Lorax

It certainly looks to be a much harder hit than the initial pictures showed..

Who knows what would happen after a good pull, sometimes you just can't tell how close it's going to be until you've finished doing the initial pulls.

I'm not challenging your knowledge of frame work, and I don't think we disagree... I was just confused because it sounded like you were saying that you can't clamp a 944 down at all without some kind of special clamps, which would have been news to me.

I have an interest in this since I have access to a nice car-o-liner and often look around trying to find a wrecked 968 or something that I can straighten myself.

VOoDOoGTX

i havent met you but im down too put some time into the car or ill buy it from you as is

VOoDOoGTX

ill give your tree fiddy

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fusea...ideoid=8819502

Burma Shave

No hard feelings here, but that is what I'm saying. Once you have one of these cars on a frame machine, its pretty clear that it will be a pita to hold it in place for pulling. It is flat on the bottom so there is nothing to clamp to. You can block it up and chain over the suspension or crossmembers which is not the proper way to do it. I don't know what fixtures were available for 924 series cars, only that they were and no body has them now that I could find. Hell, most frame/body techs working today have never even pulled one of these cars. I would shy away from buying any front engine porsche that needs significant pulling. Btw, access to a car-o-liner is nice to have, excellent equipment but pricey. Is it a rack or a bench?

Lorax

Yeah I was kinda thinking you could just weld some tabs onto it or something, chain it down and pull out the majority before you put it up on the rack.

That is good to know. Actually the guy who taught me everything I know has pulled quite a few 944's, I am going to ask him about what they used to do it when they were new.
--------
It's a BenchRack. lol

I'm still trying to learn how to use that thing properly.

INURGRL951

I would have to agree with burma these cars are hard to pull dew to the "area" u have to clamp but if your careful it can be done. I would say get a re-body unless it's just a track car and straighten it the best you can and go at it al over again ....my .02


costas

Van

Gents, it may be a little premature to call the patient dead...

I just spent the last 2 hours on my hands and knees on the garage floor:



And, much to my surprise, the suspension point locations are all within tolerance! In fact, given the crude measurement analysis, they look really good. It is clear to see that the diagonals between the bumper mounts and the transmission mounts are off a bit, 0.875" to be precise.



Do you think the roll cage played a role in keeping the suspension points pretty straight? Other than: a) dumb luck; or b) Porsche's excellent design, I would think it had to play a factor.

So, I think I should try to save the old girl. Perhaps just get a porta power and try to push the trunk back in place so the hatch latches (and run a thin set of spacers on the rear wheels).

Remember, this is a track car - ultimately, I want it to be safe and reliable. Cosmetically it doesn't have to be 100%.

MM951

Good to hear! man i gotta get off of rennlist.. must finish paper.........

Fluidplay

I've been following this with some interest due fact to my hatch closes slightly off center as well...though I believe mine may be due to the hatch itself as it's delaminating from the frame and can be adjusted somewhat. I would say though that .875 (7/8") is quite a bit off. I'm interested in how you laid out your ref. points...that would be a great check for myself just to see how my alignment is.

Van

Using a hot glue gun, I glued sewing thread to the heads of the bolts (as centered as I could) at: the transmission cross bar mounts, front upper rear suspension mounts, lower rear suspension mounts, bumper shock mounts, and front engine subframe mounts. Then I put fishing sinkers just off the floor and trimmed the extra thread.

I drew "x"s on sheets of paper, slid them under the sinkers and lined them up best I could. After taping the paper to the floor, I carefully used a tape measure. I'd say I'm probably working with a tolerance range of 1/8" (+/- 0.0625) - maybe just a shade more, like +/- 0.080" (+/- 2mm).

DanR

that is great news van, there is life in the old girl yet!

bigdeano

I've been following this pretty closely to see the outcome because my track-car-to-be has similar damage to the rear end from the hit and run that happened on it back in the spring. These cars are pretty tankish. If you'd done this to a newer porsche you'd have all sorts of cracked and shattered fiberglass and carbon fiber parts. Keep us updated!

Burma Shave

Please let me know what he says, I know how we went about pulling mine but I'd love to hear how others do it. Btw, you will always be learning how to use that thing properly. The guys that quit learning suck.

Oddjob

Sorry Van, I should have come back to this thread earlier - hopefully these guys didnt get you too worried about needing major frame work or re-tubbing the car...

Ive seen a lot worse get pulled straight and put back on track. Moved my front shock tower about 1" up and 1" inward hitting a berm a couple years ago. Car still aligns and corner balances fine, and is faster than before the wreck. Radiator subframe is still a little screwed up and the fender lines are not perfect, but its going to get wrecked again someday - so not worth the $$ to make it look new.

This car was repaired - wrecked last wknd in July and raced again at Daytona a couple weeks ago. Let loose at about 140mph and ended up hitting nose, side and tail into an earth berm.

Lorax

I asked him yesterday. It's pretty simple really. It uses a special clamp the attaches to one of those rear jack points somewhere, and another that bolts into a suspension pickup point. You just have to call car-o-liner and they will rent them to you uber cheap. Same thing that is used to pull old MB's and stuff, it's really no that hard. Of course you have to have a car-o-liner to make those work, but I'm sure other companies have them too.