1986 Porsche 911 - with added E46 M3

Right, I'm calling this piece of chassis repaired and ready to go back on.




I can't put it back on until the piece of floor it goes on is fixed.




It doesn't look that bad from the inside, does it?

I have already taken most of the tar board off the floor when I replaced this bit.




I have saved the jig that I used to knock in those fingery lumpy bits, I hope it will be some use when I have to make the new piece.

Anyway, the tar board, there was one little piece left.




I didn't remove that previously because I didn't think that I would need to and also, it is right next to the plastic heater duct and I didn't want to risk melting it with the heat gun.

Now it needs to come off so I had to root through my stash for something to protect the plastic.

I found this much used plumber's heat blanket.




Luckily, that did the trick.




Now I have to cut the old bit out.




I marked up where I was going to cut but also where the foldy and fingery lumpy bits go.

Partly to see if the new ones und up somewhere near where they are supposed to be but mainly to kill some time because the grinder was in the shed and it was raining.

I may have complained about the sun and it being too hot just recently, but I have changed my mind and I want the sun back.

When the rain eased I got the grinder and...




The small hole is now a big hole.




That is quite a scabby piece.

I took it up to the shed and tapped it up a bit to get it back to its proper shape.

It had been deformed a little by wire wheeling, drilling and peeling chassis sections from it.




Now I have something to copy.

I haven't started copying it yet because I ran out of energy and enthusiasm.

The Doc made a cake this morning to take in to work and in a massive stroke of fortune, she managed to save some to bring home for me.





Cheers.

Thanks, Duckie.



I've been missing in action for a couple of days; Wednesday was quiz night.

We came fifth, we were short handed again so we were on the back foot to start with but it was still a poor showing.

Too many sports questions, especially when our sports expert didn't turn up.

Yesterday was the Lovely Doctor's birthday so I thought it might be considered to be bad form if I went in the shed...

I was hoping to make up for lost time tonight but as (bad) luck would have it, I was late home from work and feeling totally done in.

I didn't feel like doing anything when I got in but I managed to make myself go to the shed for an hour.

I need to make a new one of these.




It doesn't look too complicated but as usual it is more involved than it looks.

The curved edge is not a straight line because it kicks out at one end, right in the middle of the area where the 'flat bit' has an up and down kink.

I cut out a piece of steel to start roughing it out.

I started with the curved edge then bent the up and down bits.

Because of the uppy downy bits I had to stretch and shrink the curved edge.

It was a bit oversized there so I cut it down a bit to make it easier.




It was then a case of working on the curvey bit then the bendy bits one after the other several times because working one bit effected the other bit.




It is roughly in the right place now.




I didn't have the energy to start chasing those lumpy fingery bits in tonight.




I've got some stuff to do tomorrow so I don't know if I will get much, if any time in the shed.


Cheers.

I don't think it is bravery, more like me desperately trying to drag myself out of the hole I dug for myself when I bought this rotten old banger.

I did expect that there would be a bit of rust to sort out, it is twenty years old, but I was quite shocked by just how much rust there was hiding under there.


Well, the weekend just gone;

On Saturday, the weather was lovely so I hung my washing out then went to the cafe for breakfast.

I had some stuff to do in town, which is four miles from home and it continued to be red hot and sunny.

When I got home I found that it had hammered down and my washing was wetter than when I put it out.

Someone has got it in for me, it's a conspiracy!

Anyway, I thought that I would watch the F1 qualifying before I went out to the shed.

I did watch the F1 but my mate Nige turned up after so there was no time left for mucking about with bits of tin.

Never mind, I could make up for it on Sunday by getting up earlier and going straight for breakfast then I could go in the shed before the F1 and get back in there afterwards.

Except just as I was about to set off, my dad called saying that his water tank was leaking and could I help.

He is about fifty miles away.

I went over, sorted the plumbing (I hope) and I also took the opportunity to see my mum and my sister.

That meant that I missed breakfast, I missed the F1 and I didn't get in the shed, again.

I watched the race highlights later.

Today was back to work and it all want reasonably to plan, until my last job.

That was annoying and made me late home.

I was thinking that I wasn't going to bother going in the shed again because I was not feeling it but I had a long drive home to think about it and decided that I really should do something.

