Wot, not another '79 Targa resto thread

[PeterK]

Considerable progress!
Us diy restorers are doing well!

Indeed, although you seem to be making a better rste of progress at the moment
Peter

[PeterK]

All looking good. Getting some external panels back on and lined up is satisfying.

Why did you cut the inner sill out? You mentioned heat treatment, based on Andrews experience with the Manhattan project where he did the same I’d be really careful, and his car had a roof!

All paint stripping methods have drawbacks. Wanting to get all paint removed and a phosphoric based de-rust treatment, I feel that the pyrolysis method is least bad, hence the need to remove the silencers from the heater tubes inside the sills.

I’ve (hopefully) fixed all the main rust, so the shell is as strong as it can be, so here’s hoping that it comes back 911 shaped
Peter

[PeterK]

Although I had intended to address next the lower rear wing panel and reattach, I couldn’t help worrying about the small patch of rust that I could see, right at the front of the floorpan. It had only become visible one I had removed the inside sill and heater tube. Until I went properly looking in the area, I hadn’t seen the small patches under the floor. The rust didn’t look massive, but with the history of the bodges that I had found elsewhere, I decide to remove the small patches on the outer edge of the floor, both sides of the flange.

Well, it was a god job that I did. Once I had fully scraped away the underseal, the quality of the welds was not impressive, plus there were a few pop rivets along the flange. They may have just been used to hold things on place during welding, but then again ……..
This is what I was faced with, one I had removed the bodge patches.



So without the usual cut out rust, make patch, tack, weld, grind photos, let’s just cut to the money shots



While I was crawling around shining bright lights under and inside the inside sill, I also noticed a couple of thin patches where the sill cover bolts to in the middle. So, I tried puddle welding, messed it up, so did the job properly. After cutting, lah de dah de dah, we ended up with this


A quick coat of primer, a sweep up and I’m now ready to tackle the wing base.

[PeterK]

Well, it’s been a few days, but back on it again today, so time for a very quick update.
The OSR wing was a little crusty at the base, although less so than the NS.


So, before re-fitting, a little cutting out


... then beat a piece of flat sheet steel into a section of shapes, decide I can’t make all of the compound curves in one go, so cheat and make it in two parts (including the torsion bar hole section that I made two of when working on the NS), then weld in

… and


Along with a little bit of smoothing


After a little more grinding, smoothing and general tidying, I left it but ensured that the weld line was slightly low so that I can hide any residual weld marks with a thin skim of filler.

I punched holes in the outer flange of the B-post / striker panel and cleaned the edge of the (still attached) rear wing ready, all ready for imitation spot welding. I primed it all with weld through primer, so all ready to ‘stick’ the wing piece back on next time. I’ll then address the top of the wing adjacent to the Targa bar, and the main tub is hopefully done with the rust repair welding.

I still need to drill the three wiring holes in the OSF inner wing and I’ve bought a set of rear shock tower reinforcement brackets, although not sure why, but they’ll go on and then the tub itself is ready for stripping. I also need to address a couple of areas of the mounting flanges on both front wings, and the base of the fuel filler area, where the sprung ring holds the rubber in place. I’m planning to speak to Envirostrip at the NEC next month, but am hoping that they have a small queue, so that I can complete the wing repairs and take them as part of the stripping job.

[PeterK]

…. and there’s more already !

Snuck back into the garage again today. A couple of tack welds later


Some spot / puddle welds


with good penetration to the outside


Add some fill in welds between the tacks ….


Make a patch for the top while the metal cools


Chuck it in and complete the wing welding, add a touch of grinding


and a splash of primer


Got a little too much heat in the top section, but overall, not too shabby. Door shuts OK, but will be even better (gap wise) once I make a slight adjustment. Getting close to strippy strippy time now

[Gary71]

Looks good. Personally I’m not sure I’d get it dunked now, you’ve done all the hard work and dipping just cleans out all the box sections you’ve closed up.

Some form of blasting process maybe better if you don’t want to hand strip it.

[PeterK]

Thanks Gary
My logic of pyrolysis and dipping is just to ensure that all surface rust has been treated, and this process seems the least bad of the options out there.
It's not cheap and then of course all of the soundproofing has to be replaced, plus how do I ensure that the inside of any and all closed sections are fully treated (a modern waxyoil type product). I've been round the loop a few times and often come down on the 'just leave the inside and underside and strip the outside'. It's supposedly a keeper / daily driver, so I want to do the right thing.
Peter

[PeterK]

So back from a brief sojourn visiting my brother in Dubai. Hard life this getting up late, going to the beach, coming home then having to drink and eat chocolates, but rest assured, I took one for the team

So a quick couple of hours in the garage. The car is back on the rolling dolly now that there is no longer any need to keep the car level, a la Barry recommendations when working on the sills.

