Suspension pan r/r moving forward!

berettafan · 05:12 PM

Old pan and the front foot or so of both lateral supports are removed. The lateral supports were easy to remove and worth the time/expense as i found additional acid damage on the driver side pan. It had been hiding beneath the lateral support and was terribly obvious once i had cleaned off the grime.

The good news is i just had to remove a few more inches of pan and that is fixed. In retrospect i should not have cut the replacement pan 'arms' short before i had removed the lateral supports but i lucked out in that i had enough of the replacement pan 'arms' length to correct the area. i certainly could have just welded the cutoff portion back to the replacement pan but the less welds the better IMO.

I also welded up some small areas where i overcut on removal of the pan/lateral supports.

I had been dreading grinding down the metal left at the spotwelds by the spotweld cutters (can you believe i went through 5 1/2 cutter heads!) with the grinding disc but it turns out the flapper disc wheels (80 grit is what i had handy) do a fantastic job, though they generate a LOT of heat (the burn on my knee from leaning against the bulkhead is pretty small and should heal okay ).

Pan is test fit and i need to do a bit more work to get the cuts to match up but things are moving quickly now.

BlueSideUp · 08-13-2007, 05:26 PM

Is your replacement steel also from a 1970 911? I have some rust in the same areas. The part of the front pan that has the a-arm supports was replaced but they didn't do the little areas under and right ahead of the battery boxes.

berettafan · 08-13-2007, 05:58 PM

replacement pan is from Stoddard and lateral supports (aka longitudinals) are from Stoddard and (hopefully soon) restoration design.

berettafan · 08-22-2007, 12:35 PM

Update:

Passenger side lateral support and tow hook assembly arrived from RD today. Nicely packed and very, very nice piece of metal. we shall see how it fits this evening....

I am fairly certain Bill told me this is a factory Porsche part actually.

Erik

BlueSideUp · 08-22-2007, 03:23 PM

Erik-

Thanks for the update. Do you mind posting pics of the part as it is out of the box? I'm still trying to figure out if it's what I need.

Did you replace the bottoms on your battery boxes or just grind them down? I'm debating just cutting them out and putting in a blank to cover the hole. I unfortunately have some rust around the bolt holes for the bumper as well.

berettafan · 08-22-2007, 08:51 PM

here's your pic. note that i will only be using approximately 1/3 of it (the left 1/3 as viewed in the picture) to replace the section removed below the battery box.

berettafan · 08-22-2007, 08:54 PM

battery boxes are surprisingly solid. not perfect but not worth the time and expense to replace.

Walt Fricke · 08-22-2007, 08:54 PM

Erik

The fronts of the A arms are held in with three bolts (well, the two to the rear mainly). Factory sheet metal work has the tubular nuts (which hold these bolts) not only welded into the chassis around the outside (bottom) where you can see the hefty weld, but also inside the closed structure. I believe they are welded to an intermediate piece of sheet metal, which is like the meat in a sandwich.

I discovered, when they ripped loose, that the replacement front suspension pan welded into my track car did not include this intermediate piece, and that the tube nuts weren't welded anywhere but on the outside of things. Worse, they appeared to be welded only to the U shaped outermost separate piece, and that piece was then welded to the main lower member, with four tack welds per side, plus two in the middle.

This may not be important to a stock suspension, but on my coilover track car with spherical bearings with bolts and special washers in the ends to clamp them to the bearing, a lot of the braking force is taken up by these front mounts. Getting through the corner as one mount ripped out under heavy braking was dicy. In fact, I didn't make it, but no harm done by the off as I had somehow killed off most of the speed.

So I took an interest in what can't be seen.

I'm guessing that you can look along the insides of your new piece still, to see how the tube nuts are attached inside?

Walt Fricke

ajwans · 08-23-2007, 05:43 PM

When welding the fuel tank support onto the new suspension pan is
there any conventional wisdom regarding sealing the mating surfaces
to prevent moisture from entering the box section in the future.

Would a bead of grease or silicone in between be a good idea or do we
just rely on a coat of POR15 to seal the edges.

Please excuse my ignorance, I'm new to body repair.

andy

berettafan · 08-23-2007, 06:51 PM

the replacement pan i got from Stoddard actually has a 'drain' hole in the bottom and, IIRC the tank support has at least one hole in it as well. i don't believe you'd want to seal it. better to allow it to breath i think.

following are pics of the new and old pans where the 'tubular nut' is attached to demonstrate what is and isn't welded.

here is the original pan inside the car; note that it is welded to the backing plate which sandwiches the lateral support and therefore could not be welded as delivered.

here is the replacement pan, same area

here is the underside of the original pan; it appears the nut is NOT welded all the way around;

here is the replacement pan from Stoddard which shows the same;

berettafan · 08-23-2007, 07:28 PM

forgot to mention, the RD lateral support fits so nicely i am giving consideration to junking the Stoddard lateral support i have for the other side and purchasing same from RD. i mean the RD part is just perfect. as mentioned i believe RD told me the part is a Porsche part and not a copy.