So after dropping the shell off at Chestertons Sills, roll cage and rear qtr’s were chopped out, we then had to wait for a window where the weather was kind to us to blast the car, glad to say this was completed last week. Since its return to the workshop I have not had chance to take some time off to travel up to Oxfordshire to take a look at the car. John the main man at Chestertons sent me a couple of snaps this morning and I’m glad to say it don’t look to bad, granted you cant see any of the dreaded aftermark of the dreaded rust, but all in all John told me the internal shell wings and all are not to bad, even the floor was pretty good.
Before having the car blasted John completed a thorough inspection and provided a list of panels which I would need to bring the car back to its former glory. The front wings had to go as they had been chopped up for some reason by a previous owner to fit LWB front side lights and horn grills, don’t ask me why….fortunately they were not the original wings for the car. All the normal areas needed attention, inner/outer sills, rear qtrs. Were quite bad, and the bonnet had to go as it had had a number of previous repairs. The biggest surprise was that the car probably during its completion days had been fitted with a new roof, which had been badly done, so we decided that there was only one way to get this correct, a new roof….. Taking all this into account your all probably thinking theres not much of the original outer panels left… well gven the car is almost 50 years old, not much of a surprise.
So original deck lid and original doors are left with the car, and I’m glad to say the inner wings look pretty good, will only need some light repair work.
Will be taking trip to the work shop to see progress at first hand in the next few weeks, but in the mean time here are a couple of pictures.
My first porsche was a 67 in aga blue .although a 912 ,still a rare color. Dig it!
Took my first trip up to see the car since it was media blasted on Friday. I had spoke to John at Chestertons over the last few weeks and he assured me that the car was in reasonably solid condition. True to his word I was amazed at how little rot was evident on the car. The worse areas I could see were parts of the rear internal wings, with some rot present and evidence of previous bad repairs, but all in all very pleased.
As part of the Chesterton coach work service, John will provide n album of the restoration at the end of the project, so I will have hundreds of pictures providing a lot more detail of each part of the body work restoration. For the time being I will post a few pictures from each of my visits up to the workshop.
If there are any specific areas that people are interested in let me know I will post some further pictures once this stage of the project is complete.
Front of the car is one of the areas where I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of rot, small repair around the chassis number under the hood
Driver/passenger footwell area again all pretty solid just a few areas that need a little attention. New floor is in and additional piece for strengthening the inner sill area for the seat sill mounting brackets going in.
Its been several weeks since I was last able to take a trip up to Chestertons, I have been able to get the odd update over the phone from John but its always better to be able to see for your self the progress being made; and most importantly the quality of the work.
Well I was not disappointed, at first hand the car to someone who has not gone through a full restoration before looks a long way from having the shell finished, however John assured me that the car is 4-6 weeks from being finished. All of the major work has been done, all be it, it is currently roofless… so front end and front luggage /tank floor area is more or less complete, rear cross member is in and backdated, majority of repairs to front and rear inner wings are complete, torque tube end and inner membrane have been repaired, main floor is nearing completion along with the A posts.
One area which has taken more time than anticipated are the original doors, both were in pretty bad condition, one has been completed the second is ongoing.
So all in all very pleased with progress, next trip up will be in around 3 weeks to drop a whole load of parts off for fitting pre paint.
You can just make out the last three digits of the chassi number on the internal finished door
The team at Chestertons is a fairly small one, John and two others, on the next photo you can see Roy in the back ground working on my other door, Roy has been looking after my car, he is 73 and has been working on old porsches and Bugatti’s for over 50 years. Along with John who is also in his later years, they have nearly 90 years of experience between the two of them. One of the main reasons why I selected this shop for my shell.
Rear cross member in and back dating commenced
Enjoying your progress, looks great!!
S-Reg #1382
67S Lavender
70S Silver, original Slate Gray Japan delivery
Great project. Subscribed
Great! Nice work.
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