Project 73 911 R/RS -- Week 8

[Shaun @ Tru6]

What a week! I wish I had taken better "process/stage" shots to describe how the body went on, but it was one of those things where you start work on a fender, lose yourself in the process and 3 hours later it almost hangs on the body properly bringing great joy.

Last week it was all about brakes with ongoing cage work:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/163312-project-73-911-r-rs-week-7-part-1-a.html#post1316571

This week was continuing bodywork. Pieces included:
2 new/used carbon GT-Racing 911R front fenders (picked up on this board 2 years ago)
Rennspeed standard hinge glass hood (wish I had gotten a LWT pinned hood),
Renspeed glass rear quarters
GT-Racing carbon ducktail off the 84

As a body novice, I learned a very important lesson, and that is if something is not going on evenly/easily, there is bound to be more than one reason why. We all know that aftermarket plastic body panels don't just pop on and fit perfectly. Well, the GT-Racing fenders did require some effort, but was amazed at how well they fit with very little prep. These spoiled me for the hood install.

When installing plastic fenders, I found that grinding the very bottom of the fender where it meets the rocker is a good first step, then aligning the top two bolts near the windshield. Getting those mounted first, then getting the very front corner mounted allowed the whole fender to just settled into place.


The hood was a different story. Less so that it is a large expanse of plastic that will naturally shrink and warp slightly coming off the mold and more that I just wasn't getting why it sat too high on the car, coming back to it after a day solved my problem. I could either grind the edge of the hood down where it met the metal body rails or grind the rails down. I went with the body and with just a little bit of work, the hood fits very well now.

Lesson: come back to something instead of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The tough part will be to match the front curvature of the hood with the fender corners... they are quite different.

The rear quarters were a mixed bag. The left side fit as well as the front fenders. The right side is off by at least a quarter inch and will require sanding the rear trailing edge down to meet the duck tail.

Some pics:
Prepping the inside of the glass quarter is very important. There are several radii which should be angles to mate up with sheetmetal. There are also bumps, multiple thicknesses and waves in the glass which must be sanded and smoothed out.

The rear edge meeting the engine bay sheetmetal required a lot of work. Using a Dremel tool and cutting head at 0 degree and 90 degree angles, I cut a right angle into the glass.


I next clamped the piece in place, using the engine tray, wheel centered in arch and torsion bar hole to align. With that I drilled my first hole and set it with a sheet metal screw.



I then moved the clamp around finished with more sheet metail screws. The finished product will have round-head hex bolts like 934 bolts holding on the quarter, deciding that Dzus fasteners would be too much work and with bolts, it will take 5 minutes to pull a quarter. Note the gap in the front edge. I saw a beautiful purple RS clone at a DE event with this type of edge and it looked good. Since I am putting Al doors on the car which will need a fresh skin, I plan on cutting that skin to overlap the body and meet the quarter step.


The finish work on the quarters will included cutting along the tape line and finish sanding all body-mating lines.

A pic of the back. Note that for truly proper alignment, the ducktail was taped in place. Left side match perfectly. Right side is quarter inch too long.


The front: still needs a lot of work, but the lines are coming together.


Right side: can't wait to fit the doors

[dotorg]

Looks good Shaun!

[Chuck Moreland]

Looks good. What's up with the front air ducts? They look small, is it a "cut your own".

[TRE Cup]

those are R fenders on the front of that car. looks like you are having fun

[}{arlequin]

are the fronts carbon fiber? Looks amazing already. Do you have a pic of those "overlapping doors" on a car?

edit: never mind on the CF question

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally posted by }{arlequin
are the fronts carbon fiber? Looks amazing already. Do you have a pic of those "overlapping doors" on a car?

edit: never mind on the CF question

No pics yet. Here's the scoop. I picked up some "homemade RSR" aluminum doors a bit ago in the classifieds here at Pelican. They are incredibly light, and even look OK sitting on the floor next to the car, but putting them in the door frame makes ANY plastic door seem like a perfect fit. I could either ebay them or reskin them. IF I can get them to fit within the frame (gap not important) without too much trouble, I can then bond on a sheet of aircraft Al that will be a "perfect" fit in terms of gap. This will also allow me to overlap the skin over the body and line up flush with the fiberglass quarter.

I've got a good source on Lexan sheet ($40 for a 3x4 sheet) so I will make some pop in/out windows for them.

[garner2002]

Good luck Shaun.

Here is a 72 resto.
My body shop is slow.
5 weeks now and 6-8 to go.

http://www.biggyg.com/911_Restoration_Home_Page.htm