Jack Triangle and Primer

I've been busy with work over the summer but I'm going to be getting back into the car over the next few weeks and months… I missed this little bit of welding and painting from May so I'll get that posted.

Here's the Jack Triangle welded..there's one on each side.

Then it took a while to clean up the whole driver side ready for a coat of epoxy…

Then finally…PLENTY of epoxy all over.

Rear Suspension Console Reinforcement

I've heard horror stories of rear suspension consoles tearing  - especially on higher horsepower cars, or in competition especially with slick tyres. I've had advice from the guys on 914World to beef up the 'arms' that connect the rear suspension ear to the main chassis as this can be prone to failing so here's how I did it...

Here's the area in question..

I fabricated a plate with cuts in it to fit around the larger arm..

This was then tack welded along one edge..

Then the plate is carefully hammered and folded over the arm..

...clamped and welded down..

You can see I did the same for the shorter arm nearest to the camera in the pic above. I also added the regular plate to the chassis itself and welded it all up. Again, I was really careful to weld around the suspension so I didn't build up too much heat in any one spot. I also cooled each weld with compressed air.

Here it is after all the welding's done..

You've got to be aware that the Trailing Arm will need to clear all the added metal so I was careful to grind the welds flat where the Trailing Arm is bolted.

Job done...hopefully it won't break and I won't have to eat my words!

Tangerine Racing - Suspension Ear Re-Inforce - Drivers Side

Super quick then as I've done this before for the other side of the car. Here's the reinforcement of the Driver's Side rear suspension ear..

Here it is paint free and cleaned-up. I was relieved this one was even better than the passenger side ear. I guess the inside has surface rust but it's fine on the outside.

Here it is with the Tangerine Racing reinforcement welded into place..

I was very very careful to weld a bit at a time and cooled each weld with compressed air to avoid warping the Suspension Ear.

tags porsche 914 rear suspension ear tangerine racing chassis reinforcement upgrades

Spring Garage Clear Out

After stripping all the black stone-chip off the bottom of the car; and the various floor pan repairs, the garage was a royal MESS!

We've just about finished a large extension to the house which has given me a large piece of Lino that had been on our kitchen floor. I laid it out on the stones in front of the garage and merrily wheeled the car out on the Rotisserie. Now I can get rid of all that crap in the garage without covering the car in 'too much' dust.

Floor Pan Fixes

There were a few spots on the bottom of the Floorpan that needed fixing - the rear section of the centre tunnel was crushed and a corner of it was rusted through.

I also decided to replace the seat-mount reinforcements on both sides. They weren't rusty but were pretty beaten up. So off they came..

This is the 'Short Rear Floorpan' section from Restoration Design. I'm only going to be using small sections from it...

So I cut out and cleaned up the rusted floor corner..

 ..and fitted and welded in the new section.

I did the same for the centre tunnel..

..and welded in the section from the new RD FloorPan.

I ground off the tops of the weld. It doesn't need to be beautiful as ultimately it'll have heavily textured undercoat on it.

This is the new RD Seat Reinforcement strips welded in (on both sides).

Once the repairs were done, I did a bit more cleaning up and lightly sanded the first primer coat so the next layer could key to it.

Floor Pan Clean-Up and Inspection

The Floor Pan is in pretty good shape all round fortunately. OK there are a few scrapes and a couple of rust spots but otherwise really good for a 40 year old car with pretty primative rust protection.

First job was to remove the underbody jacking points which were toast on both sides. I have new Restoration Design(RD) replacements.

I ground out the spot welds and chiselled it off...

It's pretty rust-pitted underneath these jacking plates; but I'm reluctant to start chopping into the Longs and replacing these sections as I don't think it's that bad.

So then I went to town on removing the cr*p from the bottom of the car. The tar came off with a scraper and Heatgun, the wire cup brush took care of the white mastic sealer while paint-stripper took off the.....paint ofcourse. Oh yeah and a whole bucket load of elbow grease!

From this...

..to this.

Here are the problem bits. the firewall end of the centre tunnel had been crushed and one corner of the floorpan had rusted through but no big deal, I'll fix those next.

This bit's fine though; this is the reinforcement for the pedal cluster.

And here it is after the first coat of epoxy.

..and onto the Rotisserie, finally!

I've had the basic Rotisserie for some time now - thank you Stuart (Mr.Pharmacist on DDK)! The usual way to fix the Rotisserie frame is through the bumper mounts but I didn't trust mine. At some point the car has had a bump at the front which has ripped the holes that the bumper fixed to. I've also done big repairs at the back and the bumper mounts aren't completed yet...so it made sense to me to fix the Rotisserie frame elsewhere.

The front suspension points and the rear transmission mounts make good sense because they're way stronger and hold the car at more points than the bumper mounted option would.

So here's the attachment at the front.

At the back, the frame fixes simply to the Transmission/Gearbox mounts. You can see the frame itself has a ton of reinforcement welded. It's probably way over built and strengthened but I'm not taking any chances of the tub falling off and destroying itself and/or me..

And so to the fun bit...

We're having a lot of building work being done to the house right now so I recruited the builders and one plasterer to help lift the body while I engaged the frame. Thanks to Richie, Tim and Matty!

 
Special kudos to big Matty for lifting the entire front of the tub single handedly. The guys did a 'test lift' to gauge the weight of the thing and said it would be easy to lift for a few minutes. But the reality was I only had a few seconds to get the frame engaged before things got wobbly! Still it's done now...hoorah.

Here's a few more shots of the crew and various bits and bobs:

Me setting up the frame...

Matty taking the strain!..

The Rotisserie is connected front the back by 40mm x 40mm box sectioned steel and the whole thing is mounted on lockable castors so I can move it around as needs be..

Here's a shot of the mess to clean up on the underside. Lots of nasty black underseal and paint to remove but fortunately not a massive amount of repair work needed; floor pans are largely very good.

Porsche 914 Rotisserie