DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

The more I read some of the other ddk restoration threads the more I realise how lucky I am having a bodyshell that has such little rust

The areas I've repaired are localised ones and the worst areas by far were the rear seat pans and parcel shelf

If only I'd not let Mr Scunthorpe put the car on his jig I might have been able to keep my original rh inner front wheel well

I'm getting close to getting the shell ready for some paint

Great to see the progress, well done man..

Nice work

^^^ what he said

Very nice work there in a tricky spot.

Thanks everyone ,,

I'm fairly pleased with how that went ...I was going to use some repair panels I bought , but they didn't look the right shape to me and they repaired areas that didn't need work yet fell short in other areas where mine needed some metal putting back

Nice work on that windscreen frame repair. Will you be "wiping" it down with lead or lead substitute for a final smooth finish? I don't know if that degree of finish work is critical to yielding a water tight seal once the windscreen has been installed...would be interested as to what others think. Lovely project and your MGA looks great, too. John

jjeffries wrote:Nice work on that windscreen frame repair. Will you be "wiping" it down with lead or lead substitute for a final smooth finish? I don't know if that degree of finish work is critical to yielding a water tight seal once the windscreen has been installed...would be interested as to what others think. Lovely project and your MGA looks great, too. John

Thanks John ,

I might lead it , but to be honest it's almost good enough to just paint straight over

I've had a light at the back and there aren't any pin holes so it should be fine just a quick skim of stopper ,then paint .

Some of the other threads on here make it look so easy though ,,,, others like me have to try really hard to keep it looking half as good

Anyway onwards and upwards !

Just read your whole thread
Well done on keeping a cool head and getting on with it

It's gonna be ace when done

Keep the updates up

Brilliant thread, and well done for working through your bad experience. A lot would have thrown in the towel at that point.

Chesterton to the rescue is good to hear, to say well respected is an understatement. They have been in the 911 business for longer than most, and in 'real' coachbuilding in general for far longer. That doesn't happen by accident.

Loving your own work, it's definitely many notches higher than a lot of 'professional' repairers. The MG looks absolutely fabulous, and the Porsche will surely be the same.

DIY restorations are my favourites, and are at the very heart of what DDK stands for. Many owners / chequebook restorers look on with pleasure, as often it's time or skills deficits that prevent them joining you in a home-grown project.

I'm sorry you've kicked off with such a bad experience, but I'm sure by time you reach the end of the project, and with recommendations from the DDK clan, you'll find there are many decent and honest specialists on hand who will help reset things.

Best wishes with the next stages!

Had the pleasure of meeting matt last week , a real top guy with a real top attitude. He is doing everything right by his car in my opinion. I believe this will be an amazing once car completed . Although he calls this a diy thread but when he has to use the pros he uses the best guys. Matt I hope you keep your car if not someone will get an amazing machine .

Cheers Jonny

Time for a quick update !

It's been pretty cold in my garage over winter so I've not done very much for a while

I stripped all the remaining paint from the shell and luckily no surprises ,,,Chesterton were right ! This is a pretty good shell but I've got to say it's bloody hard work stripping by hand













I had my friends camera inside the sills and they're really nice inside too,,,result !



Whilst down south dropping my engine and gearbox off for rebuild I decided to drop the seats off with Garry Hall for a re-trim .
He's such a helpful and knowledgeable guy and came highly recommended .My seats are in the queue and I'm following the COA by returning them to original leatherette with basket weave centres .
They're currently leather ,but according to Garry just a bit too cracked to save despite not looking too bad to my untrained eyes ....nice patina, but just a bit too much cracking and dried up leather !

Please could you re-post the photos removed from the accidental thread, some great reference photos.

Shell looks wonderful in many places

Hi Darren

Sorry I removed them so I could properly amend my thread ,, are you referring to the sill edge pics ?

I can't remember what else I could have posted

tangerineT wrote:...... are you referring to the sill edge pics ? ....

....yes please, rare you see an original untouched sill in bare metal.

Thank you