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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ 914 Chassis-stiffening kit
Posted by: bluhun Oct 29 2012, 02:17 AM
Can someone give me an estimate of the number of hours of labor that a good Porsche shop would require to weld in all of the panels in a chassis-stiffening kit?
Posted by: mepstein Oct 29 2012, 05:04 AM
You need to find a good welder, not necessarily a Porsche shop.
Posted by: timothy_nd28 Oct 29 2012, 06:23 AM
This really depends. If you just drop off the car and give the kit to the welder, it may take a few days. However, if you prep the areas yourself, make everything weld ready, it should only take a few hours.
Posted by: partwerks Oct 29 2012, 06:27 AM
Make sure everything is sealed between the plates and the chassis, otherwise it may create secondary problems down the road with rust if it finds an entry way in.
Posted by: scotty b Oct 29 2012, 06:33 AM
done properly I would geusstimate at 7-10 hours start to finish. This is removing the interior, stripping the paint from the longs and rear panel, etch priming them with a weld through etch primer. Cleaning the new panels and etching them. welding it all in, then final paint. 7 being the car cam ein with all of the interior alrwady removed, and the owner reinstalling it. Having
I currently have 3 cars lined up for just this operation, and can do a writeup on it if wanted including hours. It will be a few weeks before I do the first one though.
Posted by: scotty b Oct 29 2012, 06:36 AM
This really depends. If you just drop off the car and give the kit to the welder, it may take a few days. However, if you prep the areas yourself, make everything weld ready, it should only take a few hours.
My only comment on this is there is a LOT of welding to do, and it needs to be done carefully. If the car was completely ready for the welding I would count on 4 hours, for that process alone. Otherwise the risk of having the body movecomes into play
Posted by: timothy_nd28 Oct 29 2012, 06:39 AM
This really depends. If you just drop off the car and give the kit to the welder, it may take a few days. However, if you prep the areas yourself, make everything weld ready, it should only take a few hours.
My only comment on this is there is a LOT of welding to do, and it needs to be done carefully. If the car was completely ready for the welding I would count on 4 hours, for that process alone. Otherwise the risk of having the body movecomes into play
I thought he was talking about the chassis stiffening kit that goes on the exterior. I agree, doing the interior stiffening kit really sucked and was time consuming!
Posted by: scotty b Oct 29 2012, 06:41 AM
This really depends. If you just drop off the car and give the kit to the welder, it may take a few days. However, if you prep the areas yourself, make everything weld ready, it should only take a few hours.
My only comment on this is there is a LOT of welding to do, and it needs to be done carefully. If the car was completely ready for the welding I would count on 4 hours, for that process alone. Otherwise the risk of having the body movecomes into play
I thought he was talking about the chassis stiffening kit that goes on the exterior. I agree, doing the interior stiffening kit really sucked and was time consuming!
Good point. Are you talking about the interior or exterior kit ? Quite a difference between the two. About half the time in fact
Posted by: bulitt Oct 29 2012, 09:18 AM
done properly I would geusstimate at 7-10 hours start to finish. This is removing the interior, stripping the paint from the longs and rear panel, etch priming them with a weld through etch primer. Cleaning the new panels and etching them. welding it all in, then final paint. 7 being the car cam ein with all of the interior alrwady removed, and the owner reinstalling it. Having
I currently have 3 cars lined up for just this operation, and can do a writeup on it if wanted including hours. It will be a few weeks before I do the first one though.
Is this the Engman kit???
Posted by: bluhun Oct 29 2012, 09:56 AM
This really depends. If you just drop off the car and give the kit to the welder, it may take a few days. However, if you prep the areas yourself, make everything weld ready, it should only take a few hours.
My only comment on this is there is a LOT of welding to do, and it needs to be done carefully. If the car was completely ready for the welding I would count on 4 hours, for that process alone. Otherwise the risk of having the body movecomes into play
I thought he was talking about the chassis stiffening kit that goes on the exterior. I agree, doing the interior stiffening kit really sucked and was time consuming!
I'm talking about te exterior kit.
Posted by: Eric_Shea Oct 29 2012, 10:23 AM
Still a tremendous amount of work to be done. The entire rear suspension needs to come out and... you will need some serious welding up behind the quarter panels.
I would be it would actually be "more" time to do the exterior kit properly. The weld area needs to be "CLEAN".
Posted by: hot_shoe914 Oct 29 2012, 07:27 PM
Posted by: mepstein Oct 29 2012, 08:19 PM
When Scotty does mine, you will see; interior long kit, exterior GT kit and CFR suspension console reinforcement with heim rod braces. The works 
Posted by: Cairo94507 Oct 29 2012, 08:38 PM
Holy crap Mark! That sucker is not going to flex at all. I am just doing the inner kit on mine I believe - unless Scott thinks it needs reinforcement elsewhere. Seriously looking forward to seeing this work done on both of our cars.
Posted by: mepstein Oct 29 2012, 08:48 PM
Holy crap Mark! That sucker is not going to flex at all. I am just doing the inner kit on mine I believe - unless Scott thinks it needs reinforcement elsewhere. Seriously looking forward to seeing this work done on both of our cars.
Michael - If I had a real six, I would go your route unless I was doing a GT clone.
Posted by: kg6dxn Oct 29 2012, 08:49 PM
Call Mark @ original Customs in Napa. He can do it for a fair price.
http://www.originalcustoms.com
Posted by: Elliot Cannon Oct 30 2012, 10:03 PM
Although his looks can be deceiving. 
Attached image(s)
Posted by: Jgilliam914 Oct 31 2012, 06:31 AM
Last winter I welded in the Engman kit. My interior was already removed and I think the prep time was about 3-4 hours? If I remember right the welding was another 4 to 5. I didn't do it constantly for that whole time. Bending and laying down and twisting to weld all the welds suck at 40 degree temps in the garage. But I was impressed with the fit of the parts and how it turned out when I was done.
If you have any welding skills at all? It really isn't that difficult to do
Posted by: shoguneagle Nov 1 2012, 03:23 AM
When I welded my car and added stress kitting, I spent an entire day on the preparation side and another day on the welding (maybe part of a third day). I used every kit offerred since "I am a frustrated engineer". kits installed: Brad Mayuer Longs, interior cockpit kit, rear suspension inner ears, lower shock/rear suspension to firewall, and seam welding in critical area of the body. Thus, no body flex; requires the suspension and tires to provide more flexibillity and service.
I may add some more stress kitting along the top of the shock mount to the firewall, cross bracing both laterally and long wise in the front, etc. Final suspension changes will determine these needs.
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