904-068
June 25, 2004
Now that
the tail opens and closes properly, the repair, perfect seams,
and fit are still being conducted. Note the cool bolt with
the welding wire.The left side was damaged in the crash, so
while repair work is being done, it's little do dads like
the bolt that help pulls panels in and out during repair work.
We used
the inside brake duct to make molds, so they had to be removed
from the tail. We did this because it's easier to repair the
inside of this panel while the brake duct is not there.
These
shots are cracks in the top center of the rear fenders. Jack
has ground the cracks to nothing and will build them back
up with a few layers of mat.
Both ducts
were removed and now reinstalled for good.
This is
the repair work on the two fenders.
Jack is
now about to grind all the paint off the tail. One last look
at the original AP,
(SCCA "A" Production) and the number 77. These have
to be removed now. We wish we could save them, but they're
just too old!
The inside
of the fenders are being rebuilt.
These
are the original hood latch receivers. They will be removed,
restored and reinstalled.
Repair
work on the left is ready for fiberglass. The picture on the
right shows the repair finished.
Same in
these two pictures, Jack used pattern paper for the shape,
tapes it off, and glasses right over it. When the glass is
cured, the paper and tape is removed easily.
This is
the tail light area just before stripping.
This is
some of the original hardware that came off the tail.
If you
look close you can see where the Carrera GTS holes used to
be.
On the
inside, an end mill was used to relieve the area where the
badge studs stuck through (fiberglass was too thick). This
was common on a lot of 904's because there was no control
on how thick the fiberglass was. A chopper-gun was used in
making most of the parts on the 904. If the operator kept
the gun in one area two seconds too long, you ended up with
a panel 6 mm rather than 3-4 mm, which was what they shot
for, no pun intended.
Peter
Gregg probably had this duct tail installed when he owned
the car. Who knows who put the intake grills on the deck lid.
Jack is
doing the tedious work of hand grinding the tail light buckets.
Remember
when you have old filler and paint on fiberglass
(especially glass that's been cracked up), you have to start
all the way at the bottom.
If you
don't go to bare glass and do the proper work on top, your
restoration finish could be a nightmare when the car gets
into the sun. The sun will shrink and expand the different
layers of materials at a different rate, thus making the paint
finish uneven in areas with maybe divots or blisters. This
can be properly done using proven methods of repair. Even
if you do all the right things, there will always be a spot
or two that will show its ugly little face.
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