Early in the "test fit/tweak" process with the outer panel.

Nice hammer work there!!

I've been waiting a long time for that hole to be repaired! Your car and I thank you.

@Krieger - Ha! Me too, Andy. It's just one that I haven't been looking forward to doing. Good learning experience, though.

This car. Is going to look amazing!

Test fitting is getting there. Gaps are looking good.

Now on the driver side, not looking so good. I knew this was going to need to be addressed and here you can see just how much of a crap repair someone did.

Any questions about how water got into the trunk?

I can't claim I'm the greatest metal worker but, come one. This isn't even close.

And the crap repair also meant the tail light housings can't sit where they're supposed to so we have this lovely misalignment to deal with.

Curvey template tool to the rescue!
Capture the shape from the good side, flip it, and...see how bad the bad side is.

Cut some 18ga, measure and bend the flange, then it's into the shrinker to get the needed curve.
Then test fit/compare to the good side.

I then used the bead roller to tip the other flange. I'll trim it to size later.

Cut out the bad...

I understand fitting the tail lights in a Singer car takes them something like 40 hours.
Clearly not remotely close to Singer level but I must have done the "in/out" with the tail light 25 times.
I still have some hammer and dolly work and a bit more welding but it's only about 100 times better than it was.

And the misalignment? She is fixed!
I was able to get the angle corrected as well as scooting the whole tail light inboard, back to where it's supposed to be.

I'm happy with how this came out.

Today was getting the fender foam rust patch installed.
Fit it, check all the alignment, tack in place then fully weld it in.

Then I went after the weld with 36 grit on a 3" air angle grinder.
Next, it's 80 grit on that same grinder.

Finally, it's 80 grit on a DA sander with a soft-ish pad.

Alignment final check. The trunk isn't fully adjusted, side to side but I'm happy with how this repair turned out.
Hopefully, @Krieger will be, too!

Very very nice!!!

Wow! What repair? Very nice work Chris!

Fantastic Thanks for giving the type of sanding disc #’s. That’s very helpful.
This newb is taking lots of notes. I know the weatherstrip is not in yet, even so..
looking at the one set of trunk/tail lite pics, the shut lines look great!

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

@Dion - I think, even more importantly than the grit info is that I've moved to using only "high end" abrasives on the air angle grinder. I use the 3M Cubitron II product. They are not cheap to purchase but they last far longer than the bargain brands.
But the best part is the way they work. SUPER controllable cutting!
I've also realized I get the best results by being WAY more patient during the grinding process. I've moved to using a slow / blip, blip approach and a pretty high angle of attack to try and be sure the disc is only contacting the weld bead.
All that said, I confess that the 80 grit on the DA sander is from Harbor Freight! But it seems to work well.
My next upgrade is to get some 3M product for the DA. I'll report back on how that goes.

+1 on the 3M Cubitron discs. There is no comparison with anything else I've used and when you factor how much longer they last, not that much more expensive. They cut fast and cool.

I also switched to their 3/8" belts for the narrow belt sander. 80g Cubitron belts were fantastic, 36g were worthless. The coarse grit just flew off the belts in the first few seconds of use.

A little known fact but 3m developed the cubitron after looking at the design of reflectors that they make in another division..

More repair work on the rear panel. This car had a 911 reflector added at some point and the installer "made openings" in the panel to affix the reflector. Notice I didn't say "drilled holes". Holes are round. These? Not so much.

So, I need to patch these but they we so not close to round it would have been ridiculous to try and shape the patches.

A cool little knock-out punch set to the rescue. It makes quick work turning the "opening" into a round hole. Note the before and after...

Now to cut some circles and close things up.

Is that the Harbor Freight kit or something more upscale? I've had a hole punch set on my wish list for awhile but haven't really needed one enough to pull the trigger.

@bbrock - It's a "Light" kit. I got it as part of an estate sale where they were selling a home machine shop. I'd bet the HF set is similar. Not used too often, but they sure are handy when the need arises.

Chris,

What were those holes used for? You are just using the punch to create perfect circles??

I think he is punching circles so it is easier to make a patch.

Hole punch the correct thickness sheet and you have your patch.

The motor is out and almost on its way to a session on the engine dyno to get a base map/tune.

As I was looking at all that space I thought, "I wonder how much work it would be to get 993 rear suspension in this thing..."

Let's find out!

And yes, this likely means tube chassis-ing the rear of the car.

Oh, and go ahead and say it. I know you're thinking it:
"He's never going to get this thing on the road..."

Maybe not, but think of how much fun I'll have trying!

(Anyone need fully rebuilt, tricked out complete 914 trailing arms w/911 e-brake set up or a Tangerine Racing rear suspension pick up point kit?)

If anyone asks, it appears that a Boxster 6-speed slots right in and the 993 axles are the correct length.
Is it too early for a "so far, so good"?

@tygaboy looks great.. Hey in retirement you just need to enjoy things and it takes as long as it takes as long as you enjoy it.

Nothing wrong with fixing the rear suspension geometry too.

Very interesting with the 993 rear suspension Is there a 993 front suspension lurking around the corner that we can't see?

Also curious about the change in suspension dynamics: roll center location and how that plays with your chosen front suspension.

I love your out of the box thinking!

And,,, why not?

