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Only in Ireland. It's absolutely true.

Our customer Dave Whelan has owned his competition prepared 2.4S since 1988, so that's approximately 12 years before he rolled it down a grass bank on the 2000 West Cork Rally. It was a slow roll, the sort where you think you've got away with it, only for the car to gently arrest its forward momentum and gradually topple down the bank. Dave got away with it. The car didn't.

Such as an early 911S was valued back then, Dave thought nothing of leaving the car in the compound at he back of his brother's workshop for the next 10 years until he decided what to do with it. Fortunately the car was covered with a tarpaulin to protect it from the best of the Irish weather, as a result (only in Ireland) it also became the home to a family of cats which thankfully kept the mice and rats away from the trim and wiring. The good news is that about a year ago Dave came to the conclusion that a repaired & restored number matching 2.4S must be worth sufficient to more than cover the cost of the work so that's when he dropped it off at 9m for Marc and the boys to weave their metalwork magic spells.

We start the story with a bent 911 rolling shell:

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First task on a job like this is to tackle the repair of the accident damage, so once the shell was mounted onto our Celette jig it is out with the dozer and port-a-power ram to apply force to the shell to effectively reverse the direction of the impact damage and push the panels back into position.

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I'll apologise for the quality of some of the photos in advance, the iPhone is ok in all but the poor light of dusk which is when I'm walking through the shop taking shots at close of day.

Once the roof came close, the panel was removed and more work done on the internal framing. Dave provided another 911 to use as a donor for the roof frames, unfortunately after unpicking it from the shell we found lots of corrosion so only parts of it would be of use.

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The best check of the repair is whether straight doors fit the tub. They did.

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With the roof straight again, the outer panels are picked back to reveal the damage to the internal structure. As expected on any early 911, there was significant corrosion damage to the base of the A pillars and ends of the dash.

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With part of the donor roof unuseable and with no alternative parts available, we had to use the lower inner sections of the original roof and splice in the top section of the donor roof. This is a conventional repair technique used to minimise the intrusion of the repaired panels into the original structure, much in the same way as you would cut out a rusty section and replace it.

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The corresponding panels on the shell were prepared to match the roof, like a giant jigsaw piece.

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The new roof frame is welded on and finally the structure is once again straight and true. Note that there are braces added in the door apertures to hold the front end in alignment whilst we repair the A-posts.

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Cutting away the A-post corrosion is the next task.

SuperUser

Another one to watch!

Thanks Colin

Reiver

Great pic thread. Amazing how well the frame/body machine works. It would be interesting to actually watch the process and listen to it.
Great Car.

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Replacement inner A-posts sections were salvaged from a 964 roof and grafted in. Thirty years of 911 production and many of the panels are reassuringly interchangeable.

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More detail work around the dash ends & A-post, then it's on with the new outer roof panel. Porsche supply this panel in one piece from the scuttle to the rear deck, hence you have to start at the front and work to the back.

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Welding completes the roof job, for now. Note the spotwelds around the window aperture and tack welds in the gutter rails.

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With the roof ticked off the list it's time to turn our attention to the front end. As typical with early 911's the boot floor and tank support were corroded. The jig work had pulled the suspension mountings into place, so next stage is cutting out the bad and stiching in the new. Again we chose to leave in as much of the original floor panel as possible for originality, no point in removing good metal just for the sake of it.