ProVolks Official Shop-Car Build Thread. . .

[aircooledtechguy]

Friday, a friend of mine came by the shop to help me out with removing the damaged front clip off the ’67 Square. Originally I was going to just run what I had and body work it, but I soon discovered that the clip was pushed back almost ¼” on the drivers side making it all not square underneath and preventing the fenders from mounting properly. What I have planned for the front suspension requires it to be 100% square, so the old had to go.

We began by removing the fenders. Then made a series of careful measurements so as to ensure repeatability from one side to the other. Then marked the front-end with cut lines. Then taped the cut lines and cut along them with a cut-off wheel.



Won’t be driving fro a while until this gets back on. How’s that for adding some motivation??



I’ve currently got about ½” overlap which will be slightly trimmed to about ¼”. Then I’m going to flange the rear side with a flanging tool so I can properly overlap and weld the pieces back together on either side. This method should make a super strong re-connection.

Progress, sweet progress. . .

[aircooledtechguy]

Had to stop on a clients car early due to waiting on a part, so I put the rest of the day to good use.

I prepped the edge of the cut on the body with a 2" wheel down to bare metal. repeated this to the replacement clip section. Then brought out the flanging tool which is air driven. It makes a nice off-set flange so you can slightly overlap metal to be welded. Makes for a nicer joint in the end and is easier to fit pieces too.



Once the body was flanged, I test fit it and double-checked the key measurements. Then triple-checked them again. Then tacked it in place. . .



Then mounted the hood for a test fit before final welding. . . PERFECT!!



Now I have to finish weld both sides after I get another bottle of shielding gas.

[gearheadgreg]

Bravo

[Steve Arndt]

More info on that flange tool please. Link? I like how that worked out!

[aircooledtechguy]

More info on that flange tool please. Link? I like how that worked out!

Here's the tool I have. It has a flange tool on one side and a hole punch on the other for doing rosette welds

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-punch- ... -1110.html

[Steve Arndt]

I have no business thinking about trying to body work repair the corner of my van.... but I am.

[aircooledtechguy]

Am I missing something here????? The "point of no return cut" takes place. . .




The lid is ready to come off on my plans for the front-end. Out with the old beam, in with highly tunable Porsche 911 front suspension. Don't worry, the center beam will be powder coated like all the rest once any mods that need to take place happen first.



Mocked-up to the general position where this front-end will call home from now on. Before that happens, MUCH prep work will take place beginning with boxing in the area that was cut out in order to gain back the strength.



The fun continues. . .

[gearheadgreg]

How does the track width compare?

Oh, and pretty cool, BTW.

[Piledriver]

How does the track width compare?

Within measurement error range, probably identical.

[aircooledtechguy]

How does the track width compare?

Oh, and pretty cool, BTW.

The track width is the same. What I may do though is widen the center truss bar by 2" so that I won't have to run thick wheel spacers on the fronts. This of course, would create other problems like modifying the turbo tie rods an inch each and such, but honestly, that's the least of my concerns.

[aircooledtechguy]

Made a fair bit of progress today. Made the box-in section for the frame horns to regain the strength. I made the load bearing part out of 1/4" thick flat stock. The rest that actually goes up the front of the horns is 1/8" steel. Once I have it all tacked in place, I'll be boxing-in the outer edges where the center truss mounts. I plan to tie it into the body of the car with plates and gussets since this is where 80% of the stress is on this front-end.



Here's a couple shots after I raised it up in place so I could see how it would all fit in the car. I can already tell that I will need to make a small pocket for the aft end of the torsion bars and clearance the bottom of the frame horns where the strut arms connect. The shock struts are approx where they will be mounted, eventually. . .

[supaninja]

This is awesome Nate!

[aircooledtechguy]

I finally got the Porsche front mounts that I cut from a derelict 914 trimmed down and prepped for mock-up. In these shots, they are mounted to the a-arms and the whole lower front-end is mocked in place so I could get a really good look at where the cut lines will need to be made. These will be recessed into the nose at the rear about 3/4", but will need to be boxed outward significantly at the front. I'm going to first recess the rear edge so that it fits correctly. Then after that is done, then I can tackle the box structure in the front.





The material it's boxed with will be the same .75" (2.0mm) sheet that the Porsche mounts are made from. This will then have plates on the inside that tie it all to the body and pan via the upper frame horns. So far everything is going according to my sick plans. . .

[gearheadgreg]

Awesome fab work. Keep it up.

I just got the front suspension pan on my 73 911 replaced - the metal guy that did it (talented craftsman) said that there were about 4 or 5 spot welds holding the 'bolt retainer bucket' type things to the metal is all! He beaded them in before install. Crazy, especially when you think about how many 911s are tracked with sticky tires. Nice work.

[aircooledtechguy]

Awesome fab work. Keep it up.

I just got the front suspension pan on my 73 911 replaced - the metal guy that did it (talented craftsman) said that there were about 4 or 5 spot welds holding the 'bolt retainer bucket' type things to the metal is all! He beaded them in before install. Crazy, especially when you think about how many 911s are tracked with sticky tires. Nice work.

Thanks for the kind words. It also goes to show you just how much force and weight is actually carried on the rear mounts. They literally carry the lion's share of the loads. Not near the loads on the fronts. . .