Project Blue Book

[chief]

Thank you fellas. Still plenty to do.....

[chief]

So the first of the fancy parts have arrived from the good ol US of A....
I appreciate that it's kind of engine dressing but Porsche used something very similar on the quad cam back in the day. I couldn't resist. I think with the 911 fan and shroud, these should fit the whole vintage look...





Beautifully cast in Ali then heat treated

[chief]

Right then onto the next part of this project. One of the modifications to be done is make and fit the rear ant roll bar brackets.

So this is from inside the trunk (Rear). I need to reinforce this chalked area.

Firstly I needed to clean all the old paint off.

Then make the 1mm strengthening plates with drilled holes to be able to puddle weld.

I flipped the plate over to be opposite, then drilled the main centre holes with them clamped together to cut down on the amount I had to drill. It was just the diagonal hole in each I had to do seperate.

Then puddle welded in position.

You can see that the welds have penatrated, also how the main brackets will sit.




And there we have it. Rear anti roll bar all sorted.
All wheel arches are now trimmed down and all small pin and patches sorted.
All the best,
Chief

[Dean.s]

Nice to see someone fitting reinforcement plates, whoever fitted the front ARB on mine originally did not use any reinforcement!

The area was a right mess.

Keep up the good work.

[chief]

Hmmm, I'm yet to tackle the front roll bar, however I have a couple of interest ideas for that area.
I should be attacking this one next week.

[LMR]

That is going to look ace.

[chief]

Thanks our Phil. I'm trying to gain some traction on this little project, which I hope to finish just before you've finished that BMW.......gulp, puts on coat and leaves the room.

[LMR]

I've thrown a cover over the BMW - I have a 914 to complete!

[defianty]

Tidy work chief. When I fitted my rear sway bar it proved a nice break from the usual body stuff. Looks like it was the same for you too.

What's your plans for the front sway bar? I've got a Weltmeister for mine and have installed it and removed it again. However I didn't add any reinforcement (instructions didn't mention it) and I'm now thinking I should revisit it. For the rear I added reinforcement exactly as you did.

Cheers.

[chief]

Hi Stephen,
Yep, I have to admit it's kinda nice to be doing something other than scraping bloomin under seal off.
I too have the RS front bar from Elephant with the round outer fitting. My concern with strengthening the outer face is that it may interfere with the width of the roll bar. I'm looking to strengthen from the inside (Frunk side). I am going to get everything out and measure twice and cut once!
I might box section it to be honest. I think it is worth the effort now to avoid ripped metal at a later date.

I did see your post about the fibreglass side sills. With all your new found skills, I'm surprised you are not modifying the metal originals....

[defianty]

Yeah, I'll have to revisit the front sway bar I think. I've seen strengthening plates available so i think I'll just make my own. Not a big job, and like you say avoids potential disaster at a later date.

I bought the sills before my new found skills were as developed as they are now Actually due to the amount of work they're going to need to fit correctly I did dig out the old steel ones and look to modify them. They are quite rusty near the jacking points and I'm not sure how I'd go about forming the curves to mate with the arches. So for now I'll try the fibreglass option first.

[chief]

To be honest, I think if you can break it down into pieces it's not that difficult. I'm actually looking forward to doing mine. Sorts the men from the boys

[chief]

Slow progress but just taking my time and enjoying it!
Time for more welding and panel fabrication....

I made this bracket as a pure indulgence
Nothing in my mind says 70's classic car like an electric arial
Yep, it's true...I managed to track down a real Porsche one.
Now I hate those hole punched plated metal strips that you are supposed to secure the mast body to the car with. Nasty self tappers and alike.


Okay, onto the serious stuff. Time to start to set up the front anti roll bar.
This is going the take some effort...


A fair bit of measuring and some crossed digits. You drill a 25mm hole through the body and hope it's in the right place

This is what has to live here...

Got the hole pretty close. You can see where the factory cut out is. These roll bars were only fitted to a handful of cars as standard.

The other side is a little off, which was at first a bit alarming. I have used the depression in the outside to line up the brackets and all seemed fine.
On closer inspection and measuring the bar in the chassis I think it's more likely that the inner strengthening box section is a little out. I will have to work around this...
Next I made a cardboard template to make a strengthening place to spread the load from the bar.



These should spread the load of the roll bar nicely.



I thought for fun I would use my German and make these look like the factory fitted them
The holes are there for me to puddle weld them into place tomorrow.

I then cleaned the area up where they are going to be welded to.
I was getting a bit brassed of with them so turned back to the boot floor, but this time the inside.

I am creating what I think the factory would have done as a customer order ST car, so light weight is where it's at. To that end I am removing all the factory expanded seam sealer. This is what they would have done to save weight. It's a ball of a job, but I think once painted it will look the part.
That's all for now. Off to warm up and get a hot shower.
All the best,
Chief

[LMR]

I remember preparing my inner wheel arches for paint and wondering whether to leave some of the original runs in for the "factory" look. Stamping german text onto strengthening panels makes my OCD look really, really mild!!

Thanks for the cuppa earlier. I can testify from my own eyes the attention to detail being dedicated to this car is consistent with what is shown on this blog.

[jamie]

i'm really enjoying this. Lovely