1973 Porsche 911E RHD – Silver

[911GP]

Roy tackled the roof next and the first job was to cut out the old roof. The existing roof rails were ok so they were kept.













Rusty areas cut out and prepared to receive the new roof:









Work carried out to the new roof to fit new copper drain tubes:















Fettling with the sunroof area:





And at the front near the wiper area:





Roof on the car and work done to join it:











Rusty area hot spot around the edge of the instrument binnacle repaired:









Gitesh

[Bigfoot]

Hey Gitesh, metal work looking great, exciting times!!! Love the detail!!

[911hillclimber]

Good Grief, we are lucky to see this detail.
Superb, and with John's 356 resto so much entertainment.
Skill abound, thanks for posting!

[911GP]

With the roof on, Roy completed the fine finishing to his usual standards:












Gitesh

[911GP]

And here are a few photos showing the rear outer wings being spot welded near the rear engine lid area:







Gitesh

[911GP]

Roy next fitted the doors, bonnet and engine lid to get the gaps and alignment right:


























Gitesh

[911GP]

With the jig removed, the car moved onto the rotisserie for welding to the underside.

















Another perforated area found near the front suspension so Roy cut this out and repaired it to his usual standard:









Here are a couple of pics of the rear inner wing area Chestertons protected with stonechip. I am really pleased this was done since it would be difficult to cover as well now.






Chestertons originally fitted the front slam panel and filled the drain holes per pre-73 cars. With some research and help from Mike (210bhp) I was able to work out that my car should have all the drain holes open. This was confirmed by a very helpful chap in the US who owns an original, unmolested 911E just a few chassis numbers earlier than my car. Thank you, gents. I ordered a new rail and this was duly replaced retaining the four drainage holes.




Gitesh

[jjeffries]

Wow...nothing cooler than that. John in CT/USA

[911GP]

I agree John, Chesterton's work has been excellent. Unfortunately, the original work estimate went out of the window quite early on and the car has taken significantly longer to complete than I ever imagined. The engine lid is another example of where extra time had to be spent.






I considered replacing the engine lid with a new one but John convinced me that the existing one was ok and could be reworked. It was not original to the car but was in ok condition. One of the issues was that the Porsche letters were not aligned properly as you can read from Gary's writing on the photo above. John said all bar two holes were in the wrong position! To remedy this, Chestertons welded up the existing holes:




and drilled them again correctly. You can see the template used in the photo below:




On the inside, the engine lid had a scallop on the left hand side which you can just make out on the photo below.




We weren't sure if this was right for a mid 73 car and originally thought maybe it had something to do with the rear wiper motor. With the help of many DDKers, we were able to work out that no scallop should be there. Thank you to everyone that helped with this, especially Alan at Canford Classics. Roy back dated the engine lid accordingly:




Gitesh

[MarkIII]

Great updates as usual Gitesh. I am sure your relieved that this stage is coming to an end; EASY here on in!...........

[911GP]

I certainly am relieved, Mark and sincerely hope it is easier on from here especially on my wallet! The fitting up stage was next:













As you can see, I have the wrong indicator lens for the front right of the car. The unit I have is in good condition but has silver paint on the inside rim instead of black. I am hoping the paint can be removed and repainted in black. Has anybody tried this? I would also be prepared to buy an original Bosch black rimmed lens to replace this so please let me know if you have one in good condition to spare (no cracks please). Thanks.

Both of my rear bumpers were in poor condition so John sourced some original Porsche replacements for me. One of these was from a SWB car so Roy shortened and modified it to LWB and added a bracket copied from the other side.








The rear number plate panel I had was a replacement Dansk part also in poor condition. John sourced a replacement Porsche panel:



Rear bumper overriders fitted. They are in poor condition so I have to replace these or get them repaired. I hear original Porsche ones such as these fit well so I am more inclined to get them repaired and replated. Any thoughts?





Both John and Gary thought it would be wise to get any holes drilled now before painting the car. My muffler skirt was an original Porsche stainless steel part and therefore not rusty but it was dented and crooked and we weren't sure if it could be straightened well. Replacement ordered and fitted:



Side sill trim also fitted:



The wheel arch trim I had were corroded so had to be replaced. Somebody offered me a set of NOS replacements for ludicrous money so I opted for the widely available pattern part replacements. They looked fine but the front wheel arch trims did not fit well. We think this may be due to the new Porsche wings being slightly different to the originals (maybe a different die press). We almost abandoned them but Roy eventually managed to get them to fit after a LOT of fettling. Beware if you are considering fitting these to new wings.



Gitesh

[911GP]

You probably noticed my front bumper was fibreglass so John sourced a good used Porsche one for me:



I like the factory option rear seat belt anchor points that Darren and Mark (Mark III) have used on their cars but didn't think they suited the E so opted for traditional anchor points instead:





And the final part needed was a new fuel tank. The one I had looked ok until Gary started to strip it down and found that it was rusty and not worth reusing. We went for a Dansk fuel tank; Roy changed the angle of the unions at the back and carried out other minor adjustments to get it to fit right:



And that brings the metal work to an end. Here are some final shots of the car:











The wheel arch trim was a COA listed optional extra so I am really pleased we were able to fit them in the end:

















Doors:











Front of the car:





















And last two shots of the back:





That's the end of the metal work operation and the car is due to be painted by Limn Historics in a few weeks. A huge thank you to John and Roy at Chestertons for their hard work, experience and knowledge. John said this was one of their longest jobs at 780 hours, which has been painful on my wallet and will mean that some other areas will have wait for now. However, I am really pleased with the results and look forward to the next stage.

Gitesh

[911hillclimber]

Such an interesting re build for us, thank you for presenting so much in detail.
The way those aluminium arch and sill strips meet and the light fit is fabulous, and sums up the whole car!

[Tp81]

Lovely work

[Darren65]

Looks awesome!