My Ruf SCR project

[Mikael]

Two months ago my car looked like this:


Now it looks like this:

[Matt_C]

I'm doing the same thing right now. It's amazing what you find when you start undressing your baby!

[v9ff]

Do you have a picture of your goal?

[Yellowbird RS]

yes, What is your goal?

[Oh Haha]

Holy Crap!
Hey, what size tires do you run on the front?

[Az911]

The best part is you found out the true condition of the car

[Glasgow 911SC]

Is that a hole in the front inner-wing (fender)?



How'd you go about fixing that with the bumper bracket support in the way?

[Mikael]

Yep, that's a hole in the inner front wing:



I am not going to the bodywork myself, so I'll leave the hole for the body shop

My front tires are Goodyear Eagle F1 215/45-17 on 8X17 Ruf Speedlines.

I'll stick to the 964-look, as I love the "clean look". I will replace the front wings, replace the rear wings (with 964), the panels and the engine lid (with 964 lid).

I've bought a new Techart biplane wing (which will replace the old Turbo spoiler), DP Motorsport mirrors, Weltmeister airbox cover, RS carpet kit, RS door panels, new steering wheel and a lot of other good stuff.

The car will be black with black wheel centers and polished lips...

[autoxracer31]

what side valences and rear bumper were you using before you did all this? That rear bumper looks really sleek

[Ed Bighi]

Was that what you found under the undercoating, or was it already removed? I ask because the stuff Porsche puts on is so thick that sometimes it has enough structural integrity to hide some serious cancer underneath. Especially around the back of the door striker plate where the undercoating is piled up so thick that you will only know when the rust pops up on the top. Yeah, I've been there. Lucky for me, it was only under the c-pillar on the driver's side. The undercoating looked perfectly good, but low and behold, the underside looked much worse. Factory undercoating loves to trap moisture that gets into the blemishes or cracks. I no longer like the stuff. I removed it, painted it with epoxy primer, and later the same color as the exterior. I'd rather touch up chipped paint instead of trying to guess what's under the PVC. No undercoating for me.

Uha rusten i dørpanelet er typisk. All I can say is good luck, been there done that

It's a long dark road, ask me how I know Porsches DO rust, at least if you live in Northern Europe.

[Ed Bighi]

You don't need to live in Northern Europe to see the stuff that never sleeps. Try "sunny" Florida. Chances are that a "sunshine state" 911 has spent some time at the beach, inside the garage of some saltfront home, seen 80% or higher humidity just about every day of it's life, or at some time or another was driven through two-foot deep water.

[Mikael]

The bumpers and side valances are from the German Porsche tuner Folger. Here you have a picture of the front bumper:


What you see on the pictures, is what I found after removing the thick undercoating. Before I removed it, it was almost impossible to see how much rust was trapped underneath....I haven't decided yet whether I wan't undercoating or not after I finish my project...In Northern Europe it rains VERY often!

Mikkel: Wasn't it Michael Møller, who did your bodywork?

[Ed Bighi]

I knew it. That is the thing about that thick PVC undercoating. It is so thick that it is almost impossible to see the effects of trapped water. This is why I prefer to use some really tough paint instead. Paint shows bubbles when bad and since one can see the problems early, things never get out of hand. The way I look at it, a thick undercoating like Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and BMW uses, is probably the best compromise for the usual owner who never looks underneath his or her car. But for people who do check things out underneath, a good epoxy aircraft primer (the green stuff), Wurth Rust Guard Black, POR 15 (same stuff), along with the color of the car on top for beauty, is probably the best way to go. And for extra protection, a good dose of Boeshield lube on top helps. Besides being one hell of a lubricant that sticks and lasts better than most, it is good enough for Boeing to use for corrosion protection on exposed metal.

Mikael, you got a lot of work ahead of you. I know it sucks. But on the bright side, a lot of those panels are available. As far as using undercoating or not, keep in mind that undercoating can always be added later. Except for maybe a couple of chips that might have to be taken care of. No big deal though. But by now you know how hard it is to remove the factory undercoating if the metal underneath is not rusty. So if you undercoat, you know it will be time consuming to remove if you change your mind later.

Again, I have been there. But only on a tiny spot. But it pissed me off enough that I decided to remove all of it off of my fendewerwells. I just have the floorpan left to go. Loud, yes. But if you have carpeting it isn't bad. Since your car is black already, after the repair and removal of the floorpan undercoating, just paint the entire underside with Wurth Rust Guard Black or POR 15 and be done with it. The light will fade it a bit, but no big deal. The stuff is tough as nails. I knew a Floridian who painted the whole underside of his Mini Cooper with it and never looked back.