Then onto the rear shock tower re-enforcements. I know I don't need them, but I had them so I fitted them. Started by removing huge chunks of seam sealer and assorted body wax stuff. The original seam sealer put up a very impressive fight and certainly was effective - just clean, virginal clean metal underneath. Then having removed all the nearby paint, I welded in the triangle brackets to the inner wing and cross member area. The distructions said to fully weld all of the perimeter and the internal perimeter of the various circular holes. This latter part was not possible with my MIG - I just couldn't get it into the necessary positions. Nevermind - I'm not fitting coil overs, just strengthening and supporting the shock towers, and the bracket is certainly not going anywhere now.
I ground the welds smooth where the outer support bracket was going, welded that in, followed by the little bracket towards the centre of the car. And repeat for the other side. A splash of primer to keep it safe, and Bob's your mother's sister's live-in lover.

[PeterK]

Flapper valve studs next ! Instead of 6, I had 5 halves. Yestdrday’s Plan A was to use some of the barrel nuts intended to put nuts into wooden items, but that wasn’t going to work with the missing stud. I ground a hollow in the end of the stud, then progressively drilled it out until I could fit a 6mm Rivnut. Life was looking good, but then I realised that the Rivnut tool wouldn’t fit. I concoted a DIY tool from a bolt, couple of washers and some spacers, but the rivnut span more than tightened. Plan C, involved welding the Rivnut in place, and then just ‘cos I’d made it, I used my DIY tool as well.

I was quite impressed (easily done, obviously), so I cut off the 5 half studs and fitted Rivnets to all.


I was on a roll now, and got loads of little things crossed off my ToDo list. When I rebuilt the NSF inner wing, The patch replaced the three holes where the wiring & grommets go, so these were re-instated. On the OS, one of the three holes was no longer round where a patch just fitted up to it, so this was made round again.
Also on the NSF inner wing, there was a small hole that I had drilled to use as a location reference when replacing the bumper mounts. This was just next to where the petrol fume and washer pipes pass through the inner wing. Well, nearly – when my car had been patched previously, then washer pipe went into the inside inner wing but didn’t appear on the outer one. I cut out a patch to go looking – it had just been plated over. As I’m fitting a Boxster washer bottle behind the front wheel (as Jonny said previously – watch this space), I don’t actually need this pipe, so I removed it all and buttoned up the patch.

Two of the rear ARB mount bolts had sheared off, so I drilled the bolts out, then decided just to remove the three remaining nuts and use loose nuts instead.

The OS sill was not completely replaced, just the rear section. The decorative outer sill had just been crudely screwed into the sill, so I puddle filled and ground smooth the two holes in the sill.

Today I moved onto the froot lid and engine cover.
It appears that the froot lid had been lifted too high – both rear corners were bent upwards just at the very ends. Firstly I removed the froot light – nothing to do with addressing the bent bits, but it needed doing and so I did. Sorry that I didn't tidy up before I took the photos


I protected the outer face with a block of wood and used pipe pliers to gently tweak the bend back. It was a gently, gently, check and a bit more gently, gently, etc. I couldn't use a hammer and dolly, as it is double skinned here. Anyway, ended up with this


Well pleased by both sides. There is a very slight dent on the outer face, but that will need no more than the slightest skim of glazing putty. I don’t think that it is visible here, but I could feel it with my fingertips. The big and obvious mark is the limit of where I had wire-brushed the original paint off.



Then onto the engine lid. I needed to strip all the bits and bobs off ready for stripping and painting, plus I was changing from the existing spoiler (possibly a 3.0 version) and adding the whale tale (I’m such a tart).
Once I had removed the old spoiler it was clear that it was not original to the car. It was held on with coach bolts about 40mm too long, multiple screws and bolts. Most of the holes are not needed with the genuine Porsche whale tale and needed welding up. There was also a big bubble under the SC badge. I flap-disc’ed that off and found an almost perfect hole just below a mounting hole, rusted through.


Using a copper block beneath the panel, I puddle welded all of the holes up. Then on the outer surface, just above the latch, there was evidence of rust. Here, along with the two rear corners I was lucky. Having flap-disc’ed the paint away, there is very little pock-marking, so I just cleaned it all up, and used some rust converter just in case there is any rust in the pits.


On the underside of the lid, just by the latch area, there was a couple of small holes, so I decided to patch. Before…


After …


Forgot to take a photo before I primed it (ran out of spray primer, so just gobbed some weld through primer on to protect it until the car is stripped). The patch is really quite good, even if I say so myself – almost undetectable. Not sure how that happened

[Darren65]

Way to go Peter........next summer is going to be a blast!

