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Looking for advise from anyone who has replaced a complete front pan on an '85 era 911. Acid drip from battery leak has gone all the way thru, and it is going to colapse on the drivers side.
Is a complete pan or cut and patch the best route?
Is the complete pan available from Porsche ?
Has anyone used the Restoration Design replacement pan ?
What price range am I looking at from a "reasonable" shop.
Any words of advise from experiences would be appreciated.
Find a competent frame shop and you'll have no problems with a replacement of the pan. I had a 66 912 where i replaced the entire front pan/floor pan area including the inner and outer rockers. They had a frame jig...cut out the old..aligned...the welded in the new and the car was like brand new. Just check out the work done by the shop before hand to make sure they know what they are doing.
i have this going on right now with my car. drivers side, in between the suspension bolts and tow hook, there is a nice spot o' rot. im interested to see what everyone says, cause i was about to ask, but you beat me to it.
i have heared the one from restoration design is the way to go. anyone have different views or other suggestions for where to get a pan, or will the shop handle all of it.
anyone have an idea how much it will cost in the end, when its all said and done (parts, labor, undercoating, alignment etc)?
I and a number of others on the Pelican Board have DIY'ed this project. I doubt you need the entire pan, probably just the front half and gas tank support. You can get both from Restoration Design which sells an excellent replacement. Do a search on the Pelican 911 board under "suspension pan" for more information.
Rust?....Man...Do I know RUST!
I can vouch for Restoration Designs replacement panels. I have purchased about HALF of what they make in my quest to rebuild my '69. The key is finding the shop to do the replacement correctly.
If you can weld/cut/grind metal, the front portion of the pan is relatively easy to put in and will self locate as the rear of the a arms can stay in, and a quick diagonal measurment will prove out. However if you find that this is not the type of work you wish to perform any porsche metal shop can perform the repair. I have the celette bench with all the 911-930 jigs, which for collision or rust repair are the only true way to both support ,pull and weld the chassis as was originally built. the jigs will locate all the suspension points and mantain true height and length, thus eliminating any doubt of chassis compromise. Average cost of repair start to painted finish, 1k, parts and paint inc. You may run into additional welding along the outside lower wheelhouse panel, as this area tends to collect moisture and perforate also. Another area to check on the 74-88 911 is the bumper shock mount to wheelhouse, you will see rust bleeding from the inside of the trunk just back from where the wires go thru to the front lighting system on the wheelhouse. Another caveat, if you have someone do it, look for the skill and care of a true craftsmen, bird drop welding and overspray look like hell....and will detract at resale.
I see you are tagged with a Sunapee NH address. Could you provide a recommended shop. Sunapee is about 2 hours from me. With all these jigs mentioned..do you do this type of work ?
uhmm Yeah, shameless self promotional plug, that is my trade. Been at the restoration and collision trade for 20+ years. focus of the work is 911 resto and race. Race cars crash too! Between SCCA, vintage and DE, i stay pretty busy with the colllision work, The SM miata class has a learning curve also. Currently finishing upo a BMW 2002 resto, 944 S2 on the Celette, and a 67 S customer resto about to begin. Your pan replacement is straight forward. Restoration Design parts are decent, although lacking in the zinc protection, a thorough paint protection will will suffice.
If interested I started a thread over at pelican on this repair and how I go about it. Maybe for the resource I should post the same info here but that takes up bandwidth and storage! Have to talk to JD bout that! here is the link...always up for questions
Awakening this long dormant thread and hoping some of the gurus here who have been through this can help...
Removed my fuel tank today in my '75 911 to find rust in the front suspension pan. It needs replacement and my shop suggested to get a front clip from a donor car, cut it and install it in my car. This seemed excessive since replacement suspension pans are available for around $600 (Dansk - https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_In...55-00-GRV-M350).
Any recommendations on just replacing the pan with the Dansk vs the getting a new front clip that shop suggested? Am I missing something?
The project ballooned into other areas, so only the first few pages of the thread are related to the pan, but there may be some helpful items.
Your car looks worse than mine did, so you likely will have more to replace, but I doubt that you need to find a front clip. That is a much more difficult-to-get-right repair, and finding a good clip will not be easy.
You will for sure need the pan, the upper fuel tank support, the control arm supports and likely the gas tank lateral supports... certainly for the passenger side.
