Yet another rescue Porsche.

[The Glademister]

I finally got back into the metal work after a week or so of work duties, etc. I trimmed the rear trunk pan for a better fit and started the install last night. Seam welding along the cross member was really easy due to the multiple layers of sheet metal there. The rear section will be a bit more tedious with a lot of rosette welds where I drilled out the spot welds on the original pan.

Buzzbait - I'm waiting on another buyer to see if he wants the grills along with the fog lights.

[The Glademister]

I finished welding the rear trunk pan. Everything went pretty well with no major burn throughs. I ground off as much of the beads as I could but it gets pretty tight in the rear corners. Just have to keep reminding myself it's a race car - not a concourse car After grinding I cleaned the area again, prepped and applied POR 15. I think it's wise to use that on all the pans and attaching surfaces. The fun part will be painting the underside with that. I'm just using a brush so maybe that won't be too bad

[TR]

Good job, welder looks like its doing the trick.
TR

[The Glademister]

Thanks TR. That little welder is the best $99 I ever spent I was just reviewing the photos and realized I probably need to weld the cross member from the underside to the new pan. That's going to really suck with the car on jacks (no rotisserie). Do you think I'll lose much structural integrity with just the lap welds on the top side?

[TR]

No, but alternatively you could just weld and inch long bead every six inches and clean it with a wire brush and seam seal it.

It is neater if you weld the whole way, though welding upside down is hard work.

I'm also very impressed with the welder it does a better job than my 800 dollar mig back at home. The wire feed is smoother and it has been absolutely hassle free.

I've been on holiday for a few weeks so now need to get my project up and running again. Need to clean out the fuel tank and I'm not looking forward to that.

Cheers
Terry

[The Glademister]

With the rear trunk somewhat completed, I'm working back in the drivers compartment. Last night I cleaned up the inner clam shell on the drivers side and looks like there will be more patches needed there. I also stripped the remaining floor pan off the bottom of the tunnel. Rather than trying to break the welds, I just cut the lower 1/4" off the sides of the tunnel. About 2/3 of that was rusted through anyway. I'll have to do just like TR and scab on about a 2" strip of sheet metal along both sides of the tunnel to join the floor pan. In fact, I'll need to do that also on the inner firewall and under the dash at the bottom of the front "firewall". It's amazing that anyone was able to drive this car with some much rust! The sheet metal where the master cylinder attaches only has about 1/4" of solid material. I'm not certain if it's best to add these strips before the pans go on or after. It's going to be a little difficult to determine exactly where to bend the new metal for attaching flanges when so much is missing. It certainly will be easier to work inside the open gaps (like now) than crawling around the small space after the pans are in

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

One note: These later chassis tend to crack around the area where the bump-in for the handbrake handle lives. Probably worth reinforcing in that area.

--DD

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

One note: These later chassis tend to crack around the area where the bump-in for the handbrake handle lives. Probably worth reinforcing in that area.

--DD

Good tip Dave. I'm considering a frame reinforcing kit from Restoration Design. With as many patches as this ones going to have - it's probably a good idea. That way I can thrash it without worry

[The Glademister]

Back at it tonight. I revisited the passenger side inner clam shell. I cut out a 29" x 1.5" strip and welded in fresh metal. It looks like all the interior sheet metal that joined the floor pans, 1" - 2" along the bottom will have to be patched. I suspect that pools of rain water sat in the floor pans of this car for extended periods of time. I just keep cutting and patching...

[The Glademister]

Bottom of inner clam shell welded. I'm definitely getting better at this. I only had to go back and fill a few pin holes this time. I'm learning to work those little puddles, let off, hold the gun in position, then continue. Giving just a few moments for the puddle to cool is the key to not burning through

[The Glademister]

Starting in on drivers side inner clam shell.

[The Glademister]

Great progress today. I got the drivers side inner clam shell patched and moved on to the front firewall. This is where it gets a little odd because so much of the bottom is missing - how tall should the patch be? I saw some remains of the bottom of the rear firewall and that gave me a pretty good sense of where the floor pan mates with the front firewall. I cut 1 1/2" strips and bent 1/2" for attaching to the pan. I can modify that attachment if needed. On the drivers side I notched out for the parking brake tubes which are in fairly good shape. There's also a bit of a bend where the firewall joins the inner clam shell. On the passenger side the rust had migrated further up in that bend and I added another 2" of sheet metal to that area. Of course when I was wire brushing some more holes opened up a bit higher Oh well, that's going to be happening a lot with this poor beast and I'm just going to keep patching

[TR]

Hi
my effort was lame compared to what you are doing , keep at it because it gives me inspiration.
Oh, and don't forget to have a beer at the end of the day.
Cheers
Terry

[The Glademister]

