. I may screw it in place and try the wing back on.

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[RobFrost]

Not sure if I'll use this but I'll have a go at fabricating a repair patch. This isn't the finished shape, I'll make it in parts.



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I returned to this repair piece the past couple of weekends: extended the end, adding the flange for that spot welds to the back seats.




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[RobFrost]

...and shaped the recess for the deck lid hinge.



...and got that welded on to the repair piece and mostly cleaned up.



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[RobFrost]

I trial fitted the wing mounting panel this weekend. Once in position I marked up the welds.



And cleaned off spots of epoxy where the welds will go, with a little die grinder.



I took measurements off the wing to get the door gap correct and screwed in place, using guide marks I made earlier.



I'm tempted to trial fit the wing before welding in place.

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