Darryl's 1966 Porsche 912

NOVEMBER 2006 PROJECT JOURNAL ENTRIES (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

Entry: 11/2/06 - Today's task was to "backdate" the right front fender from a '68 model to a '66 model. This involved removing the four mounting points spotwelded inside the headlight bucket for the "sugar scoop" style headlights by carefully grinding out the spotwelds. The next step was removing the mounting points for the "2 screw" style horn grill, by carefully cutting out the extra metal using a cut-off disc on my Dremel tool. The last step was welding in small metal tabs into the corners of the horn grill opening and mounting the proper "4-screw" horn grill by positioning the grill in the opening and drilling four correct size holes. Tonight the only task remaining on the "backdate" list is welding up the '68 only side marker light holes on the fender. The right side is now a mirror image of the real '66 fender on the left side. As you can see in the following photo, the headlight bucket is naked, the correct "4-screw" grill is mounted and there is a beautiful, uniform gap all the way up between the hood and fender as well as the bottom edge lining-up. Cleaning up the rust in the headlight bucket, turnsignal bucket and the horn grill opening will require simply stabilizing the rust, filling the holes with JB Magic Weld and sealing it in the same fashion as I did on the left side. Considering all the work that has been done to this corner of the car to correct the collision damage, I'd say that it's looking PERFECT-O!!!

Entry: 11/3/06 - After pondering my approach, I decided that installing the outer rocker panel is the best way to proceed. The first step to that goal is positioning and welding in the longitudinal support brace that sits just behind the lockpost. I used a couple #6 sheetmetal screws to position the support brace, based on measurements from the other side. Welding it in went quickly and after punching some plug-weld holes in it, prepping the weld joint by cleaning it to bare metal and giving both surfaces a quick shot of zinc weld-thru primer. As you can see in the following picture, the plug-welds look good and solid. I also patched a damaged section of the weatherstrip lip in the rear corner area of the door opening.

I did minimal dressing of the plug-welds visible from the wheelwell and began the application of the "faux factory undercoating" treatment over the whole area with 3M Ultrapro Autobody Sealant before moving on to final fitting the outer rockerpanel pressing. The pressing mates perfectly with the longitudinal support and the fender attachment bulkhead so, a couple #6 sheetmetal screws and some minor adjustments with my blunt-tipped air hammer tool and it's in place.

Entry: 11/4/06 - Today I punched the plug-weld holes in the outer rockerpanel and welded it in. I decided to strip the outside of the rockerpanel to bare metal so I can use body filler on the area where the lower lockpost and outer rockerpanel join and then prime it with a better choice for bare metal, a self-etching primer. I made a small mistake on the other side by priming the exposed metal on the external sheetmetal in zinc weld-thru primer and I will be needing to strip all that back to bare metal because body filler won't stick to the zinc! No big deal since I'm planning on stripping the remaining paint on the doors and quarterpanels anyway but glad I caught it now before I made too much more work for myself. Hard to believe, there's only a small amount of welding left in the rust repair phase of this project, the lockpost, rear quarterpanel and maybe a little patch on the front fender!

Entry: 11/6/06 - Today's task was grinding all the plug-welds on the outer rockerpanel and preparing the ones that are visible on the lower edge and floor to inner rockerpanel spotweld flange for paint. I gave the plug-welds a thin skim coat of filler to smooth out the irregularities and grind marks and sanded them down. The final step was using the correct type of self-etching primer, Spies Hecker Priomat Primer 3255 self-etching primer. As you can see in the following photo, things look nice and smooth and almost ready for paint. After the car is painted, the rockerpanel will be masked-off right at the bend even with the top of the jack tube and painted with the slightly textured, matt-black Wurth Stone Guard to contrast the Bahama Yellow paint. I can picture it in my mind now, add the new aluminum rocker trim strip I already bought from Stoddards and it will look very crisp and finished!

Entry: 11/8/06 - The installation of the lower lockpost was today's task. Before any welding could take place, I was determined to get all the cracked and dried-out factory undercoating scraped out of the right rear wheelwell and any rust found under it treated with a coat of SEM Rust Seal. As you can see in the following photo, all the undercoating on the upper lockpost, the area under the rear quarter window pinch-weld seam and the area under the chrome rear quarter window garnish has been scraped-off. There is some rust to deal with around the rear quarter window garnish mounting holes what will need to be addressed by spot sandblasting and MIG welding in new steel from the outside of the car when I get to that point in the project but not really a major issue since most of it is hidden hidden under the garnish.

