The Lowdown:

When it comes to buying a half finished project it is always a bit of a gamble, especially when it has gone as far as this already primered Porsche ST backdate project. It was sold to the new owner that the shell was “like new” and “ready for paint” with the ST wide arches already fabricated in and had had 450 man hours already spent on it. However when it arrived at the shop things didn’t look good, in fact it was nowhere near being ready for paint as the pictures below illustrate. Back to the drawing board we went and after a good chat with the owner, a full restoration was in order; including re acid dipping the shell and panels; as we all agreed this had the potential to be a special car if done properly with care and attention to detail.

The plan:

Bodywork:  Re acid dip the shell and panels, pre-fit all the panel and perfect the panel gaps, repair corrosion and dents, prep and paint in chosen colour.

Engine:  The engine has already been rebuilt but has been sat for 18 months so we will strip it down and detail it

Gearbox:  Clean and paint

Brakes:  Overhaul braking system

Wheels:  Braid 15″ 7 & 10 “Fuchs” RSR competition lightweight alloys

Interior:  Heigo rear half roll cage in black, black carpets, black leather dash, black leather door cards and new seats to match

The inspection

We kicked off the project with a full inspection of the shell and panels to help us understand the extent of work needed. We also laid out all the parts that had been sold with the body and made a list of what was there and what was missing. To be honest a lot of the parts supplied were either not fit for the standard we were looking to achieve on this project or were in need of refurbishment. There was also a whole list a parts missing that will need to be sourced.

As the new owner had not seen the car before buying it and had shipped it straight to us, we created a detailed 30 minute walk around video of our inspection and sent it over to him, allowing him to see for himself.

The shell

On inspecting the shell, we have to admit the wide arches have been welded in well however as you will see from the images below a lot of the other repair work will need to be re-done as it is not up our standard . One of the major things we will need to correct is the fact the drivers door currently doesn’t close properly, possibly due to the new roof being fitted. The door does line up with the rear wing and sill however the window frame is hitting the roof and there is no room for adjustment.

Al and Olly removed the sills so they could take out the heater pipes before the car gets dipped as they have a filament in them that cant get wet. But to our surprise (well not really with this project – Olly) the pipes were not even in there. So who ever worked on the car before us,  must have removed the pipes before they had the car dipped and then welded the sills up without putting the pipes back in! Unbelievable, the owner would have had a bit of a shock in the winter when all the hot air just sat in the sills.

Al and Jay have stripped the panels off and everything has been loaded up and shipped to the dippers.

Another example of previous questionable workmanship, the bonnet wasn’t even removed when they primered the car as when we removed it there was no primer under the bonnet hinges and that area had gone rusty.

The Porsche is back from getting acid dipped at Enviro Strip in Tamworth who have done an excellent job. Now it’s stripped down to bare metal we have had a good look around and things don’t look too good. We knew it was going to be bad once the primer and filer had been removed however there are areas on the shell we hadn’t foreseen, like the inch deep gully that runs across the roof that you could canoe down!  Take a look at the shots below they speak for themselves. It is all fixable however and we are all looking forward to getting our teeth/angle grinders into the project.

This dent on the rear wing has only been revealed after the filler was removed.

The front wings and doors need a bit of work too to make them perfect.

We have been trial fitting the suspension, before the full restoration begins to see how everything lines up. First though Olly has had to custom fabricate two metal rings and weld them into the torsion bar tube as the previous bodyshop had removed them and now replaced them ( this is becoming a running theme) meaning that the torsion bar had nothing to sit against and would have just kept sliding down the tube!

The wheels are on and the Porsche is on the ground. Next up we have trial fitted the roll cage and welded in the base plates.

The restoration process has begun with the removal of the dodgy rear wings.

We have decided to buy in the turbo wings as this will get the wide look we are after and come as a complete rear quarter. Yes it now means this has moved away from the ST backdate plan however we are all agreed that this car should just look bad ass and last with the least about of filler as possible and going down this route we can comfortably achieve this and within the customers budget.

Al cleaned up the inner quarters before we trial fitted the new turbo quarters.

Olly and Mick have been trial fitting all the panels to get an idea of how they fit. From the higher vantage point you can see how bad the roof is. We have bought in a new outer roof skin which will be replace this old one.

As you will recall the heater tubes were not put back in by the previous builder when they welded the outer sills on. Olly has now connected up and fitted the new heater tubes on both sides in their rightful place and welded on new outer sills.

With Part 1 of the build page getting too long, head over to Part 2 of the Porsche 911 GBG Backdate