Restoration of 67S....307998S

[endo911rs]

This car has been patiently waiting its place in line for about a year and a half but about a month ago I finally dove in and got started, thought I would share some pics and the story etc...

I was just finishing the sale of my previous 67 when I got a phone call about a number matching S being available in the Bay area. Ironically my girlfriend and I were planning a getaway weekend to San Fran so it was convenient (for me) to look at the car while we were there. She was a great sport, more than willing to sacrifice an afternoon for my crazy hobby

The previous owner was going to do a quick restoration and sell it off but I thought it needed to be done properly and ultimately the car will be far better off. We negotiated the sale and shipped the car back to Seattle. Once in Seattle, it sat for well over a year...up on the car stacker and under cover. I almost forgot it was up there...out of sight, out of mind! In the mean time, other projects were started and I can't way that any were finished so it's become quite chaotic around here with cars on rotisseries/chassis dollies etc.

Anyway, I finally got a space opened up in the shop so I decided to get started! My intention was to completely strip it and get a SOLID chassis. From there, I want to do some sports purpose upgrades and build up a 2.7 motor while I put the original 2.0L on the shelf. I'm sure some won't agree with that but I always build cars for me, of course I will keep all the original parts.

As purchased... Original Swiss delivery car, hence the euro lighting. It also has a Webasto heater.





Many of you are familiar with my old 67... I miss the purity of the SWB cars and really want one back in my collection again so the opportunity to get an S was an obvious choice. I like the uniqueness of that car so I will do something similar but I need to wait till the vision hits me but there a a couple good ideas that I am tossing around.

[endo911rs]

The tear down begins...



Some surprises but most of the issues, I had a good idea about when I purchased the car. There were some strange areas of rust and some other areas that were much more solid than I expected. I knew the longitudinals were toast, and that there had been previous repairs to the front end but I was not expecting the doors and floor to be so solid. The rear quarters had also been modified in the past to install LWB style flares but I think Hellen Keller did the work so I opted to remove them entirely, plus the turn signal boxes were rusty. All in all, very workable.

In the mean time, I also picked up a nice 68 912 donor chassis. Sadly, the car is very solid but Hellen Keller welded the floor panels in...and it's a 912...and it was far from complete...and I need parts to save the S...so it will need to be sacrificed Mainly I need the rear quarters but also some other small pieces.



I debated media blasting versus chemical stripping. I've done media blasting on several cars and it works but definitely Has its down sides. One day, the owner of my local sand blasting shop was in my office and I asked him to give me an unbiased opinion of blasting versus acid dipping. He reluctantly said, for a unibody car, acid stripping was much better. That's coming front the owner of a blasting shop! So I stripped the car entirely and trailered it down to Portland to American Metal Cleaners so they could have their way with it. I also cut out all the questionable panels so they would have better access to thoroughly rinse the cleaning agents out of the car.

[endo911rs]

A few details of number matching panels, parts etc...

Rough...



Numbers...Sadly the drivers door was replaced at some point but all the other panels match up.

[Bonton]

Suscribed!

[endo911rs]

Fast forward through lots of hard work stripping under coating with a torch and a multi-tool...and two weeks at the "strippers"...









After application of a protective phosphate coating...Which gives it that rainbow, discolored look. It is 100% rust free and ready for fab work, welding and then primer.

[endo911rs]

I have a lot of parts saved up to install on the car. The 2.7 is waiting for a rebuild and I'll use the original 901 transmission. I'll upgrade the front suspension to a later style setup with Bilsteins or Konis and use alloy S brakes. The torsion bars were already upgraded to 21/26. It also came with sway away adjustable rear spring plates. Eric Shay has already rebuild the original S rear calipers and I have new rotors ready to install.

NEW 100L tank ready for paint...



I also have a set of Harvey deep 6's and 7R's so I'll need some pointers on how to get those to fit SWB rear quarters and what suspension settings I need.

[luke-44]

Looking good, subscribed.

I've done two ground up restos, and swear by the dipping method. My experience has been the detractors of dipping are usually from the camp of "well, I've never actually done it, but it sounds like it will be a problem long term"...

So what are your feelings, now that you've done it both ways?

[Fishcop]

Chris, it's so good to see you posting a resto again!

Subscribed

[endo911rs]

Thanks John, I have been busy with projects but lazy at posting them online.

I can't recommend the chemical stripping enough and I think it is the only way to go. There is nothing "seeping out of the seams", everything is completely neutralized and dry as a bone! I have another car on a rotisserie that was media blasted and it has taken me a LONG time to get all the media out of the inner cavities of the car. That stuff gets everywhere! Considering that, my fear is that moisture gets trapped by the media and then you have an even bigger problem later on.

[Macroni]

Chris you have been missed!!!!!!!