Consolidated everything here: http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...-the-aftermath Made a few separate posts before I realized I should consolidate The baloney is the line I’ve been feeding my self about how smoothly this would go. The Swiss cheese is all the pinhole rust that will require replacement metal. Only caviar so far is the Hagerty price guide. Had a company called Mobil Blast Away come to Dale Erdman’s shop yesterday. We had previously removed everything would could take off and actually cut the rear quarters away. The chassis looked pretty rough but the longitudinals were in surprisingly good condition. Probably what kept the car from splitting in two when it was originally towed to the shop.
Decision was made to have everything chemically stripped that was removable. I read to many things about residual blasting material in crevices that would appear for years after blasting. Redi Strip in Allentown, Pa had closed its door for various reasons. At first I thought I would have to take everything to Ohio as it appeared to be the closest chemical stripper. Then I found Metal Strip of New England in Worcester, Massachusetts
In our initial assessment of the car, it appeared that the pans, fenders, front hood, center tunnel and rear seat pans could not be saved. Doors would have to be re skinned and the front bumper was doubtful. Quarter were salvageable but rough and the front bumper was extremely rusted. Just so happened at the time of the purchase, a nice guy in Virginia was giving up on his ‘67 912 and cutting it up. Went down and purchased the fenders and front hood, since NOS was no longer available. Car was so clean that I discussed it with my body man and we decided to buy the front clip. Appears that by the time we finish with the clip, it will look like a turkey carcass five days after Thanksgiving. I have decided not to just clip the car, because that impairs the value of the Targa by essentially becoming two cars into one. Can’t use the original fender but transferring the light buckets because they have the original vin stamping. Will re stamp the hood and will divulge that upon sale. Also picked up a new front bumper and may elect to use that instead of the original.
Loaded everything that we had removed into a rented Chrysler van and headed north. Originally was going to rent a Hertz truck, but the guys at the rental company didn’t have a truck so they convinced me to use the Chrysler. If you don’t have your own truck, I highly recommend a Chrysler as opposed to a Hertz just for the sheer comfort and the XM radio. After getting lost several times I finally met up with Dan at Metal Strip of New England. Great guy. Reviewed every part and gave me a breakdown price for each piece. Took about a month and a half but everything came out as clean as a whistle and had a protective coating. That was good for up to a month after which the pieces should be primed. Dan has the ability to do an entire car and when I first arrived the had just dipped an entire Pontiac GTO. Rather poor pictures on my part but you can see the size of the tanks. My body man Dale was impressed with the final product.
After pulling out the instruments, interior wiring, engine and transmission we were ready to blast the shell. Could have loaded it up on a truck and carted it to a facility, but I found Mobil Blast on the web. Called up and talked to Mike who was willing to come out to Allentown, Pa to do the blasting. He is located in Pawling, New York and covers NY, NJ, PA, CT and maybe as far down as Delaware. He was doing a job in Trenton close to where I live and split his day in half. Blasted a truck frame in the morning and then he rode up to Allentown. Dale had the car outside and they set right to work. Took about three hours but they cleaned up everything but the floor pan which we are going to replace anyway. 90 degree weather but Mike’s assistant Pablo donned his protective gear and had at it. Mike says they have various grits to remove different types of coating on different materials. He sells the particulate to other blasters. Also keeps his shop open on Saturdays and if you can hall it in, they will blast it there at the shop. If I got it correct, the particulate is a slurry of water and ground up glass bottles. Dale reported to me that when he cleaned up this morning the left over material was like mud/snow. Took about two hours to shovel it up but no residual damage to the shop or surrounding area. Seems to be environmentally safe.
Cleaned up the clip at the same time and you can see the chassis and the clip in the picture below. Going to take the nose panel and slam panel as well as a small portion of the bulkheads on each side from the clip and graft them on to the chassis. Probably will need to take a portion of the trunk floor as a repair panel also. Really have not decided how ro proceed with the rest and guess it is a work in progress subject to another update in the future. Obviously we will be welding new underbelly, seat pan and tunnel into the car.
As an aside Dale seems to be becoming the Targa Meister. The less desirable (unloved) Targa seems to be gaining a lot of adherents. Dale has my ‘67 911S, my ‘67 912, a ‘73 911S, a‘71 911 and just got in a ‘69 911T (courtesty of a purchase from Alan at Unobtainium). All are Targas although I believe Dale’s first love is still the 356's he does. Couple pictures of the shop with just the one 356 in it right now.
Took the engine to Bob Fox in Ambler, PA. Been working around 911's all his life. Has not yet had time to pull the engine apart. His only comment has been “that’s worth a lot of money”. Don’t know if that means what I going to pay him or if that’s the worth of a numbers matching engine. Guess I’ll eventually find out.
I would recommend each and every one of the above services (body man, chemical stripper and dry stripper) but don’t want to seem like an advertisement. If any one wants further info, please PM me and I will be happy to proved addresses and phone numbers. I will hopefully be able to continue this thread with updates from time to time.
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