Cheap long hood...Another back date project

[cnielsen]

I'm tired of fixing rust on my early cars so I decided to try a back date car. The plan is to have a very driveable long hood that I can enjoy year round here in Washington state and maybe even take up skiing in the winter!

The car was a somewhat abandonded 911SC track car project...basically stripped motor and interior and an attempted weld up job on the sunroof, which would make you sea sick if you started at it too long! All in all the rest of the car is very solid and rust free and the brakes and suspension seem to be in good order.

Having a lot of early cars and parts laying around, I had most of what I needed to convert it into a proper long hood body.

My old blue ST is getting a new motor so this car will get the 3.2 motronic motor from that car...should be good power, reliability and fuel economy for a daily driver type car.

SO everyone likes pics... here is a before shot when I picked up the car. It had been sitting out in the rain and providing a nice dry home for the mice.



Once I got it home, I spent several hours with a shop vac and finally just opened the doors, hood etc and tackled it with a pressure washer! A trial fit of a spare long hood confirmed the intended direction of the car. Next step was to get it in the garage with a space heater inside the car and start to dry it out....poor ol' SC is getting a new lease on life!

[heliolps2]

look forward to seeing the the transformation, keep the pics coming

[cnielsen]

First item on the check list was the roof. The previous welding was beyond repar so I went back and forth...sclap it or just cut its head off?!?!

Utimately, it was a quicker option to cut it at the pillars and drop on a whole new roof, well, an old one from a 68 911 that was beyond repair.

I think photos will tell a lot more than words here. We left the door frames on for reference and took A LOT of measurements!





We were even careful to build a bracing system out of welding rod :-)

[cnielsen]

The pillars have internal metal which would be impossible to weld so we opted to build sleeves inside the pillars for added strenght.





And finally the roof fitted and welded on.

[CountD]

This is an awesome thread, and I don't mean to invade it. I have a question and I have read many of the old threads.

Is the '74-'89 tub basically the same as a longhood tub? I have looked at them and they look pretty close to me. I have been wondering this as I think it's a great idea to take a later tub and backdate. I mean, it's basically the same car as a longhood, right?

PS. Awesome work so far.

[monovich]

I look forward to watching this one develop.

[cnielsen]

It is basically the same. Some differences are better...galvanizing and strengthening and others are a bit of a PITA to back date...

Perfect segway into the next part of the project! The front latch panel is completely different but the old latch panel fits within the same chassis so its only a matter of sectioning the old one out and welding in the older style latch panel.

I opted to section it just inside the chassis rails since the later cars are assembled with a lot of seam sealer between the spot welded panels and that really gets in the way when you are welding and makes a horrific mess, let alone, nasty welds!

The front fenders are also different. Since my existing fenders (wings for the UK guys) were in such good condition and fit the car so well, I decided to graft on some turn signal housings that I robbed off from some old rusty fenders. These salvaged sections were all media blasted and epoxy coated.









Also welded up the A/C holes...



The crown jewel for the front end will be a 100L steel fuel tank!

[cnielsen]

Working front to back, there were several holes that needed filling...mirror, antenna etc...

[cnielsen]

Rear quarter panels and bumpers...

Again, it helps to have parts laying around so I had donor bumpers and a license plate panel. More blasting and epoxy coating... The SC/Carrera quarter panels have never looked right to me, especially on an early car so rolling the fender lips was a must! Some quality time spent with a hammer and dolly left a nice vintage looking fender flare and should allow a bit more room to run 9x15 fuchs if I choose to go that route.



Rear bumpers modifed to match the fender contour...



The impact bumper cars have huge chassis mounts for the bumpers. I have cut those off before but it is a PITA and so I thought I would try to use them if at all possible. The mounting horns were cut off the early bumpers and modified to fit on the impact bumper mounts.

[will hung]

Yes! I've been looking forward to this project after seeing a couple pics.

[wachuko]

Subscribed. This is exactly what I want my next project to be.

[cnielsen]

The last and simplest modification is removal of the reflector panel. Mostly it involves drilling out the spot welds.



The rear turn signal housings also need to be modified so they have the little vertical lip at the bottom of the housing to hold the bumper to body seal. This involved cutting off the old bottoms and just making an entirely new bottom section.

[Iciclehead]

Very interesting and informative thread, I am just in the middle of doing my front latch panel, it is part of my six speed thread..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/185692-fitting-6-speed-g50-89-carrera-new-post.html

I took some different approaches, for the front latch panel, I actually have just finished removing the whole thing - and I would agree, it is pretty well grafted in there so you definitely took the more prudent/easier route!

One question about the front bumper supports. I noticed that you have welded plates that fit the early bumper brackets - I am doing the same thing but am not sure where exactly they are located. Did you measure the holes from any particular reference point or did you just fit the bumper and use the adjustment inherent in the mounting brackets?

Thanks and great thread!

Dennis

[cnielsen]

I took those measurements from another bare long hood chassis. If I still have the template, I'll take a photo with a ruler so you can make use of it

[CountD]

Thanks so much for the fantastic photos. This thread is a huge educational tool for me, especially the back reflector area photos. You are doing an amazing job on this, and I never thought of doing it to my car, but after reading this one several times I am considering it...

PS. What type of filler are you using on the antennae holes, etc?

[andybullen]

subscribed.... those are some clean welds!

[Tooth911]

Great winter fun!!!

[Fishcop]

Great work as usual Chris.

[deshetlr]

Always interesting!

[Craig T]

Excellent. I'll be watching. I just finish my backdate project. Now I can live vicariously through you.