New trunks are now welded in for both ends of the car. I have been seam welding every area that could use some strength. In the rear area, I have seam welded everything that is part of the structure and shock towers.

I continue to clean up the seam sealer and undercoating. The car is going to the blasters in 2 weeks to be completely stripped. This will make it much easier to weld things up and we are close to welding in some of the bigger structure improvements with the Tangerine Racing’s shock tower mounts that replace the rubber tops with bearings and the Rear Pickup Points Reinforcing Kit to cut flex in the engine area.

While America enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend, I had a deadline and worked all 3 days straight to get the new front pan and trunk pan installed… Amazing amount of work, but the car is in good shape for the structural seam welding and other repairs which are much less intensive from here on out!

I blew a tire out on my 911 on the freeway last week. Thanks you AAA, but it was a chance to pull the rims, get them powder coated, cool new tires and replace the trim molding in my rocker panels. Once I inspected them, I realized that the PO had removed the bolts to the supports, lost them and not secured a number of fasteners. Sloppy stuff. So ordered the new clips and cleaned everything up as a lot of crap accumulates under the rockers and the passenger side also has the oil cooler lines which turned out to be very gunked up. The process is simple to remove them, but the plastic is still 23 years old and it has some damage in the clips. I will cover how to jbweld those in the next post. I cleaned everything and then painted the black areas. BTW, OEM is Wurth Satin black, but I did that and a little clear coat for looks.

In the drying booth with Kitty…

I am now replacing the front pan on the car. Taken a bit of work to get to shiny metal and assemble the parts. Next post we will be welding.

All back together! Engine has the new heads, new oil pistons, oil pump and modded 1.7 lifters with 911 adjusters.

We are all set to begin and hopefully finish the engine upgrade and build in the morning. I am having Rich help me with the finer details (so I can do the whole calibration process on my own for the next engine) and almost every critical part is being replaced with something better and stronger.

Engine Ready for Heads	Heads and Engine Components
Parts all Organized

The engine is now broken down to the long block stage. One of the first upgrades I wanted to do was increase my oil pressure and efficiency. When a VW/Porsche engine is referred to as “Air-Cooled”  it is really air and oil cooled. Oil makes up a huge part of the engine’s cooling and life span.  Upgrading the oil pump to a heavy duty pump and replacing the engines oil relief valves accomplish this and help make the engine run much cooler and with better lubrication on all the engine parts.

Type IV Oil Pump	New Heavy Duty Oil Pump	Measure to remove excess metal on the tab to make it fit
Remove Old Studs	New Studs Installed	New Pump Installed

Like many things in life, it all involves being prepared for the moment when an opportunity presents itself or you execute on your plan. Getting the Porsche ready for the next big part of the restoration/conversion is cumulative of the last year that I have been collecting parts, buying big pieces as I could afford them and then preparing them for installation. I am down to the last few weeks before I began to cut the car up further and weld in the new metal pans and fenders.

Ready for Spinning