I “bridged” a couple pieces of metal so I could locate the front latch panel in roughly the right place. I needed to secure it so I could take precise measurements to box in the front end. It’s pretty close now but not perfect yet.

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And here's the video:

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Today I fabricated some new hood gasket channels from flat steel. I’m not really a fabricator, so I’m happy how they turned out.

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Michael,

Impressed with your resolve in tackling these massively challenging projects. It's coming together nicely! Can't wait to see the subie in there with turbos! And did you have a video on the trans choice? Did you say it was a g60? Wth is a g60? is that watercooled stuff? ;-)

I think it was video 2? I forget. It's a G96, from a 2002 996.

Getting a *bit* better at finishing welds. Lots of hammer and dolly work.

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You need to wear a cowboy hat to complete the Garth Brooks look.

Still following...........

Try taking a look at TIG Welding, much cleaner.
Also some old school guys use a gas torch for a softer weld that can be as you say dollied.

Yea, I'll get there someday. For now I have to work with what I've got.

I am THRILLED with how this turned out.
 

Full stop...this front latch panel was the most complicated, challenging thing I've ever had to do on a car. The fact that I had zero reference points, and had to position this thing in "3D Space" was really a toughie.

So, I'm over the MOON with how it turned out.

For reference...this is what I started with:

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As you can see, there's literally nothing there.

And, after probably a hundred measurements, fenders on and off 50 times, shaving, welding, grinding....

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It looks killer...and if you follow my @_rennch_ instagram story, you'll see how perfectly the hood closes. I'm very proud.

I have one more day of fabricating to box everything in, and shooting...so stay tuned for that video. All three of you paying attention to this build, lol.

Are your air ducts going to actually duct any air tho? I reworked my front latch panel/chassis similar to yours to cool my radiators, but I plan on using an RSR front bumper with the large oil cooler opening.

I don’t see why it wouldn’t. There will be a huge gaping hole in the bumper...


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This steel bumper is just mockup.


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The welding is the easy part! All of the alignment, grinding, trimming, measuring, etc is the real work. Looks good. Big step forward in the project.

It was a real mind EF. I spent days "zoning out" with my friends and they were wondering what I was thinking about. So, it was a huge load off my shoulders.

Makes me think of this old comic:


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That was exactly me.

Subscribed!

I had a VERY special guest introduce this most recent episode:

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Hey Michael,

What is the back story on the special guest. How did you meet him, how did you get him to do the intro, any more info?

BTW loved the video great work.

Rodney

Thanks Rodney! I wish it would latch on here a bit more, but I'm treating it as my own personal log of the build since very few people seem to be interested.

I met Mike Brewer a couple years ago at the Phoenix Club during the LA Lit Show week, which is REALLY fun for Porsche fans in SoCal. Almost EVERY shop you've ever heard of does an open house, and there's really cool events from Monday through Sunday all week. Tons of drives, swaps, and shop tours.

On Sunday, there's a parts swap meet at a German-themed restaurant called "The Phoenix Club" that everyone shows up to. I was getting something out of my car and he came up and said "That's YOURS???" and we talked about it for a few minutes. Later, I interviewed him on my Solopreneur Hour Podcast and we got to know each other a bit.

We've stayed in touch, and I wanted to show him my new space in Long Beach, so he stopped by, we drank whiskey and listened to my KEF LS50 speakers for 3 hours and talked music and told stories, then on the way out the door I asked if he'd do the intro. Thankfully, he wasn't TOO buzzed at the time, lol.

Mike is a REAL car nut, and takes a WORLD of $h!t from people online (some would say bullying...right down to rape and death threats against his wife and daughter) but without him there'd be no Wheeler Dealers (it's his show) and not as much great automotive content out there. He is a REALLY sweet guy, so it's a shame. But I think he's cool AF, and I'm glad to call him a friend.

Great to see Mike Brewer intro the latest video.

That said does YouTube offer settings for your ad break intervals? They seem a bit aggressive and frequent. You should definitely be getting ad revenue from the great content you are providing but if there are options maybe play around with the settings and try to find the sweet spot.

Could it just be YouTube is experiencing a ton of political related ad buys and are dumping extra ads in all the monetized accounts more frequently than before???

I’ll look at it. I think it’s up to me.


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Thanks btw. Are you an audiophile type?


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Hi Michael,

Thanks for the backstory. He seems like a nice guy and it totally sucks how people talk trash about him without knowing him. I would 100% bet that he is just like you described all of the time. I have not watched all of his shows, but he must be very talented to come up with wheeler dealers and get it made, that is no small feat. Look how hard you work on what you are doing.

I look forward to watching your videos every week as I'm doing my own build and a lot of your content is relevant to what I'm working on. i.e. I'm about to start on replacing the rear cross member/rear latch panel, I watched your video on that about 100 times. Keep up the good work.

Thanks,

Rodney

Don't think I would qualify as an audiophile.

Feel free to use me as a resource Rodney! And if you use restoration design, tell them you came from my videos! :-)


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4 now.

Cheers.

Well if you're talking to Mike again, I think his work is great and wish him all the best in his success. Taking a poky little british TV show, building it up and re-establishing it in socal to a bigger audience is no simple feat.

As for yours, when you were measuring the distance from the bolt hole to the front I was saying 'the diagram showed a horizontal measurement, not along the line of the body!' A whole lot of Pythagorus looked like it was about to bite you. But you seemed to have sorted it out, so well done. Maybe time to invest in a bender for more fab work?

Reading my mind!

This. Keep up the updates :) We are here, and we are interested.

This is from one of the greatest books ever drawn/written. “How to keep your Volkswagen Alive.” Worth getting a copy just for the art alone, but this is the book MacGyver read before he got a his own show. John Muir makes air cooled mechanical work fun and sorta easy. Not unlike the OP, he was faced with challenges and figured them out without a car dealership involved.

You know, if my geometry teacher told me the pythagorean theorem would help me restore a vintage porsche 1 day, I would have paid more attention. :)

Welcome...between us,we have a basketball team with no subs.

You’ve got almost 12K views so far. In the Pelican world that is quite a fair number of eyeballs.

Michael,
Your concerns about who all is paying attention to the build thread are likely unfounded.
I've noticed that the threads where no questions are posed by the OP often don't get a lot of feedback...until they do something really dumb or really awesome. (often the same coin from different sides)
I'm certain there are many subscribers, but if you're blazing your own trail (which it sure looks like you are) there may be little for others to offer and they will then simply watch/lurk without comment.

Your videos are really good. Try bringing some of that personality to the thread and your engagement will go up.

I was really worried you were going to slap an EJ in there and call it good. I'm glad you're going with the 3L. And I'm super curious to see how you'll overcome packaging constraints with your planned twins. You have a lot of real estate, but it goes really fast once you start putting things in there.

I'm also curious to see what kind of angles you're going to get on the axles when you finally settle on the position of the engine/trans.

Keep it up. Super cool build.

Ngl, when you said one option was Japanese, my mind went to a flat six Honda Valkyrie/Goldwing engine. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/dom.gif

Like I said...I'm not THAT worried about it. I just want a build thread where I can document this whole thing. So much custom fabrication and stuff I've never done before. It's a fun process.

:)

Today I fabbed up a custom engine cradle so I could jack it up under the car and keep it completely level. I also built a crossbar that I will weld "ears" onto to mount the G96 transmission as soon as I figure out it's final location. I need to solve the axle situation first. They are 460mm flange to flange, and I'm not sure if I need to make custom axles or there's something out there for a Boxster, Cayman or 996 that will bolt right on.

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And here, of course, is the video:

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