White944 - Resurrection thread.

[white944]

Ok, long story short.... Having taken leave of my senses and purchased an '86 Lux on Ebay that was clearly in need of major work, I have made a start on the drivers' side sill area.
Unfortunately the first few photos were lost (I'm no photographer as you will see) but this photo of the inner sill panel compared with the new one from Porsche shows how far the dreaded tinworm had gone....

By the time this pic was taken, I had repaired and reinforced the subframe mount and rear wheel well area and edge of the floorpan......

Then the new inner panel fitted....

and the outer sill and rear wing repair go on....

Still loads of work to finish these repairs nicely, have tried to get as much zinc paint inside as each piece has gone on. will pump a ridiculous quantity of cavity wax inside once it's finished to prevent any more rot. Currently working on the bottom of the front wing before it goes back on. Will post more when I have more pics.

 

[Ewan]

Given that rusty sills, wheel arches and wings are common problems on 944's, can you keep a record of the time your spend on this, and the parts costs. It'll be interesting to see what this repair tots up to in time/money (if you are happy to share the info , that is).

 

[white944]

No worries. I can see why specialists can justify the £1000 plus cost of a sill replacement. It is a very time consuming process, especially if the rust has begun eating the surrounding metalwork. No wonder so many lower value 944s get broken up for parts once the rot sets in.

 

[robdimond]

You're doing a great job there. Nice fabrication for that tricky rear quarter section. Agree completely on the cost for doing a proper job. It cost me nearly a grand just to get the side of the car painted properly after front wing, rear quarter, door and sill repair. Take a look at my thread 'oh my god help'. I ended up replacing the sill and most of the rear quarter as well.

 

[white944]

Yeah, saw that. Good job. The arrrrrrgh! made me grin. Oddly, my rear quarters are mint, as are the rear wheel wells with the exception of the bottom 6 inches. I guess I'm lucky, or nuts as I knew it was rusty when I bought it, so shouldn't have any nasty surprises with the body at least

 

[white944]

Seamless now...except for the one that's supposed to be there.

 

[Hallsy]

Good work, looking like a nice repair. Did you puddle weld, or use a spot welder in places? Out of interest, what do the intermediate repair panels cost from OPC? Not seen these used before, most people seem to patch the intermediate.

 

[white944]

Spot welded where possible to get the machine in, otherwise puddle welded with a MiG, or stich/seam welded with MiG where appropriate. The intermediate panel was about £85 from Colchester Porsche IIRC.

 

[Hallsy]

Ah, a local guy (I am in Sudbury) - I know who I'll be asking for advice if necessary when I replace my Turbo's sills next year!!

 

[white944]

Yeah, no worries, I'm in Earls Colne, not far away. Going to cut the other side open at the weekend and see what can o' worms I have in there.[8|]

ORIGINAL: Hallsy Ah, a local guy (I am in Sudbury) - I know who I'll be asking for advice if necessary when I replace my Turbo's sills next year!!

 

[white944]

Got the drivers side in white primer the other day....

 

[white944]

A 944 sill should look like this from below...

Not like this....

or this....

If it does, you will find this inside.

 

[Monkeythree]

All looking very familiar! Suggest that once you cut out the bottom of the rear quarter you lie down and have a good look with a torch up the inside up the panel, particularly where it forms into the B post. The rust on mine had tracked quite far up and needed a two piece repair fabricating to get it all out.

 

[white944]

Yup, already been there. The bottom of the A- pillar area is also going on this side, the jacking point under the corner of the floor under the DME has started to collapse. At least the bottom of the front wing is OK on this side. Oddly, this side has had a genuine full sill fitted before. I reckon it's been on about 10 years. Whoever fitted it hadn't bothered to remove the front wing to do the job, they just cut the original sill leaving the end piece still spot welded to the A pillar and chopped the end off of the new one but didn't bother to weld it in.

It was brazed correctly in the door shut, but the other end was only secured with a couple of spots of braze through drilled holes to the rear quarter. Top and bottom were tacked along the edge and ground flush where they should have been spot welded. When I bent the step section up 45 degrees it just snapped the welds.

Oh well, here we go again!

 

[robdimond]

Nice work! Such a tragedy that someone went to the bother of fitting a full sill and then just bodged it on. A good reason to capture lots of photos to show it's been done properly, and to insist on photos when buying a car that has had this work done. Surely the strength of the shell would be compromised by that sort of bodgery.

 

[Diver944]

Really loving your work Michael [8D] Keep it up []

 

[white944]

The nearside was slightly worse than the offside. The outside 2 inches of the floor on this side were completely rotten and the jacking point pulled off by hand, so chopped the ragged remains out back to the inner panel, made up new pieces before refitting with the salvaged jacking point.

Inner panel was acceptable but needed a small piece to reinforce the seat belt mounting.

 

[vitesse]

Great story-even greater to be able to do the work on a ramp-what baffles me is why does the forum feature many 944's with this form of rot whereas few 924S's seem to pop up--is it a numbers game or did Porsche "cheapen" the steel-protective coatings when they moved onto the 944?

 

[white944]

Thanks for the positive comments, fellas. Stops me losing the will to live. Do let me know if I'm boring you though! Made more progress.... Inner panel fitted and rear corner under construction.

Just about ready to receive outer sill and rear quarter repair....

I've tried to get as much zinc primer as I can everywhere before assembly. Here's the sill and rear quarter repair piece before fitting.

Sill spot welded top and bottom.

Rear quarter repair was spot welded to sill before fitting to car to give a neat seam. Door shut end of sill is pre drilled for plug welding.

Front end of sill also drilled ready for welding....

 

[cococola]

What a fabulous thread to follow..keep up the excellent work..looking good!