R project

[Jury]

Hi,

I have been lurking around the site for afew years...I apologise for not posting sooner, but the site has been a great resource. To date I have two 912's, a '67 which is pretty much stock and also a '68 which I been building slowly into a lightweight R inspired car.

The '68 build has had its ups and downs: So far the build it has spanned 3 countries, 5 different garages, and on my behalf 3 job moves, 2 knee operations, 7 house addresses, and the birth of my twin girls, all of which is compressed into around 3 and a half years!!

What started as a curiosty of learning to weld and a dream of creating something abit different has turned into a fairly intensive rebuild...

I wanted to share some of the photos with you guys, I will start a full build thread but I wanted to share a brief overview.....there is a small light at the end of the tunnel to get it finished, now that my life has finally settled down

The day the '68 was collected in Portland Oregon...








Alot of welding took place between these 2 photos Floors, Pedal area, Front suspension pan and tank support, Rear seat delete with new fabricated framework, Rear parcel shelf, Single wiper modification, RSR style front strut brackets and countless patch panels...





So this is when it left the US...


...and showed up in the UK...




Thanks
Chris

[Jury]

[Jury]

And then I moved with my family to Germany...







And then I moved house again...












...But this is where my family and I (and the cars) are staying for the foreseeable future.....I don't want to see another removal truck again

[Jury]

So thats kind of where I am...

It has now gone from 4.....




To 6.....



and this is getting fitted soon...rebuilt 911 2.2e motor




and whilst waiting for that, afew details are being sorted...














The wiring has started...so maybe sometime this winter it will be finished but there have been afew deadlines come and go over the years, its been quite a journey so far

Thanks
Chris

[Chuck Miller]

Great build, great story ...... Welcome Chris, looking forward to more.

[Reza]

Chris, truly passionate, and truly personal build. i've seen you post this car, Pelican? And bouncing around on shipping lines is a different level of commitment, and presumably an angel of a supportive domestic crew !

[andyjboy]

Good to see you posting on here Chris - I think you ought to share details of your unique painting technique on this car for the benefit of board members who may not have seen it posted elsewhere ...

[John Straub]

Great story Chris!

John

[Jury]

Good to see you posting on here Chris - I think you ought to share details of your unique painting technique on this car for the benefit of board members who may not have seen it posted elsewhere ...

Ahhhh yes, the painting.....

From the start this was never supposed to be a big budget build, and the paint-job has reflected this. I came across the painting method when I lived in U.S and had seen it first hand. The results looked great all things considered. The method involves, amongst other things, a high density foam roller, a tin of 'Rustoleum' paint and thinners and some patience.....basically I painted the car with a roller (but I cheated and used some rattle cans also).

As I said the main reason for doing this honestly comes down to cost, in total it came in at around $100. I liked the idea of investing the money saved into the suspension, which is now all Elephant racing poly bronze, and the Engine etc. The colour palette is abit limited but the RAL 7001 available is perfect for me (the wheels, which is another stors have been powder coated to match). In hindsight the car will probably never really be "completed", so I was willing to give this ago. I hated the idea of spending thousands on a paint job only to re-weld or re-modify something further down the line...this theory has already been proved by cutting out the 912 engine mounts and welding in the 911 mounts...

I am the first to hold my hands up and say yes, its not a concours finish.....maybe in 10-15 years time the car will be stripped back down, and resprayed properly but for now I am happy with it.....


So the basic tools...







First sand-down came after 3 coats...and then after every other coat. This process was repeated until the car had 11 coats on. First sand down was with 400 grit through to 1500 wet and dry





The car was polished in Germany, so the car had plenty of time to cure, probably 3 months...and so far it has about 5 coast of wax on







First pass of the polisher.....wow its shiny!!






Thanks
Chris

[Jury]

and from afew weeks ago...

I had some Engine parts sandblasted. The fan and case came back ok but needed abit of additional wire wool sanding...



I wanted to try and get a Prototype racer look to the fan. After some research I decided to use BBQ paint...after reading the instructions my long suffering wife wasn't too keen on my suggestion of putting the fan in the oven to cure the paint after spraying.....so.....

BBQ paint, hmmmm??.....well this method works great!




Thanks
Chris