911 with 993TT conversion, Night Lightning

tchesney · 09-19-2013, 08:15 AM

Hello boys and girls. A while back I posted the beginnings of Project Night Lightning, a 69 911 with a 96 993TT engine and 6 speed, with a P-38 Night Lightning aircraft theme. Well, we had lots of starts and stops, and tons of fabrication, but we are on the downhill side of this build and it's coming together quite nicely I think. I will attempt to post up our progress and try to keep it all in chronological order.

tchesney · 09-19-2013, 08:25 AM

This is the rendering we are working off of.

tchesney · 08:45 AM

If you remember, we started with a 69 tub and after much deliberation, we decided it was too far gone, and sourced a 71 tub that was in much better shape.

This is the 69.

Found this 71 tub and it made a much better foundation.

This jumbled up pile of parts came from LA Dismantlers. A low mileage 993TT engine with a 6 speed with a LSD.

tchesney · 09:13 AM

A little back-story, client is very partial to a particular WWII aircraft, the P-38 Lightning. The tie-ins are that the Night Lightnings were matte black, had twin turbo-charged engines, yellow tips on the props, etc. This project will be painted matte black, all the shiny trim brushed, yellow Brembo brake calipers, a touch of yellow here and there, and a single twin turbo'd engine.

So, now the fun begins. After tons of research and studying the structure, we came up with a very scientific game plan. Cut out everything that was in the way

Our shop, TAJ Motorsports usually does vintage muscle car restorations and custom American iron, so we took a resto-mod approach and cut out what was in the way, and the go back and reinforce the structure more than necessary!

Here we go...

A very structural part had to be trimmed. Not to worry, it will be heavily reinforced later.

Torsion Tubes had to be cut. Have a plan in my head to tie these back together with some creative bracing. We'll see how that goes later on.

The proverbial 5 pounds of doo-doo in a 2 pound sack....but it fits!

Sorta...

A little more trimming and it will look like it belongs there!

tchesney · 09-19-2013, 09:47 AM

Now the bracing begins....I'm using 11 guage square tubing for a reason that will be seen later.

A HUGE shout out to Clint at Rebel Racing. He is the BEST!! I sourced all the suspension components from Clint. He has been so much help to me during this build. Thanks Clint!!

pksystems · pksystems's Garage

Subbed. I thought I was getting crazy with sheetmetal replacement.

jpnovak · 09-19-2013, 11:31 AM

Glad to see this moving forward again.

btw, I think you are going to need bigger flares to fit bigger rubber. It will be fun for sure!

Kemo · 09-19-2013, 11:33 AM

cool project...watching this one with interest

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

thx for posting the pics - will you measure flex of the unit body afterwards?

tchesney · 01:28 PM

So now we move on to bracing the torque tube back together and overall strengthening the rear half of the tub.

When you start trimming, you have to figure out where to stop......oh well, let's just cut it all out!

totle · totle's Garage

Subscribed. Very cool project.

jpnovak · 09-19-2013, 01:54 PM

Here is a 993TT conversion into a 930 chassis. Good times.

My 930 - 993tt engine project

maresdesign · maresdesign's Garage

Cool project. With that type of power your theme made me think of the German ME-262 Nachtjagd or "NightFighter"

jsveb · jsveb's Garage

Awesome aircraft dig the theme.

Will be following.

tchesney · 09-20-2013, 08:10 AM

OK, now it's time to mock up the tires and wheels and other body panels. The rear flairs are steel, and all of the front end stuff is fiberglass.

Decided on 315/35/17 on the rear and 245/40/17 on the front.

Seeing just how much room I DON'T have...

The front's gonna work!!

The rear is looking better with the flair clamped on...

BOZE Forged whipped up this custom set of wheels for us.

I like deep dishes, especially on wheels!

BOZE also made this custom hand painted set of center caps.

Body panels mocked up, now all we got to do is make it all actually stick to the car. Stay tuned!

tchesney · 09-20-2013, 08:34 AM

Now to make room for the bigger tires.

Well, this opened things up a bit...

Cody is a whiz at TIG welding, so he got the job.

Josh is a whiz at tearing things up, so he always ends up with the plasma torch.

After a couple of hours of letting it cool properly before next welds, looks like panel warpage was very minimal. Good job guys!

KTL · 09-20-2013, 08:56 AM

Before cutting out the rear section of the tunnel and the torsion bar tube, I would have thought you would have first put some sections of tubing across the chassis to maintain alignment of the tub. Or is that not necessary since it's not a body-on-frame design? Not trying to be a jerky. I honestly don't know.

Great project. Looking forward to watching and learning.

tchesney · 09-20-2013, 09:07 AM

Front Suspension. Again, Clint at Rebel Racing was and is an invaluable asset to us. I highly recommend him.

Out with the old...

Made a template to brace up the lower control arm.

Had an idea, make my welds look like big rivets. Well, it sorta looks like big rivets....don't it?

A little more yellow paint for here and there. Eventually, the entire bottom of the car will be sprayed with two part epoxy bedliner in black. So the yellow will have a nice contrast with its background.

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Looks great Tim! Just a thought, but with all your reinforcing I think I would throw a little weld on the sway bar mount on the A-Arm. Not a lot holding them on stock, I know because I usually knock them off for the Smart Racing sways as they bolt to the cross arm..

tchesney · 09-20-2013, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KTL

Before cutting out the rear section of the tunnel and the torsion bar tube, I would have thought you would have first put some sections of tubing across the chassis to maintain alignment of the tub. Or is that not necessary since it's not a body-on-frame design? Not trying to be a jerky. I honestly don't know.

Great project. Looking forward to watching and learning.

I have been looking for a while for a Celeste frame table. That being said, you should always do structural work on a uni-body with it tied down to a frame table. I didn't have the luxury of that so my trusty straight edge and tape was used judiciously. And yes, I thought about at least putting some square tubing across it for temporary bracing, but being that I consider the tubs sheet metal 'neutral' (Not any panels that have "stress" so it doesn't rack left, right, up, or down) I went ahead and proceeded with the modifications. We have a saying around here, "shoot for the middle" and that comes from working on so many mid to late 60's muscle cars, which never had decent door, hood or trunk gaps, and uni-bodies that usually come in here twisted like a pretzel, so we always "shoot for the middle. In any car, there are alignment specs and there is an acceptable range that can be safely worked within. We felt confident that can make up for any movement that may or may not have occurred on the alignment table.