Jeg ved bare, at ham som lavede pladearbejde for Porsche Centrum hed Michael. Om han hedder Møller til efternavn, ved jeg ikke. Jeg ved ikke engang, hvordan han ser ud?

Btw I'm going to have a rust repair performed again soon. When my car was done back in 2000 we reused the windshield rubber gasket (it looked good). THAT was stupid. Water has found its way in behind the gasket and now there's rust all the way round under the gasket

[Mikael]

Mikkel: Det må være den samme, da Michael Møller laver pladearbejde for Porsche Centrum. Han er en rigtig flink gut, der desværre er sygemeldt pt. pga. problemer med ryggen. Det betyder desværre også, at mit projekt er udsat på ubestemt tid!!!!

Ed: Thanks for the input!!! Do you have some pictures of your car before you got rid of all the rust?

As i just told Mikkel in Danish the guy I know at the body shop is having problems with his back, so he is not able to work on my car before about two months from now

[Jim Garfield]

Mikael, that's alarming to see. Any idea if your car was fully galvanized? I know that '76 was supposed to be the beginning of the completely galvanized body, but I'm wondering if some of the early cars that year might have used leftover '75 parts and were only partially galvanized?


edit: spelling

[Argeo]

This is why I laugh when a lot of guys claim their cars are 100% rust free. It is not until you search for it that you actually find it. Ask me how I know.

Not to say they don't exist, but odds are not in ones favor with an old 911.

This story is very familar to me. That car was gorgeous, pull the paint of and see the real story. The bright side as someone mentioned is that you do really get an idea of what your sitting on.

Good luck, think long term.

David

[KobaltBlau]

I think there's some uncertainty in the 75-76-77 range, there was a year or two when high risk areas were galvanized but things like the roof were not. I'm sure someone here knows more detail. Lots of books say full-galvanized starts in 76 but I don't think it's true. There may also be differences between when US cars recieved certain treatments and when the RoW cars did.

[Ed Bighi]

Galvanizing or no galvanizing, if water gets underneath that thick undercoating, it is only a matter of time before the sacrificial anode wears out. That sacrificial anode is the zinc galvanizing. It is designed to sacrifice itself before the steel. It works like a charm. But when you consider how hard it is to dry up the moisture underneath the undercoating, you can see that it is only a matter of time before the zinc wears out. My 80 911 is galvanized. But water found its way to the bottom of the c-pillar from the screws that hold the black aluminum trim onto the bottom of the rear quarter glass. The spot I had was small. No larger than the size of cd. It was not bad at all, but I had some sheetmetal butt-welded there. The undercoating in the area peeled right off showing moisture underneath. Had I not pulled it, it would have kept on looking perfect as it always had. In fact, I only noticed since a tiny bubble popped up on the c-pillar. All this from a blemish in the undercoating mixed in with the trim attachment. Needless to say, I no longer like the trim. I would rather not have it, or close the holes the screws go into and glue the piece on. After all, the only thing worse than water getting in somewhere, is water not getting out. If I know water will come in no matter what, I do whatever I can to make it's exit as simple as possible.

For the rest of you folks reading this, do not go out and remove the undercoating for fear of what's underneath. Just keep it clean by pressure cleaning often. At least it will reveal blemishes easier than looking through a clump of dirt. And as for clumped up dirt, do yourselves a favor. Go to a good pressure cleaning do-it-yourself car wash every so often and kill all your quarters cleaning the piss out of the underside of your cars. Then reach into that lower part of the door striker plate just behind this notch in the body and get all the dirt that collects over there. Then pressure clean some more. In fact, if it's a part of the underside of the car that is hard to reach and see, clean it well. Because no ammount of undercoating of galvanizing can deal with all the moisture that dirt traps. While I also think that everyone should POR 15 the bottom of their windshield frames for protection, that can come later. I easilly spend an hour with a pressure cleaner at least once a year. The hell with waxing and detailing. In fact, there are plenty of cars that look as beautiful as Mikael's does in the first picture. But those detailed cars seldom have their owners spend time underneath where it counts much, much more. So a lot of times, those beauties can be hiding some some terminal illness underneath. My car looks like ass from the top. But underneath there isn't any collected dirt to be found anywhere. That's because I learned my lesson the hard way. Screw the paint! That's for concours whores to worry about. Worry about what's behind that panel. Behind that door striker plate. Behind that headlight bucket. Behind that oil tank.