All good,you are on the right track without me sticking my nose in ,however,we have same coloured car,both our engines came from a VW bus,and we have same coloured engine fan ,we are miles apart but maybe not .

my brother in the South Pacific!
Heheh that is funny!

Been a while. Time to update.
Removed both front suspension spindle/brake/strut assemblies. They will be replaced by
the 911 assemblies I renewed earlier.
I was also able to get on with the welding. First up was a small area on the left inner wheel well, beginning of the left long. It was right at the corner where it gets pelted with debris and water.
My goal is to get some welding done every week. See what outside influences will disrupt that! .

Patch:

This evening, welded all my "ventilation" holes in the firewall.
Holes were for previous harnesses and electrical "clothes lines" as my bud Dave
termed them. Heheh. All wires will now be routed properly through tunnel.
Not the best pics but I'm pleased with my amateur work.
The smell of seam sealer burning is quite distinctive.
Hope to work on "timing" access door for firewall soon.
Getting the little things done while Dave finishes his car.
I'll need his assistance taking the trailing arm suspension console out.
He has a "buck" to form the additional metal I'll need to fix that area.

Closed holes:

Added some self etching primer to the recently repaired hole on
Left front long radius.
I also repaired a similar hole on right front long.

Right front side long:

"Green" frame coating, and welds.

Primered

Well after watching a decent Monaco F1 race,
headed into garage to get dirty. I'm taping Indy for later and
to have a . I'm gonna need it after playing with the welder.
I'm slowly improving. I have a lot of admiration for you guys doing it so well.
Trunk hole had to be made even larger cause there was a nice mix of filler and steel combined. Yeah and filler doesn't weld so well. Stinks like hell to. The metal was very thin in this area. I'm guessing because of previous repair and grinding away of the steel.
So here is what was done today.

Welded piece. Will primer later. Thanks for lookin'

I had a very nice phone call recently with Keith Von-Laws,
we were discussing my welding skills or lack of.
I've been working with a mig welder machine that is prolly over 20 yrs old.
Keith (who has welded for a living) was noticing a few things when checking out my
build. The settings on my welder may no longer be what it says on the
rotating dials. He suggested a "newer", If not , new welder.
Keeping in mind we have budgets. Also discussed what settings would be used for
difference situations. Talked about this also with my bro Dave.
All in agreement that a newer one could make life a wee bit easier.
I'm going to try and pick up an Eastwood model that will not kill the budget.
Looking forward to see if this helps me improve. Need a refill on the mig bottle anyway
I'll treat it to a new machine.
Thanks Keith for the pointers and encouragement.
Dave did say that with the new welder he was able to make noticeable
cleaner work. Thus improving the skills. Practice,practice right? Thanks Dave.
Having the right tools should help. Stay tuned.

Alright picked up a new Mig! Early Father's Day gift!
Keith you were right. Life became much easier with the new welder. Thanks for the pointers.
Now I can improve on technique.

Made a patch for the spot where the old "snorkel" was for fresh air and pressure relief.
That area was rotted. I'll be adding a new snorkel later.

Also repaired the ratty edge of inner sail panel.

Closed the holes on the old insignia spot.
I'll be mounting the 914-6 emblem here.
This area had a lot of filler on it.

Some fresh paint for these items.
Added some "lightness" for the wiper arms ala
"Colin Chapman" style for laughs.

Grinder skills will improve with time but blend down a biy more and it won't look as apparent of a repair area. I teach this for a living at the college level..

Finish with a blending wheel or a softpack with 120 grit.

Thanks, Ben. Appreciate the feedback. I do need to get more supplies. I'm
Finding out how much more I need the more I'm getting into repairing the
metal. This is all new territory for me.
So grind welds down "better",then flap disc.
Is that better than using a wire wheel when cleaning up the welds?
Thanks.

Ok so not much gonna get done over the next couple of weeks.
Family vacation time. Heading out west to see some of the National Parks including Yellowstone & Bryce as well as the Grand Canyon. So...
Forgot to share this neat silencer I obtained. Can't wait to hear it. NOS! Pretty neat.
May not make the greatest HP gains but I thought it be cool.

Original advertisement came with it.

The best advise I can give anyone when grinding is to just grind the high spots pf the weld down until it is flush with the Parent material. then use a blending disk, Soft pack, Flap disk. Wire brushes are only for removing paint, and rust etc.

I like to to use a die grinder with a thick abrasive wheel on it to bring all high spots down then I use a soft pack which is a glorified sanding disk with a rubber backing that flexes to the contours 36 grit then 80.. this allows it to look virgin..

Thank you Ben. Going to head to the local hardware store and get some supplies.
Get to some finishing work tonite. I'll post pic, hopefully see improvements.
As you said, it takes time. Hopefully my skills will be improving.
Thank you again.

Go Dion - You're making good progress (unlike some of us...)
LOVE that exhaust! And that advert is very cool. It's great to have those sorts of goodies to go along with the parts.

Progress is a strong word Chris! Hehehe
Thanks though. It be nice to button this car by
the challenge's allotted time. But....
Yeah I grabbed the silencer cause of its rarity.
I've only seen one on a racing 911. So I thought it was cool.
The fella in Holland could only give me an estimate on decibels
and HP changes. It is literally NOS. A neat find.

