How long did it take to do your first "home" rebuild?

[efhughes3]

The thought came up in another thread about what an average home rebuild timeframe is. How long did your first one take?

How long after the first one is under your belt? Post that info in your reply.

I'm coming up on 3 months, and all I've gotten done is disassembly, and sending parts off to machine shop. The shop is busy, and I've not gotten anything back yet. I guess that's a good indication of how popular they are.

My "guess" is I'll have 6-8 months in it if all goes well.

[Jeff Alton]

He he he..... my first one took 3 weeks for a complete. Next one was 6 weeks, since then I have been all over the map.......

It sounds like you are stuck with waiting for the machine shop. This is the problem. I now have a spare set of 3.2 heads rebuilt and a spare set of rods resized and rockers as well. My plan is to eventually have a spare rebuilt 3.2 in stock. Most of my rebuilds are 3.2's, so the ability to "exchange" makes a quick turnaround for a customer.

That said, add up the hours you have into it already, and then keep adding once you get your parts back. That way you will have an idea how long it takes YOU to do your end of the work.....

Now my latest 3.4 (For my own car) has not run in 20 months, it has been together for 8 months, but that is a little different......

For the typical home rebuilder of one motor, it actutally makes sense to buy up spares if time is a concern. Lets say you buy a spare set of core heads.... send them off to get rebuilt and then sell yours as "cores" when you pull them off. Same with rods and rockers and cams. In the end you may make a few buck, or loose a few bucks, but your down time is reduced.

Now, none of this you can plan for if you miss a shift having the time of your life with a famous P-Car racer in the passenger seat at the track.....

Cheers

[efhughes3]

Yep, there lies the problem. I started to put a list of stuff together for acquisition a couple of years ago when I thought I wanted to eventually built the ultimate motor.....then I thought mine would last forever. Who ever misses a shift?

[euro911sc]

Mine is running over 12 months since I pulled it all apart. Pulling it apart is easy I had to pull it apart to see what was wrong and what I needed to order for parts. I think a repair is different than an upgrade. At least in your ability to predict what parts you need.

For me, the length was a function of my traveling a lot and having little time to work in the garage... now I'm not traveling and my wife is complaining about how I'm 'traveling' to the garage

I think the hard part is not the time getting it together, its the total disorganization on what to do with all the parts as a first time builder. Constantly posting on the board about what to do about X or Y then sending it out somewhere and waiting for it to come back... this stuff adds weeks to your time. My next motor will be much shorter in time for sure given all the new knowledge I have about where locally to get stuff done faster. Its been an education

Best regards,

Michael

[efhughes3]

Originally posted by euro911sc
I think the hard part is not the time getting it together, its the total disorganization on what to do with all the parts as a first time builder. Constantly posting on the board about what to do about X or Y then sending it out somewhere and waiting for it to come back... this stuff adds weeks to your time. My next motor will be much shorter in time for sure given all the new knowledge I have about where locally to get stuff done faster. Its been an education

That was/is the whole point of this. If all of the parts were assembled clean in one spot, and you had time to devote, you could get a build done in a matter of days, I'm sure. The fact is, with work, depending on outside sources for sub-contracted work, "hurdles/stumbling blocks", parts backorders, parts discovered needed at the last minute, etc, this can become a many month type of ordeal.

[911pcars]

You're not going to believe this, but my 911 was out of service a total of 16 years. Timing jumped a tooth in '82 and bent some valves. In the meantime, got married, purchased house(s), popped 3 kids. In '88 got earnest and averaged 1 fastener a week for the next 10 and got it running in time for a road trip to Laguna for Porsche's 50th celebration.

Short history here: http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars/Repaint.htm

Currently:


Sherwood

[JeremyD]

Don't worry Ed = you will get there - I was a little over 3 months - and basically suffered the same as you -

You kind of want the shops that are busy - I was always a little suspect of the ones that did notr have some sort of waiting time -

[kirkf]

Mine took about a year to get back together. Most of that time is spent waiting for parts, machining and powder coating.

Kirk

[ischmitz]

I wanted/needed to get mine done and I had a lot of expert help. Since it wasn't a full case split it was around 3 month and the machine shop time was the killer. I drove up to Walt@CE at least three times to expedite the process (and out of couriosity).