I remember a 914 race car with 993 suspension and a driver's seat in the midline of the car. It's too late tonight for me to search but it was a pretty cool set up.

Plans for the front are still in the works but it's not going to be 993. As to the change in dynamics, that's a more difficult question to answer. I've done a bit of research and talked with a couple suspension experts who have proven designs in production. It sounds like you may be versed in suspension stuff and know FAR more than I do so please feel free to chime in or PM me. I'd love to hear more.

My target is that the handles in a safe and predictable manner. When you look at things regularly done to our cars (911s, too), like nearly doubling wheel widths and/or adding inch plus spacers behind wheels so they fill out flares, and what that does to the scrub radius, contact patches, etc., I've wondered how it is these cars seem to work OK.

The info I've been able to uncover suggests (and I'm happy to be proven wrong) that unless things are pretty significantly "wrong" in some element of the design, changes I have planned should work, given the performance parameters I'm after.
The 993 rear set up does have the Kinematic toe adjustment that complicates things but it wouldn't be my project if I didn't add all the complication I could possibly find!

Details to follow as I make progress or talk myself out of going this direction.
Your comments always welcomed.

This looks FUN!!

I dunno...at this rate Chris - Lori can't stop working and you might have to go back!

T

I'm very very excited to see someone else go down this road. Inspired by the lotus suspension 914 that's on several different forums, I have tossed around similar ideas (hint: miata) with my build but havn't committed yet.

I know just enough about suspension dynamics to be dangerous. One of the best resources is "Tune to Win" by Carrol Smith. That book came recommended by a road vehicle dynamics professor. Two or three chapters of the book are devoted to the effects of load transfer with varying suspension geometry, which is different than altering scrub radius or the tire contact patch. The roll center is a point that is defined by suspension geometry. The vehicle body rolls or pivots around that point when cornering. "It is also the point through which the lateral forces transmitted from the tire's contact patches act upon the chassis." -Smith

The new 993 suspension will likely have a different roll center than the swing arm 914 suspension. Thus, cornering forces will affect the car differently.

Given the awesome metal work you've done, I bet you would also enjoy "Prepare to Win" by Smith that discusses sheetmetal, mounting brackets, fiberglass etc.

I would agree that predictability and safety is key. I know nothing about the 993 Kinematic toe adjustment though. I'll have to read up on it.

Britain's car has quite a bit of work into it. The suspension certainly let him take it to the next level. One of the quickest autox 914's in the country for sure.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=113579&hl=

It really let him put the power to the ground and get maximum use of his tires.

I don't think it probably matters from a pure application viewpoint...I highly doubt this car will ever see more than 7/10 driving anyway. Its already been proven how capable even the stock suspension can be made to perform. Now, I think it is "way-cool" and am looking forward to seeing it come together but I also realize that by the time this is done Chris will have bought the rear suspension to a 991.2 Cup-Car and decided that was a better choice!

All in love, Chris, all in love...!

T

@Cracker Your right, suspension geometry becomes much less important if the car will never be driven at full tilt.

Chris,

I know nothing!!


Bob B

2 things:
1. 7/10 is plenty fast for me!
2. If some people would stop sending me work, I could get more done on my own car...!
All in love, Tony, all in love...!

Ok. I wanted to wait until I got it on the car before bragging on you but you beat me to it!

Real Story! Two days ago (7 pm ET or so) I called Chris and asked if he would do me a favor. I needed the aforementioned tunnels and diffuser support for my D-Sportsracer. Not only did Chris immediately say "yes" he had it in CAD the next morning and finished later that day (yesterday)! He dropped what he was doing to help me - I did NOT ask him to do that - he is just that selfless and gracious!

THANK you Chris for being so willing to help, my friend. You did ruin my opportunity to "pat you on the back myself"...first that is! The really cool thing about Chris, beyond his ability to fabricate parts; and having all the cool tech toys; and having time in retirement to do what he wants; is he is very KIND!

Tony

One for the OCD and/or fabrication crowd:
In stamping the firewall side panels, I initially used a 2-piece stamp (left, in the first pic) The, ahem, "problem" is that the male die has to be manually positioned which means a low likelihood of repeat-ability or even exactness as it's a crap shoot that nothing moves during the setup/stamping process.

In fact, though difficult to see in the earlier firewall pics, the "ledge" of the stamp wasn't consistent across the entire length of the panel edge... And as I'm sure @bbrock would agree ( ), this simply won't do!

So, I redesigned the stamping die and made it one piece. Yep, it's the one on the right. Essentially it's a reversible "flap" so I can stamp the mirror image sides and guarantee that the male/female areas stay perfectly aligned and give me a repeatable, controlled result! The 2nd pic shows the earlier style panel in mock-up placement in the die.

Sharp eyes may notice I increased the length of the lower, front edge - which is why this earlier piece doesn't really fit. This was needed to create a bit more room for a fastener I need to add. More on that as I get to it.

Here's the first blank of the new version.

The die is cut to the same outside shape as the blank. This make it pretty simple to get the blank positioned correctly and consistently. (Geez, it sounds like I'm going into production vs just making two of these!)

The oval cut outs are just to make it easier to verify the blank is correctly aligned in the die.

Here's the blank in position, ready to be pressed.
Just need to be sure to reverse the die before doing the other side's panel!

Fresh out of the press!