Area51Werks starts another Autotopsy Resurrection of a Factory 6, Welding is Done! Fixtures are removed Onto the cleanup and paint work. Options

[Maltese Falcon]

Light metal wheels is usually Mahle wheels. 14" Fuchs were the factory wheel but many dealers and individuals swapped them for the 911 15" Fuchs.

C13 is unknown to me.

same here, but I'll research c 13 !
I happened on this set of 15" mahles in L.A., and a local guy paid me almost $2,800 for the set of 4. He stockpiles these, sometimes sells on Samba.
At approx 7.5 lbs each, these have to be the lightest Porsche wheels ever.
There are some good (but heavier) aluminum replicas out there if you are in a pinch.
Marty

[mepstein]

My set of mahles weighed 10.2.

[rick 918-S]

Trying to keep my posts in the same place.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=243457

Searching for one of the former owners of my 6 turned up this info. Trying to back track the factory engine. # 4371

Oregon Rennsport
12929 NW Laidlaw Rd., Portland, OR 97229-2413

503) 645-1199
Contact name: Gordon Ledbetter

[Sleepin]

Aliens

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.viralfiesta.com-8357-1412437634.1.png)

[rick 918-S]

I was able to connect with Gordon Ledbetter today. He sent me an email response. I shortened it up some but this is the thrust of his reply.

Gordon,

I was attempting to contact you to talk about a 914-6 I have. I was told you used to own and possibly AX'd the car. The car is # 624. I was hoping you may know something about the history of the car before you owned it. I would like to try to track back the history and when the car lost it's original engine. Anything you can share would be greatly appreciated.

I am a former resto/collision shop owner. I have a Celette and have plans for a full on restoration.

(reply)

We bought the car in the spring of 76 from an ad in the Sunday Oregonian. Don't remember from whom. We auto x and tracked the car in Portland. In 77 I put an injected 2.2S engine in the car and the original engine went into another car. Don't know what car.

We moved to Boise and I built the side shifter trans as the original had cracked the case above the main shaft roller bearing, very common. I geared it AFMSX and installed a LSD. Also the front oil cooler was installed, I'm no fabricator, just an engine and trans guy.

In 80 I built a injected 2.8 and installed it. We auto x and hill climbed the car. The rear suspension pick up under the battery came apart so the work you see was to repair it, I'm no body guy or welder. We did run slicks so lots of extra load. At an auto x we hit a curb and tore one of the front suspension consoles out, had it repaired.

Sold the car in 84 to a guy in salt lake thru pano. I stole the engine, LSD, R wheels and installed a 2.4 CIS T with carbs and 6's. I put all the stuff in a 73S I bought to replace the 914. Till that point the car had all original paint. The salt lake guy painted the car and when I saw it later it looked great. He sold it to a guy in San Jose.

Back in the early days I did the engine grill. Chuck Stoddard had bitchen 6, and we all tried copy his stuff. I hope it can be restored to more original looking configuration. Back in those days we weren't concerned about originality.

Thank god I came to my senses with the 73S. For a while when I was trying to sell it, it had my 2.4S in it for $13G. When all people would only go $10G, I put the T engine in. How stupid would that of been to separate the engine from the 73. I sold the 2.8 and restored the 73, which I still have.

Good luck Gordon

So it looks like the last known location for the original engine # 4371 is Oregon.

Keep an eye out. You never know when it may show up.

[euro911]

Cool. Hope you can get you hands on the original motor, Rick (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[rick 918-S]

Cool. Hope you can get you hands on the original motor, Rick (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It's a long shot but some have turned up over time. If I happen to locate it, fine. If I don't that's fine too.

Oh, and I wanted to try to keep all the info in one place. Link to my strange chassis number: 130666 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=240960&hl=

[rick 918-S]

Special thank you to Peter 0396 for generously offering his factory NOS left fender. Although I never met Peter I have had the good fortune of having a couple telephone conversations with him. He is one of the strongest and most determined men I have ever had the pleasure to know.

And another guy that helped put this together and deserves a tip of the hat is Mark euro911. Mark went out of his way to collect this fender, package it up safely and get it shipped out.

Thanks to both of you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[worn]

No more generous than Rick. I wanted to see the alien and he ran home from a busy day and fed my entire family. I hope this build and pull goes as I am sure it will, with all of the chips sliding your way. I wanted to publicly thank you Rick but I was worried that you would be seeing hordes of teeners. Then I calculated the distance between California and Minnesota. so with that worry gone, thank you so much for the nice time. My younger son put it well. "so Dad, we are going to have dinner with someone you have never met?" Yep, and I had a great time.

