All shiny, Finally time for reassembly

[76FJ55]

Finally have the car back from the painter and ready to start reassembly. the car before was in reasonably good shape over all, but had it's issues. One of the POs had drilled a hole in the drivers rear fender for a cell antenna back in the day when that was a popular thing to do. The rear deck lid was wavy from someone with a heavy hand trying to get it to latch when all it needed was tiny bit of lube on the latch mech. There was also an area where someone had done some poor paint around the fuel filler door where the color match was off and they apparently didn't do much prep work and it had flaked off to show the original white below in spots. The final motivator however was ten I hit an eight point buck this past November at the Porsche-Palooza event (84 coupe vs 8 point buck).

As sacrilegious as it may be to some, my wife was never very enthusiastic about the Grand Prix White, so since we were going to end up with a full repaint by the time we were done, we took the opportunity to do a slight color change, so we did some research and settled on L947 Perlmuttweiss Mica.

So here it is back home in the garage waiting for me to start putting it all back together.



I'll try to add a few more picks as I go along.

[jakz]

nice color! any other changes in the rebuild?

[76FJ55]

Got the rear bumper assembly mounted up. While I had it off I had the holes for the bumperettes welded up. I like the cleaner look without them, but wanted to retain the black stripe on the bumper as I think it flows well with the side molding and the front bumper's black center.

to retain the inboard end of the stripe i drilled an additional hole in the bumper inboard of where the bumper mounts attach. the lower edge of the bumper mounting washers is conveniently the center-line of the black strip. i laid a straight edge along the bottom of the washers and marked precisely 3-1/8 " from the existing mounting hole and marked the bumper. the distance aligns with the dimple on the back of the black strip, so I used it as the location to drill and tap the strip. the strip actually has a steel reinforcing plate inside, so I threaded it for a 4x0.7 mm screw. the additional screw nicely secures the inboard end tightly to the bumper.

[76FJ55]

Finished the recover on the sunroof panel. Now to remember how the sunroof goes back together.

[Rodney Nelson]

That's awesome. Are the seats in the same material? Paint looks great too!

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by 76FJ55

So here it is back home in the garage waiting for me to start putting it all back together.

I'm jealous! Reassembly is the fun part for me. I've been through it 3 times in the past 3 years.

2018:



2019:



2020:

[76FJ55]

Originally Posted by Rodney Nelson

That's awesome. Are the seats in the same material? Paint looks great too!

Yes, I had Classid 9 make me front seat covers and door panels in the brown/tan Pasha. I did the seats and door panels about a year ago, but figured while i had the sunroof out for paint it would be a good time to do it as well since the original sunroof panel was sagging anyway.

[76FJ55]

[QUOTE=Arne2;10905435]I'm jealous! Reassembly is the fun part for me. I've been through it 3 times in the past 3 years.

Those are some nice projects. I do miss my old Landcruiser.

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by 76FJ55

Those are some nice projects. I do miss my old Landcruiser.

They are good rigs. The one I did was a '64 factory soft top with factory PTO winch. Fun stuff.

[famoroso]

Originally Posted by 76FJ55

Got the rear bumper assembly mounted up. While I had it off I had the holes for the bumperettes welded up. I like the cleaner look without them, but wanted to retain the black stripe on the bumper as I think it flows well with the side molding and the front bumper's black center.

to retain the inboard end of the stripe i drilled an additional hole in the bumper inboard of where the bumper mounts attach. the lower edge of the bumper mounting washers is conveniently the center-line of the black strip. i laid a straight edge along the bottom of the washers and marked precisely 3-1/8 " from the existing mounting hole and marked the bumper. the distance aligns with the dimple on the back of the black strip, so I used it as the location to drill and tap the strip. the strip actually has a steel reinforcing plate inside, so I threaded it for a 4x0.7 mm screw. the additional screw nicely secures the inboard end tightly to the bumper.

I'm going through this real time. Thanks for the info!

My spare bumper is at the shop right now having the six bumperette holes filled and the unit painted and I've been playing with ideas on how to add a third mounting point to the strips.

[famoroso]

What size hole did you drill in the bumper? What length M4x0.7 fastener did you use?

[madcorgi]

Car looks nice!

I'm considering doing my door panels to match the seats, just like you did, only in houndstooth. And I never even thought of doing the sunroof panel the way you did. That's very cool.




I spent a lot of time debating the rear bumper pieces that you left on yours. Finally decided to take everything off, and welded up all the holes Then, the project took off from there, and I brought the bumper in an inch, then made new metal trim to replace the rubber impact bellows. Then went with a center exhaust and stainless insert in place of the reflector panel, new rubber gaskets, etc.

Before: There's really an amazing amount of heavy and, IMO, ugly rubber they hung on the car.



Stainless etched PORSCHE panel:


Finished rear treatment

[76FJ55]

Originally Posted by famoroso

What size hole did you drill in the bumper? What length M4x0.7 fastener did you use?

I drilled a 6 mm hoe in the bumper, so that there would be a little bit of clearance if i didn't get the holes perfectly aligned.

on th e length, i'd just have to guess, since i just rummaged through my spare hardware drawer until i found some that would work, but i'd say about 10mm.

[76FJ55]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

Car looks nice!

I'm considering doing my door panels to match the seats, just like you did, only in houndstooth. And I never even thought of doing the sunroof panel the way you did. That's very cool.




I spent a lot of time debating the rear bumper pieces that you left on yours. Finally decided to take everything off, and welded up all the holes Then, the project took off from there, and I brought the bumper in an inch, then made new metal trim to replace the rubber impact bellows. Then went with a center exhaust and stainless insert in place of the reflector panel, new rubber gaskets, etc.

Before: There's really an amazing amount of heavy and, IMO, ugly rubber they hung on the car.



Stainless etched PORSCHE panel:


Finished rear treatment

Your car looks great. I contemplated eliminating the entire black stripe off the rear bumper, but since I was retaining the side rocker molding and the black strip in the front bumper I decided to retain the black strips on the ends of the rear to keep the look continuous.

On the front i had the headlight washer holes filled, since I didn't think i'd really ever have a need for those. i also eliminated the fender power antenna and installed the later windshield with the antenna built into it. So nothing very radical, just a few minor changes to clean things up a bit.

[famoroso]

FWIW, top strip in picture is from a 1983. Additional fastener position is marked with green / red paint.

Bottom strip, from a 1987, is different.