1971 911T restoration, signal orange coupe

[Rwm514]

I wanted to start a thread documenting the restoration of my 911T. As some of you remember I bought the car a few weeks ago from the second owner in Mission Viejo calif. Last weekend I tore into and removed the interior, not really sure what I would find under the carpets and padding. The previous owner assured me that it was rust free and after a quick look I more or less thought he was right. Unfortunately I think this car suffered from a bad rear window seal for quite some time and the rain appears to have had soaked into the padding on the rear parcel shelf and then down into the seat bases
It was quite an experience for me to pull all the old smelly carpeting and padding out. The seat padding was actually still damp. Interesting the inside floor pans seem to be really nice, they still have the original insulating material on them. After I got most of the interior out I spent a little time hitting the rusty areas with a big wire brush. Had to shop vac out the rust a couple of times lol. The plan is to weld in a tub rear section from a donor car. I'll be taking it to my friend/porsche expert Kurt Donohoe of Porschetechnic right here in Flagstaff Arizona. We are going to pretty much disassemble the car- remove the engine and trim, glass etc. Then off to Latham's for welding and paint. Paint will be original color 1414 but with clear coat. Any advice along the way will be very much appreciated. I snapped a few pics but I will be updating with better ones along the way I'm pretty excited to to bring this old porsche back to a nice original condition. Budget is definitely limited, no blank checks available lol!

[Rwm514]

Here are a few pics of how it looks after a little brushing, 4-5 holes all the way thru. I'm thinking of really brushing it good and maybe coating the whole interior with some rust inhibiting black paint, or maybe I should have the body shop paint the interior with something after they weld in the new piece. What do you think?

[pgxif]

hi there. I've been through the same (once) and am about to do it again on my other car. Again, leaky rear seals ! My parcel shelf was worse, though seat bottoms not as bad. Sanding down the interior took a few weekend days.
At the time (last year) i could only find an expensive british-hand-made parcel shelf, though the shelf, plus seat bottoms, are not on Pelican (made by restoration design).
Once new metal was added, mine had a number of POR-15 coats, together with new seals, and then i tested it for a month or so to check no window leaks, before putting in the interior again (without H20-soaking padding this time !). I will check the parcel shelf annually, simply unscrewing the parcel ties and the top rail to lift out the interior parcel shelf ... for memory that's 9 screws !
Good luck !!

(see posts)
http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...069#post466069

[FL-Frank]

Im about to head down the same path with my 72 and worry about what we will find when the interior is completely removed. Our plan is to cut out any bad panels and weld in new metal. Its tough to budget for this part of the job though since theres no way of knowing what needs what until we get into it like you have done. Good luck with your project and keep us posted on your progress.

[RSTarga]

It's that darn horsehair matting + leaky seals. Glad to see another one saved. I love that color.

[Rwm514]

Well, we dropped it off at the bodyshop today with some of the restoration sheet metal. Pretty exciting overall. Boy you really have to jump in headfirst on a project like this.

[Rwm514]

Here is the donor piece.

And also my newly refinished fuchs