A sort of barn find

[Matthew Barnes]

Quick update.

Have welded the lower fender patch.
Working nice and slowly, ensuring the pieces are aligned.
The results are pretty good. Minimum amount of warping and a solid, flat bead.
I'm getting better at this.





And the lower fender / rocker join came out nicely.
Just enough room for a little lead...or in my case filler.



A little patch at the rear of the fender.



Stepping back to admire the reconstruction of the RHD side. Including:

- Outer floorpan
- Kidney
- Area behind the kidney
- Inner kidney
- Inner rocker
- Jack tube support plate
- Outer rocker
- Lower door hinge post patch
- Fender support panel
- Lower door lock post patch
- Lower fender

And to think that it didn't look that bad when I bought it....just a little spot of surface rust at the rear of the rocker! Thank God I assumed it was all rotten.







Only a few 'small' jobs left......
- filler,
- primer,
- underbody,
- door and panel gaps,
- electrics,
- oil lines,
- engine,
- gearbox,
- interior,
- suspension,

Half way maybe?
Hmmmm, not so sure.

[Willem Fick]

Jeff Micklem from "homebuilt hotrod" fame used a mig to attach his flares and it came out sweet. He's got it on video on his YouTube channel - search for "homebuilt by jeff".

[Matthew Barnes]

One of the few videos re bodywork I haven't watched.
Thanks Willem.

[Matthew Barnes]

And he's doing a Porsche!
Why did I not know about these videos.
Brilliant.
Thanks again Willem.
There goes the rest of the day's work.
M

[Willem Fick]

Always happy to ruin a work day! :-)

[Willem Fick]

BTW I think given the complex curvature of a flare, it is probably stiffer and hence won't warp quite as easily as a flat door-skin.

[Matthew Barnes]

Slow progress.
Working through the underside.
Front corner done.
The longest small patch I have done: 4 hours to patch 20 cm2.
This is endless.

Then patching some holes I spotted a little rust showing through the primer, at the bottom of the rear wheel house, just below the torsion tube. The same area that was properly rotten on the other side.

Cut and.....







The heating tube is intact, surprisingly.
But another patch to be made.
Just goes to show how much crap accumulates.
I thought I had cleaned out the longitudinals properly, especially after cutting open the section near the engine mounts and cleaning that out with compressed air.

4 hours later.





As my welding gets better my pace gets slower.

Then had a visit from the travelling Dr. and the Alfaholic.
Hard to ignore 2 GT3s outside your gate.





The Dr has just returned from a motoring odyssey in California. The Quail. Pebble Beach. Rolex Reunion at Laguna. Met this guy and talked GT3s.



Met this car in Malibu.



And saw this parked in suburban Santa Monica.



Not bad for a week in LA.

[Matthew Barnes]

I have it on good authority that Singer are looking at a 'R'.
Something like 110 more HP and 200 kilos less.

4 litres.
500hp.
1000kgs.

[Matthew Barnes]

These last little jobs are killing me....

Finishing up the front slam panel.









And the oil tank is in...well, there is a small matter of the lower bracket.
Donated from a wrecked 87 Targa.
Some muppet hacked an awful hole in the inner fender so I've had to clean that up and furl the edge as best I can.

Next the oil lines go in.

[Willem Fick]

Can't you work any faster man? I get bored between updates!

Seriously, always very excited when I see an update to your thread Matthew! Again you didn't disappoint with what's been achieved!

[Matthew Barnes]

This is true, I am slacking off!
The jobs I have left to complete are so small....
Need to find my mojo again.
But with one kid playing district cricket and club swimming, and the other doing club swimming, the mistress is taking a back seat.
How is it going with your T?

[Willem Fick]

Going reasonably well thanks! Managed to clear the carbs and related stuff from the engine compartment, and have started to strip down yhe rear suspension. Hope to get the engine out in the next few weeks.

[Matthew Barnes]

There is strange psychology at play here. I have a perfectly good '83 SC parked next to the Outlaw in the garage. Needs a few cosmetic jobs done; very simple compared to the work the Outlaw requires and yet the Outlaw gets all the attention.



Once the Outlaw is painted and on its wheels I am going to give it some attention: those last few jobs that will make it perfect. Everything else is done - breaks, suspension, gearbox refresh, paint, seals. Would love to get a set of SSIs....

Back to the project at hand.

With family and work I have been short on free time, and short on the motivation to tackle the few last jobs so I can sand and do final primer.

