Time for an update. There's been a bunch of work (at least, relatively speaking) in the last several weeks.
I drove the car over to Millersport Porsche in Hillsboro for Chuck Miller to inspect. He basically said the motor seemed sound, the clutch was slipping, and the body was in good shape. What was I griping about? Yes the underside was rough, and so was the interior, but the car was still fun. Drive it, enjoy it, don't attempt to take it all apart, he warned me. If you do, he said, it will never go back together. Or it will be at least five years. Now, none of us want that.
So I've more or less decided on a middle course of action. Yes, I'm going to take the car apart to a large degree, but not to the degree I imagined a month ago. It isn't worth it. I'm going to make the car solid and as "correct" as possible within reason, and then stop. This isn't going to be a Pebble Beach car. I'm not interested. I want a good looking "sunday driver." Solid, as dependable as possible, and hopefully in better preserved condition than it can be currently with leaking floor pan and window seals. Fresh paint, bright chrome, no water leaks, and cleaned up suspension and brakes. I will probably still spend more money than the car will be worth then it is done, but not by much. What I'm really going to invest is my time. On one hand, that is worth much more than the hours I am going to put in. On the other hand, I'm already having a lot of fun, and learning a lot, so the time is invaluable. Depends on how you want to look at it.
After talking to Chuck, I drove to Amick Motors in Mebane to talk to their bodyman about the nose repair. He said that he could do it, yes, indeed, he has been called a "miracle worker" at times, and that he would do his best to work something out with Dusty for payment. Maybe an engine or something, because he has an even crappier looking 356 just rusting in the lot that he got from Dusty a few years ago, sans engine. I'm not going to hold my breath, but if they can't work something out, I'm going to get this guy to do the nose repair anyway and just pay for it. I've heard good reviews on his abilities from several different sources.
I removed a lot of the interior. Lots of rotten carpet, rotten sound dampening padding, and vinyl.Interior Shot Of course, I wasn't surprised to find lots of rust underneath. Besides the pop-riveted in piece of metal in the driver side floor pan, I found a piece covering the top of the right longitudinal. I haven't removed that yet so I don't know how extensive the rust / hole is beneath it. I do know that the right outer longitudinal needs to be completely replaced. On the subject of sheet metal...
I ordered a new floor pan kit and battery box parts from Restoration Design. After comparing their panels to those from Stoddard and Tweeks, it didn't seem
like much of a contest. Restoration Design makes their panels in house, galvanizes them for rust-proofness, and to top it all off was 15-20% cheaper than the other sources. I'll of course have better information on fitment and quality once they arrive and are installed, but it's a good start.
Last entry, there were a bunch of questions. Some of them I've made up my mind about. I'm not planning on sand blasting or dipping the car. Eeek, I know, we aren't going down to bare metal everywhere! OK, OK, the underbody may get some sandblasting. And yes, some individual parts are going to get sand blasted or bead blasted. Sand blasting the whole entire car simply isn't worth it to me. This isn't a concours level project. I want it to look good, not just from 10 feet, close up, but it doesn't after to be perfect. Dipping was simply too expensive for the effort involved. $1200, and I would have to remove
style="font-style: italic;">everything from the car. Under other circumstances, it would be worth it. Now, it is not. Paint will be stripped off chemically and mechanically. Undercoating the same. Yes, it will be more labor intensive, most likely. My labor. In a way, that's part of what this whole project is all about. I'm learning how the car was put together, and I'm taking it apart and putting it back together myself. I have good confidence I can remove and replace all major sources of rust.
I ordered a bunch more air tools from a number of sources, including eBay (shreek!). Yes, I know what people are thinking, quality tools are worth it. Well, I agree, and have learned my lesson on some cheaper ones. They are worth it to a point. On hand tools especially. Nothing sucks more than using a cheap Chinese screwdriver on a tight screw and actually torquing the screwdriver bit into an s-shape without budging the screw! Talk about crappy metal. But with air tools, it does seem that for things like nibblers, grinders, etc. the construction is very similar. Plus, the
amount of money you can save buying import stuff versus name-brand is considerable. If it wears out I can buy it again twice before it starts to be more cost effective to buy the American stuff. So I bought a generic grinder, nibbler, and flange/punch tool.
Tonight I also bought a Lincoln Electric SP-135 Plus MIG welder. After much agonizing about whether or not I would be skilled enough to do the sheetwork repair and fabrication, I am going to take the plunge. This is one tool I didn't skimp on. OK, ok, some of you who are reading this might think that going to 220 volts versus 110 would have been a good idea, but this is the nicest machine you can get for 110, and I don't plan on doing much thicker welding than auto-body, for which it will be more than sufficient. Besides, if I find I need more, the resale value of Lincoln
welders seems to hold up very well. From what I could see by perusing eBay, I could get almost all of my money back even after a few years of heavy use, if I take care of it.
So what's in store for next week? Grinding rust on the interior panels where I intend to weld, grinding rust off of interior panels that have to be saved (in anticipation of coating them with some rust-proof coating, yet to be decided), and if the welder arrives, practicing my sheet welding skills on some 20 gauge stock.
