Project 911 “x” with introduction

[ghost1001]

Hi All,
I have been lurking around this site for about a year asking questions here and there. I felt it was time for a proper intro as I finally have officially joined the club.

I am a proud owner (not driver yet) of my first Porsche 911!!!!

It is called 911“x” because it is not an r, rs, rsr, iroc, s, sc, etc. etc. Not really sure what it is!!! “b” is probably the most fitting, but I like X.

The short story is I have been looking off and on for about 2-3 years, never really sure what I wanted, I bounced around 911, 964, 993 choices, choices. I never really had the time or the money or the space. About 8 months ago I was laid off, and I am now self employed, with time, plenty of space and a little money.

About the same time I got back into this site and stared checking out “projects” that have been executed by the talented individuals here. This site has been a major driving factor for getting involved in my own project which has now taken on a life of it’s own. I would like to thank all of you for your time and dedication to the eager but ignorant new comers…..

This may be very entertaining to some as I have never changed my own oil before. I have wrenched as a bicycle mechanic as well as renovated/restored a few very old houses. I have decent mechanical skills and good set of newly purchased tools, needless to say this is a learning experience.

I will be assisted by my buddy Nick who has experience working vw's.

If you like all original survivors….click away, you may be disturbed. If you have ADD stop reading (this will be looooong). If you like creative, unique interpretations of the fabulous cars utilizing (some) original parts with purposeful modifications stay tuned.

Objective: Light weight, narrow, street “hot rod”, minimal interior, performance parts, tasteful appearance mods.

History: I originally wanted an “rgruppe” type car, I like the lines (rs bumpers, duck tail) of the long-hoods and many examples here are truly inspirational. To say I became obsessed with “clean” looking 911 bumpers would be an understatement (I still have not found one that I like for the later cars and I will be making my own). I thought of doing a back date or going the IROC route with a later car. Nothing really seemed to click for me, I saw this car (below) in an excellence magazine article and light bulb went off. I cannot find the link to the article, but if I recall it is a SC stripped down to under 2000#.




The find: I was looking for a while (off and on for 2-3 years, serious for 3 months) and posted a WTB on the classified section. Rich at ROCS in Bellville, NJ had just what I was looking for, a former client’s project that had been sitting in the shop for about 5 years. I went down and we struck a deal with me taking the roller and doing all of my own build/modifications, paint, interior, electrical, suspension, etc. I will bring the car back to the shop and have them install the engine and trans once I have finished on my end. This saves me the trouble of getting way over my head on the drive-train.

The Chassis: 1976 911s, no sunroof coupe, manual windows, no AC, east coast car, zero rust (so far)!!!

Drive-train: ’82 SC motor, 915 trans rebuilt with modified gear ratios, wevo shifter, wevo engine mounts, headers, 911r muffler, stainless lines for oil cooler.

Suspension: Lowered, turbo tie rods, bump steer kit, larger TB’s, assorted elephant racing goodies, 16x6 front 16x7 rear fuchs, etc. etc.

Brakes: stock, stainless lines, maybe carrera rotors and calipers front, good idea, any suggestions?

Wiring: rewired for needed items.

Exterior: Bare metal repaint, probably not factory color, leaning towards a medium shade of non-metallic grey (suggestions welcome) would like to keep it a Porsche color but not year specific. F-1 style mirrors (maybe), satin “brushed” aluminum window trim, (PO panted it black and they did a good job, scuffed up the metal and all) rocker trim removed, custom rear wing like the orange Singer 911, bumper mods front and rear using the original bumper parts (not including the shocks), front bumper “tucked” towards hood, front valance fog delete and all holes closed ala 911cs, side light delete, custom integrated oil cooler scoop pas. side. Custom filler pieces bumper back to wheel well, where the accordions and trim have been removed. Now most of you are saying “but Kevin, you can just buy an iroc bumper and be done with it” yes but where is the fun in that. Also, for you purists, a rally Porsche has set a precedent for this type of mod, check out the front and rear bumps (I will not be drilling holes):




Interior: Stripped down to metal, painted flat black, back seat delete, RS door panels, custom perlon felt floor and headliner, factory upper dash, lower dash “cover” plate, GTS seats (style TBD), custom heating set up.

