Another Lightweight Build

I had been wanting to build myself a rally inspired car for a really long time and finally last April I found my project car on ebay, a 1970 2.2T. It started out as the textbook lipstick pig complete with obligatory glossy guards red respray over original tangerine with lots of rust thrown in for good measure. But at least it ran! Perfect for a rally inspired factory lightweight build.

The main criteria for me were the car had to be a LWB with an original tangerine paint code. My intention wasn’t so much to build an R-Gruppe or hotrod car but a car that maintained the vibe of an early factory racer with a hot motor and understated appearance. Inspirations and ideas from the early 911 community were many but the ones that got my pulse racing were Scott Longballa’s and Gib Bosworth’s ST builds as well as Bob Tilton’s lovely TR.

After seeing the cover of Randy Leffingwell’s “The Complete Book of The Porsche 911” I decided to make a tribute to the 1968 Marathon de la Route winning car. I went ahead and had all the roundels and numbers made even before I had found a car but the more I thought about it the more I thought I would feel maybe just a little self conscious driving around in a car plastered in race numbers. Then I remembered some black and white photos of the first iteration of the 911ST before it had flares and a bigger motor. With some ’69 touches, trim delete, Porsche stripes on the doors and decklid, stripped out interior and tangerine livery this checked all my boxes for a rally inspired build.

Here are photos of the car being trailered back to LA – I’ll never forget the gas station attendant rushing over to take pictures of my new “beauty.”

Pics of the car that inspired me which has been shown many times on the board.

:DAbout time you shared this Nick!

Before pulling the trigger on the pig the first thing I did was put in a call to the one man I wanted to take on this project: enter master metal craftsman and early Porsche encyclopedia John Esposito. Having no doubt received many such phone calls from starry eyed dreamers John assessed the situation and gave me an idea of what it would cost to repair floors, front pan etc.., but of course we both knew there was no way to tell from the photos alone what more might be lurking underneath the shiny paintjob. I would find out soon enough.

I know Dave. The time has come to share some of the pain and some of the joy but I had to get through most of the pain to be able to then share the joy of it coming together. How's yours coming?

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Originally Posted by nickR

I had been wanting to build myself a rally inspired car for a really long time and finally last April I found my project car on ebay, a 1970 2.2T. It started out as the textbook lipstick pig complete with obligatory glossy guards red respray over original tangerine with lots of rust thrown in for good measure. But at least it ran! Perfect for a rally inspired factory lightweight build.

The main criteria for me were the car had to be a LWB with an original tangerine paint code. My intention wasn’t so much to build an R-Gruppe or hotrod car but a car that maintained the vibe of an early factory racer with a hot motor and understated appearance. Inspirations and ideas from the early 911 community were many but the ones that got my pulse racing were Scott Longballa’s and Gib Bosworth’s ST builds as well as Bob Tilton’s lovely TR.

After seeing the cover of Randy Leffingwell’s “The Complete Book of The Porsche 911” I decided to make a tribute to the 1968 Marathon de la Route winning car. I went ahead and had all the roundels and numbers made even before I had found a car but the more I thought about it the more I thought I would feel maybe just a little self conscious driving around in a car plastered in race numbers. Then I remembered some black and white photos of the first iteration of the 911ST before it had flares and a bigger motor. With some ’69 touches, trim delete, Porsche stripes on the doors and decklid, stripped out interior and tangerine livery this checked all my boxes for a rally inspired build.

Here are photos of the car being trailered back to LA – I’ll never forget the gas station attendant rushing over to take pictures of my new “beauty.”

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Narrow bodied hot-rods…love love love! Can't wait!

As the paint started coming off we slowly got a better sense of what we were dealing with. Let’s just say the car had a colorful history and much of the work John would undertake over the long months that followed was due not just to some really nasty rust but to the utterly shameless repair work done by previous body shops. As John is a stickler for following factory procedures he began tackling every little imperfection and ugly repair with tireless precision and expert mastery, relentlessly, over and over again. The car was essentially going into intensive care with John being the surgeon entrusted with bringing the patient from Stuttgart back to life.

Obligatory surgery shots. Out with the old front pan in with the new.

Thanks Bob. Me too. Patience becomes a way of life as you know when you start one of these projects. I wavered a few times at the beginning as to whether I shouldn’t just restore it to stock since it is a numbers matching car and with values going the way they are but your firm encouragement made me steer back on track and stay true to my vision. Narrow body factory lightweight it is.

More surgery to the front end which turned out to be a mess. John and crew fabricating parts that were rotted away. Painstaking work.

And more bits going under the knife...