Back from the painter - project now in phase II

[squidmarks]

I just got by car back from the painters - a beautiful Pacific Blue Metallic. I am now officially in Phase II of the project where things start going back together. Everything is rebuilt - engine, transmission, and body. The suspension/steering/brakes are rebuilt/repainted/replated with fresh bearings/shocks/bushings/pads waiting in boxes.

During Phase I of this project, my shop got filthy dirty rebuilding an engine and transmission that had been sitting in a snow bank for a year, cleaning the grease and grime off all the thousands of parts I pulled off the body, then media blasting them clean. Then this last year working on the body to cut out and repair rust then the body work and finish priming/sanding and never ending dust.

So while my car was at the painters for the last couple weeks, I went thru my shop and gave it a thorough renovation. You might see from the pictures below the new cabinets on the walls and fresh epoxy paint on the floor. I have all the extra body panels (hoods/fenders/doors) put away in the attic so I have lots of room for the re-assembly of the main body.

Just to give you an idea of the difference, the picture at the bottom is what my shop looked like the day I drove the car in right before I put a wrench to it. I added a couple pics from when the car was still in the paint booth as it gives you a better idea of the color in the better light.

Now comes the fun part...

Geoff

My shop all cleaned up with my shiny new car home:



The car still at the painters:




This is what it used to look like:

[calling911]

Nice.. I find when my area is clean I do better work. Curious why you picked a non-vintage car to restore. Seems like less bang for the buck to do a newer restore??

[dw1]

Look good.

I REALLY like the color change - good choice.

Keep us up to date on your progress.

[Bart_dood]

Really nice colour, can't wait to see some youtube vids of first start and drive!

chris

[Tsunamiboy]

All Porsches are worth restoring. As the song states"if you can't be with the one you want, love the one your with"

[squidmarks]

Originally Posted by calling911

Nice.. I find when my area is clean I do better work. Curious why you picked a non-vintage car to restore. Seems like less bang for the buck to do a newer restore??

To be honest, I am not a Porsche aficionado like the the majority here - at least I wasn't when I started this rebuild. I was just looking for a good project and a 911 rebuild looked like a great one. So, I asked for advice on the best 911 years to work on, and the SC's seemed to be pretty solid. I'm afraid the early narrow-body 911's just don't do it for me. After getting into the 911 culture over the last couple years, tho, I think I will likely do a turbo after I'm finished with this one. Rather than keep it bone stock as this one is, tho, I would like to build it to suite myself.

For me it is just about the process, not the end product. I enjoy doing this and as long as I don't spend more money than it ends up being worth, that's fine with me.

Geoff

[calling911]

Originally Posted by squidmarks

To be honest, I am not a Porsche aficionado like the the majority here - at least I wasn't when I started this rebuild. I was just looking for a good project and a 911 rebuild looked like a great one. So, I asked for advice on the best 911 years to work on, and the SC's seemed to be pretty solid. I'm afraid the early narrow-body 911's just don't do it for me. After getting into the 911 culture over the last couple years, tho, I think I will likely do a turbo after I'm finished with this one. Rather than keep it bone stock as this one is, tho, I would like to build it to suite myself.

For me it is just about the process, not the end product. I enjoy doing this and as long as I don't spend more money than it ends up being worth, that's fine with me.

Geoff

You will likely spend twice what its worth in the end. I think thats pretty typical. I've never heard of anyone making money on a restore unless it was done poorly and sold to an unsuspecting buyer.

Your reason for doing it makes sense to me though... I was just curious.. I always assume people like the early models.. I will say, for someone in the middle of a early restore the rust is really a pain in the butt and not fun at all really. Doing one like yours would be a treat since you wouldnt be welding in panels and cutting into tiny little rust spots only to find full level 4 cancer behind it.

I plan to do my 76 next which should end up being a lot like yours.. galvanization is a good thing.

Im curious.. why not spray it yourself.. would have been a great learning experience. Why are people so afraid to spray? While I appreciate the skill involved I am amazed at the going price for a respray. I bet you paid $1300 or more for that respray and all they had to do was wipe it and spray.. or did they do the panel smoothing too? Was it stripped?? do you have a thread on this? Now I want to know more!

Im jealous.. you are at the absolute funnest part of a rebuild.. I LOVE this part.. Suggestion: get someone to help you when you mount fenders and doors and fenders.. its gonna be easy to mess up that paint job.

