Costa Mesa, CA 911 Metal Shop (Celettes/Dedicated Fixtures), looking for clients...

[David Liam]

I recently moved to Southern California and I am hoping to re-open my 911 Metal Shop. I had one on the east coast near Lime Rock Park for about ten years. I feel I can serve clients best independently and dealing directly with clients rather than working somewhere or being a subcontractor for another business.

I am looking for clients out here to give me a reason to go all out again. I have experience doing pretty much every type of repair to a 911. I have Celette benches with dedicated fixtures and pulling equipment. 5-10 years ago I was posting on here and got some of my best clients, then I stopped marketing for a while.

My website has a bunch of photos, www.rungeeleven.com

It's best to get in touch with me through email with photos, david@rungeeleven.com.

I also offer pre-puchase inspections if anyone wants another opinion on a car for sale out here.

I have never been surrounded by so many Porsches, Porsche Shops, Porsche weather and Porsche people, it's awesome!

[Cairo94507]

Welcome to crazy CA David. I am sure you will be busy given all of the P-cars we have here.

[tk32]

+1 for David, an unsolicited review: I may have been his last East coast client Get in line now he is the next generation for p-car factory style metal repair and all the tricks. Knows the details of how the cars go together, has great customer communication, and works with your expectations. Do you want a solid rust-free driver? Do you want concourse chassis restoration? You got it. Done once and done right so you'll never have to go there again. Engage with confidence.

Some* of the work he did on my car:

- Disassembly: I brought David a fairly stripped roller
- pulled and straightened, front and rear on a Cellette with all the proper fixtures. THIS is the most important part, It would have been very hard to tell how out of true this (and probably most ) cars are no-a-days without a proper bench and equipment to do this right. If the old work was cut out and replaced without a bench, it would have gone in just as crooked ... only probably after a failed wheel alignment and/or impossible panel gaps would I have found this out... and its a long way backwards from there
- re-backdate front and rear crash panels (long hood had been subject to short hood syndrome)
- rust repair in the rockers an behind door hinges
- giant aftermarket A/C duct hole repair in the bulkhead
- rear parcel shelf
- rework rear quarters with NOS panels
- rear seat pan patching
- all the while preserving as much factory metal and detailing as possible, NOS parts where appropriate, aftermarket metal where it made sense and where quality is now higher than OEM
- initial gapping and panel fitting
- Used his connections and trusted sources in the industry for: media blasting, dipping, and final metal and paint

Good luck! Hope to see you on the West coast at some point before too long with a running, driving, pulled, straightened, patched, and expertly welded back together 911. Its now in my court to put Humpty Dumpty back together again

[David Liam]

Wow, thanks! That makes it all worth it, because its not easy! I had to text him to thank him! I wasn't sure where this post would go, this is great.

A mentor once told me "every car is different." This was a unique project with a unique vision. It started out as a sort of just try to fix the front and rear and it evolved from there... It eventually got media blasted, panels dipped. He said I could share some photos, so I will.

[David Liam]

Keith got after it with a wire wheel for the initial cleaning. Keith worked with me on and off since 2017.

He welded M1 Abrams tanks for the military, then he welded support brackets that held nuclear rods for the nuclear power industry. He had an incredible amount of knowledge and experience, but he was always down to dig in and wire wheel/scrape.

I learned an incredible amount from him about welding overall, treating it like pipe welding or something more serious where the penetration should be even and complete and as "perfect" as possible. It doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside if there isn't full and even penetration.

[David Liam]

I use all different brands and kinds of parts. I often cut little chunks out of donor cars too. I found the quarter panels at the Porsche Carlisle Swap meet, that was a sweet find for this project.

[David Liam]

I inherited a bit of a mess with this one, but it was solid overall, just tweaked and lower quality repair attempts.

[David Liam]

I love these original fixtures from maybe the early 70s, late 60s. I think they're better than the MZ towers and cross members, fewer bolts, pins and just less clutter overall. I also never liked the tolerance of the MZ tower system. MZ system is still very good, I have used it on later model cars, it's just a preference I have.

I find the tolerances built into the original fixtures match the tolerances the car was built with or something, I can't quite put it into words, but I like them better. They were built the same time the cars were built, so there has to be something to that.

The "wheelbase" dimension tolerance in the factory manual is +/- 2mm. that's a lot and it has to be considered when mounting a 911. Every car is a little different, two cars could be 4mm different. You have to keep this is mind when pulling, the chassis will sometimes tell you when it's back to where it wants to be, so you fuss with the tolerances in the bench and get the chassis to feel right. People tend to think using a Celette doesn't take any skill, but there is more to it than it seems.

By tolerancing in this situation I mean the holes the bolts go through have some wiggle room.

