Darryl's 1966 Porsche 912

MARCH 2006 PROJECT JOURNAL ENTRIES (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

Entry: 3/1/06 - Today it was time to patch up the nearly unusable bottom portion of the A-pillar pressing liberated from the donor 912. The piece was in marginally better condition than the one on the car so I blasted it and found most of the bottom side was rusted-thru. I carefully cut that portion off the piece and snipped it along the folds to press it out flat and make a pattern for a new piece from it.

Things went relatively well with the fabrication, other than the fact it consumed the entire day! Here's what I ended-up with after hammer-forming the new part out of 20-gauge sheetmetal and welding it back onto the top part of the donor piece that was still usable. Considering that most of it is not visible after the rockerpanel sheetmetal pressing is welded over it, I think it will do just fine. I'll be setting it aside until I get the work on the back end of the longitudinal channel finished since welding the inner rockerpanel pressing into place permanently must take place before welding on the A-pillar bottom.

Entry: 3/3/06 - The rotted left longitudinal channel under the rear torsion bar was put under the knife today. After removing the brake, "banana" arm and shock absorber, I cut away the rusted heater tube and prospected to see how high up the channel the rust went. I trimmed back much of the rotten sheetmetal where the new rear longitudinal pressing will be trimmed to fit. The lock post was trimmed up to the bottom of the latch recess so I could get access to the rusted rocker panel support pressing, which I cut and will replace with a new pressing. I used my yellow paint pen to mark where I hope to make the grafting seams with the new sheetmetal pressing based on the health of the steel at that point. The thing to note is the welds will be hidden behind the spring plate for the majority of the patch.

I cut some dowels to fit in the spring plate mounting holes and test fit the new rear longitudinal pressing. As you can see in the following picture, a lot of forming work remains to make it fit the area. Luckily I'm only needing that lower section because forming the entire patch panel would be a very time consuming job! Grafting a piece of steel muffler tubing into the void where the old rusted heater tube was should be very easy using high-heat epoxy sold as muffler patch at most autoparts stores.

Entry: 3/5/06 - A new outboard seat rail support was wrestled out of sheet steel today, to stub-on about 1" back onto the top half left after the rot "amputation" was performed. The original pressing was a rather complex one which provided a flange at the bottom to spot weld it to the floor pan. My less fancy one copied the vertical bends of the original panel, simply spotwelded to a plain 3/8" wide flange at the bottom. Not pretty but it will get the job done and keep the weight focused downward from the seat rail from flexing the inner longitudinal panel as intended by the designer. I gave the entire thing a thick coat of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator to seal the raw edges and new welds on the sheet steel. I'm kind of in a holding pattern on fitting the replacement sheetmetal pressing around the bottom side of the rear torsion bar housing until the heater tube replacement flexible tubing arrives. I feel it would be wise to have the contents of the channel in place before making any cuts on that expensive pressing.

Entry: 3/6/06 - The rotten area on the inner longitudinal panel in the rear passenger footwell area got the patch treatment today. I cut out the section and grafted in a patch crafted out of 20-gauge sheet stock. A small patch in the corner is temporarily clipped into position with a red clip in the photo. This small patch will be welded in permanently once the new sheetmetal panel behind and under the torsion bar tube is grafted in. I also cleaned-up the flange where the back of the floor meets the base of the rear seat panel (to the left of the red clip in the photo). I decided to leave the strip of original floor and have a double-thickness of sheetmetal at this flange since it was so solid. I am going to leave the double thickness flange on the center tunnel as well. Not stripping the spotwelded floor pressing sheetmetal off these flanges should save quite a bit of labor and provide more material to weld the floor sheetmetal pressing to. Removing it would really serve very little benefit, especially since this area is seam sealed and hidden under sound proof matting. From the outside of the car, there would be no difference either way. When I finished with the patching and welding for today, I media blasted the left rear suspension pieces and gave them a coat of semi-gloss black paint. The completed longitudinal repair should look very good with new undercoating covering the new sheetmetal and new rubber bushings on the freshly painted suspension pieces.