At the time, I purchased my panels from Stoddart (I think), but I'm not sure if they are still selling everything.
However, I would recommend checking out Restoration Design, they show everything on their site:
The project ballooned into other areas, so only the first few pages of the thread are related to the pan, but there may be some helpful items.
Your car looks worse than mine did, so you likely will have more to replace, but I doubt that you need to find a front clip. That is a much more difficult-to-get-right repair, and finding a good clip will not be easy.
You will for sure need the pan, the upper fuel tank support, the control arm supports and likely the gas tank lateral supports... certainly for the passenger side.
At the time, I purchased my panels from Stoddart (I think), but I'm not sure if they are still selling everything.
However, I would recommend checking out Restoration Design, they show everything on their site:
That was an awesome thread on front pan repair and I've had it bookmarked for a long time. My car looks OK, but I'm worried about what might be lurking inside the front gas tank support.
Anyway, vs1383, yours does look worse than most, you'll have to cut away more metal. Have you looked at the corners of the front clip where the bumper shocks mount? That can be a bad area too, and it might affect how you want to proceed with the pan.
Pretty variable, but if you are going to have the shop do all the suspension disassembly and assembly, I bet you would be in the range of $5K if all you need to replace is the pan. (I guess you are well past the disassembly part.)
we replace the front pans all of the time, but usually on the earlier dual battery cars and install the complete pan. However if a car only has concentrated damage on one side, we would take a replacement pan from stock, cut out the bad area and only section in the part that has rusted out, thus keeping the car as original as possible
The project ballooned into other areas, so only the first few pages of the thread are related to the pan, but there may be some helpful items.
Your car looks worse than mine did, so you likely will have more to replace, but I doubt that you need to find a front clip. That is a much more difficult-to-get-right repair, and finding a good clip will not be easy.
You will for sure need the pan, the upper fuel tank support, the control arm supports and likely the gas tank lateral supports... certainly for the passenger side.
At the time, I purchased my panels from Stoddart (I think), but I'm not sure if they are still selling everything.
However, I would recommend checking out Restoration Design, they show everything on their site:
Wow - this is inspiring. A lot to learn from you and think through although I am not sure if I have that much confidence in welding and will need to find a shop to help.
Appreciate your insights into the front clip not being likely needed and listing out the parts for the front pan instead - While they are not saying it out loud, my sense is that my current mechanic does not have the correct jig / measurement tool for the replacing the pan with the suspension bolt on and therefore thought that a front clip may be a more straight forward approach. They are also a mechanical shop first and I think I need to take this to someone that has body experience with these cars.
Originally Posted by theiceman
lol i was wondering how long it would be before you chimed in having done this with spectacular results.
Rightfully so! I am still marveling at the approach and output!
Originally Posted by Mark Salvetti
That was an awesome thread on front pan repair and I've had it bookmarked for a long time. My car looks OK, but I'm worried about what might be lurking inside the front gas tank support.
Anyway, vs1383, yours does look worse than most, you'll have to cut away more metal. Have you looked at the corners of the front clip where the bumper shocks mount? That can be a bad area too, and it might affect how you want to proceed with the pan.
Pretty variable, but if you are going to have the shop do all the suspension disassembly and assembly, I bet you would be in the range of $5K if all you need to replace is the pan. (I guess you are well past the disassembly part.)
Mark
Hey Mark - yes this was a very unpleasant surprise - lots of lessons learned on my first air cooled buying process. I am getting a range of quotes on the weld job from some that sound too low under $1k (will avoid as they dont have experience with older 911s) to the "I really don't have time for this work and here is an absurd quote". I think I may have found someone transparent and fair and will update with the costs once I get a full estimate.
Originally Posted by Dr. 914
we replace the front pans all of the time, but usually on the earlier dual battery cars and install the complete pan. However if a car only has concentrated damage on one side, we would take a replacement pan from stock, cut out the bad area and only section in the part that has rusted out, thus keeping the car as original as possible
Thank you - glad this is not as uncommon as I have now learned with leaky battery acid to blame. I am sure there is a lot of variability here in the work done and price and hope I land in a spot that gets me back on the road reasonably.
09-19-2003, 09:35 PM
Front Pan Replacement
