Motor in or out when strengthening a targa

[Shaun @ Tru6]

With any luck, I'll be doing some major surgery on my 84 Targa come January. On the docket:

Cut the targa bar off and make it a cab
Seam-weld all factory spot-welded seams
Weld in sill plate strengtheners
maybe make some sort of mini cage that will tie the engine compartment rails into the interior and onto the A-pillars
then drop in a 3.6

Question:

I am planning on putting the car up on jackstand when doing all the welding, taking lots of measurements, micro-adjusting so that the doors open and shut nicely, etc.

Would that be the way to go, if so, with or without the motor in the car?

Or should I weld up the seams and sills with the car on the suspension, 22/29s and Sports, with or without the motor in the car?

[Rot 911]

Shaun if you have good alignment of the doors right now I suggest you tack weld in a bar (I have used rebar) from one side of the door opening to the other as close to the top of the door opening as possible. I have replaced more MGB sills (inner and outer) than I care to remember and this has always worked well for me. This keeps the alignment as it is now and keeps the car from sagging in the middle.

[Crowbob]

If I were to attempt this, I would do the welding and strengthening with the engine out. Not only would it be easier to tweak the measurements, access the weld points (wherever they happen to be), and be safer, it seems to me that if the car were put to factory specs. w/o the engine, it would be closer to original when you put the engine back in, like it was done in the factory.

Sounds like way more than I would attempt. Good Luck!

[mb911]

I would do the majority of the work with it in the car and on the floor with the suspension loaded. It is much like welding a flare on a car with the fender off. if you do that don't expect it to fit back on the car

[widebody911]

Leave it all together. If you're going to do longitunal supports, do them with the top up. There's also a trick of lifting the car at specific points when you do the install, to allow for the expansion when you heat the metal; Tyson detailed this in a thread when I was doing my cage.

I have pix of various (but not all) solutions here: http://www.rennlight.com/howto/cab-brace/index.html

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thanks Guys.

Thom. Wow! I like the T-brace and tying that into the A-pillar.

The car in various stages over the last few years:

[vlocci]

My gut tells me to do this with the engine in, as you would be surprised how much you can more around a unibody when putting in reinforcements, seam welding and removing a huge piece of structure like the targa bar. Arguably, having the engine in adds one more piece of structure, and should make subsequent engine removale and reinstall that uch less painful.

That being said, I've seam welded both a 930 and a C4 with engines out (could not prevent this) without too much trouble. Go slow, avoid excessive heat, and think about what your doing. At the end of the day this is mostly sheetmetal, which can change shape pretty quickly with excessive heat. I was literally able to change camber (car was sitting on an alignment rack) by appropriatly welding the 930. Kinda cool, yet pretty unnerving, to watch.

Before whacking off the targa bar, get some steel in place to tie things together. The taga bar adds a substantial piece of structure. Even better if you think it through, as this might give you some ideal palces to tie in belts, seats, a cage etc. My take is steel and my time are cheap, so long as I only do it once.

I'm in Somerville/Arlington if you need a hand, voice of reason, or just a beer drinking buddy to agree with you and have a pretty well equipped garage with a good selection of tools, welders, lift, and a lot of fabrication experience.

Vin

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Hey Vin,

I'm pretty sure we've met before. Did I sell you a brown SC hood?

My email is shaun@g9girl.com. Let me know if you want to grab a beer in harvard square or some ribs at Blue Ribbon in Arlington.