Paul Eddleston Mega Moderator Location: Birmingham, Michigan Join Date: 09/06/2012 Age: Ancient Posts: 565 Rally Car: Subaru Outback Wagon EG33, 911 Carrera |
Now the big one: getting the doors, hood and fenders to fit. We swear, when the car left the body shop eight years ago everything fit well but now it appeared that the car has morphed somewhat over time. The door gaps aft were tiny to non-existent and the fenders seemed now to be taller and at a funny angle. Most of the body lines didn't line up anymore either. First, we tackled the door gaps.
There is no adjustment in the hinge system that would allow them to be positioned further forward. All we could do was add shims behind them to move them further back but that, of course, would make the situation worse. At least shimming allowed us to get them to close, latch and be level. We clearly had to move the hinges forward somehow. We tried hitting them with a BFH but they, and the a-pillar, were too sturdy. We thought about cutting them off and rewelding them on but thought we'd just bugger up the alignment of them doing that. Finally, we settled on cutting slots in them so they would more easily bend and, ultimately weld the slots up. It took a lot of chin rubbing and pacing back and forth but eventually we plucked up courage and were more than pleased when it seemed to work out better than expected. 
We gained about 3mm of gap. We could have got more but we knew that opening the doors was going to be challenging even if we had 5-6mm of gap there, so were very happy with this. Next, fender fit! Paul Eddleston BRAID Wheels USA www.BRAIDUSA.com Team Illuminata Motorsport www.teamilluminata.com |
Paul Eddleston Mega Moderator Location: Birmingham, Michigan Join Date: 09/06/2012 Age: Ancient Posts: 565 Rally Car: Subaru Outback Wagon EG33, 911 Carrera |
Next, after shimming the doors level and getting most of the body lines lined up, we focused on the fenders. Oh boy! it seemed we may have BMW M3 fenders; they were that far out!
Firstly, we "adjusted" the fit as best we could by adjusting the mounting holes that were once in the right place. That improved things a bit but still left a lot of filling, cutting, grinding and sending left. And that was just to achieve a somewhat race car level of fit. If this was a concours build we would have had to start from scratch. 
To lower the tops of the fenders where they meet the a-pillar we first cut a long, thin wedge out about a foot back, squished it down with lead weights and fixed it in place with some fiber glass matt and resin on the underside. We also had to extend both these surfaces to actually get close to the a-pillars. This was followed by fill, sand, fill sand, many times over. 
We fixed the sides by adding lots of filler and sanding it down till the panels were in something approaching the same plane as the doors. 
We fixed the bottom part that kicks out by cutting it off. Taking a wedge out of it and glassing it back in the right place. Of course, plenty of filling and sanding was also required. 
We fixed the door gaps with the Dremel but had to remove so much material that we created holes. We added a lot of fiber glass matt inside this area to restore integrity. Then more filling and sanding, of course. 
The lowest and smallest crease on the fenders was so low we had to rebuild it 1/2" higher! 
This one made us laugh. We wanted to fix the droopy eye look over the headlights so added material to make them level. This only made them too deep and they no longer lined up with the bottom of the hood return. We decided, at least for now, to hide this issue with black electrical tape. It's quite effective and may become permanent! 
Finally, we were happy with the fit and decided to stop. We could always improve it but at some point, you have to remind yourself that it's a rally car and not a show queen. That and the realization that we could tidy it up during paint prep if we really felt the need.  Paul Eddleston BRAID Wheels USA www.BRAIDUSA.com Team Illuminata Motorsport www.teamilluminata.com |
Paul Eddleston Mega Moderator Location: Birmingham, Michigan Join Date: 09/06/2012 Age: Ancient Posts: 565 Rally Car: Subaru Outback Wagon EG33, 911 Carrera |
We're really close to finishing the dry build phase and we’re starting to run out of things to do. The list of essentials is down to 3-4 and the "nice but not essential" is tempting us. Let's how disciplined we can be over the next few weeks.