Hi mate ,like that muffler,it will be load and fun .
Good score on the welder ,I think for rust repair you need the advantage of a better welder,hope you have more luck than I did with my new 180....crapped out after a week and they give me a replacement ,new one seems fine.
Keep up the good work .

Ok per Bens advice. Obtained some flap discs. Trying to correct my sins. Welded some pin holes and reground, then flapdisc the area again. No one will see the amateur job but it's giving me practice. This patch will get cut open again for the snorkel tube.
At least it's a rust free and solid area. Not the prettiest.

For your viewing pleasure and critiquing:
Heeding the advice of the experienced on this board, I went back to my trunk floor repair. It improved a little. I'll need some body filler to smooth out for better aesthetics
and then paint. I know it gets covered by the mat and carpet. My concern is being watertight. I do like summer but working with the safety equipment on when it's 85F and
90% humidity , whew! A new appreciation for those that do this for a living.

Top:

Bottom:

Dion - It's hard to tell from the pics but it looks like you may have the repair piece not quite aligned / in level. It looks like you're ending up with a step where your weld is.

I know I've got it "right" when I can use a 1/4" grinding wheel to knock down the majority of the weld bead and not get into the parent material of either side.
I use the grinder to get close then hit it with a 2" or 3" abrasive wheel on an air angle grinder (depending on the available clearance) to take it almost to the parent material level.
If I have the room, I then do 80 grit on a d/a sander. If no room, 100 grit on the 2"/3".

On the water tight: get a powerful light and shine it on one side of the weld while viewing from the other side. You'll see pinholes where there are, well... pinholes!
buzz them closed and check again til they're all gone.

And remember: It's only metal!

Keep up the great work.

Chris, you are correct. Slowly getting there. Yes I have a halogen work lamp under the car shining up. Pinholes revealed themselves. Closed them, found another after I hit the area with some primer. Yep it's only metal. I'll still need to address it. But it's way better than my previous attempt. Thanks for the encouraging words.

Rescuing an early bumper. Rusty backside. Sandblasted, some flap disc work. Rust encapsulater from Eastwood. Then some paint. Chrome side is.... well it's better than
my scratched and dented one. This one has a few dimples but less obvious than my previous bumper. Took a buffer to it. It's a 10 footer. Good for my driver. It has built in
patina

Polished

Looks nice way better then what I had ..

Looking good, Dion!

And slightly hijacking but: I'm with you on "driver quality". I plan to drive my car, do an occasional track day, park it near other vehicles, even leave it outside sometimes.
I look at some of the fantastically wonderful work being done by folks like 914dave (and his helpers!) and wonder if I'd ever really want something that nice. I'd be worried sick about every little thing. Heck, just working on my car with the new seat in it is nerve wracking.
It's also a convenient excuse for not spending a ton on paint!

Sorry to distract but this is just my way of supporting you in not obsessing about a bumper that isn't perfect!

Keep on posting - you're helping keep me motivated.

Chris your too funny man! I have to agree. Mine is a driver for sure.
I'll never have the level of finish some of these builds have because....
Yes I'd prolly be paranoid! I told Dave that first rock chip is gonna hurt
real bad. Heheheh Hell I get nervous about of his tools in the garage near
his ride.
I'll be getting back to welding shortly. Like melting the metal.
Thanks guys!

Chris and Dion, enough talk about stone chips!!!! Hahaha

Rear "boot" repair part 2
Went back to rear trunk repair to seal up pin holes from welding. Upon grinding more metal away found some more weak metal. Repairs ensued.
Cut, removed and replaced the original patch panel.
Followed that with an adjacent area repair. Used "all metal" for the pinholes I could not
seal up. Still working on sanding technique. But it's a trunk floor. Not concours worthy
but rust free and strong. I'll add seam sealer later when the primer dries. Working on smoothing the bottom of this area next.

Pic

Pic

Pic

Primer & seam sealer for trunk patch area. Topside and muffler side.
Onwards and upwards. Slowly getting the hang of this.
Unbelievable how many items one needs to purchase to complete certain tasks.
Didn't really know how many grades of sandpaper existed until I entered
this realm of bodywork. It's far from the best repair.
Constantly learning from experience of what is proper and what was a bad decision as most things in life. One obvious lesson is be patient!!! Don't rush things.
Thanks for looking in.

Ok here's an update for August. Obviously not going to make it for the
deadline of 9-14. I must admit I have been a bit distracted as I just sold
my 1992 VW GTi of which I owned since new on BaT. So that will fund the rest of this
resto. Sad to see it go but I can't afford to maintain a fleet. Especially with my daughter in college. Ok I digress.
I worked on the left long that had a hairline crack in it and also a hole that was adjacent to the seat rail on drivers side rear. Trying to heed advice from the experts here.
I'm getting there! Slowly but getting there.
I ground the welds down and then smoothed them a bit with the "all metal" aluminum
"bondo". Will coat with primer next.

Pix

Seat rail area, sorry pics loaded in reverse order.