Discussion
Thought I'd introduce my pride and joy to Pistonheads! It's not quick, but it makes all the right noises and makes me smile even as a daily drive 
Bought as a shed, I went out to buy a Focus for the wife with £5K borrowed from her Dad and came back with a rusty 911....
A few pictures of the motor at various stages of it's life in my hands:
My first Curborough track day with this car back in 2002, my previous experience round here in a variety of modified MK2 Golfs counted for nothing! Much amusement was had and a near vertical early 911 handling learning curve…
…as can be seen by this little moment which I love to say I caught and flicked round the molehill in one beautiful move.. but hey, I spun it.
The dreaded tin worm. Just a sample picture, don't want to X rate this site.
After much welding on my drive I nearly lost hope, but looking back I'm glad I didn't give up!
A year or so later having lost my job and house the 911 was still with me.. priorities and all that..I thought I'll just sort out that rust bubble on the rear quarter…suddenly a full strip down and bare metal respray was upon us. This was about 4 hours into the strip from a running complete car, just me, a mate, and some spanners, frightening really!!
After two months sitting on stands feeling sorry for itself it went off or a bit of TLC.
Then back to my garage to be put back together, this time in 2 weeks of evenings from a shell, as I was taking the wife away for the weekend and we HAD to go in the 911. Arrival of other new (human!) baby slowed the process…or I'd have done it in a week!
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My first trip out after the rebuild with my 2 year old son (at the time!). Quote ' Daddy car. Brum, Brum. Noise' Makes me proud…
Now I've sorted the engine bay:
...and rebuilt the gearbox:
Some years pass...
...and I poked the rust bubble again...this time I'm not going to trust someone else with the prep and f
k it up for me!
On the Mulsanne straight at Classic Le Mans 2008:
An appearance in Classic Car Magazine 8)
A evening blat across the Welsh mountains:
..and some more welding :shock:
Having found a 5p sized hole in the floor I thought I should sort it out “whilst it’s jacked up’…
Further investigation found this:
So out with the angle grinder and a couple of evenings later I had this:
I needed to put a decent bit of form into the panel if it was going to look anything like an original. Whilst I was never going to hide the fact it's been repaired, I didn't want it to look (too much) like a bodge. So I made up this rough tool to put a swage in where the heater drain exits.
A few taps of the hammer and some crappy welding later:
...and finally some playing on Photoshop from the other week
Having served a valiant 7 months as the daily drive and family car with two young kids it's now on second car duties again as I've gone back on the company scheme. Next summer it will be the daily again and it's off to Classic Le Mans again with the rest of the DDK mob!
Cheers
Gary
Bought as a shed, I went out to buy a Focus for the wife with £5K borrowed from her Dad and came back with a rusty 911....
A few pictures of the motor at various stages of it's life in my hands:
My first Curborough track day with this car back in 2002, my previous experience round here in a variety of modified MK2 Golfs counted for nothing! Much amusement was had and a near vertical early 911 handling learning curve…
…as can be seen by this little moment which I love to say I caught and flicked round the molehill in one beautiful move.. but hey, I spun it.
The dreaded tin worm. Just a sample picture, don't want to X rate this site.
After much welding on my drive I nearly lost hope, but looking back I'm glad I didn't give up!
A year or so later having lost my job and house the 911 was still with me.. priorities and all that..I thought I'll just sort out that rust bubble on the rear quarter…suddenly a full strip down and bare metal respray was upon us. This was about 4 hours into the strip from a running complete car, just me, a mate, and some spanners, frightening really!!
After two months sitting on stands feeling sorry for itself it went off or a bit of TLC.
Then back to my garage to be put back together, this time in 2 weeks of evenings from a shell, as I was taking the wife away for the weekend and we HAD to go in the 911. Arrival of other new (human!) baby slowed the process…or I'd have done it in a week!
[/url]My first trip out after the rebuild with my 2 year old son (at the time!). Quote ' Daddy car. Brum, Brum. Noise' Makes me proud…
Now I've sorted the engine bay:
...and rebuilt the gearbox:
Some years pass...
...and I poked the rust bubble again...this time I'm not going to trust someone else with the prep and f
k it up for me!On the Mulsanne straight at Classic Le Mans 2008:
An appearance in Classic Car Magazine 8)
A evening blat across the Welsh mountains:
..and some more welding :shock:
Having found a 5p sized hole in the floor I thought I should sort it out “whilst it’s jacked up’…
Further investigation found this:
So out with the angle grinder and a couple of evenings later I had this:
I needed to put a decent bit of form into the panel if it was going to look anything like an original. Whilst I was never going to hide the fact it's been repaired, I didn't want it to look (too much) like a bodge. So I made up this rough tool to put a swage in where the heater drain exits.
A few taps of the hammer and some crappy welding later:
...and finally some playing on Photoshop from the other week
Having served a valiant 7 months as the daily drive and family car with two young kids it's now on second car duties again as I've gone back on the company scheme. Next summer it will be the daily again and it's off to Classic Le Mans again with the rest of the DDK mob!
Cheers
Gary
Edited by gary71 on Thursday 3rd August 22:26
to you for doing your own work, would scare me to death.Wonderful car, and a brilliant lesson to everyone that owning and running a classic "exotic" doesn't have to mean handing over reams of blank cheques to specialist restorers every other week. Top marks for the fabricated form tool to make the repair section. A very neat and honest job. Better to repair properly, than to bodge and hide. I'd rather see that on a potential purchase, than a gallon of underseal covering god only knows what.
Coincidently I watched a film called "Kiss the Girls" where Morgan Freeman drove a similar vintage car. The only psychologically horrible bits of the film for me was when he was driving the car fast, and I feared that the director might call for a crash scene to damage the 911.
Coincidently I watched a film called "Kiss the Girls" where Morgan Freeman drove a similar vintage car. The only psychologically horrible bits of the film for me was when he was driving the car fast, and I feared that the director might call for a crash scene to damage the 911.
Stewart-83 said:
I'd LOVE a classic 911.
If I ever do I think I'll have to book a night class in welding by the looks of it!
It's not just the classics that rust If I ever do I think I'll have to book a night class in welding by the looks of it!
Try finding a decent 3.2 Carrera!Luckily I was able to borrow the kit from a friend for the main job. For the more recent work I made the investment and bought my own. I learnt welding as an apprentice a few (Ha!) years back, after 15 minutes blobing some bits of plate together and they had me welding up underframes on the line, I can only apologise to anyone with a late 80's Aston
Jon944S2 said:
What is a classic 911 like to drive?
A bit classic! To be honest it's a million miles from a modern performance car, but that is why I love it. You have to bond with it, or it just doesn't work. It won't just start, it has to be coaxed into life, you can't just change gear you have to feel the syncros engaging, and you certainly can't just stand on the brakes, or you'll be off All that not withstanding it's enormous fun and totally satisfying when you get it right (not often, but I try!). Oh and it has the best steering of anything I have ever driven, even my old MK1 MX5, and that is some benchmark.
It has done stirling work this year as the daily drive, even taking in a week around the Scottish highlands with the wife and kids. It amazing how much stuff you just don't need to take with you when you can't! You don't need to buy a Zafira just because you have children!
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