I've got the burnt 914 that needs the left rear fender removed and replaced. I have a parts car that has a good fender. I also want to replace the sail panel. How should I remove the fender? However you recommend, I'll use the exact same method for removing the parts car item. Once I remove the fender, I'll need to replace the door striker and some inner engine compartment sheet metal. Please be very specific and provide pics if possible. Thanks again for all of your help.

You really need to drill out all the spot welds. It takes a couple of hours, but is well worth the effort. On the parts car you can use a regular drill bit if you want, but on the car being repaired you don't want to drill through the inner layer. Use a special spot weld drill or a Black and Decker Bullet drill. Spot weld drills are available at auto paint supply stores.
A good way to help find all the spot welds is to sand the paint off the area. There will be small dimples where the paint doesn't come off. Those are the spot welds. There are a lot of them on the leading edge of the targa panel.

Is the fender and the targa panel a single piece?

Are there spot welds where the outer targa panel meets the inner targa panel meet?

Can I use my regular 3/8" hand drill?

Thanks for the info.

Yes. The outer targa panel, fender are one piece. In fact, the door jam should be kept with the quarter to make things simpler. The hard part is the fresh air pickup (vent?) in the door jam.

Send me a PM to remind me and I will take some pics of rear quarters tomorow that have been removed via the spot welds so you can see what's involved.

Rick

IIRC, the factory used lead in the area of the air exit tube on the door jamb to smooth things out.
IIRC, the air tube is brazed to the door jamb.

Hi Rob,

Is the existing quarter panel unrepairable? In the picture, it looks like one to be straightened maybe?

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

I believe you're correct.

John,

The panel is repairable, but there is a lot of rust underneath. Also, I need to remove to repair the inner engine compartment side wall and behind the striker is very rusty. The panel I'm replacing it with is almost perfect. Maybe after I remove it, John, you can give me some pointers on straightening it out.

kafermeister,

Whenever you can post the pics will be great, I'm planning to remove the bent one this weekend.

Okee dokee. This is a fender that another listmember sent to me for the Kafermeister Special. I've marked some of the pics with red lines in areas where I'm not too sure where the original Karmann fender stops and the rest of the tub starts.

The following images are 237k or less in size. I have full size images that arround 1mb each. I can get those to anyone who wants them. I can also take more detailed pictures of specific things if it would help.

Rick

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Rick, thanks for the pics, it will definately help me this weekend. I'll take plenty of pics myself and post to this when I'm finished. I noticed that the panel where the door striker is, is part of the rear fender, I wasn't aware of that piece. Thanks again.

Your welcome. I will send you a PM with links to the original images.

The part where the striker sits was originally a seperate piece. It's just simpler to keep it with the quarter. Saves you from having to guess how deep to set the quarter over it. BTW, depending on which year car you have, there may be a brace that binds the striker/nut-plate thingie to the tub itself.

Thanks for posting those pics! I might try to remove the fender on the parts car (tub). These will come in handy.

Hey Gint, between your 'rustoration' and my 'resurrection' and the complete support of this web site, we're going to prove that anyone, with the time and the drive, can restore these cars.

Exactly what is it that is circled in picture #8?

wow

Well that didn't work.

now it does!

Picture #8 is showing an area where you may choose to leave more metal. There is a natural seam in that general area. You may want to find it and determine how to split it based on your particular needs.

Rick

Well, the intent this long 3 day weekend was to remove the left rear fender. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the Black and Decker Bullet drill bit. I've checked NAPA, Sears, Tool Wholesale (local company) and the locak auto paint store. Any recommendations to where I can check next? I don't want to purchase the 'hole-saw' type, evidently they break easily. Once I get the bullet bit, I'll show the removal of the fender.

BTW, it wasn't a lost Porsche weekend. I worked on the V8 conversion project. I removed the dealer installed A/C system. This included removing the condesor, in the front trunk, the dryer, in the right fender well, the under dash fan control unit, in the passenger compartment, and all of the A/C hoses, that run from the front to the engine compartment. Here's a shot of the hoses hidden beheath the right side valance.

Looks like you got some 30 year old cheese in pic #4.

What does the B&D bullet drill bit look like?

Well, the removal of the left rear fender continues. I've drilled out all of the spot welds, using the 3/8" spot weld drill bit
(bought at Eastwood Co for $19.99 + shipping) and a 1/4" regular drill bit (for the spot welds where the 3/8" wouldn't fit, see pics).

Here's a pic with 95% of the fender apart. It also shows where I used the 3/8" and the 1/4" drill bits.

There are 2 places that are still connected, the air tube and where the fender meets the rear tail light housing.

Chris (Racer Chris) you mentioned that the air tube is brazed, how can I un-braze it?

Close up of the air-tube.

The rear tail light housing has some previous repairs and the spot welds are hidden underneath the PO welding job.

Any recommendations for removal?

classic thread!!

Rob, are you removing the fender from this car for use on another tub?

Rick

Just so we get this cleared up. any reference to PO and welding of Robs car is not me. I can't make bubble gum stick together. This would be 3 owners or 2 PO ago when the GT stiffening and floor pan weld repairs were done.

I just drove the piss out of it.

Thanks for clearing that up Joe, from now on I'll refer to the bad repairs as the PPO (pre-previous owner - haha).

Rick, I'm trying to remove this fender as if I will use it again, it'll be good practice when I remove the fender from the donor car. Any recommendations for 'gracefully' removing the fender from the air tube?

Also, what is the purpose of this air tube, anyway?

I'm going out on a limb here but I think it is for the air coming into the car from the vents or heater to escape. Otherwise your ears would pop. unless the car is 30 years old and all the rubber has shrunk.

This is what I will be doing on my car when I install the rear quarters. I am going to trim all remnants of air-tube from the 'new' quarters. I will be removing all remnants of old fender from the car itself. When I put the two together, I was merely going to tac-weld the tube to the door jam.

How does this sound to you?

Rick, are you saying that you're going to weld up the opening of the air-tube in the door jamb?

I'm not sure if what I was saying came across correctly. I am not going to weld the opening shut.

I intend to remove completely the old *pieces* of the tube itself from the 'new' fender/door jam. I will actually be reusing the original tube that is currently on my car. Hopefully, the install will look original when I'm done.

..better?

Rick, thanks for clearing that up.

Is there any problem with welding up the air-tube?


sj914, here's a pic of the 3/8" spot weld drill bit I bought from Eastwood Company:

Well, I suspect that welding it up would create other issues. Air pressure (think ears popping), steaming windows in humid weather, and just poor circulation in general.

...although I don't really know.

Rick

Success.... The driver's rear fender is removed. I cut around the air-tube and cut a section from the rear to finally remove the fender.

Here's a shot after removal. There was alot of surface rust and the plate that the door stricker bolts to will need to be replaced.