Entry: 3/7/06 - I needed a little change of pace today, so I took on the worn-out drivers door check strap bracket. I needed to use my acetylene torch to gas-weld closed the top side of the retaining pin hole in the bracket, which created a challenge with that much heat so close to the Karmann paint code plate. I didn't want to remove the Karmann plate so my solution was to cover it with a coat of a heat absorbing clay sold as a product called "Heat Fence" by my welding supplier. I needed to heat the bracket red hot so I could melt the new welding rod steel into the existing sheetmetal and get a very solid and cosmetically "pretty" weld. On the bottom, I simply MIG welded in the hole shut, since it's almost completely hidden from view. After a significant investment in diamond and carbide-tipped Dremmel steel cutting tips, I was able to bore out a 5mm hole for the retaining pin. As you can see from the following photo, the repair turned-out very acceptable before most of it is hidden by the door checkstrap..

I test-fit a new door checkstrap using an M5 bolt as a substitute for the correct original retaining pin, itself held in with a "C"-clip. My goal was to keep as much of the two layers of original steel visible from the "good side" or the side seen when you open the door, it doesn't look like it was ever repaired. The back and underside of the bracket tell a different story!

Entry: 3/8/06 - Today's task was fabricating the replacement heater tube that runs under the rear torsion bar tube. I ran down to my local autoparts store and picked-up some 2" plain steel flexible exhaust tubing. It occurred to me that if I cut slices out of the flexible tubing, I could make tighter bends, that is if I could weld the slices back up. I was able to make the necessary slices to the tubing to get the tight bends and weld them back up with my MIG welder. I test fit the finished tube into the opening to make sure of the longitudinal panel clearance before I can cut out the remaining rotten panels. I will be able to weld the new flexible tubing on to the original tubing and then plug any gaps with high-temperature muffler patching epoxy. As you can see in the following picture, quite a few cuts and welds were required to make the 2" tubing work but I figured the important thing was keep the diameter as big as possible to maximize hot air flow.

Entry: 3/9/06 - Today I did a little dressing of the welds on the 2" diameter replacement heater tube and a coat of weld-thru primer to seal the welds from flash rusting. I thought a photograph showing the side-view of all the "slices" taken out of the flexible tubing to make tighter bends would be a good thing to look back on when I do the other side. The last 3" of each end are still flexible, which is what allows me to position the tubing in place with a rubber mallet. Once I cut away the remaining rotten sheetmetal around the heater tube on the car, I will have nearly 360° access for tack welding the flexible tubing into place.

As is normal around CV joints, the area around the transaxle was coated with a thick coating of caked grease and dirt. I thought I had better do a thorough de-greasing of the area with my favorite de-greaser and scalding hot water before doing any welding in there for fear of having a fire in break out around the wiring harness and fuel line. The redeeming quality of caked grease and dirt is how nicely it protects the underlying surface from rust. The orange heater control valve looks almost like new once it was cleaned-off. You can see the dotted yellow line where I plan to make the cut on the plate behind the heater tube area. I'm stepping back and considering all the options of where to make the cuts for the outer panel graft around the torsion bar tube. The dependency on having the heater tube welded into place before the outer skin is going to dictate much of where the seam will go.

Entry: 3/10/06 - Now that the whole heater tube issue has been put to bed, time to cut away all the rotten sheetmetal back to nice meaty points suitable for solid welds to attach the replacement pressing. My first goal was to save as much of the original reinforced, double-thickness metal surrounding the torsion bar tube opening and anchoring the spring plate cover with the four 10M bolts. As it sits tonight, all the rusty metal has been cut away, the lowest torsion bar mounting bolt anchor is gone, the mating surfaces have been spot sand-blasted, wire brushed and in the most visible areas, a weld flange bent into the joining surface. Tabs have been welded onto the original heater tube mounting bracket to allow for the slightly smaller diameter flexible tubing. I'm also test fitting the jack tube that will need to be welded in several points before the floorpan is welded into place.

