Slipstream - February 2005

Photo by Charles Freeman
Early 911 Restoration: No. 6
by Charles Freeman
Some of you have asked former editor, Matt Platts, if you
can contact me and I welcome the opportunity to discuss
my project with you. Just get with Matt as he has my
contact information.
Well, things are now starting to look a little better for me. The
car is starting to be reassembled! I finally got the floorpan welded in
and am quite pleased with the quality of the welding. My father and
brother are welding inspectors and their impression of the weld
quality was favorable. Of course I did the typical amateur welder job
of probably welding too much. After I used the rosette welds (making
a mushroom-like puddle in the middle of the drilled out spot weld) I
put a continuous bead of weld around the entire car. I figured better
safe than sorry. However, I did employ a technique called
“stitch-welding”. This is where you weld a little line, say 2 inches, then
skip 6 inches forward, then weld 2, and so on. Again this is to prevent
too much heat build up in the sheet metal. I will say that when I
stopped welding sometimes I could hear the metal popping because
of heat distortion. After seeing the bare insides of the car I was almost
shocked to find the small amount of metal that keeps my backside
from touching the road!
So, the floorpan is in place but I do have a small gap where the
steering rack goes. To make a secure connection, I bought some 20
gauge sheet metal to overlap the old and new sections of floorpan.
There are a lot of bends and angles in this location, so I decided to
patch the gap with many small pieces about 4 inches square. I had to
hand form every inch of the piece because of the multiple
compound angles and curves. This was very challenging and
rewarding at the same time. All I had to work with was a small body
hammer and the anvil on my 5 inch bench vise. I had to be very
creative as to how I was going to form the sheet metal. Every piece
took at least an hour to form. I had to shape it, lie on my back to check
it, re-shape, lie on my back, re-shape, etc. I took my time with this
process because I knew I needed intimate contact between the metal
to get a good weld. When I had a piece ready, I tack-welded it in place.
That is very challenging because you can’t really get the MIG weld gun
in the tight confines of this area. I had to be a little creative to make
this work. Also, since I am upside down all of the sparks will drop
down on me. I got a few nice burns from this task. I could have
invested in a nice leather welder’s jacket, but I am just too cheap.
With the floorpan done I needed to think about how to protect
20
Photo by Charles Freeman
the metal from rust. I had decided very early on to use POR15 as a
preventative undercoat. This works differently than most other rust
inhibitors I have seen. It works by forming a barrier for rust to travel.
Most other inhibitors undergo a chemical reaction to convert the
iron oxide to a more stable form. The product information for the
POR15 says it is very tough and impact resistant. Therefore, I
decided to use it on the floorpan, trunk, wheel wells, and engine bay.
I had to remove the undercoating from these areas using a propane
torch, spatula, and wire wheel. It is very difficult to get into the inner
rear fender area but I felt it was important to verify that there was no
rust hidden deep in the structure. I also wanted to make sure that I
would seal it with the POR15 which adheres best to “seasoned” metal.
Once the undercoating was removed I lightly sanded the metal to
provide good adhesion. I prepared the metal surface as instructed by the
manufacturer and was ready to apply the paint. POR15 is a watery thin
liquid that the manufacturer recommends applying with a paint brush.
It can be sprayed but must be thinned to apply correctly. Using paint
brushes was cheaper and didn’t require me to buy a spray gun.
The instructions recommend wearing gloves as once the paint
has dried it cannot be removed from skin until the skin is shed by
natural processes. I also used a respirator for organic solvents. So
after using a tack rag to verify that the car was perfectly clean, I mixed
up some of the paint and began to apply it to the bottom of the car. I
soon realized that the paint was so thin that it would run down the
paint brush, over my gloves and right down my sleeve. I was extra
careful to not lie under where I was painting at that point and to stay
away from areas already painted. Since the paint is thin, it would
run and drip off of the car so there are a lot of little puddles on my
garage floor.
After I completed painting the floorpan I took off the
respirator and almost passed out from the fumes in my garage (the
garage door was open!). Man, that is powerful stuff. Well, by the time
I finished painting the underside of the car, the paint had dried on my
arm. I tried to remove it by pouring thinner on my skin, no luck.
Then I tried brake cleaner, no luck. This stuff sticks to your skin just
like the manufacturer says. By the way, being an old chemist, it was
common for us to clean our hands in what is now considered to be
carcinogenic. So, unless you want to shorten your life, don’t pour
chemicals on your body! It took about 3 weeks to come off my arm
(my co-workers quietly wondered what disease I had since I had these
large black spots on me).