I usually mount just the torsion area first and put the slugs in the torsion tube and all of the bolts, but leave the bolts loose and then pick the car up in the front like a sheet on a bed or something and shimmy the car around to feel how it's fitting in the fixures. This way I know how the car is fitting there for when I pull the front. I'll tighten the chassis down in the middle of the shimmy room. As opposed to pushing the car all of the way back or all the way forward. You are always playing with millimeters and tolerances just a little bit.

[David Liam]

A bit of overkill, but this shows the damage. The car was previously pulled, probably a drive on system that corrected most of the initial damage. They over pulled in some cases, so the fitment on the strut towers was wacky. When its bolted in you can see it's about 6-7 mm pushed back and up a bit.

[David Liam]

I got new dozer after this car, but this old dinosaur did the job for a long time. It takes a lot of patience and playing with angles. One chain location on the dozer can change everything and put the location in exactly the right spot. The height is often the most difficult part of a pull like that.

[David Liam]

When the pull is under tension, I bump out dents and wrinkles, stud pull out some dents and get the metal where it needs to be while the chassis is under tension. If you don't do that you just end up yanking it back and forth, back and forth, its all about getting the metal back to where it wants to be. I often hear people think they "cut out" the collision damage. It ripples through the entire chassis and has to be bumped out under tension or else it will always be there. The entire inner fender and VIN panel was wrinkled, but it bumped out easily. The section where the undercoating is removed it was kinked in, so I stud pulled it (you don't have access from the back to bump it out).

It can get a little sketchy when the dozer starts to creak and flex and you can hear hyraulic pump start to dig in.

[David Liam]

There was a huge wrinkle right near the VIN, so much so it flaked the paint off. There are often wrinkles all throughout that area. When under tension, they can be bumped out. Without pulling and tension, wrinkles will stay.

[David Liam]

Here is my new dozer (different car), I felt like I won the lottery when I got, it is so strong and adjusts/angles easily. It's from a more modern system and is way way easier and faster. The hydraulic pump is super fast and the feel is better.

[David Liam]

The rear was a mess, one side was 1 cm different in height, it had been pulled previously, the left rear inner fender was severely tweaked and kinked. My guess is the rear was over 3-4 inches to the right after the collision, then it was over pulled to the left which kinked the left rear inner fender even more.

[David Liam]

It was a tricky pull to get the rear fixed, it had a torsional twist on the left side and the location was way off. The left rear inner fender and inner longitudinal were tweaked, they needed to be stud pulled and bumped around.

[David Liam]

I have/had a little Porsche junkyard on the Runge Hill in upstate New York for little sections. It was such a time saver and it's always nice how well original sections fit.

It came out well, still needed a little metal finishing, but that's the rear repair 99% complete.

[David Liam]

The front end repairs turn out much better with this jig I made. It forces everything to be in the exact right location. It is difficult to do without it, I have done it that way many times before this jig, but I got tired of mocking up the hood and fenders to fit everything. It holds the latch panel in the correct location which gives me confidence that the hood will latch better in the end, that angle and location is crucial. The jig also holds the distance between the two front inner fenders. This distance can be fine tuned at the end depending on actual panel fitment, but this jig ensures the gaps will be about 4mm between the hood and fender.

The Celette is really the key to this repair, it holds everything in place, the jig is a bonus.

[David Liam]

Rocker area repair. We talked quite a bit about this project, we decided it would be cool to save the original rockers and since I can easily splice things in pretty much seamlessly, it was technically less expensive. In the end this 911 had its original rockers and quarter panels, so that's kind of cool.

[David Liam]

It got to a point where it just needed to be blasted... I love dipping, but the 8 month wait and transport didn't make sense. This car was also relatively rust free, it was "Zeibarted" at some point, much of the inner channels were oily and not crusty, so media blasting was fine.

American Dry Stripping in Milford, CT is the best media blaster I could find in the northeast. They were so good!

I stripped a lot of it, but it never looks good, media blasting makes everything super pretty.

[David Liam]

It came back super clean and I had never seen my repairs after media blasting, it was really cool how they basically disappeared. Most of my work gets covered in undercoating, but I like it super crisp anyway. It's like the internals of the engine to me, you can't see it, but it feels great knowing your 911 is crisp and clean. It improves the value of the car too, its worth it.

I also find I cost about the same as most shops, so its not necessarily extra. I hear so often of some other random shop quoting "$25,000" for a major job, then it becomes $10,000 more, $10,000 more, $10,000 more... and then after all of that, the welds were barely touched with a 4.5" flap wheel and protrude from the undercoating. You really have to be careful out there. Lots of good shops, but also lots of not good at all shops.

Also, I show potential clients my portfolio, it's on my website, that's exactly what I can do and exactly what to expect.