DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

I was able to spend the full weekend on the car this weekend despite a cracking headache on Saturday.

I made this bowl to repair the left rear seat and spot welded on the tabs for the fuel line, brake pipe and handbrake cable.

Therw were no holes but it was a bit pitted and crusty.



Sometimes I use a water spray to quench the heat and extinguish underseal, paint etc. as I weld. Welds always have a thin layer of blue iron oxide on them, and the water highlights this, turning it to brown iron hydroxide. Acid etching removes it all revealing the blue steel.



As is customary, an apparently straightforward job became a royal pain in the ass as the brake hose refused to separate from the old bracket and I ended up having to put mole grips on the nut and mangle it. Although I quickly reattached the brake line, a significant pool of hydraulic fluid had collected on the garage floor and the union continued to drip after being reattached. Irritatingly, I found myself short of any brake fluid so I've left myself a little job there for another day.


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While I was at it, I finally got a chance to return to the offside seat, where the repair panel I put in some time ago came up short.











And all the exposed metal received a coat of zinc epoxy, inside and out.



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I picked up a full set of shiny bare steel wings, rear bumpers, and front and rear deck lids today from envirostrip. They've done a great job. What surprised me is that the apparently mint panels had a number of repairs hiding away beneath all the paint.

No photos because I drove them straight over to the paint shop for a coat of high zinc epoxy before that bare steel starts to rust at all.

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One pic of the freshly stripped bonnet which took a different route to get painted due to not fitting in my car.

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I painted over the zinc epoxy on the seats with EM21 orange two part epoxy today, spray inside and used a brush on the underside.

I gave some special attention to the windscreen surround and gave the back shelf another coat.





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RobFrost wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 9:30 pm One pic of the freshly stripped bonnet which took a different route to get painted due to not fitting in my car.

Interestingly, a 911 bonnet fits in a 944, with the seats backs down obviously.

Looking good Rob, the hard graft is starting to shine though!
Trust you will diy the exterior paint in 2K?

911hillclimber wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 1:00 pm Looking good Rob, the hard graft is starting to shine though!
Trust you will diy the exterior paint in 2K?

Thanks Graham. No, I won't do it myself. I'm having the exterior professionally painted most likely by https://www.butlinclassiccars.co.uk/ who are fairly local, seem like a good bunch and come recommended. In fact they have the wings etc. right now to prime with zinc epoxy direct from Envirostrip before they flash off with any rust, as I don't have the space. Their preference is Cellulose but I think I prefer the durability of 2K with clear coat although that's not totally decided yet.

I can blow something over that keeps the underbody and interior watertight (in fact I trust myself more to be thorough and with the sealant, stone chip and cavity wax) but my handiwork wouldn't stand up to scrutiny for the outer shell.

deano wrote: ↑Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:44 am

RobFrost wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 9:30 pm One pic of the freshly stripped bonnet which took a different route to get painted due to not fitting in my car.

Interestingly, a 911 bonnet fits in a 944, with the seats backs down obviously.

That's good to know. FWIW it won't fit in a MG ZR with the passenger seat removed despite an hour of trying. Nor in a Passat. Thankfully a guy at work has an old Toyota Hiace and helped me out.

Looking great with the new paint. Well done Rob, the effort is paying off .

Great to see progress Rob

Good work that man

Rob, back in 1989 I DIY painted my 911 in cellulose in a single car garage with a compressor and gun from Machine Mart. 4th car I had painted.

It was still good in 2019 but some under-surface blistering had started.
Stripped it all off, did some small holes and had it painted in 2K locally for £1500 including paint and labour. I supplied it bit by bit and removed it bit by bit.

Worked out really well.
I do think the 2K is a much better paint for durability on a car that is to be used and not shown.

It can be done on a budget with local people sensibly, a 911 is only a car shell, nothing special, nothing different to an MGB (say).

Good luck with it all!

Repairing the bumpers today. This side has a couple of reinforcement plates not on the other, albeit rusty, which make a big differenceto the rigidity.



The weaker one is a bit stretched out of shape, shrinking the edge here to get the bend back how it should be.



One flange added, in thicker steel, 2mm maybe - I can't remember but it matches the other bumper.



Cut this steel to shape for the other one.



I painted it in this two part weld-through primer and flowed the primer into all the joins. It set conveniently fast, but didn't conduct the spot welder so I had to scrape spots clean for every spot weld.



Spot welded and zinc primed again. I may add a couple of mig welds. Seems nice and rigid now.



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That's a nice repair Rob!
Good to do this than spending tons on parts that may not fit.

Trust you will do a dry build on the body before paint?