58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[merbesfield]

Looks really nice Justin. I can't wait to get back on my A. Shouldn't be too long. Just a little bit more work and the front pan on my 911 will be done and then the A gets all my love.

[Erik H]

Justin, watching your progress makes me want to start another one. Unfortunately, I entrusted my finish work to some "highly recommended experts" many years ago. The problem is they were not Porsche experts. My car has issues that 99% of the population wouldn't notice but you know how "we" are.

[JTR70]

Thanks Mark, Great to hear you'll be back on your coupe here shortly. Looking forward to it.

Hey Erik, I know what you mean, after enough time is spent studying these cars you really have to have things a certain way to happy. I sure didn't start out this way; shiny paint was once enough but I have sunken deeper into my obsession for detail in the last 10 years or so. It creeps in! Justin



Primer and tracer coat applied

Blocking it down next to see whats left to correct.

[JTR70]

7/3/13

Blocked with just a few light noogies that needed a swatch but am just about done here. one more tracer will determine that for sure.

[JTR70]

7/4/13
Another small "redo" to correct an oversight on my part yet again. Now that I am working on the rear of this car I am correcting an old original component mistake I made concerning the decklid.

As described earlier with the hood hinges when Reutter fitted and gapped the hood they drilled two "locating" holes to find the original set adjustment easily. photo above shows this hood in the exact adjustment when it left the Reutter factory all those years ago.

Well shortly after that, it sank in that the decklid and its original hinges got the same treatment. When I restored this orignal decklid several years ago I of course completely overlooked that detail and grabbed a pair of generic hinges that were not the original ones to the car and restored them. Powder coated them semi-gloss black first. BTW I would not recommend powder coating hinges. The media and the paint clog up the mechanism and is a PIA to get them clear and opperational again. Lots of time spent working them free with alot of penetrating oil. A mess!

As I releaded and fit this original lid a while back it did strike me how poorly it was fitting for an original panel. You would assume the hinges to be all exactly the same but they can vary ever so slightly once mounted. A perfect example was my biggest problem of poor elevation fitment from the body to the leading edge of the lid. The lid stuck up just a few mm's. There is no real adjuetment for this misalignment. If its high the rain tray would have to cut-down and rewelded to achieve the desired level. I wasn't doing that!

With my new awareness this ratty old silver/black decklid on my shelf started gaining my attention. I thought it could be the original to this car??

A quick test fit confirmed it was the orignal hinge fitted to this car.
Unfortunately through my ignorance I must have unwittingly sold the original right hinge some time back.

My "stand-in" hinge is the original one from my "coupster" by the paint on it. In its matched correct adjustment I got one hole to line up. An easy fix.

The delima was now do I go through the trouble of restoring these with a perfectly restored pair in front of me???

The deciding factor was the photo above. Perfect decklid to body elevation with the original hinge installed. I now have the fitment I wanted without any serious ceremony.

Fully mounted and latched here with the correct hinges. The gap is now too tight on this side where I filled it a while back but I can open it back up easily enough. Another BIG lesson on the subject of small details. I'm being educated all the time. Thanks for reading this! Justin

[Erik H]

I'll send you a photo of mine and you'll feel better.

[roy mawbey]

Hey Justin,

In the first pic above of the front hood two small alignment holes it looks like the holes do not go through the backing plate? Probably my eyes? And I used mine to assist and didn't know that the rear lid was done the same way. I will be checking mine. ( won't move it though as its the best gap on the car.)

Roy

[JTR70]

Hey Roy, its just the camera angle, the alignment holes line up and go all the way through. I am sure you'll find everything on that car of yours exactly the same way it left the factory. Its too nice! Justin

[JTR70]

7/7/13
Gapping and leveling the decklid in with the body. The original hinge and stand in hinge are now set and full latched with the rubber buffers at each corner.

Because of the change in fitment the other pair of hinges had on this decklid I had built up too much lead on this side. Both in the gap and the elevation on this upper surface. Now that the proper original hinge is in it has sucked this panel back down were it should be. I am now filing the lead back even with it and opening up this gap.