[rick 918-S]

No more generous than Rick. I wanted to see the alien and he ran home from a busy day and fed my entire family. I hope this build and pull goes as I am sure it will, with all of the chips sliding your way. I wanted to publicly thank you Rick but I was worried that you would be seeing hordes of teeners. Then I calculated the distance between California and Minnesota. so with that worry gone, thank you so much for the nice time. My younger son put it well. "so Dad, we are going to have dinner with someone you have never met?" Yep, and I had a great time.

We enjoyed the company! You two raised a couple of great boys there! You are all welcome anytime. Tell your boy if he get bored on his off hours he can come over and hang out here in Area51Werks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/assimilate.gif)

[euro911]

Special thank you to Peter 0396 for generously offering his factory NOS left fender. Although I never met Peter I have had the good fortune of having a couple telephone conversations with him. He is one of the strongest and most determined men I have ever had the pleasure to know.

And another guy that helped put this together and deserves a tip of the hat is Mark euro911. Mark went out of his way to collect this fender, package it up safely and get it shipped out.

Thanks to both of you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

My pleasure, Rick. Glad to see the shipper didn't beat it up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool_shades.gif)

Keep your chin up, Peter ... and get your butt home soon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[rick 918-S]

Time for an update. I really shouldn't have spent the time out in the garage this weekend but I did. I'll pay for it tomorrow at work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) But hey I couldn't stand to see the six sit there idle another month.

I pulled out the tower, hooked it up to the Celette and did the rough in pulled. Some know I have a little experience with this. I owned a collision/resto shop for 18 years. I had a 4000 sf shop with a 1300 sf computerized office, 6 full time employees and all the drama that goes with it.

For those that are interested in the approach to proper collision repair on a unitized car I'll give you a little taste of the process and the how and how not to proceed.

First you need to picture a car built like a wire framework. Push on one corner and the wire frame moved is several different directions throughout the structure. Now image the wire frame is bent like the photos I will post. The object is to use the damaged structure, specially the parts you know you will not re-use to move the wire frame back into position.

Imagine you just say, heck, I'm not using the front handle I'm just going to cut it off. Proceed that way and you will trap damage back into the wire frame with no way to pull it evenly and move all the members back into position. When you go to re-assemble you will have issues with door fit, top fit and chassis balance, braking predictability and cornering. It is also possible the chassis will end up with kinked or pre-damaged members that will make it unsafe.

So, here's the plan. Do the rough-in pulls. This does not require fixtures those will come later. My goal is to relieve the stress introduced into the unit-body,(drag all the wires effected back in place) start to reshape both right and left inner wheelhouses. and prepare the car for the removal of the parts I will not need when I get the fixtures from Celette and start rebuilding the chassis.

Here's where I started.

[rick 918-S]

The car is set up on the Celette. There is a set of 4 clamps that are attached to the pinch flange on the bottom of the longitudinal members. They are tightened with an impact gun. During the pulling process I actually pulled the car out of the forward clamps several times. The pinch flange on the 914 is pretty small. Sometimes You have to weld an angle iron the chassis to get a good hold. I used a second set of chains running through the strut towers to help hold the car down during an upward pull.

Both inner wheel houses were kinked very deep. More on the right than the left Both the right and left wheelhouses where they arch over the rack had closed up and the pinch welds were split in several places. I have to say I am impressed the way the chassis took the impact and specially the way I was able to move the damaged metal back into place.





Some may say...Eeek! That looks like crap! Have no fear. Once I remove the front panel. the right and left fenders, the headlight buckets, the floor pan and the gas tank bulkhead I will be able to us an air powered planishing hammer on the damage and smooth it all out. Here's a link to some hand work I did before I got my hammer.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=132215

[Johny Blackstain]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif)

[rick 918-S]

So here is where I'm at today. The rough-in is done. I went to check up on fixtures a couple weeks ago. I was told the original fixture set was scrapped. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) In order to rent fixtures you now need to own your own towers. The new fixture set is downsized and lighter to ship. The real problem comes in when you have to purchase a 6k set of towers to rent a 1k-1500.00 worth of fixtures. So, I think I'm stalled for a short while until I locate a deal on towers... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[bandjoey]

Wow. The initial pull is impressive. Good work!

[Cairo94507]

That is amazing. I look forward to seeing this come along. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[Chris H.]

Looks like you're done (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif) !

Sorry that's not even funny to Rick. He'll spend hundreds more hours on that thing.

Hey doesn't McMark have a Celette bench? Should be on it's way to the Midwest. Not sure about the fixtures and stuff but maybe he has some of what you need.

[Dave_Darling]

Some may say...Eeek! That looks like crap!

Compared to where it started, it looks almost like new! I'm in awe at what some force, applied with skill and knowledge, can do!

--DD

[JeffBowlsby]

What do the towers look like Rick? Do you have their dimensions? I would think they could be custom fabbed easier/cheaper than $6K.