Another IROC build - Aussie RHD 3.8

[EarlySport]

Hey guys,

As I'm taking some pics of my current build I thought I'd share them with the Pelican community.

A few months ago I purchased a rough 1982 911SC that had some appealing features - an all steel turbo look conversion, plastic intake 3.6L motor, Sonjay 16x10" custom Fuchs on the rear, and AP 4 piston front calipers over carrera rotors, and a nice shifting 915.

The negatives - bubbles in the paint, rough interior, it didn't idle, and it seemed like every common failure with 911's was failed on this car ( sunroof didn't work, steering bushing worn out, wheel bearings noisy, etc, etc ). Evidently the PO didn't believe in fixing ANYTHING when it failed! So at the end of the day the price was right, and I was looking for a project..

Getting it home and I started assessing the bodywork. First problem was the paint cracks and bubbles in a number of places, but particularly where the flares were welded on. Can anyone say lap welded flares? Then I decided to strip the paint using stripper. This didn't work worth a damn, so after playing with a DA and vibrating sanders I had to break out a 9" orbital. Soon it became apparent that there was literally 1/4" of filler all over the rear panels of the car and front guards. I'm sure I lopped many pounds of weight off the car in filler!

Getting inside the rear guards I ground off the overlap of the lap welding, and only had to weld in a small patch on the left rear guard to remove a significant rust hole. While I have begun repairs on the front guards, I've decided to go fibreglass for both weight savings and to save work!

I also found evidence of a poorly repaired right rear fender accident damage, and also the left rear taillight area. The tailight area required a new metal template to be welded in to ensure the correct profile of the repaired area. The rear lid latch panel was also beat up, and required some welding and straightening. As my metal forming skills are somewhat limited, I still need to use filler for final shaping, but in this case I've managed to keep the depth to 1mm or so, and have only used about 250gms of it total.

I've decided to use POR15 as a sealer, and have coated the entire rear guards and inside weld seams with it. Next to come is POR's Tie-coat primer, final filling, and top coat. Fortunately the roof, bonnet, and doors are pretty good, so i won't be taking these right back to metal. Area's like the rain drip rails I've taken back to metal as the paint was just too thick and prone to cracking I'm sure.

I'll keep the pictures coming, as I'm hoping to progress pretty rapidly over the next few weeks.

Oh, the spec will be;

74 IROC RSR body
Mexico Blue ( thanks Matteo! )
3.8L motor, DC62 cams, Motorsport design throttle bodies.
Front oil cooler.
Fibreglass bumpers, IROC wing, front fenders, and sunroof panel
Centre fill gas tank
Plexi side and rear windows
Lightweight interior
Recaro Pole Positions
keeping some sound deadening in the rear as this is a street/track car.
22/28 Torsions, Bilstein Sports, Adjustable sways
Kumho V700 225/50 and 265/45 on Fuchs 16x8 and 16x10's.

Oh yeah, and the steering on the wrong side.. :-)

Project Start - looks better in the pictures!


Trying the paint stripper method. No chance against this much paint!


This is the beginning of sanding the paint off after unsuccessfully trying to strip and scrape.


Here you can see the thickness of filler and paint, and the worst rust spot.


After breaking out the serious sander it's down to bare metal, and the previous poor repairs are visible.

[EarlySport]

Front guards will be replaced with fibreglass for a near 50lb total weight saving


Here's one of the Sonjay custom 16x10" rear wheels, made from a 16x7 and a 16x8" fuchs welded together ( I believe ).. I've lightly sandblasted, filled the kerb grinds with JB weld, and then epoxy prime and epoxy paint.






After much panel beating and metal massaging, final raw preparation step is filler

[zmayne]

Nice finish on the wheels for a DIY RSR-looking finish. Is that just silver and black paint?

[EarlySport]

Then I went for the POR15 as a sealer and future rust prevention, having has good success with it in the past. This will be then coated with Tie-Coat as a primer, and final filling ready for the Mexico Blue 2K topcoat.

The inside lip of the lap welded flare was ground off, and then the area coated with POR15


Then the entire metal area coated with POR15




More to come in the future... Hopefully progress will be rapid, but working a full time job and also having limited space to work makes it tough, but I'm excited to get the car painted and back on the road and then begin work on the mechanical mods..

[EarlySport]

Originally Posted by zmayne

Nice finish on the wheels for a DIY RSR-looking finish. Is that just silver and black paint?

Yes, it's an epoxy paint in an aerosol that seems to be pretty hardy. I used their own epoxy primer, and then aluminium for the silver and satin black. Masking is a PIA, but using good tape helps. The paint brand here is White Knight, and is marked Epoxy rather than the traditional acrylic spray paints.

[zmayne]

Cool, thanks. I'll be refinishing my wheels at some point when I get my car repainted and I may use that method.
Your project looks like fun!

[rennch]

Man...that POR 15 sure looks glossy on there! Are there any downsides to using POR 15 vs. an epoxy or primer sealer?

[Walko]

Looks good,
Great to see aniother Sydney Sider actually getting there hands dirty rather than paying someone else to do the work
Cant wait to see the finished project

Michael

[gulf908]

Nice choice , that Mexico Blue !!

Cheers,
Dennis.

[saintz]

Great work.

All power to you mate.

[Wayne 962]

Neat stuff. That POR-15 stuff is like miracle stuff. For those who haven't worked with it before, it's more like an epoxy than a paint.

-Wayne

[cameron.arnott]

Looking great Craig

Nice work, you on Christmas holidays or what!!!

[911teo]

Awesome....

take with a grain of salt though... I am somewhat biased to Mexico Blue IROC cars

[SCWDP911]

looks like it is going to be a great project...

[HelmetHead]

Very nice work on the wheels. Looks to be a great project.

Helmethead

[CarlP]

Subscribed

[saintz]

Where in Oz can you buy this Por-15 ?

[Walko]

Saintz,

I know you can buy POR at Vintage VW supplies. They were located at Harp St Lakemba NSW. I am not sure if they are still there.

Michael

[f3nr15]

(I've previously bought POR-15 products online from PPC, quite a useful website:

http://www.ppc.au.com/)

Craig, what terrific work!

Is restoration a profession, or just a hobby for you?

When can I drop my car off to you ?

[EarlySport]

Originally Posted by f3nr15

(I've previously bought POR-15 products online from PPC, quite a useful website:

http://www.ppc.au.com/)

Craig, what terrific work!

Is restoration a profession, or just a hobby for you?

When can I drop my car off to you ?

Hey Peter,

Restoration is definitely just a hobby. I'm sure I spend way too many hours to ever actually make money from it :-)

For me though, the only way I can afford my cars is to do the major work myself. Fortunately there is plenty of information right here on the forum, which I think we Porsche DIY'ers are very fortunate to have. I've also spent plenty of time 'practicing' over the years on old Datsuns and the like ( much less valuable or significant than our beloved 911's ! ).

I'm going to be trying a couple of interesting things with this car too, like relocating the shifter up and back, and fitting my own 915 gearbox cooling system. But first it's the bodywork!