Time to dig in...softie conversion

[onboost]

Not you again Speedo! :-)

I know this will be good.. I'm in!

Paul

[silverc4s]

I want to see this car go back together! Subscribed.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by jpnovak

Another great project gets started. let me know if you have any SWT conversion questions.

Jamie,

Sent you a msg on one of your threads but guess you did not get it. Am not far from moving forward on my soft window conversion. Any news on parts or is the gent in Montreal still the best source for spares?

Glad to see more people going the soft window route!

Thx,

Joe A

[curtisaa]

Originally Posted by Fishcop

Hey Lars

This is the factory red interior from the 68/69 targa brochure...


Chris is right - it's pretty "bright"

It appears that the inner door of the Targa shown is painted black..Is that correct ??

[Fishcop]

Near the very top you can see a flash of blue, so I think it's a trick of the light...

[speedo]

Thanks for the heads up on the red interior info John...that is bright red. Surprisingly the car is still at the sandblasters...long story, but may be coming home next week. I have been immersed in career study for the last 2 1/2 months (with another 2 months to go) and kind of let the project slip to the side. Sandblaster's slow progress was an excuse not to stress, and focus on acquiring parts. I now have a nice set of soft window handles, and leads on the rest of the assembly. Found some decent later targa windows. The seats will get the "red" go ahead shortly as soon as I pick material. I sourced some stock 15x6s for the front, and will squeeze 15x7s in the rear. I also picked up a set of adjustable spring plates. And am looking for some 21-27 tbars. Kind of excited to see what the chassis looks like naked and full of sand.
Pics to follow...later this week.

Speedo

[Fritter]

Sub'd

[speedo]

My other obligations got in the way...for several months. I have a respite, so I am back at it. Dragged the car back from the sandblaster after 4 months...suffices to say that he has since stopped sandblasting...he figured he was not the best one in the business. So there is one less sandblaster in Longmont Colorado. He didn't do a bad job...it actually looks pretty good. His D- grade is a result of taking too damn long. So the car looking somewhat naked




Sand sand everywhere...felt like I was at the beach. Generally, the body is in great shape. Rear light pockets have no rust...no rust around the window lip on rear shelf, seat buckets are solid and the front suspension pan/gas tank support is good.

Floors are solid...no rust but for a small area on the rear passengers longitudinal, but they have other issues than rust. More on that later.

[rennch]

Good to see you back at it, Lars. Looks like everything survived the fire ok...

[speedo]

I knew the drivers rocker was perforated. Now I can see whether I can patch or replace.

From this angle a serious cut and patch would work...if the cancer has not weakened the steel more on the inside than the outside appears...all depends on what is behind this bondo

I pulled out the grinder with the wire brush...eek

I found this...2-3 lb chunk of bondo hiding in the hole. The shop that did this repair kept filling the hole with bondo until it "took hold".

It gets better. The lock posts had some bondo as revealed by the sandblasting...lockposts don't need bondo...do they?

I might not have given the shop that did the work on the sill enough credit. They did manage to cram several pounds of bondo into the drivers rocker. However, how they managed to seal up the lockpost was amazing! Several layers of fiberglass on the inside of the quarter panel behind the lockpost, created a nice base for the glob of bondo needed to seal this up

I am sure the other lockpost is the same...I destroyed the wire wheel on my grinder de-bondo-ing this side, so the otherside will have to wait. I ordered drivers outer rocker and both lockposts.

[speedo]

Somewhere in this car's previous life...it must have been airborne. Most of the early cars have dents/scrapes in the bottom of their gas tanks, and some have floor scrapes. I have seen the results of cars moved with fork lifts too. I have never seen a car with floor pans so deformed upwards before. There are two serious dents and two smaller dents that could only have occured if the car was dropped onto something...like large rocks. Hardto tell from the pics, but these are 1-1.5 inch vertical deformations.





I put the floor jack underneath the car and used a variety of shape and sized boards to brace the floor so I could use my metal working hammers to massage the indentations back. Dented sheet metal is stretched sheet metal, so working it back took some time. But here we are back to factory...pre-flight .



I have been able to source two sets of soft window latches, but no bows. The one set of bows I found, I considered them to be too rusty to use and they were on the east coast. Shipping rusty blanks did not make sense. I scoured the local shops hoping to find some bows forgotten on a shelf. No luck..till yesterday when I stumbled across a local guy who is restoring an early S softie. I begged and pleaded (there will be a debt of fine wine I sense) and he agreed to let me borrow his bows to reverse engineer a set or three. I will pick those up tomorrow, and source the steel tubing at the same time. Based on how difficult it was for me to source a set, I will be making extras. So if you are in need of bows, PM me and we'll work something out. I also have the extra pair of latches that may be available.
The timetable is tight for the welding work. I need to get the car ready for the painter by the end of the month. I will give him the car and two months. That will give me enough time to sort the mechanicals, finish the upholstery and rebuild the 2.2T engine into something...more. We're going black on the outside with red on the inside...maybe a red tartan for the seat inserts...or maybe not.

Speedo

[preston_brown]

The whole "fiberglass on the back and bondo on the front" was typical quickie repair procedure on 356s and 911s in the 1970s, from what I've seen. They just weren't worth enough to do it better, I guess, and people probably thought the repair would outlast the car.

[kidrock]

maybe the pan is bent upwards because somebody once tried to use it as a jack point?

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by kidrock

maybe the pan is bent upwards because somebody once tried to use it as a jack point?

Yep. My suspicion is that jackstands were left under the pan at that location, possibly for an extended period of time during it's previous life.

Nice to see you progressing Lars.

[jpnovak]

Lars,

This project is now ready to begin. Glad to see a naked targa shell. I see latch panel replacement in your near future.

[500_19B]

Hello Lars,

I followed you great "911R" thread and am looking forward to this one.

Are you considering welding in additional reiforcement along the inner sills, especially around the area at the rear of the door to stiffen up the Targa shell?

[felix83]

Finally, a project that will help me through the long, cold swedish winter. And given your pace in the past, there will be no shortage of updates. Subscribed.

[speedo]

And I started on the passenger side...supposed to be the easier repair. Sandblaster revealed more bondo than was originally anticipated.I started at the top...not to late to save the new lockpost and patch it

The more bondo I eliminated, the worse it got. Previous repair was a hack job at best and brazed steel in where old steel was rusted.


Yuck...lockpost is outta here

I will need to fabricate the last 6 inches of the quarter panel where it joins the outer rocker

The shrapnel

These repairs need to be made before the lockpost is sealed up

Done and sealed...waiting for my new spot weld tips to proceed with the lockpost.

[speedo]

A very nice local gentleman lent me his bows for his 67S. I had scanned the PP threads (thanks jpnovack) for the installation/conversion of their targas to soft top... and tried to source an reasonably priced pair. Bows are hard to come by, and my gut told me they could be reverse engineered if I could find a set to work with. Need some steel tube

The hardest bow is going to be the rear bow as it follows the contour of the rear window base...is two pieces and has imbedded nuts to capture these $16 monsters (the eyebolt on the right...I will fabricate these using the bolts like the left)

Here we go...cut , bend and fit and repeat 25 times. Dialogue isn't needed here.





Then join the two haves with a sleeve

[speedo]

I said the back bow was more work...

The halves

I now need to install the nuts to retain the eyebolts




Done.. smaller targa bar hoop is going to be easier


Embedding the nuts for the attachment brackets that the handles capture