On the back side, all the rotten metal has been removed and the mating surfaces wire brushed to prepare them for a patch panel graft. In the following photo, you can see the extra material left on the patch I made to the inner longitudinal panel a few days back, an ample amount, not knowing how much I would need to graft but knowing the flange for the floor pan weld extended beyond the rear footwell wall over an inch. I'm pondering how to make sure the floor panel mates with the longitudinal panel. Test mounting the floor pan as I fit that rear longitudinal panel might be the easiest way to insure everything lines-up before committing to welds. Cutting away the old floorpan on the passenger side might be necessary to fit the new floorpan pressing... in other words much more work.

Entry: 3/11/06 - Yesterday I thought test fitting the rear floorpan pressing would require hours of work to cut away the remainder of the passenger side floorpan. This morning about 20 minutes of playing with the floorpan pressing and I've got it clamped into place so I can use it to fit the rear longitudinal pressing. I thought the floorpan looked great in the car and just had to take a photo to help imagine it all welded in!

Cutting down that huge rear longitudinal pressing into the little bit I need to fix the rot in the bottom of the channel went relatively smoothly. I was able to flange the leading edge so it tucks under the inner rockerpanel pressing, holding the panel in place. Tonight all the flanges are clamped into place, including the floorpan! It will be time to start welding the heater tube and jack tube into final position and then weld the entire longitudinal panel from the hinge post back! I'm very happy with how this patch panel went into place, it should blend in and be another almost undetectable repair!

Entry: 3/13/06 - Today the heater tube repair was welded permanently in place and the joining point with the original tubing was sealed with a strip of muffler patch. I gave the entire inner longitudinal panel (all the original steel), the heater tube and new tubing patch a thick coat of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator as one extra layer of protection from moisture. Everything is ready for welding the rear longitudinal patch in place next.

Entry: 3/14/06 - The rear longitudinal patch is welded-in, the welds dressed and grind marks blended-in with a thin coat of JB Kwik Weld. I left the weld bead that will be under the rocker panel support pressing since it will be covered with the sheetmetal pressing. A top-coat of 3M weld-thru primer and call it good enough until I'm ready to coat the whole area with the Wurth high-build undercoat. Next step is welding the patch panel under the torsion bar tube on the inside, which should be a very small piece of steel.

Entry: 3/15/06 - Inner rocker panel pressing was welded into place today, the welds dressed and a coat of 3M weld-thru primer to see the welds better.

Entry: 3/16/06 - Now, I'm finally starting what I would call "body work" because the panels I'll be welding in now will be painted and visible from outside the car. I test fit the left front fender and am happy to see all the bolt holes in the patched fender attachment panel line up to the fender bolts. I also needed to see where the rear edge of the fender lines-up in relationship to the notch for it in the bottom of the rocker panel pressing. As it sits, clamped in place in the following photograph shows where everything will be positioned, including the rocker panel support pressing running parallel to the lock post and anchoring the rear edge of the rocker panel pressing. A good deal of fitting will be required at both ends of the rocker panel pressing but it looks to be very close along the top and bottom edges. I'm rethinking the entire work sequencing and thinking I'll finish the outer rocker panel and do final fitting on the fender and door before starting the other side with welding in the floorpans as the last step. I will be needing to turn the car around on the lift which will require rolling it off so I figure as much longitudinal support on the drivers side as possible is a wise move. I'm pondering a lot of approaches to this next step so the welder will be cold for a few days while I study the problem.

Entry: 3/18/06 - Progress on the 4th phase of the rust repair project was made, welding on of the outer rocker panel. The actual welding of the outer rocker panel will be several steps down the road. Today was the first step, welding in the patched bowl at the bottom of the A-pillar and doing some finish work on the welds done to the longitudinal panel patch under it. As you can see in the following photo, some Wurth high-build underseal has been applied to the wheelwell side of the longitudinal patch and the weld holding the A-pillar bowl in. I decided to leave the weld bead since it cannot be seen once the door is installed.

The weld across the bottom front corner of the door opening required extensive dressing and a light coating of JB Kwik Weld to blend in the repair. The wooden pattern shows the front end of the outer rocker panel pressing is very close to the profile of the original door opening. My work is cut out for me though, the rear end is going to take quite a bit of coercion to make fit the profile. This will have to be the next step as I must have that in position before fitting the rocker panel support pressing. The jack tube and support will be the third step after that.

