1974 Porsche 911 RS Project brought to you by Nathan Pizzo, a Web Designer by trade, and Porsche builder by passion.

Simulation of this yellow Porsche is slowly becoming reality by Spring 2009. Sooner if possible! Thanks for visiting!



Rebuilding America!
~ One Porsche at a time :)
 

GAS prices Will be reasonable by the time this project is done!  See below  (Gas prices chart showing price trend for Sac vs. National average and the impact of the price per barrel. Interesting.

Previous updates...  Back?

Yesterday... 12/29/08... an update from Sergio.

Car is being prepped and ready to paint, and nearly ready for primer. As I suspected the only significant rework due to waviness in the surface is the left quarter panel. Sergio indicated that the car is basically fine, it'll work out fine.

Picking the color. So far I like the color on a new Mercilogo Lambo (Metalic yellow) best. Sergio is going to shoot a test panel for me tomorrow and we'll see how that goes. It should be a good color.

Check out: Prunedale Auto Body

In other news: Visiting with Jason Cullen and Tom Amon tomorrow. Jason is going to supply me with a set of fresh Turbo Twist wheels that have new tires. I will discuss other possible upgrades for the suspension, brakes and so forth.

Tom Amon and I are going to discuss the preparation of the engine. For now I have the same idea for the powerplant: 3.0 Liter, CIS (big port injection), 964 CAMs, 9.3:1 CIS pistons, and the normal updates for the engine. Remember it's a 1974 Smog Exempt chassis, so the usual constraints do not apply. This means I can do what make best sense and build an engine that is plenty fun, but is still has some drivability in the city. I do want a screamer, but not be too annoying to drive mellow. I also want to be able to start it up on early Saturday Mornings without knocking the pictures off the garage wall, or annoying the neighbors too much. Most of that depends on what I choose for a muffler system.

Transmission: Tom and I are going to swap out the transmission that came with my project (a 1978 style 915) for a 1974 box which Tom assures me is a perfect match for this setup. I trust him more than anyone about these kinds of choices. He knows these cars better than anyone you'll meet in a year of Sundays!

Pistons: Tom is also going to modify and balance the piston set so that they will be perfect. Tom prefers to not modify the pistons themselves if there is a way to equalize the weight and mass another way. The best way is to do some minor chamfering on the wrist pins (inside diameters) so that the weight that is removed does not impact the piston itself in any way. Make sense to me. It's just another example of the experience and knowledge that has come from Tom's lengthy career in motorsports and engineering.

 So more to report tomorrow! Cheers!

CAR OFF TO PAINTER! (12/21)

A sad, rainy day goodbye, but with anticipation of an early spring surprise!

The car is headed to a shop in Prunedale, Ca - (Prunedale Auto Body) Near Salinas, to get a fantastic paint job by Sergio Ayala. He normally only works on high end cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

He prefers to work on Ferrari's and Porsches because they are far simpler to re-assemble. In this case there's no disassembly or assembly. That becomes my job once it is some kind of rich yellow color.

 He comes highly recommended through a friend who has used him for years to paint his cars. That person is Bryan Shisler, of VIP Tuning Pro, and also owns Allied Property Services, Inc. Both are also highly recommended by me as well.

My efforts will now turn to rebuilding the motor, and preparing the wiring and other details. The garage seems pretty empty, just what I need to get this part done. I'll post the new pictures as the painting progresses.

TIME FOR A SNOW BALL FIGHT!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Good Riddens! (out with the old!)

With all the usable parts finally extracted from the donor car... no need to have this hulk in my garage any longer.
Found a great guy to cart the hunk of metal off. His name is Willie, and he was quick and it felt good to be RID of it!

THE BIG STORY: On an off chance that there might be something left of the sunroof, I pulled it apart to find a PERFECTLY GOOD sunroof panel: NO DENTS!!! NO SCRATCHES. AMAZING. Even the cable guides were cherry! WOW!

For sale: (Sunroof with cable guides for 1974-89 sunroof)

UGLY, YEP!

SPRING REVEAL...

Currently: Working on finalizing the body work and getting a painter lined up. Also I am considering which yellow to use. It is between a few different ones, but the one I am looking the most seriously at is this color found on a lotus: 

Details: The color is metallic and 3 stage, meaning base has some metallic, then clear/metallic w/ gold pearl,  and final clear. The objective is to have a nice gradient style paint that deepens the curves and embellishes the brightness of the rich yellow color.

THIS IS NOT MY CAR (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE JUST ARRIVED)   COLOR ONLY!

Finally ready for paint... well almost.

The lines are becoming more smooth and matched up. It's a sweet finish to a grueling job. It took many nights of adjusting, blocking, bondo, glassing, blocking, etc. I don't think it's quite done, but it's very close. I am becoming far more optimistic that I will see this car painted in the next few weeks or months. We'll see.

Completed Duck Tail bodywork...

10/11/08 Mounted front end bodywork, repaired steering column mount, repaired rear firewall gaps.

It's been a few weeks of slow progress, but a few things are being done. Along with the front body work being mounted (which seems to fit perfectly) I have also been able to fix the steering mount, which was broken on one stud. (stud mount was pulled). I cut the good one out of the old car, and mounted it by tack welding it in place and then using JB Weld to fully support it further. It ain't goin' nowhere. It's solid.

The other task was to place a new piece of metal in place of the two holes in the rear of the car. Those holes in the firewall were there when I bought the car, but they have always bothered me. I fixed it using a piece cut out of the wrecked car (that was straight). I initially cut it incorrectly, but thanks to some very nice welding work from IPB AUTOSPORT. (Thanks RON!!) it fits almost perfectly now.

It's really mostly cosmetic, since it will be covered on both sides, internally by a RS style interior, and on the rear side of the firewall by an engine foam backing. It'll clean up nicely.

STEERING COLUMN BRACE REPAIR: Before Shot: AFTER: SEE BELOW

  

 

  LEFT TOP VIEW <                 > RIGHT TOP VIEW 

STEERING COLUMN WORK

REAR FIREWALL REPAIR

SEE EVEN MORE ... PREVIOUS WORK...

GAS PRICES: So far, so good!