[PeterK]

Thanks, Darren - I hope so




....although I've got an extra year to get ready for the next CLM

[jtparr]

Great to see so much progress Peter...

[911hillclimber]

There is a lot of DIY restos underway, from my little easy pass to your huge job!
Good to see so many making it happen in their garages.
You have faced a lot of challenges, love the way you write it up!

We will all have better cars for 2019.

[PeterK]

I'd ordered some 8mm and 10mm tube to replace the engine lid opening cable pipe and it arrived today, so off into the garage we went. Wasn't sure how to attach it at the B-post end (thanks for the comments on my question post) and while pondering under the rear wing, I found a loose pipe bracket.


Not being able to see where it may have come from, although it had clearly been spot welded on originally, I looked inside the rear wing for any signs. There was quite a lot of underseal up there, so I scraped some off. OMG – more rust !


Out with the wire brush in the grinder and it soon became


So out with the welder. A few puddle welds where the holes were small


But the rear most area was too much to contemplate puddle welding


So, out with the paper, tin snips and


Plus a touch of grinding


Some linishing and a splash of primer and all is well once again. Ended the day exactly where I thought I was starting the day, but at least I found the rust before stripping.

This kind of hidden ‘opportunity’ is why I want the shell stripped. I’d hate to have gone to all of this trouble but missed a small patch of rust that showed itself once I’d repainted.

[PeterK]

…. and then it was time for the front wings and time for another little update …..
Starting with the offside, we had this


and this


at the base of the wing, just ahead of the door, and then in the mounting area there was




So, starting with the mounting flange. First I made a paper template, cut a patch and bent over the flange


Then weldy, weldy, grindy, grindy and voila


It will need a touch of filler on the top of the wing

Although I did a spot more linishing and made it closer (‘onest guv’)

Then splish, splash



On the lower part of the wing, I started by cutting out the rusty outer part


Followed by the rusty support part (forgot to take a photo here), which was replaced


before patching the outer side




Then onto the near side, we had




This looks the much better side, until you look inside and see



This is not good, so I removed the paint, found loads of filler, so removed that too, and ended up finding another bodge repair



So, out with the cutting disc and off with the end.



Form a quick support section (yes I know it’s wrong – I had to add a bit extra later)



And make an outer bit (before is on the right, just in case you can’t spot the difference )


About this time I spotted another bodged patch on the inside. Clearing the underseal showed


And removing the paint and filler from the outside showed that it was a bodge to hide the indicator hole on this replacement wing. A quick check on the other wing – no indicator there.


Lots of careful grinding, and the bodge patch was removed and the weld cleaned up


I cut out a 25mm diameter disc, welded it in, welded up the hole in the disc’s middle and the indicator bolt hole, and cleaned it all up



Then onto the lower edge, welding in a repair section to the strengthening rib


Unfortunately, while doing the lower edge I found more rust in the strengthing / mounting rib. So, first cut out the rust


and the hole go away


Then I fitted the outer skin repair patch


and hammered over the flange, and splashed it all over with primer



Onto the top / mounting edge, where a liberal attack with the wire brush in the angle grinder showed a little more rust than originally obvious

While repairing this I noticed what had looked like a underseal on the inside of the panel next to the filler flap was actually a metal plate that didn’t appear to be welded on, but wouldn’t move. Exploring on the outside required the usual removing paint, filler and fiberglass


This finally revealed that the patch I couldn’t move was actually welded from the outside, around the rusty edge of the hole. Lots of cutting, grinding and swearing later


…. followed by patch making and welding


I placed a few spot welds, then went back to the mounting edge, with a little patch making and welding


I kept returning to the patch near the filler flap, welding a bit, then moving away to other things to try to reduce heat build up and warping, and finally ended up with


Having a good look around, I found another area that was past its prime, so cut that out and patched


And the mounting flange was patched

A splash of primer




And we’ll call that done for now.

A quick play with door gaps resulted in OS (sorry, should have taken the photo before I splashed primer all over the door edge)



And the previous nearside




Yesterday at the NEC I booked the SC in for stripping with Envirostrip. That’s mid-December, so I have got a few days to find other things to play with. I fancy refitting the front wings to fix the door to front wing gaps, but as I didn’t think that I’d have time, I removed all of the fasteners. Never mind, I can just bolt the wings on for now and play. I also need to weld the 3 lugs on each sill for the lower mounting bolts of the cover sills and drill the holes for the upper mountings (which I thought were bodge holes on the OS sill and welded up ). Might go all posh and fit rivnuts here.

Looking forward to actually making forward progress. Yes, I know that repairing rust is progress, but starting to refurb and bolt things back on will really look and feel like progress, although I've still got to pull the engine apart. I've no idea what I'll find there, but that's another day.