We bought an original composite boot/trunk lid from a later Quattro, for obvious reasons, but it had one broken mounting stud. We were hoping three out of four would be enough but with that huge oil cooler, we thought we should at least attempt to fix it. It was easier than expected but with one minor oops. See if you can spot it. 
We also modified the rear skid plate bar to make it look more authentic. We added what might be a reinforcing bar along its trailing edge: 
Next, we added some mounting tabs on the strut bar for our igniters: 
We always felt these cars lacked fender liners, even though the works cars didn't seem to have them. We started to make some but soon discovered that they would probably restrict suspension travel so settled instead on blocking off the area behind the headlights and horns with abs sheet as a compromise. 
We also added these straps to the hood and trunk to make it easier to lift them. They aren't period works correct so we intended removing them once the build is finished but they are proving so useful we may keep them. What do you think? 
We may have reached the end of the dry-build phase now! We'll let you know if that's true in the next update. Click, like and subscribe. Paul Eddleston BRAID Wheels USA www.BRAIDUSA.com Team Illuminata Motorsport www.teamilluminata.com |
Paul Eddleston Mega Moderator Location: Birmingham, Michigan Join Date: 09/06/2012 Age: Ancient Posts: 565 Rally Car: Subaru Outback Wagon EG33, 911 Carrera |
THE FINAL PUSH.......
......to get the shell into the trailer and delivered to our paint guys was a lot more work than we thought but last week we did it. It feels like a huge milestone for the project as next time we see it, the car will be in pristine fresh white paint and we can start bolting shiny things to it. When we left you it was the most car it's been in over 20 years. At the end of this update, it will be the least. That's progress! Here's what we had to do to get it to this stage: First, we took all the bodywork off the front and then started taking everything out of the engine bay in as many large subassemblies as possible. We dropped the engine and transmission as one but we had to take off some ancillaries. 
Most of the engine harness came out as one, thanks to bulkhead connectors. 
With the engine out, that gave us access to the brakes master cylinders and lines as well as the fuel system plus the steering rack. 
Next, we removed all four strut assemblies and both subframes. Of course, we left the rear diff attached. This also allowed the exhaust to be removed. 
Then we directed our attention to the cabin. Dash was first then the heater, seats, wiring harness, pedals footrests etc. 
Of course, we organized everything very professionally............ as a diorama on the floor! 
At some point we remembered that we hadn't mocked up the rear skid plate and fuel pump cover. Our next thought was "DOH! we have to put the rear subframe and diff back in." 
With the shell basically stripped we set about filling unwanted holes and removing unwanted brackets. There were a lot more than we anticipated. We also tidied up some previous welds and finish welded some things we'd previously tack-welded. Fortunately, while taking parts off we remembered to mark the holes for either rivnuts, welded nuts or through holes. Again, there were way more than we imagined. 
With the shell as naked as it has ever been and our engineering brains engaged, we took the opportunity to weigh it. Wouldn't you? It turned out to weigh 374lb in the front and 573lb in the rear which is 40% front and 60% rear. Coincidentally this is the same as our assembled 911 rally car and the exact opposite of a fully assembled Quattro! Isn't engineering fun? We knew we'd have to move the shell around the workshop and paint shop and also transport it in the trailer so devised two different systems to do so. Rather than build a cart to move it around we thought we'd see if we could attach some wheels to our pin stands and make them mobile. Sounds crazy but we figured if we could just add a brace to stop them rotating it might be very stable. We were pleasantly surprised by the result. You wouldn't want to push it down the street like this but it is quite happy to trundle around the workshop. 
So, what about getting it into the trailer and securely dragging it the three hours each way to the paint shop? Clearly it had to be lower than the pin stands on dollies. We came up with simply bolting wheels to the subframe mounts. After all, that's kind of what they are for, right. 
Finally, the day came to trundle it into the trailer. load the van with other parts and drag it to our friends at Courtade Body Shop (www.courtadebodyshop.com) for the transformation. 
Can't wait to show it off to you in a few weeks! Paul Eddleston BRAID Wheels USA www.BRAIDUSA.com Team Illuminata Motorsport www.teamilluminata.com |
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