Entry: 3/20/06 - It was a beautiful first day of Spring here in Seattle so I came out of the "coal mine" for the day and woke up my boat after a 5 month winter siesta, spending most of the day covering Lake Washington as far each point of the compass I can go for a 55 mile loop! The time spent on the 912 today was dismantling the drivers door and studying that ugly situation at the rear end of that Danish-made, Dansk brand replacement rocker panel pressing. Looking at how the pressings fit, given how perfect the front end fits, I've concluded that one of two situations must be evident, the "roughed-in" sheetmetal provided at that end is a "suggestion" or the sheetmetal work I did under the rear longitudinal is significantly different from the factory pressing. It really is pretty much academic because nobody crawls under cars with a caliper and a ruler, you look at the door gap and it's 4 mm all the way around and flush or wrong! I've decided to just cut out the rear-most section of the pressing and discard it, instead custom-fabricating a clean and minimal "bridge patch" to span the gap between the outer rockerpanel and the rocker panel support pressing. I'll re-form the end of the channel section to match the curve of the pieces, original and replacement, that make up the bottom of the lockpost and rear quarterpanel. I've got the door stripped down to the shell so I can mount that if necessary to verify the door gap is parallel and within reasonable hand fitting with body solder on the bottom edge of the door. I think I'll go ahead and weld in the jack post next as it will provide a great place to clamp the bottom edge of the rockerpanel to during fitting. This is one of those times I really have to believe my measurements and patterns are correct and trust them by fabricating to them, plus the door does not lie.

Entry: 3/21/06 - The mental debate raged in my mind through the night and when I faced the problem this morning, fitting the rocker panel support pressing based on where the old one was spotwelded seemed like the logical place to start. I enlisted the use of some #6 ½" self-drilling sheetmetal screws straight out of the furnace duct section of my Home Depot to temporarily attach the new pressing in position. I experimented on some old scrap tin and found the screws tended to strip when turned all the way in so I added some small #8 nuts as spacers so the screws wouldn't strip when moderate torque was applied. I "fiddle-farted" around with the sheetmetal all day and here's what I ended-up with tonight. Some creative use of wood to push the bottom spotweld flange of the rocker panel into position and I have what reminds me of Noah's Ark for some reason. By pushing a long drift punch up through the jack tube cut-out in the rocker panel pressing I can get the rear edge to line-up with the door opening in the original quarter panel sheetmetal. Now all I have to do is figure out how ot get it up there and keep it there using tack welds. This type of work is really "art" as there is no way to script how this thing is going to turn out, just keep working the metal towards the eventual perfect gap alignment with the door hopefully without resorting to the use of BONDO! There are a lot of variables to keep track of here, but it seems like with patience and persistence, I will get everything to align eventually.

Entry: 3/22/06 - Today I welded in the jack post and the rocker panel support pressing. After dressing the welds that will show, I sealed the seams with 3M seam sealer. The structural rigidity of the unibody is now restored so I can remove the bar across the door opening and mount the door shell for gap checking on the next steps, fitting and welding in the outer rocker panel pressing and the lower section of the lock post.

Entry: 3/23/06 - Now we're getting somewhere! I removed the door brace bar and installed the empty door shell today to see how the gaps look. I also media blasted the partially rotted rear quarter panel I cut out of the car. I'm very pleased to see the gaps front and rear are still square and very uniform on the back edge. The edge of the fender at the front of the door is set consistently about 3mm too far forward, which too is good enough for now as the fender will be requiring quite a bit of fabrication to fix the rust at the bottom edge where it meets the rocker panel and I can pretty much custom fabricate it to whatever door gap I need. The rocker panel pressing is going to take quite a bit of fitting to raise up to meet the bottom of the door but the sheetmetal fabrication required should be pretty straight forward there. The factory used lead body solder to fit the gaps so this is familiar territory in the hand-built car world. Today's milestone is having the longitudinal sub-structure all rebuilt and ready for the cosmetic, outer sheetmetal fitting phase begin.

