NineMeister

The 9mRS build process takes around 500 hours from start to finish and the split is roughly 50 to strip, 150 fabrication, 150 paint & 150 build. If we were building a wdebody 9mRS you would have to add around 80-100 hours extra to that for the additional time to replace quarters/sills/kidney bowls and to paint the arches. Keep in mind though that we have the shell dipped & E-coated, the dipping process probably saves around 100 hours worth of paint/glue/underseal stripping. One other forgotten part is the wiring loom modification to RS specification, that job alone takes 30 hours of the build.

grahampeterm

Colin
What's happened to the 'DB'?!!! It thought it was rooted to the ground? Has it finally been finished & gone? Or just relocated?
Graham

NineMeister

The good 'ole David Brown is now back home with the boat on Anglesey, ready for a late summer of hauling the boat to the launch ramp on the beach (I'm relieved to say!).

NineMeister

Back to the plot:

The floorpan has now been painted blue, so the shell is now finally off the spit and sat on its dolly to paint the rest of the car. To speed up the preparation we're wet flatting the outside panels before painting the inside, so to keep the water away from the interior primer the car has to be completely masked off first. You can see that the paint from the floor has been carried into the engine bay and arches, however this is not the final finish, we will repaint these areas at the same time as painting the interior & cage.

NineMeister

The rebuild process of all 9m Bespoke Vehicles is carried out in the Racing department, the next in the shop being the Gulf Blue 9m11RS-R. However, whilst waiting for Marc to give the RS-R his final approval before it makes the small journey from Panelcraft we're making the most of our time by stripping the donor LHD 911RS for this project.

Stripping a car doesn't take very long....

Coleman

At least she looks like she was driven hard! and almost as dirty as mine!

NineMeister

Oh, you're so right Coleman, the car had a very hard life on track for a good number of years.

V

Colin, immaculate work as always. My dream is to have a 993 custom made from start to finish at 9M. In a not too distant future...

A question that I thought of when watching all of your wonderful builds. How do you tackle the issue with all the original stickers and VIN numbers? I know the stickers on the edge of the engine compartment and also the tire pressure sticker on the drivers side door jamb can be ordered still. But how about the VIN sticker on the passenger side door jamb or the option sticker underneath the hood? Also in the luggage compartment the sticker showing the colour or the sticker(?) showing the VIN number on the chassis, underneath the trunk carpet next to the tank?

A question regarding the chassis: Is seam welding a part of the "fabrication" process, or is that optional?

Keep up the good work

NineMeister

Well, once upon a time I dreamed about building cars and look what has happened. Definitely overtones of the film Field of Dreams - "if you build it, they will come". That said, I suppose Ruf started in a similar fashion and look where they are now?

Unless the customer requests otherwise we seam weld our cars to a similar specification as the original RS Clubsport.

As for stickers & decals...... no comment.

NineMeister

Strip continues.....

NineMeister

As does the painting of the new RHD 9m shell.

All the outer panels have been wet flatted ready for paint, so now they are masked off whilst we paint the inside, engine bay, boot/tank area and wheel arches. With a bit of luck we should see it in colour mid next week.

NineMeister

Strip finished. The shell now looks like it has been picked clean by locusts.

Happy days!

NineMeister

Neil's now started on the interior, engine bay & boot aperture paint. First job to mask the shell to the floor, second job to lay on the matt Maritime Blue basecoat.

NineMeister

Followed by two coats of clear lacquer. The only problem with digitally photographing some colours is that the camera does not pick up the richness of the colour. Maritime Blue is one of these colours because unfortunately the photos do not show the red/violet tinge in the finish. Well, what do you expect from an Iphone 4?

Obviously the last job on the shell is to paint the exterior panels, but we have to give the fresh interior paint a couple of days to dry to ensure we don't get a reaction at the edges of the paint (the solvent in the lacquer could pickle the edge of the dry lacquer on the inside).

With a bit of luck Neil should have the outer panels fully painted by tomorrow night.

AOW162435

My head is spinning.


Andreas