I also stripped and wire-brushed to bare metal where the lower lockpost welds were to be done. I did some final fitting and adjusting of the lower lockpost replacement pressing and finished the pre-welding "layup" work using #6 machine screws and nuts, #6 sheetmetal screws plus a few ViseGrips to hold it solidly in place. Everything was ready to fire-up the MIG welder in the following photo:

Welding went very quickly and once completed, I dressed the welds with my 4½" angle grinder and applied a thin coat of filler to hide the weld seams. The last step was a coat of Spies Hecker Priomat Primer 3255 self-etching primer, to see where more work will be required. I also applied a liberal coat of seam sealer inside the lower lockpost area where it meets the outer rockerpanel to seal that problematic area from future rust. A liberal coat of Wurth High-Build Underseal will also be sprayed up into that area after the rear quarterpanel is welded in.

Entry: 11/9/06 - Wrapping-up the work on the right A-pillar and fender mounting bulkhead was the focus of today's efforts. First thing I wanted to fix was the "wallered-out" door stay tab by using my oxy/acetylene torch and steel welding rod to weld the original hole (vorher in the following photo) closed from the top and bottom. Then some work with my carbide-tipped Dremel tool bits re-bore the hole back to its original size and location (nachher in the following photo):

With the torch work finished, I could now wire-brush and sand all the flash rust from the bare steel of the stripped A-pillar in preparation for filling the welds that patched the rust at the bottom corner of the door opening and the seam across the bottom of the fender mounting bulkhead. I like using the Evercoat Rage Xtreme lightweight filler as it sets-up quickly and sands easily. Once the filler work was done it was time for a nice thick coat of Spies Hecker Priomat Primer 3255 self-etching primer so I could see the areas still needing some filler work. I am planning on running a bead of 3M seam sealer to seal the open seam on the backside of the finder mounting bulkhead, but not until everything is ready for Bahama Yellow paint. For now, the next step is re-hanging the door so I can use its lower back corner as a guide to measure the gap between it and the the remaining panel fabrication work on the rear quarterpanel.

Entry: 11/10/06 - Today's goal was get the final sheetmetal patch for the right rear quarterpanel, above the jack post fabricated. To do that as precise as humanly possible, I needed to re-hang the right front fender, this time installing a new fender bead between cowl and fender, to make sure the spacing was exact. Well while I was working there, I figured it was time to re-gap the door to accommodate the replacement '68 fender. The fender and door nearly touched at the gap right before it met the vent window frame (labeled "Vorher" in the photo below). Close study made me suspect the door side of the gap was heavily body soldered and wouldn't you know, it was and a few minutes of Dremel tool and jeweler's filing later, I've got a door gap (labeled "Nachher" in the photo below) that looks almost exactly the same as the factory one on my '74 911 (labeled "Beispiel" in the photo below):

I spent several hours fitting the door to the opening and once satisfied with the gaps all the way around, I cut the rotten area out of the old rear quarterpanel and fabricated the new patch to replace it from a sheet of 20-gauge sheet stock. As you can see in the following photo, the "layup" work on the new patch is complete and it fits great and soon it will be welded in! I started hammer-and-dolly work on the right door at the end of the day to get the door gap at the bottom uniform all along the new outer rockerpanel pressing and it looks like I'm going to need minimal filler to make it perfect!

Entry: 11/12/06 - Today the rust repair phase of the project is complete! I began the day by taking everything back apart and media blasting the patch to remove the flash rust that had formed on my sheet of 20-gauge metal and the zinc primer off the old rear quarter panel piece to prepare it to take filler. I gave the back side of the patch a thick coat of 3M zinc primer just to seal it from flash rusting. As you can see in the following photo, my patch really does model the original, rotten piece very closely:

Welding the right rear quarterpanel was a very slow and methodical process of making spotwelds slowly and well spread out so the panels wouldn't expand from the heat and warp. Eventually all the gaps were filled and it ended-up looking like this:

My spot welding technique doesn't produce the prettiest welds but they are strong and after dressing with 4½" angle grinder, rust repair phase was done and paint prep phase begins! I decided to strip the paint off the majority of the rear quarterpanel so I could spread a thin coat of filler over a larger area to take care of any door ding dents at the same time. I applied filler, block sanded, applied another coat, block sanded, many iterations while listening to the Seahawks win against their division rivals the Rams on the radio, so the afternoon went by quick. Once satisfied with how smooth the panel felt and the door gap was in the corner of the door opening, I gave the entire area a thick coat of Spies Hecker Priomat Primer 3255 self-etching primer and called it a day. I'm excited to start stripping the right door and working my way forward with the filler / block sanding work. I find this kind of work very enjoyable, especially since all the welding is done! Oh, that little piece of wood with the wood screw in it that is jammed into the weatherstrip channel just above where the door latch would be on the lockpost in the following photo is how I adjust the door opening. I can position the door perfectly by turning the wood screw in or out to the desired depth and then close the door against it.