The rare and elusive 1976 porsche 911s non sunroof roller in its natural environment:



Once captured the beast quickly succumbed to our methods of persuasion:





As always I am open to your input.
Stay tuned.
Kevin

[MichiganMat]

Yeah buddy, game-on!

[65_lincoln]

Kevin, looks like a great project, and you certainly have a very good idea of where you want to end up. But I have to tell you, what caught my eye was the fact that you've wrenched as a bicycle mechanic. I worked as a professional mechanic in shops and for some team / factory programs for about 15 years, which has marginally helped me on my Porsche wrenching skills. Best of luck!

[Rich76_911s]

Kevin,

Congratulations on the find. Looks like you found a great candidate, and I love your thoughts on tucking the bumpers.

Rich

[mickey356]

Good Lord Kevin!!! It's as if I wrote this thread myself! I'm in the same boat as you with regard to not going for anything "specific" model-wise. There are charateristics on various cars that I like and I think the whole backdate thing has been done to death. Not that I don't LOVE the look of the old longhoods, I do, very much. But I also like the look of the short hoods as well so I'm going to morph my 83 SC to be a little of both. Aside from a couple little personal preferences our cars will be pretty similar when alls said and done. I can't wait to see what you come up with, especially the accordian solution.

[ghost1001]

So a bit more about the front bumper I am really trying to clean up the front end visually speaking. I considered the c2 front or the iroc bumper, but both look a little heavy to me. So my idea is to tuck and modify the front bumper. All pads, accordions, fog lights, side lights and the “smile” will be eliminated. The turn signals will be flushed up with the front of the bumper and all holes and recesses filled. I will use the rubber lip on the bottom. I estimated that the entire bumper assembly will rise about 2”. Once I lower the car it will be back down close to factory for the lip to road clearance.
Here is the “tucked” bumper and valance fit up on the front end with the factory trim panels installed:



I marked up where the valance would sit in the factory position, I removed the bumper and valance and using my marks attached the 2 units:



Then I fit this up to the car to see how it looked:



The angle of the picture is a little off, the factory wheel well profile is retained. Here is a shot of the car:



I dropped the bumper to Performance Fabricators in Roseland, NJ to finish the planned modifications including bonding the valance to the bumper, oil cooler scoop, moving the turn signals forward, flush with the front and filing in all of the holes. We will also test paint the bumper in the color I select for the body to see how it looks before we do the whole car.



Jack at performance does amazing custom body work and this is right up his alley. If anyone needs flares or any other custom stuff done PM me or Google the shop he prefers to work in metal and can build anything you can dream up. Jack will also build me the custom tail for the car based on this design:




Kevin

[mickey356]

Wow Kevin!!! Thats pretty slick.
I LOVE that Singer 911! Is the tail the shop is doing going to lift at speed like the newer cars? When's the ETA on your bumper/valance work coming back?

[motorcop]

Hey Kevin, first of all NICE RIDE!! Secondly, if you need a hand wrenching on that thing or just a second set of eyes, drop me a PM....Im not that far from you and my ride is in the trailer for storage right now. Great job so far!! Ed.

[ghost1001]

Thanks for the support...

The ETA on the front bumper is probably a few weeks. I will post pics as the work progresses. I think we may need to wait until the bumper is actually mounted up to fabricate the filler panels from the bump to the wheel well so that may take longer.

I actually just realized that the singer spoiler raises as the speed increases, pretty cool. I think we will make the first version fixed and the play around with the articulation once the design is set.

In the way back of my mind one of my goals is to come up with some parts that can be reproduced for sale, I think the tail and front bumper mods would have a broad enough market to warrant the development costs and see a bunch of chatter here and there about both. I see tons of stuff for the long hoods, understandably driven by the fact that the original cars are very expensive, heck, even the “clones” are expensive.

In any event the whole thing is a great creative learning experience. I was in product development for years and this project is the most fun I have had in a long time.

Kevin

[combatic]

Kevin, this is basically the Porsche I am scheming to build so I will be following with great interest! Congrats on your project kickoff and keep us posted!

[ghost1001]

I think I may have found my color scheme.....what do you think

[Tom '74 911]

Kevin -
Thanks for taking the time to post here and document your project for me and others to learn from. Looks like a ton of fun! Rock on. . . .

[mickey356]

Hey Kevin here ya go for a starting point on the rear lid!
menu.jpg

(see, I told you I've been thinking along the same lines )


In the first (profile) pic of your front bumper "tucked": is the gap between the valance and the bumper all from "tucking"? It almost seems as if the tuck caused the bumper to go back (obviously) AND up? Is that why you're having the valance joined with the bumper?