Entry: 3/24/06 - It's time to mount the torsion bar and spring plate again so I thought I had better "texture" and undercoat the new sheetmetal surrounding it and the rear wheelhouse. I experimented with "texturing" the 3M weld-thru primer covered metal using 3M seam sealer, randomly applied using my finger, I thought there could be no better material to use as an substrate to the Wurth high-build underseal to emulate the thickness and splatter pattern of the factory original soundproofing and undercoating material. As you can see in the following photograph, I think I've come pretty close in appearance.

The slow but steady fitting of the outer rockerpanel sheetmetal pressing continues with good results. This seems to be a slow refinement process requiring dozens of passes to fit and adjust. The whole thing is very fun once you decide not to be in a hurry and make it a mental game by trying to understand how the sheetmetal can be "bent to your will."

Entry: 3/25/06 - Tonight the drivers-side outer rocker panel pressing sits screwed into final position, all the spot weld holes punched and underlying steel shined-up with a steel brush and ready for welding tomorrow. I fit the lower portion of the replacement lockpost sheetmetal pressing just to verify the door gap, given where the outer rocker panel sheetmetal pressing aligned. Amazingly enough, that troubling looking sheetmetal at the back end of the rockerpanel eventually lined-up perfectly and I didn't need to cut any of it away after all. As I keep seeing, take careful measurements and trust them and eventually things seem to work themselves out if you are patient and persistent. I'm going to be patching a lower door skin in a day or two and wrapping-up the drivers-side bodywork! Progress is certainly a wonder to behold!

Entry: 3/27/06 - Today was "Money Weld Monday" around here. The outer rocker panel pressing was welded into place, the welds dressed and the panel primed with 3M weld-thru primer. The MIG welder was dialed-in perfectly today and the spotwelds flowed just the way I pictured each one. The welds along the bottom of the outer rocker panel, which can be seen once the car is painted, even though one must crawl on the ground to see them, turned-out perfectly. The welds inside the weatherstrip lip on the door threshold also dressed perfectly and to the same channel depth as the original. I can't tell you how pleased with the outcome I am! For the next task I think I'll work on the bottom panel of the lockpost before fixing the bottom of the door skin.

Entry: 3/29/06 - More "money welds" were delivered today with the attachment of the lower lockpost. The welds went in very clean and after dressing them, stripping all the paint and wire-brushing the entire surface, a very small amount of Evercoat "Rage Xtreme" lightweight self-leveling filler was applied to the weld seam. A coat of 3m weld-thru primer was applied to study the how the two panels aligned and it looks like minimal filler will be needed to finish the seam between the lockpost and rear quarter panel once the bottom corner area is welded in. Next on the task list is re-skinning the bottom 3" of the door so I have the final shape to fit the door gap at the rockerpanel to.

Entry: 3/31/06 - Today the month ended on the piece it opened with, the A-pillar and the seam connecting it to the patched bowl at the base of it. I started the day by welding the outer rockerpanel sheetmetal to the spotweld lip attached to the A-pillar. After dressing the welds I basically "sculpted" the pressing details back into the bottom corner with Evercoat "Rage Xtreme" lightweight self-leveling filler. A coat of red-oxide primer this evening shows the small amount of remaining sanding left up around the hinge recess required before it's ready for paint.

While the filler was drying this afternoon, I cut the bottom 2" off the driver's door skin. The doorskin is held in place with only one or two spotwelds, the rest is secured by crimping the overlapping sheetmetal of the doors skin to the inner panel's flange. Overall, I'm quit pleased with the degree (or lack of) rot in this, the better of the two doors. I placed the section of the door skin I cut out on top of the pre-fab Danish Dansk brand pressing I purchased from Stoddards a few months back. I plan to use the pneumatic flanging tool to place a slightly overlapping flange on the replacement pressing, which I think would be much easier that putting the flange on the original door skin. There are also a couple rotten sections on the inner panel lip that will need to have patch sections grafted in to return the door to a rock-solid condition again.