1982 Porsche 924 TrackBuild, Should it Stay or Should It Go?

Have a great fondness for the 924, spent a couple of years crewing for a lad who ended up at the pointy end of PCGB/BRSCC 924 many years ago

As such I know all about removing underseal from a 924 shell, thankfully we never had quite those rot issues. That said we did strip a couple of crispier bodies. Really tidy work, think I recall a few of your earlier projects and the quality being of a high standard.

Thanks guys.


Very good point. For some reason I got a bit confused over this. I had it in my head that it was the case, but when I looked quickly at the MSA yearbook while looking at the car and thinking what the best solution might be, I couldn't find it in there.  Looking again now it's definitely there clear as day! It's lucky I did it this way!

Just as a minor note, the regs say "ROPS must not extend beyond the front upper or rear suspension mounting points of the vehicle." I'm not sure exactly what on the 924 (or a lot of other cars for that matter) would be classed as the 'rear suspensions mounting point'. The rear beam has a series of 3 mounts down each side, with the rear-most one behind the axle line. On a leaf sprung car could you go as far back as the rear spring shackles!? It doesn't matter much to me, where I've put it is in front of the axle line, and in line with the rear shock (which passes in front of the drive-shaft), but it's an interesting ambiguity all the same.

Really like that rotisserie. Is it shop bought or something you fabbed up?

Tubes!



I'm almost ready to drop the cage down in the shell and seam weld up all these joints, I've just got the diagonal braces between the door-hoops and the B-pillar to cut and notch.

After that the sequence will be:

- Lift the cage back into position and tack it in place (at roof level only.)
- Make the forward bracing to turrets (while a-pillar's are still loose so I can flex them inboard to get a weld all the way around)
- Notch and fit the door bars (while the b-pillars are still loose, again to let me flex them in for more access, although this will still be a pig to weld)
- Fully weld up the foot plates for the A and B pillars.
- Then the main hoop X bracing, the rear legs including their diagonal, and the dash and harness bars can all go in last. (As I can access all sides of them with the cage in situ.) I'll also be gusseting the main hoop and roof X in the centre, but thanks to the sunroof the roof one's accessible in situ, so I'll leave putting the extra heat in things until the cage is in it's final position and as braced up as possible.
- Stand back and hope I'm happy with it!

Yep, the screen's still in, and definitely knackered! It was far from great before I started, but after one too many times forgetting to protect it I've given up on it at this point. I guess it'll teach me to be more careful next time! As a small silver lining, when the time comes to replace it, I can fit a late 944 screen which will sit flush with the opening rather than inset like the 924one does, for a tiny little aero gain.

I was hoping to keep going with it last night, but some bag of human excrement tried to break into the unit on Wednesday night. Thankfully they failed (quite miserably). So I spent a very long evening down there adding some serious reinforcement to the door along with a second lock and a shield over the main lock to hinder access to it. I'm happy it's a lot more secure now, but worried that if someone's got their eye on our stuff, they may come back better equipped next time.

Thanks JP. I'm not sure if an intruder would be more scared or confused by a rattle snake in rural Somerset!

Well I accidentally solved the 'will the screen be usable' debate:



Woops! I was trying to knock the wiper spindle down through the scuttle and caught the edge of the screen. I can be a clumsy tit sometimes!

Right, so cage progress:

So with all the roof level tubes in place, it was time to cut the tack welds holding the cage up in place and let it drop down to hopefully give enough space to get the welder into the top of the tubes.

Yep, that'll do!



Welded up:



Next up, bracing forwards to the front turrets:



Then door bars and the dash bar:







I didn't do the A-pillar bars yet as they'll make it a lot harder to get my head & arms into the foot-wells while I'm filling in all the holes I've had to cut in the shell, and their welds will be completely accessible even with everything in situ.

Speaking of welds being accessible, some of them as expected have been a complete pain to get at, and as such haven't ended up with as neat weld as I'd like but I'm happy that everything's got a strong, full weld on it, even if it is a bit messy in places.

I've also welded up the hole around the drivers side front leg of the cage, and made and welded in the spreader plates. I've left the cage leg poking right through the shell, end capped it and welded a spreader plate on the outside and inside. This way the leg's in double sheer and the spreader plates are sandwiching the box-section of the sill. Hopefully it should be pretty well tied into the cars structure!

On the outside:



And the inside:



I won't be able to touch it for about a week not as I've got a few things going on, but when I'm back I'll continue with the passenger side foot, before filling back in the holes where the forward bracing passes through the bulkhead. Then I can get the A-pillar bars in and start putting the tubes in the back half.

proper job, i love the cage work.

Bracing back from the door bars to the rear legs. Hopefully, should the worst happen, these will provide a nice force path front to rear around the cabin.



And the main hoop cross is in now too:





I did a quick count earlier, and that's 29 tubes in place, with 2 left to go. Getting there!

just a complete triumph