I had a couple hours this evening to move on to the area of the drivers compartment. I decided to tackle the tunnel (or what's left of it).
I just reviewed TRs posts on his rebuild here... I've joined the ranks of the 914 club.
Our Aussie friend did have bit more to work with but the the same principles will apply to my poor beast. Followers will note that earlier I removed about 1" of rusty material the whole length on both sides of the tunnel. First step tonight was to remove the remaining sound deadening material. My AC operated vibrating cutting tool is excellent for this purpose. I'm leaving the wiring harness in place as long as I dare just because I'm not sure how much of it I'll actually use. I removed the shifter and heater switch (discarded the heater cables, no use for them). Also cut out the dangerous nylon fuel lines. I'll definitely be replacing those with steel tubing. After scraping off the bulk of the sound material, I followed up with a wire brush. Final chore of the evening was to remove the remainder of the cross member. I ground off the welds and popped it off with a chisel. There was more rust under the cross member and I'll have to at least add more patching to the passenger side. That's a rather complex bend in the tunnel so I'm thinking of rust kill and then adding a strengthening layer of sheet metal over the top that wraps all the way over the tunnel where the cross member attaches. That could cause dimensional problems when I weld in a replacement cross member later though but I know I can make that 20 gauge sheet metal conform to the tunnel snugly. Undecided at this time what to do there.

[The Glademister]

Another few hours of tunnel fun this afternoon. I decided, "What the heck?" and just cut the offending rust area out that was under the cross member. Being careful to not mangle the cut out section - I used that as a template for a patch. Bending the new sheet metal with a vise, nylon hammer and handy piece of angle iron. I got it as close as I could and then started welding it in using magnets under to hold it in place. On small area had a different bend but I was able to hammer the metal close enough to bridge. It's not pretty but everything will get rust kill and sealed with POR 15.

[TR]

At least its now all solid new metal which will be easier to weld the pan onto. way to go.

[The Glademister]

Despite the extreme cold in the garage, I'm back at the tunnel today. First step was to try a figure out how much material to add. Taking a straight edge and laying against areas known to have attached to the floor pan - that gave me a reference. This section was from the patch on the passenger side forward to the foot wall. I sub-divided it into three segments which made cutting the new sheet metal, fitting and welding much easier. This is all become rather routine to me now. I have a small segment on the passenger side of the tunnel left and then it's on to drivers side. Oddly, I'm just now using up the first sheet of metal purchased two months ago. It seems like I've hacked through a dozen.

[The Glademister]

So I'm cutting back towards the firewall from the center tunnel patch and I've found that there's a second layer of metal around the seat belt anchor point. That makes for some slow cutting. It's fairly decent metal so I get my trusty chisel and peel the outer thin layer off and leave the thick metal. I also made notices in the 1/2" flange on the patch. That keeps the strip straight when you bend the flange (something anyone that had shop class would know ). With that patch in, the complete passenger side of the tunnel has been replaced. I've got another hour before lunch and what the heck, let's do another . I'm all the way in the passenger footwell and that section joins part of the metal that's curved under the fuel tank. That tank area was chock full of crap when I got the car but surprisingly not completely rusted through. Cutting out the vertical section of the footwell allowed good access for a wire brush and that bottom tank area cleaned up pretty good. It took the welds nicely but it was extremely difficult the grind the welds down. I've got one section left in the passenger side. That's the odd piece attached to the wheel well. I'm not sure what purpose it serves but I'll patch it also. The wheel well (the backside is part of the footwell) is in good condition on this side. In fact, that's the only area on the passenger side that contacted the floor pan that I'm not having to patch

[The Glademister]

A bit more progress last night. That little odd shaped area that's behind the wheel house appears to be engineered just to support the fuel tank. Perhaps there's some additional structural benefits but I patched it anyway. I noted that the bottom of the wheel house will need a patch. At least the seam is still there to help in the fabrication. With the passenger side of the interior floor pan connecting metal done - I'm moving back to the drivers side. There's some real challenges there as not much is left of the foot well area and when I looked closely at the underside of the tunnel - there additional structure associated with the pipes that will complicate the patch. I've got a plan and it's much like TR did with his tunnel.

[The Glademister]

The plan on the drivers side of the tunnel is to lap on long strips of sheet metal rather than butt weld. This will make it much easier to keep the joining edge to the pan the correct elevation and I won't have to cut into the shifter supporting metal. You can see that structure in my shot from under the tunnel. I will have to clean, rust kill and prime with weld through before lapping. That's going to be really messy with the car on blocks and keeping those chemicals off clothing and skin will be important. I was hoping to do all the treatment on the longs, firewall, foot wells and tunnel all at once but I'll need to get the original metal on this side of the tunnel taken care of before I lap fresh metal on top. The last photo shows the first strip I've fabricated for this side.