I have the roughed out piece of floor, seen here with the original piece on top of it.




The roughed out piece doesnt have those square-ish lumpy bits in it, yet.

When I made this piece of floor, ages ago.




I made a simple hammer forming tool by cutting out where the lumpy bits would go into a piece of 1.2mm steel.

This was it before I cut the slots out, I don't seem to have a picture of it after.




I managed to re use it to make the lumpy bits in this piece.




There is absolutely no finesse in this, I just clamped the thing in the back and knocked the lumps in with a chisel.

It is only a piece of floor and you will not see most of it anyway so I think it is ok to not go mad trying to make it perfect.

I offered it up to the floor so see if it looks any good, the piece is still oversized at the moment.




It didn't look too bad so I got the repaired piece of chassis out to try with it.




They will both need a bit more tweaking to make them sit together more comfortably but I should be able to do that.

But I won't be doing it tonight because I really have had enough now.


Cheers.

Is there an oil tank, for a Porsche?

I had forgotten all about that.


Tonight, I went and retrieved these bits which were stuck to the car with magnets.




They needed a slight bit of manipulation to make them play together as there was a bit of a gap instead of a flush joint.

They now go together like peas and carrots.




When I removed the chassis piece it had a couple of massive self tappers in it, I can't remember what they were for but probably the exhaust heat shield.

Anyway, they were not the proper screws, they were bigger in diameter so now the two holes were too big to fit the proper screws.




I thought that now was as good a time as any to fix that.

The holes look like they were slightly recessed so this is what I did.

I drilled a 4mm hole then taped a washer on to the piece, with the hole in the middle of it.




A quick root through my drawers produced this ball bearing.




With it sitting in the drilled hole and the washer at the other side I gave the bearing a whack with a hammer.

It left me with this.




As there were two holes on the chassis piece, I made another plate.




I had just started cutting out the old part of the chassis piece when I had a visitor in a very lovely 944.




It was yer man broady and he was bearing gifts.




We retreated to the house to drink tea and have a natter.

In fact, we were so busy gassing that we forgot to eat the biscuits.


Cheers.

While I am serveral years behind on this thread. Ill chip in here and say thank for the brew! Nice to meet someone who suffers with the same afliction.

I will attest to biscuit forgetfulness. But I'm sure there will be other chances to eat some!

Amazing work on the Beeeemer.

Nice job on not sharing the biscuits with the person who brought them round so you get more and extra points on blaming the Mrs.
That takes skills
Work on car is ok too I guess.
James

Limited progress tonight I'm afraid.

I have my bits prepared and primed.




When I made the new piece of floor I used the outside face of the old floor as the test template.




This meant that when it was somewhere near I could offer the oversized panel on top of the hole to check the shape.




There is a slight downside to this method and that is that the flanged over edge is in the wrong place by roughly the thickness of the metal.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem because you would trim the other edge of the panel and move the whole thing over until the flange was in position.

In this instance, I couldn't do that because of the fingery dimply bits.

There is half a dimply bit at each end of the new piece which has to mate up to the corresponding half that remained in the floor and it is these which dictate where the panel fits, not the flange.

When I started to cut the piece in I marked a line where the curved flange should, well, curve.

Then it was a case of taking it to the shed to work on it.

I did it over a T dolly with a dead blow hammer.

The dead blow was kinder to the metal and didn't ruin all the detail of the dimply fingers.

It also has a much larger head than a metal hammer so it spreads the load and moves a bigger area of metal.

It took a fair bit of faffing about and walking to and from the shed but I think it is ok now.

In fact, I was that convinced that it was ok that I started to tack it into place.




In the bottom right hand side of the picture you can see an intergrip which I used to ensure that the joint was flat.

I didn't get beyond that because the lovely Doctor decided that it was time for me to pack up and go to fetch her a pizza.



Cheers.

Catching up after working a "weekend" and then buggering off to Spa to watch cars going roundy roundy and get rather wet.

My summary

You found more new rust holes than you had cakes or biscuits

You've repaired most of them

I think you need to stop looking for holes or prodding brown stains with your finger

Hi Tom, You are doing great work there, this car should last for years. As to medication, have a large glass of something strong. It won’t particularly make you feel better but you will get a good nights sleep. Norman