Drivers Diaries
Including this issue a Bentley gearbox, Minor respray, Porsche bodywork, Stag caster angles and Standard interior.
Well, the 944 is back home, and it’s really good to have it back in my clutches. Nigel Pittard at Pontyclun Vehicle Repairs has done an incredible job on restoring the car to its former glory. Better – much better – than its former glory, in fact.
I’ll fill you in on some of the magic he’s worked on my car. As I mentioned in a previous diary instalment, despite having a bodyshell that was galvanized at the factory, the 944 is not immune from rust. All I can think is that Porsche’s galvanizing process was a tad hit and miss, protecting some sections of the bodyshell well but missing others – most notably the sills.
Having looked at a wide variety of 944s, they all seem to have had rust issues along the door bottoms, the leading edges of the trademark flared arches, and the aforementioned sills. Oddly, it’s the offside sill that seems to suffer the most, not the nearside which has to contend with much more in the way of roadside dirt and puddles etc. Thankfully though, the nearside sill on my car is in excellent condition.
Anyway, after discussing what work needed to be done,
I ordered a new offside sill from Porsche Cardiff. Nigel then made a start on the tasks in hand, promising he’d keep me updated as to progress, and to let me know what, if any, problems he might uncover along the way.
Well, uncover problems he did! Very early on in the project, he rang to say that upon removing the old sill, he discovered that someone had been there previously. What looked to be a proper, one-piece sill was in fact a patchwork of metal that had been covered in filler and sprayed over with stonechip.
Aesthetically, the work had been done very well, which is why it fooled a lot of people, me included. Of course, it was simply done to disguise the extent of the rust, which had also spread to the inner sills and the sill extensions.
Unfortunately, Porsche doesn’t do repair sections for these areas and they were most definitely needed, so I ordered some off the internet. Whilst they looked OK, the fit was awful and Nigel had to spend many an hour cutting, welding and reshaping the repair sections in order to get them to fit correctly and blend them into the existing panels. As you can see, he did a first-rate job.
Nigel also informed me that there was quite a lot of rust evident on the offside rear suspension mount, including a hole the size of a ten-pence piece. To be honest, I was really shocked to discover just how much rust was evident, and hugely disappointed as to just how much had been covered up. Within a short space of time, the job had escalated from localised repairs to a partial restoration.
Anyway, having recovered from this body blow (literally!), and having raided my various piggy banks, I asked him to tackle all the extra work, and also to sort out every other blemish on the car. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that... Over the next two months, I was regularly updated with phone calls, texts and photos. Nigel is a very thorough chap.
To cut a long resto story short, Nigel plug-welded, spot-welded, seam-welded, fabricated, rust-proofed, primed and painted my car to perfection. Additionally, the box sections and new metal have been treated with rust preventative and then drenched with Waxoyl. Then, after checking with me first, Nigel undersealed the underside and under the wheelarches. Finally, he mopped and polished the entire bodyshell.
Am I pleased? Extremely. Whereas before it was shiny but patinated with age and with evidence of road rash and car park altercations not to mention the onset of rust, it is now super shiny, unmarked, and has a perfect paint match. And, crucially, it’s now very solid in the places where (unbeknownst to me) it had been ropey. All in all, it is a superb job.
Whilst the 944 was away, I managed to find a little time to work on the Davrian. It’s still perched on axle stands though. Why? Well, rather than strip and re-seal the split-rim Revolution wheels, I’ve sold them to the daughter of the chap I bought them from some ten years or so ago. She’s going to restore and seal them over the winter, and they’ll then be fitted to her rather tasty Imp.
Of course, the Davrian was now without wheels. After looking at the various 13in wheels on offer, and after serious consideration, I decided to replace the Revolutions with... well, Revolutions. Except the ones I have chosen are one-piece Revolution Competition four-spoke wheels. After chatting with the chaps at Revolution Wheels, and checking clearances using templates they sent me, I’ve chosen 6in rims with zero offset for the front plus 7in and zero offset for the rear, which are ideal for my brake/caliper set-up and for the 185/ 55/13 Avon ZZS tyres I’ve bought. The ZZS is an all-weather, road-legal track day tyre. I’m not a fan of over-wide tyres on classics, and feel that the 185 size will be plenty wide enough for the Davrian, and extremely grippy too. I’ve also made progress with fitting the new driver’s seat, not exactly a fiveminute job as I have to do some glassfibre work, cut harness slots, trim it, fit padding and much more. Hence the amount of time it’s taking me.
“I was really shocked to discover just how much rust was evident”