Flat 6 Posted September 1, 2018 Posted September 1, 2018 Great skills that man. It's satisfying isn't it! A.
Robos911 Posted September 7, 2018 Author Posted September 7, 2018 This weeks progress, first floor section fully welded in! Weldings improving.... it was tricky getting it consistent because of the restricted access, ground it back and put a spotlight underneath and only found a couple of pinholes that needed re-doing! Everything takes a lot longer than you think it will!!
Robos911 Posted September 7, 2018 Author Posted September 7, 2018 On 9/1/2018 at 9:43 AM, Flat 6 said: Great skills that man. It's satisfying isn't it! A. It is when it’s going well👍 Other times it’s a bit 😱
fat fuchs Posted September 13, 2018 Posted September 13, 2018 Excellent progress that welding is looking good too. No doubt you are doing anyway, but just keep checking and re-checking all your panel alignments at each stage. Top stuff
Robos911 Posted September 21, 2018 Author Posted September 21, 2018 Bit of progress, this has deffo been the most tricky bit I’ve done so far, I had to make up 2 large patches between the back of the front arch and the new inner sill, one is fairly simple flat with a curve at the bottom, the other has curves all over the place! Once I had the second one tacked in place I wasn’t happy with it, I’ve cut a few slots and got it a lot better but I reckon theres still room for improvement! Welding in the bought out panels is a piece of pish, the repair panels are a lot trickier but save £££ and deffo learning as i go!! 10hrs Labour in this panel alone and not happy with it yet!! 😳
Robos911 Posted September 21, 2018 Author Posted September 21, 2018 (edited) cont.... I also decided i wasn't happy with the very first bit of welding that i did on the N/S inner front wing so i did a bit of grinding back and re-welding, much happier now! Got the epoxy mastic out and took a few "after" pics to match earlier pics, nice to see that i have actually made some progress!! Edited September 21, 2018 by Robos911
Andy352 Posted September 22, 2018 Posted September 22, 2018 Looking great, very satisfying when you finish welding a section and can move on to the next bit. Keep up the good work.
fat fuchs Posted September 25, 2018 Posted September 25, 2018 It's coming together well now and... think of all that labour cost you're saving yourself. Well done. Cheers FF
Robos911 Posted September 28, 2018 Author Posted September 28, 2018 On 9/22/2018 at 4:21 PM, Andy352 said: Looking great, very satisfying when you finish welding a section and can move on to the next bit. Keep up the good work. On 9/25/2018 at 8:57 AM, fat fuchs said: It's coming together well now and... think of all that labour cost you're saving yourself. Well done. On 9/25/2018 at 9:49 AM, R2D2 said: Good man Robo! Thanks all 👍 I've been keeping tabs and have just hit 70 hours which isn't too bad i thought, so i've now moved onto the next bit ... In a change from the usual update, this week I started with trying to turn my one decent car into a pile of bits! The aircon on my Merc has had an intermittent fault so had to take the vents and stereo out to get at the module so I could get the part number, luckily found a second hand one on eBay for £40, cheap fix if it works! Finished welding the front of the sill area, not perfect but I’m happy with it, luckily its hidden when finished. One bit of learning i've taken from it is that if you can buy a panel its worth it!!.... Then started on the rear! More bodges, new metal welded over old again and a big problem.... when I started there were 2 small holes in the front so i was never expecting to do any work on the rear, now all the back is rotten so I need to fit a new panel under the torsion beam which is what the car is supported on.... I can’t move it because it’s all level.... oh sh1t, not sure where to go with this one???? So I gave up and stripped the paint off the roll bar so I can make it shiny!!
Robos911 Posted September 28, 2018 Author Posted September 28, 2018 Meant to add anyone know how to get the brushed stainless effect on the roll bar? I was thinking light sanding??
fat fuchs Posted September 29, 2018 Posted September 29, 2018 19 hours ago, Robos911 said: Meant to add anyone know how to get the brushed stainless effect on the roll bar? I was thinking light sanding?? There is a repair panel for the rear torsion bar area and I did that repair on the 'Targa Time' car. You may also need to repair the heater tube inside by the way. Light sanding will create the brushed effect but you need to stay parallel to the bar at all times. Scotch pads produced the best results for me.
