Twins!

I removed the driver's door (not shown) and the door trim and golly, look what I found!! Not really a surprise, and it's not as bad as the other side. Still, it's good to see that I'm not wasting my time opening things up. Next up, removing the driver's fender. There's a lot of stuff in there that's connected to the fuel tank, so if you here a KA-BOOM, send cash in lieu of flowers.

Oh dear...

After peeling back the carpet on the passenger side, I started peeling off more and more and more. This is the cushion material under the rear passenger seat. This will not do! I didn't intend to change the interior, but maybe I should. I'm this far along....

Keep in mind, the whole point of all this is to prepare the car to wrap, because it was "cheaper and easier" than having someone repaint the car. Clearly, replacing the upholstery is part of that, right? Right?

Facing the horror head on

This picture doesn't look like it, but I was able to break away a lot of the rust bits. The visible metal is now more silver than brown (unless it's dirty, that is). I peeled back the carpeting after removing the passenger seat.I haven't found any more nearby rust besides what you see here. I have plans for how to fix it...

The Horror!!

This is what I found lurking under the door trim. I haven't fully pulled out all the rusted metal, but it's not pretty. I'm trying to figure out my best options, based on the combination of what I am able to do (vs. having someone else do) and what is the "right way" to fix it.

Stay tuned...

Over My Head?

If you're the kind of person who laughs when someone gets in over their heads, you might want to get ready to laugh. I remove the passenger fender with minimal problems. The headlights and turn signals are wired in a way that makes the fenders difficult to remove, so I cut the wires. My rationale is that the wires were not in great shape anyway, so I plan on replacing them when I reinstall the fender. Also, I'm considering replacing as much as I can with LED lights. We'll see...

This might also be a good time to install the magnetic switches for a digital speedometer. I'll look at that once everything is cleaned up. This is also a good time to think about the suspension, although I'm not sure I want to spend the time or the money on that.

What's Behind the Door?

I've removed the door! It's generally a bad idea to remove the door by removing the hinges because it will be a real pain to realign the door later. However, I couldn't remove the hinge pins, and they are notoriously difficult to remove without a special tool and a lot of luck. So, I had to choose whether or not I'd spend money and time buying the tool and doing it the right way at a later date, or moving forward and possibly spending time and money getting the door realigned. I chose instant gratification.

My friends are not surprised.

However, I can't be sure that I will have time to do work on the door later, so the decision made sense.

At the last minute, I put the stands underneath the door to support the weight. Good move... the door is very heavy. I also removed the interior from the door (more on that later) and all of the weatherstripping and trim. This revealed a sizable rust hole in the rear bottom of the door sill. I'm currently weighing my options on how to fix that, but I'll start first by clearing out all the rust (more on that later).

You can also see the wires from the radio. I recently installed a new radio, but I haven't cleaned up the wiring because I have plans for what I might do with the dash. I'm still thinking that through...

For Example...

This video shows the wrap that I have for the Porsche. My plan is to wrap most of the metal pieces in brushed steel, and the non-metal pieces (the whale tail, etc.) in flat black. The video shows the look of the brushed metal, and the problems with only wrapping the exterior. Near the end of the video, you see what happens when they open the doors. This is the effect that I'm trying to avoid.

Off With His Hood!

Ok... So, I started by removing the hood and the trunk liner. I have to admit, I had trouble disconnecting the wires to the (nonfunctional) trunk light. No worries - one snip with the wire cutters and... problem solved! My plan is to replace the light with a bright LED light, but I won't get to that for a while.

One observation: the trunk has a lot of room for an array of batteries, especially if you remove the 19 gallon gas tank and the questionable spare. (Note: the spare might be usable, but I'm not really interested in using the Porsche jack on the side of the road. I'd rather just call AAA.)

I keep thinking about going electric, but it probably won't happen this time around. Other people have created electric 911s, but most of the others cut corners and the ranges are not great. If I did it, I would try to make it as Tesla-like as possible.

And So It Begins...

The car above is a 1974 Porsche 911 Targa, in good running condition, and decent interior, but questionable paint. I have the crazy idea to wrap it in vinyl - brushed stainless steel vinyl, and probably change a few things along the way. Wrapping can be relatively straightforward - you basically wrap a car in a large sticker. The problem with this is that you can see the original color every time you open the doors or look into the wheel wells. I don't like that idea, so my goal is to take the car apart as much as possible and wrap/paint all visible surfaces. In the end, I might have a great looking car, or a pile of parts. We'll see...