Actually.. harbor freight has some nice cheap door lifts which would be better than a helper. Maybe you have this stuff already.. sorry if I am telling you something you already know. I just know while doing initial body work it sucked taking doors on and off with no lift or help..

[calling911]

Originally Posted by Tsunamiboy

All Porsches are worth restoring. As the song states"if you can't be with the one you want, love the one your with"

Love the one your with.. hmmmm good personal advice for me currently.

[squidmarks]

Originally Posted by calling911

You will likely spend twice what its worth in the end. I think thats pretty typical. I've never heard of anyone making money on a restore unless it was done poorly and sold to an unsuspecting buyer.

While you may be right in the end, because I am doing everything myself (aside from the spraying), and I paid peanuts for the car, my costs are pretty low. I can see how it would be easy to throw "stupid" money around and very easily blow a budget, but if you spend wisely and wait for the right price on used parts that you recondition yourself (media blast/repaint/re-plate), I've found that rebuild costs can be kept in check.

Im curious.. why not spray it yourself.. would have been a great learning experience. Why are people so afraid to spray? While I appreciate the skill involved I am amazed at the going price for a respray. I bet you paid $1300 or more for that respray and all they had to do was wipe it and spray.. or did they do the panel smoothing too? Was it stripped?? do you have a thread on this? Now I want to know more!

I did consider spraying it myself. I went around to a few body shops in town, tho, and met a great guy who went over the car with a fine-toothed comb and cleaned up any imperfections I left from my amateur work. Although it went against my "do-it-yourself" mantra, the paint job is the most visible signature of a rebuilt car that you don't want to f**k up.

Im jealous.. you are at the absolute funnest part of a rebuild.. I LOVE this part.. Suggestion: get someone to help you when you mount fenders and doors and fenders.. its gonna be easy to mess up that paint job.

Actually.. harbor freight has some nice cheap door lifts which would be better than a helper. Maybe you have this stuff already.. sorry if I am telling you something you already know. I just know while doing initial body work it sucked taking doors on and off with no lift or help..

Yes, I'm looking fwd to it, too. I'll check into the HF door lifts as I doubt my wife will be much help there.

Check out my photo link in my tag line below - lots more pics of the whole rebuild process there.

Geoff

[mjshira]

congrats. nice work.

[F18Rep]

I was just looking for a good project and a 911 rebuild looked like a great one.

For me it is just about the process, not the end product. I enjoy doing this and as long as I don't spend more money than it ends up being worth, that's fine with me.

Geoff

Wow, a real car guy, I'm impressed (really). Bruce

[lateapex911]

Gotta ask, what's the circled item? looks cool.

[calling911]

Originally Posted by lateapex911

Gotta ask, what's the circled item? looks cool.

Yeah, I want it and I dont even know what it is. How much?

[squidmarks]

Originally Posted by lateapex911

Gotta ask, what's the circled item? looks cool

Its a cart I rescued from work - it was all rusted and they were throwing it out. I media blasted it, gave it a coat of paint and put a cork top on it. I've never used the slots for holding plastic storage bins, but I suppose that's what they are for. I just like it for wheeling around tools and parts. I like the other one below even better, tho. That one needed a coat of paint too, and I put a solid wood door on it as a top.

[calling911]

Originally Posted by squidmarks

Its a cart I rescued from work - it was all rusted and they were throwing it out. I media blasted it, gave it a coat of paint and put a cork top on it. I've never used the slots for holding plastic storage bins, but I suppose that's what they are for. I just like it for wheeling around tools and parts. I like the other one below even better, tho. That one needed a coat of paint too, and I put a solid wood door on it as a top.

This gives me inspiration.. on the way to craigslist!

[frankc]

Geoff

Very nice work. I would love to do this to my car one of these days. I just spent months cleaning every square inch of the bottom of my car (with suspension and motor out) and at times thought it would have been better to simply dip or soda blast the entire chassis and start over. The end result would certainly be better.

I suspect sometime down the road I will be doing this, so a couple of questions:

1) How did you attach the bar across the top of the door pillars to keep things square (I also have a Targa)

2) How did you transport the car on the rotisserie to/from the paint shop?

3) Where did you get the rotisserie - something you built yourself?

thanks,
Frank