Just like the doors and hood before I am now blocking and leveling this lid in with the body for a smooth transition across the gaps.

Good elevation overall but there are slight waves and low spots that need a swatch. Continuing on with blocking this area tomorrow.
Thanks for looking! Justin

[Rad-Ride]

Looking good Justin! There were many times at car shows I have attended that you could see that the doors or trunk lid were done off of the vehicle. Great work on all the details that most people never notice or overlook!

[Phil Planck]

Justin
Saw your update on the Registry forum. What did you have to do to get happy with your rear quarter? Beautiful work!

Phil

[JTR70]

Thank you Frank! That is lesson that took a few years to finally sink in for me. You just cannot finish the panels seperately from the body and expect good gaps and uniformity in the reflections across them.

Hey Phil, Thank you!
If you take a look at mid-page 59-60 of this thread I have described what's going on with that left rear fender. I haven't done anything with it yet other than strip it. I need to shrink the area so I am ordering Wray Schelin's disc's per your recommendation. I'll be sure to detail the work as it progresses. Thanks again! Justin

The swatches are getting smaller up the sail panel and roof. While I'm at it I decided to block across the upper portion of the door and quater panel just try and get a "little bit" better. I took it back about as far as I can without creating a wave/low spot so its ready for primer.


Decklid area also continues to be leveled. So close...just more time...
Thanks for stopping by! Justin

[roy mawbey]

Looking super Justin. I did check for the alignment holes in the engine lid hinges. Of course I found them perfectly lined up. They are lined up because it seems the factory must have mounted the lid with the 4 off bolts loosly fitted then carefully lowered it into place and probably wiggled it around for the best fit then raised it and tightened the 4 nuts. Then checked again and then drilled the alignment holes in the hinge arms.

I have had my lid off a number of times and just removed the 4 bolts and never realised why it always fitted back so perfectly. Of course if another old hinge arm was used from another car ( like you did I believe) then of course the process is much more difficult. The bolt hole position could well be out from the original arm.

Interesting as I never looked before so closely.

Roy

[JTR70]

I never had any doubt Roy! Your car is just too well preserved...

8/1/13
block sanding phase continuing with a new added detail along the way.

Another round of epoxy primer and wet sanding. This right side roof, sail panel and quarter panel are getting really close.

As my wet sanding progressed the pool of water here in the lower windshield corner got me thinking about past and future seepage. I know in previous years the water would pool in between the seal here and seep over the rail and leak either directly into the defroster vent or become absorbed by the dash padding at the corners eventually rusting out the dash pad panel. Which is exactly what happened to the original one. I always want to give the water some place to go and since I already installed drains in the rear window I thought I should install some here as well before its too late.

Picked the lowest point and drilled the pilot hole for the drain tube which will eventually dump out in the door well undetected.

The described leakage above is exactly what caused this decay to heater tube and closing panel up by the neck of this very rusty chassis I am currently working on.

[JTR70]

Getting back to my block sanding on this right hand side I turned my attention again from the big stuff to the small, tedious and easily overlooked like this A-pillar surface. It had a few low spot and irregularities in the original lead work that I didn't like. Skim coats and repeated block sands here as well.

outer transition from gutter to body smoothed and shaped on this corner.

transition from body to door also addressed along with the B-pillar upright blend.

Moving upward the transition from B-pillar to gutter also worked. BTW: I did not get these right away it took a few passes and coats of primer before I was happy. All these areas were still in process in these shots. Needless to say I spent a few hours just on these details.

After another tracer coat the roof sail panel and rear fender were so close but I had two spots of high metal (primer areas coming through) where the roof and fender were originally welded that were causing disruption in the reflection. I could have almost left it because the reflection is slippery and bent in this contour but I wanted it better. A couple of very light taps brought them down. This side is almost there.
Thanks for reading this! Justin