In the meantime a mate and I have found 3 of these 5.5 x 15 early 70s steelies. They will come in handy at some point; most likely to go onto his rather special 2.2T





I think they look brilliant on non-metallic narrow body cars.

Another project is mocking up the rear window braces.
I cut some strips out of masonite....forgot how easy it is to work with wood!



Standard layout.....



...or Outlaw (not sure where the X motif comes from but I'm starting to see it everywhere)





And then sprayed them matt black



Anodised matt-black alu will look pretty good.

[Matthew Barnes]

After messing about with these other bits I plucked up the courage to attack the last big job: the dreaded rear fender. The PO has taken an angle grinder to it in preparation for adding Carrera flares and making an RS replica. The clip is in good condition but the remaining edge of the 1/4 panel was stretched and wavy.

With the car off the ground on the jig I puzzled all sorts of ways to get the shrinker onto the edge with enough leverage to work the handle.

And then finally, my newest contraption: the shrinker mono-pod.



I welded up this bar to bolt onto the bottom of the shrinker so I rest it on the ground and work the edge of the flare.



Worked brilliantly and with a bit of gentle dolly work, got the edge fairly straight so I could align the clip and weld it back in.







The gap is not uniform so in places I have to bridge a few millimeters. So I need a good strong bead and I really don't want to grind it down flush again. This will not only weaken the weld but on these narrow body cars there really isn't much room to wipe tin or add filler to cover a weld bead.

So I decided the best bet is to weld it from the inside. This way I can lay a decent bead.
But bending my frame into the gap with a welding helmet whilst trying to avoid the inevitable odd bead of molten steel landing on me was a challenge....quite amusing to the wife holding the camera. I'm better behind the camera.





I backed every spot with a decent piece of copper. Works pretty well.



A bit of dolly work and patience and it aligned nicely.

[Matthew Barnes]

Welding from the inside with the copper as a backing give a strong weld that is pretty much flush with the outer surface. Good result. The next step will be to turn the jig so the car is on its side, with the inside of the fender facing up so I can finish up the weld looking down at it.

But all in all, I'm really happy with the alignment and shape.
The best welding accessory is definitely patience.









Quite a patchwork. The number of patches in the LHD side is ridiculous.



I can only assume the car was exposed to salt at some point in its life.
All the edges of the wheel well were rotten, as well as the lower corner of the chassis below the torsion tube. All the lowest points of the car, from the outer passenger footwell to the door hinge post, to the door to the door lock post, kidney etc.





Continuing with the X motif, I have an evil plan from these. Barry Carter meets a Bandolier.



Now everything gets packed away till next weekend.

[ducatisti]

Great work on the flares!!

[Matthew Barnes]

Flipped the body over onto its side to make the welding easier.



300+ tack welds and it's done...on the inside at least.





The outside needs some cleaning up



Another 150 tacks and it's done.





I had to cut the join between the upper quarter and the lower quarter to release a bulge. Cutting it and then rewarding slowly sorted the problem.

And now a complete diversion.
A template for the door frames...



Looks like the shape is right.



The next step will be to get the same template cut in 7mm steel. With the help of bead roller I'll stiffen each cross with a bead. Then the idea is to cut out the existing pressings and weld in the custom panels.

...we'll see if I have the perseverance to do it once all the rest is done. Must be something wrong with me - as a Porsche mate pointed out - after slaving away for 3 years to get the steel work done, I'm almost almost done and I start making extra work for myself!

Bar one or two little jobs all the steel work is done.
A proper Frankenstien. In hindsight there are a lot of patches where I could have cut out much more original steel and made bigger patches, but that's hindsight. Maybe when I do my next one in about 10 years!



The floorpan is a proper patchwork.



The remaining jobs:
- Weld in engine mounts
- Patch small hole in one of the rear seats
- Clean up the door skins

I also have some decisions to make. Classic R roll cage or a full cage. Kevlar door skins or stick with steel.

The next steps are to sand the whole thing and spray the underside and the interior.
I intend to outsource this part of the sanding; flatting nice smooth sections is easy but getting into all the nooks and crannies is a different story. The horrors of once cleaning and painting a ship's engine room after a fire still haunts me!

[DaveE]

I've been spending way too much time on the politics forum! Nice work!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ducatisti]

This thread is way too quiet!

[Matthew Barnes]

Been a while since I last updated.
But have been busy in the background.
I moved the thread to DDK but unfortunately the image hosting site now wants $300 US a year to host and embed my pics.
While I sort out that little issue I'll update here.