S4ordie

Just got back from a drive to SoCal to check on my cars. I visited the Turquoise Mettalic 91 S4 project car at Mckenna Porsche Collision Repair Center in Downey, CA (Near Los Angeles).

When it was discovered there was somewhat extensive damage to the frame rails on the front of my car (PPO - Previous Previous Owner had a run in with a parking sign): left side (U.S. drivers side) had been pushed back almost two inches which also caused the right side (U.S. passenger side) to be pulled up/lifted by one inch.

Ron Ruff of Mckenna, god of all things body work, especially Porsche, pulled a lot of strings to find an actual frame straightening jig specific to the 928. Can't imagine there are many of these things still left. The frame straightening rails themselves are generic but the pin locations and jig bits (I don't really know what to call them) that come in a massive blue wooden box are specific to the 928.

Attached are a few pics of the damage, before, the frame straightening jig set up itself and then pics of my car on the device. Note the very large dial lever in the frame only pic. That is what you use to pull the car back into shape. Old school to be sure and really great to know there are people like Ron Ruff who know our cars and other old Porsches well enough to make them as good as, no, better, than new.

I decided to give this its own thread as opposed to posting this in my project car thread. Figured it would be more searchable and useful to others.

BC

Did he buy the frame straightener? Will he keep it for future use?

S4ordie

Hi Brendan - No, Ron does not own the frame straightener or jigs. It is owned by a professional peer. I did not get a lot of info about that aspect of it. It just seem slike it would be an invaluable tool for future need. It is a large and heavy so not sure where this would/could be kept.

The Holbert car kept coming to mind as I looked at this thing.

worf928

Very cool.

Kevin Michael

looks neat! These kinds of frame jigs are no longer needed as these machines have really advanced and the versatility is amazing. The modern machines are completely computerized with a program for 99% of the cars out there. We have straightened out some 928's here through our frame guy down the street. You just clamp her down, select the specific vehicle program, hang your targets, and push go. Thes eare cost prohibitive for a small shop like ours. They can cost up to 200k.

worf928

Interesting. Which method results in the straightest frame? The old-school craftsman method or the new-fangled software-driven method? Not cheapest. Not quickest. But, straightest?

Nicole

Take a close look at the contour of the hood versus the fender. It seems to me that the hood is not following properly, dropping off towards the windshield. If you need to correct this, this is the time...

sendarius

That seems to be only true for one side. The photo for the other side seems to show the hood line proud for it's entire length.

I would guess that the final hood fitting and adjustment has not yet been done.

S4ordie

Good question Dave. For sure this shop has all the latest high tech frame and body alignment equipment. McKenna is a major dealership brand that has several Audi, BMW, Porsche and MB dealerships. McKenna Collision repair is a premiere auto body facility that generates $7 M in revenue. It is a massive facility that must have 75 cars and a small army of technicians crawling all over them. The have all manner of equipment.

I asked Ron about using one of the modern machines for pulling the car out/back to proper form. He said though the modern machine could do the job, for him, the 928 jig allowed him to make iterative adjustments and to see the results as he moved things around. He also liked hanging the fenders and hood back on the car and doing final adjustments making sure all components fit well. With the modern machine it may pull the points back to original locations but there may be many minor panel alignment points that might not be perfect and are addressed with shims, hogging out fender bolt holes, etc. All things unseen. Ron wanted/needed to make every part of the car perfect again. He is extraordinary and is just as concerned with the unseen as well as the seen parts of bringing my car back. In this I am in awe and so appreciative. But then this behavior is common to Greg Brown and Paul Champagne. In this my car, and me, are fortunate to have this crew of experts and artisans building this project.

So the short answer is yes, modern machines can do a reasonable job. For an expert intent on making the car as perfect as possible, the physical jig is best.

Good eye Nicole! Indeed the hood is bowed slightly from the previous repair work. I decided today to just replace it.

Nicole

As bad as they are, my eyes do see a lot...

Had I known that you are going to visit your cars, I would have given you clear and smoked side marker samples to hold on the zyclamred car. I'm still a bit divided on which ones go best on this color...

slate blue

That may be the Car Bench system, that is what it would be called here in Oz, it is the only system to use on a badly damaged car, it bolts into the various suspension points and holds them. Then you move onto the next point that doesn't fit. It is very time consuming to use and as such has fallen out of favour. You can't do a quick bodgy job with it, so insurance companies don't like it.

Greg

danglerb

What about some shade of red for the lenses?

Nicole

I can't custom make all kinds of shades. I have clear and smoked, and those could be painted, of course. One thing I suggested to Dan is that if the rear marker looks good, he could paint the front marker to match and be done.

In the end it's up to him. I'm not hard selling anything; I'm just here to help people customize their 928s by giving them choices.

Mike Frye

First thing I thought of too.


Ed (OBehave), what do you think?

OBehave

The table in this pic is just a tool die table used to roll the chassis around on when the car first got here.We started building a jig back in December using factory specs and the donor car I have for mock up.It also includes bumpet mount locations and measuring points as well as suspension mounting points.Some projects that we were in the middle of when this car came around were put on hold for a while as we started disassembly and construction,so as time is ticking we decided to finish these old projects which should be maybe 4-6 more weeks then hit the Holbert Car full force.