And you're color choice is awesome!

[kiwiokie]

Originally Posted by ghost1001

I dropped the bumper to Performance Fabricators in Roseland, NJ to finish the planned modifications including bonding the valance to the bumper, oil cooler scoop, moving the turn signals forward, flush with the front and filing in all of the holes.

This is going to look really cool. Is the final front bumper/valance going to be fiberglass or are you sticking with the original metal pieces with all the holes filled?

[NoLift911]

Kevin - great project, I did something similar on my car but it is a slippery slope when you start designing or redesigning an icon that has been around for 40+ years. I was like you wanting to take a few pieces from different 911's and add a classic look with a modern and purposeful flair.

I will post some pics of my bumper mods - come the end of the day I liked the classic look of the impact bumper and wanted crash protection that cobbled together fiberglass bumpers cannot provide. The 964 is a bit "bulbous" in execution and then it looks odd without the rockers and lights to go with. I decided that in the end the bumpers just needed to be lightened and then loose all the rubber bits and other nonsense.

I cannot tell by your pic but on the front bumper it looks like the rub strip was removed and then filled in. My guess is your body guy is smarter than to fill that with filler (way to deep) - I got someone to TIG in an aluminum strip and then fill from there (required hardly none). I also had them mill/shave some material off the bumper. The integrity is retained but if you look closely at these bumpers they are thicker in some places than others so this also made them uniform and lost a few lbs. Mine is tucked ever so slightly - maybe 6mm's - nobody can really tell, but I can. I also messed around with a C2 smile but the gap is too large and I did not want to tuck that far - you might be able to use? So I kept the integrity underneath with crush tubs and the accordions. I think it cleans up the car and retains the classic look. I will post some pics - my car is all disassembled but have some of the bumper off the car. My car has been completely painted and just awaiting reassembly when I get the time (which never seems to happen)

I went with a factory clubsport lower valence and the factory chin spoiler.

Anyway great project - looking forward to seeing more.

[juanbenae]

the interior color of my car is very close to that 997 posted above.

[ghost1001]

Originally Posted by mickey356

Hey Kevin here ya go for a starting point on the rear lid!
menu.jpg

(see, I told you I've been thinking along the same lines )


In the first (profile) pic of your front bumper "tucked": is the gap between the valance and the bumper all from "tucking"? It almost seems as if the tuck caused the bumper to go back (obviously) AND up? Is that why you're having the valance joined with the bumper?

And you're color choice is awesome!

Yes, the main part of the bumper moves up and back, I will play around with the "smile" and that may drop the whole assembly down 1/2" or so. So yes, this is the main reason for bonding the bumper and valance. The rally car at the top has most of the mods I am looking at, I am sure the wanted to raise the entire assembly due to conditions they would encounter in a race. By lowering the suspension, I think I will come pretty close to factory on the front bumper height.

[ghost1001]

Originally Posted by kiwiokie

This is going to look really cool. Is the final front bumper/valance going to be fiberglass or are you sticking with the original metal pieces with all the holes filled?

At this point the plan is to use as many original and metal parts as possible. All hole on the bumper and car will be welded closed. We will try to fabricate all custom parts in metal as we go along.

If we like the look we may try to pull a mold for fiberglass reproductions.

[ghost1001]

Originally Posted by nolift911

Kevin - great project, I did something similar on my car but it is a slippery slope when you start designing or redesigning an icon that has been around for 40+ years. I was like you wanting to take a few pieces from different 911's and add a classic look with a modern and purposeful flair.

I went with a factory clubsport lower valence and the factory chin spoiler.

Anyway great project - looking forward to seeing more.

Slippery slope indeed!!!! I see bits and pieces from other cars, mostly factory.

I do not want to stray too far from the original profile and look for modifications done for racing or development purposes.

I figure worst case I can take her back to factory without too much trouble/cost and a little paint.

Would love to see pic of your bumper!!

[ghost1001]

Glass is out, fairly easy job as outline in 101 projects.

The sound deadening has been removed, not as difficult as I thought just heat and scrape. It came off in fairly large pieces. Kind of like peeling and orange.

This thing is looking ugly…





Details on trim restoration tomorrow....