My ST hot rod goes under the knife

rswannabe · 10-22-2012, 11:33 PM

I have a '69 911E that has undergone a gradual metamorphosis to its current form as an ST hot rod. In the early '80's someone took all the S specific parts off a '70 S and put them on my car, including the wonderful 2.2S MFI motor. Then in the '90's it received a repaint in the original Irsh Green and a more aggressive suspension with big torsion bars, sway bars, Derin and monoball bushings, and koni race shocks. This is the form it was in when I bought it in '04.

Since then I removed the modern race seats for ST seats, added an old factory roll bar, hood mounted rally lights, a factory 100 liter tank, and many other period goodies.

As much as I loved the 2.2S motor, I wanted more. So I swapped the 2.2 into my 914-6 and sourced a 2.8 short stroke, twin plugged, RSR crammed screamer to go into the 911. I drove the car on numerous 1,000+ mile road trips, track days, and group drives. I loved the sleeper narrow body hot rod that it was, but the siren song on the wide body kept calling me. So two years ago I had a set of custom steel ST flares made for the car and modified the steel bumpers to match. The flares and bumpers have been in primer only for the last few years and I've been running the car as a bit of a rat rod.

Well, now I have decided to paint it this winter and so it is time to go under the knife to fix all the sins in the metal before the new paint goes on. I started pulling off panels and seeing what is really there.

First came the Diver's fender. The mounting flange along the hood line will need work, as will the sheet metal around the fuel filler. The fend joining panel will need to be replaced as well.

rswannabe · 11:04 AM

Next I pulled the passenger fender and found things were in better shape there, but would still need work.

The fender joiner panel will need to be replaced here as will the chassis corner.

With the initial recon of the needs of the front under way and replacement panels ordered, we then moved onto cutting out the passenger side battery box for better airflow for the oil cooler. I reused the outer face of the original battery box, but sectioned out most of the body of the box. Then we fabricated a new bracket to hold the bottom of the oil cooler farther forward for better tire clearance. Then came the new bracket for the fender to attach to.

That's it for now. More later.

bkreigsr · 10-23-2012, 06:30 AM

nice dimples - I'm jealous
Bill K

al lkosmal · 10-23-2012, 09:04 AM

Brooke....subscribed.

regards,
Al

rswannabe · 10-23-2012, 04:30 PM

For reference here is a picture of my cas as it was when I bought it in 2004.

Here she is in fully modified narrow body form on the way to Treffen in 2009.

And this is what she looked like in all her wide body rat rod glory before going under the knife.

kandhmfg · kandhmfg's Garage

Love the ST look, and the rat rod style is cool. Have a '71 that is in '73 RS clothing. Although it went full race a couple years ago and is getting cobbled up in the looks department for f/g everywhere and functional rear wing vs. ducktail to compete with more modern cars.

The wheel/tire package on your ride looks awesome. Appear 2 or 3 pc fuchs, are those 15s or 16s? What widths did you end up with f/r? Wider body is most likely my next step, either ST or RSR, just can't decide. Good luck with the project, it will be well worth it in the long term. Just can't beat the early cars for their driving soul.

I was originally a Seattle PCAer, runnng autocrosses in Bremerton for several years as well as D/Es at SIR (now Pacific Raceways). Been down in AZ for 10 yrs now. I have an Irish Green '67 911, it has always been my favorite color.

Erik Davis

RSBob · RSBob's Garage

Brooke if your new vision is as drop dead gorgeous as the original, you will have excelled. Will be watching your every slice and dice. Now get back to work!

JohnJL · 10-23-2012, 08:08 PM

Very nice. More pics!

will hung · 10-24-2012, 05:03 AM

Wow. I love looking at a picture of a fat tired 911 parked up next to snow with other 911's in the background. Subscribed.

rswannabe · 07:49 AM

Erik - the wheels on the car now are forged Fuch centers mated to BBS racing rim halves. The wheels are 8x16 front and 10x16 rear. Tires are 225/50 front and 265/45 rear.

Rick - That is the goal. She has looked great in the past and I have a vision of her that will surpass that.

Will - that was the new years day R-gruppe Resolution Run get together. Unfortunately there was too much snow on the back roads for our regualr "enthusiastic" drive, so it was mostly a bull session that year.

will hung · 10-24-2012, 07:33 AM

I'm just saying most would be hiding in the garage when the white stuff falls. Including mine.

rswannabe · 10-24-2012, 07:59 AM

We drive 'em in all kinds of weather around here. Of course, that is part of why I've got so much rust to fix as well

It does help that they (usually) do not use salt on the roads when it snows here.

stuttgart46 · 10-24-2012, 08:07 AM

I love it.
That dark green looks incredible. Are you keeping it that color?

rswannabe · 10-24-2012, 09:11 AM

Yes, the car will stay Irish Green. I have ideas for changes to the interior though....

cnielsen · 10:40 AM

Hey Brooke, its nice to watch someone else doing this...much better to watch than to actually be doing it! ;-)

I have one of those lower front corners that you will need. I believe it is the drivers side behind the front wheel and under the door hinges. Actually, I think I might even have both sides with the fender joining panel attached.

rswannabe · 10-24-2012, 11:10 AM

Chris,

I can only hope mine comes out as well as your projects have. I have a lead on a donor chassis (the one that was for sale at Walker's), but no guarantee the current owner won't need the same parts I need. I do have new fender joiner panels on the way, but if you have the chassis corners you can let go, I am definitely interested..

rswannabe · 11:06 PM

Well, it has been far too long since I posted an update of the process, but much has been done. Of course the car ended up having more rust than I expected (isn't that always the case), but it has never approached the point of structural integrity issues. Nonetheless, I am attempting to do everything necessary to make it a solid chassis and ready for another 40+ years service.

I sourced a later donor chassis to help with some pieces and ordered many new panels for Restoration Design. I have not had nearly enough time to do all this work myself, so I enlisted the assistance of a very skilled welder and fabricator named Mike Nash. He has been a joy to work with and I have been completely pleased with the quality and speed of the work he has done on the car.

I'll try to keep this somewhat coherent and focus on one area of work at a time. Since I previously showed the issues with the drivers side fender flange, gas filler, fend mounting panel and chassis corner, I'll show that work first.

Here are the repairs to the fender flange. We took these pieces from the donor chassis.

rswannabe · 01-30-2013, 10:43 PM

Next is the drivers side chassis corner, bottom of hinge post and fender joining panel.

rswannabe · 01-30-2013, 10:50 PM

rswannabe · 11:01 PM

So, I found that someone previously had come in and replaced the inner and outer rockers on both side with the correct replacement panels. Thus the rockers themselves are in good shape, but they did not address the rusted areas in front of and to the rear of the rocker panels properly. This is what we have been doing.

Whenever we open anything up, we clean all surface rust with a wire wheel, then treat it with Ospho to convert any remaining rust to an inert martial, then coat with two part epoxy primer. All new metal going in is painted with two part epoxy primer as well, and then the new weld locations are cleaned back to bare metal and treated with a weld through primer. One the new panels are welded in, the welds are dressed, and then they get coated with epoxy primer.

I'll get some better pictures of the new fender joiner panels to post and add those later. Much additional work has already been completed, and I'll document that in future posts as well.