[86911TLCAB]

holy $hit batman....i can say for sure in my hands that car would be done for...should be fun to watch...

[N0tt0N]

Originally Posted by Vicegrip

This one is a friend's 912 glass window Targa.

I hope it is a Friend with Benefits given the work!

[BMAN]

These pics are sadly all too familiar for me

[Vicegrip]

Enough rust for now. Time to do some nice clean quiet work and put the front end back together. All the metal parts got tanked, phosphate etched and painted with 2 coats, 4 days apart. The phosphate binds to the steel and gives better tooth to the paint. Might help a little bit where the paint can't get to.
Forgot to fix the crossbar so I got to it between first and second coats. The adjuster bolt on one side was rusted solid in the T bar cap. Rather than fight with it in the car I cut and bent the oval cross bar hole "open" and took the bolt and cap out with the T bar. Ran a die down the exposed end of the very rusty bolt and then soaked/cooked them apart undamaged.
Normally I just bend the tab back and zap it with the Mig but this one was, Gasp, a bit rusty and it broke off while I was bending it.

I have to lay the A arms out and mark the end fittings or I will get them wrong when I press them in. Make some 200 deg bushing soup, shove them into the loose fittings. Lube the A arm ends and inside of the bushings with the soap and press them together keeping the clocking and proper ends right. I once pressed the front fitting on the back of an A arm and did not notice until the next day, after they had finished becoming one with each other.

New shocks in the arms, new tie rods and ball joints. Clean up and slather the T bars and stuff them in the arms. Install home made gaskets between the A arm and crossbar and between the T bar cap and crossbar.
The rest is just hanging parts on the tub, nuts and bolts. Once the hubs are done they and the brakes go on and ready for alignment.

[Vicegrip]

Staying busy while waiting for the sheet metal stampings to show up. Pulled the front hubs apart and cleaned out the old grease. It looked like new grease had been smeared on top of old stuff.... Ultrasonic tanked in solvent free water to get most of the gunk off the hubs. For some reason the castings Porsche used for the front hubs early on are rough and a bit "slaggy". Most water based solvents go after the metal in the rough areas. I finished up the hubs with standard solvent then inspected for wear or cracks where the bearings races seat. The bearings were marked as to right and left when they came out then cleaned. Repacked the inner bearings and pressed in new seals. repacked the outer bearings and put the bearings, washers and lock nuts in and lightly tapped the cover on. Put tape over the inner bearing hole and installed the rotors. I like to build the hubs before installing the rotors if they were removed otherwise I always end up getting the rotors all slobbered up. To install later just take the tape off, slide the hub on the spindle, pop the cap, put the outer bearing, washer and nut on. Easy peasy, only two fingers touching the greasy bits and no avenue for contamination. Set the nut torque, spin the hub for 10 seconds or so to work the grease around and check the "feel". Recheck the nut tightness, lock it down and tap on the cap. Mount the caliper and lines and done. Always feels good to get some aspect of a project car to "Done" even if it is only a chapter of a book so to speak.
A "while you are in there" item is the MC. The brake system was vacuumed out of all the fluid before anything was cracked open which makes things much less messy to service. Old MC was in OK looking shape but the fluid that came out of the car was thick old muck and everything else but the steel lines is fresh so out it goes. (and right into the bag / shipping box and onto a shelf for later) They can be rebuilt with ease but the kits cost just about as much as a rebuilt unit. This odd aspect of old cars and parts pains me for some reason and the packrat in me always wins out anyway. The early dual MC uses a rubber fitting to hold flared aluminum tubes. They are a bit of a pain to re-seat if you don't want to disturb the tubing to the brake fluid reservoir. A little caliper safe grease and a crows foot to help press them down into place.

The sheet metal showed up. Real simple to install. Cut the bad areas off. Cut the replacement metal to fit and weld it into place. Having repo stampings seems almost like cheating after hammering flat stock into this and that patches. The pass side was simply too far gone to patch and the drivers side benefited from "while you are ordering up that you might as well order both".

[Vicegrip]

Time to start cutting and bending. This repair has two aspects to deal with. Rotted out sheet metal and the rotted T bar tube ends. When replacing the T bar tube or just the ends you normally have to cut weld access holes the seat and lower firewall. I use a format where you can weld the innermost layer from the inside, keep access to almost all of the t bar tube weld and not disturb the seat and lower firewall.
First thing up is make and measure up benchmark points between fixed points and the swing arm cover bolt holes. (I also cut and fit up the outer layer before cutting the middle layer out. This way I know the tube will end up in the exact same place.)
Next is to cut away the bad bits with an angle grinder set up with a cut off wheel and no shield, AKA The Death Wheel*. The outer and middle layers are straight forward. The inner layer you want to follow right along the bottom of the seat so you have that to weld to. This also gives you just enough room to slip an unshielded Mig in and stitch the top of the splice.
*All aspects of personal protection are required for this. I use a face shield rather than glasses, leather multi layer welding gloves and a leather welding jacket to protect from kickbacks and exploding cut off wheels a Hepa mask and ear muffs. Only use a grinder with a dead man type paddle switch. Always cut so the wheel is trying to pull away from the tool and you. If it is pushing it will cut through, plunge in, bind and kick the tool at you. If you are lucky the only thing damaged will be the wheel itself. (this most often happens when you are using the last wheel in stock) If you can only cut with a push due to access cut most of the way through the bend off or knife off the rest of the cut. Grind until the bottom of the slot turns blue and stop there. You can often cut the rest with a box cutter. Take your time to keep your fingers and face parts.
Measured back and marked then cut the bad end off of the T bar tube and cleaned up the metal of old weld, rust and coatings inside and out. Only need to be close on the T bar tube cut. The cut edge gets welded to the sleeve wall/bushing sleeve shoulder. Speaking of bushing sleeves..... Went with the old format of rolling my own rather than the pre-made ones. seems the maker of them has become very proud of them.
The T bar tube is in OK to good condition except for the very ends. To fix I took a $12 section of 3 inch EMT pipe and formed it into repair sleeves. A portable band saw, a vice and a Mig welder are the major tools here. The rest is measuring and grinding. You could get away with a hand head belt sander on its back just fine.
The tube is cut into 4 rings taking care to keep the cuts true and flat. First take two stock size rings and make two rings that have an inside diameter that is the same as the T bar tubing and a wall a ¼ inch longer than the bushing socket depth. The two rings are cut open, a section removed, the edges V cut, and then it is bent together and welded shut. Weld hot for full penetration without needing to weld from the inside. Once the ring is welded shut and the weld ground flush it is bent to true round in a vice. One inside edge is beveled and smoothed out. Another ring is cut, bent, welded up and rounded out to just friction fit inside the first ring (and the T bar tube) The face of this ring becomes the inner backstop for the rubber bushing so it is smoothed and rounded off slightly. Tack, check then stitch weld together and you have a repair bushing.

Dry fit and start the layers of presentation and weld up.

[N0tt0N]

Wow

[Jazzbass]

Amazing. I love the pics inside the rear with the torsion bar tube. Also love the use of EMT.

I totally missed the post above where you were doing the bearings because I was out in the garage doing the exact same job. Funny thing was I was using the Vicegrip™ method of bearing removal/installation (lots o' heat). Got the hubs nice and clean, reassembled and then bedded in some track pads. The hub cleaning all for naught.

[cmartin]

Originally Posted by Jazzbass

Amazing. I love the pics inside the rear with the torsion bar tube. Also love the use of EMT.

x10, thanks for the details. Rear t-bar sections have been a black box to me, great details.

[BMAN]

Show off!!