Robos911 Posted September 29, 2018 Author Posted September 29, 2018 1 hour ago, fat fuchs said: There is a repair panel for the rear torsion bar area and I did that repair on the 'Targa Time' car. You may also need to repair the heater tube inside by the way. Light sanding will create the brushed effect but you need to stay parallel to the bar at all times. Scotch pads produced the best results for me. Cheers FF, I’ve ordered that panel, I’m hopeful the tube is ok but nothing else on this car has gone well so probably not!! My problem now is how to get in to fit it!! The pic is from your thread and you were in a similar boat to me but then the next pic you have the axel stand out and the area around the torsion bar cut out. How did you support the car when you removed the stand? I’m a bit concerned that with so much of the sill missing it will move?? It looks like you welded the inner sill back in place before tackling the torsion area repair but I also need to do the outer 6” of the floor so I’ve nothing to weld it to yet.... Another option could be remove as much of the radius arm etc as I can get out of the way to allow access without removing the axle stand. It looks like only the bottom section is rusty so I’m thinking cut that out and just use the bottom of the panel?? On a positive note the roll bar is coming up quite nice, I will give the scotch pads a go, i needed a bit of a break from rusty crap👍 Thanks again Steve
Robos911 Posted September 30, 2018 Author Posted September 30, 2018 After a good dose of thinking I’ve come up with a cunning plan, the doors are braced so shouldn’t move, I’m going to put another axle stand under the torsion tube (pic below) inboard of where the current one is, shim it until it’s a very tight fit then slide the yellow stand out of the way.....
fat fuchs Posted September 30, 2018 Posted September 30, 2018 5 hours ago, Robos911 said: After a good dose of thinking I’ve come up with a cunning plan, the doors are braced so shouldn’t move, I’m going to put another axle stand under the torsion tube (pic below) inboard of where the current one is, shim it until it’s a very tight fit then slide the yellow stand out of the way..... Steve, I chose to support the car beneath the seam that runs side to side where the various cables and lines are routed. I wanted to keep the torsion bar free of any load as I had to cut a lot of metal away in that area. Keep pressing on...you're getting there! Cheers FF
Robos911 Posted September 30, 2018 Author Posted September 30, 2018 1 hour ago, fat fuchs said: Steve, I chose to support the car beneath the seam that runs side to side where the various cables and lines are routed. I wanted to keep the torsion bar free of any load as I had to cut a lot of metal away in that area. Keep pressing on...you're getting there! Cheers FF Good point, I don’t want to end up moving the support again if I end up cutting more out!! 🤔
sladey Posted October 1, 2018 Posted October 1, 2018 Threaded caravan stands would make it easier to get another support tightly in there. They are cheap and you could wind one up until they are supporting enough to remove the yellow one
Robos911 Posted October 11, 2018 Author Posted October 11, 2018 The new panel arrived so i did a bit of a mock up, its surprising how much metal is being replaced when you see it all clamped together!! I decided to stick with the axle stand idea and shimmed it until i could just get the original axle stand out, went 0.5 mm at a time so should be pretty bang on and the doors are well braced. I tried the caravan stands but they looked a bit flimsy and i didn't fancy lying underneath!! With the original stand out of the way i had a nightmare getting the spring plate off, the Alu and steel had reacted into what looks like concrete, i got 3 off the 4 bolts off by soaking in Plus gas for a couple of days and hitting with a FBH but the 4th still wouldnt shift. Got the propane on it, nothing... ended up cutting the head off with an angle grinder to get the spring plate and trailing arm separated but the remains of the bolt are still firmly in the hole! I can foresee a bit of a suspension rebuild so might as well leave it until its all apart and on the bench. Once separated the torsion bar came out relatively easily although it still needs stripping down. Some rust around the bush housing, need to clean it up and see what i have. I then started cutting out more of the rust which was at least as bad as the front so a repeat of the front. On positive it seems to be fairly low in the panels so i dont think i will be using all of the repair panels.... on a negative i can see a hole in the bottom of the heater tube.... more cutting to follow!
fat fuchs Posted October 11, 2018 Posted October 11, 2018 Brave work continues...well done. The bolts in the Radius Arm should press out with a G clamp coupled with a socket. To get good access to your heater tube you may be better off cutting out most of that area around the spring plate fixings. Proceed with care if you do as it has a strengthening plate behind the outer skin. Cheers FF
World Citizen Posted October 11, 2018 Posted October 11, 2018 45 minutes ago, Busybee said: Wow! WOW!
Flat 6 Posted October 11, 2018 Posted October 11, 2018 Great work you brave soul! Ratty had it wrong... "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats"... Should've said classic 911s. Al.
Robos911 Posted October 12, 2018 Author Posted October 12, 2018 Thanks all!! The +ve waves really help, TBH for a first bodywork restoration it’s ended up being a bit more involved than I ever thought it would be and if I had known how much was involved I wouldn’t have started. With hindsight I would just weld a couple of patches over the holes and sell it on... which I suppose is what the last bloke did! No going back now though and 6 months in I am still enjoying the learning process! I’m now looking at years rather than months and it will no doubt turn into a full resto! Thanks for all the help and advice👍
Ian Comerford Posted October 12, 2018 Posted October 12, 2018 Great work and keep it up as you are saving a car that at some point would have been scrapped.
Andy352 Posted October 12, 2018 Posted October 12, 2018 I know what you're up against, every bit of rotten bodywork that I've removed from mine reveals more rot. As long as you're enjoying it then keep up the great work, walk away if you're not enjoying it, it'll still be there when you go back to it. I've been nearly 2 years at my one, really enjoying doing it and it's so satisfying when a section gets finished and you can move on to the next bit. Keep the updates coming.
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