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The body guys were excited about the project and got to work relatively quickly on the car. The first phase of work involved putting the entire rear-end of the car together: quarter panels, panel at the base of the rear window, and door sills. This is all more or less one piece. Doors and the front-end are bolt-on.
I looked into sourcing 996 rear door jambs from a wrecker so as to be able to sell my 996 quarters in one piece, but the amount of work involved in drilling out all the spot welds negated any possible savings, so the pieces were cut off my quarters and welded back onto the car (where the PO had very meticulously removed them LOL). The 997 quarters were cut to match and welded to the 996 jambs. New 997 sills were also fitted. It would have been much easier to leave the 996 jambs on the car, section the sills under the door (the 996 door has a very slight curve on bottom), and section the quarters somewhere on the C-pillar rather than going all the way up to the roof. But the PO did not count on the 997 body parts not matching the 996 doors...
996 jamb, 7 quarter, 7 B-pillar, and 7 lower sill
Quarter panel to roof. The creases in the 7 roof section are about 4-5 mm off the creases in the 996 roof section. Not a problem - but extra work.
Quarter installed and 7 intercooler duct test fitted.
Luv a fat *** LOL
So the next step was the front-end. There would be a slight delay here, tho, as we had to source the back sections from crumpled 996 front fenders so the 997 fenders would fit to the 996 doors. And cutting up my perfectly good 996 fenders seemed a waste (I now have those to sell, BTW. Anyone (in Europe) need a 996 turbo/FL fender?). The fender sections were sourced very quickly, but the delay ended up lasting nearly 6 months due to work on both my side and the body shop. So no 62T RS on the street in 2015...
The thread is starting to drag on at the same pace as the build went...
The first step in getting the fenders done was aligning the panels on the front end so that the fenders could be removed one at a time and have the back 2" sectioned off and replaced with 996 parts. I spent a couple of hours aligning the front section. It was great to finally see the form taking shape. But the first issue was the trunk lid hinges. The 996 hinges were much narrower - the hinge is on the inside-side of the baseplate whereas the 997 hinges have the hinge on the outside of the baseplate. But the 997 hinge baseplate is shaped quite differently and can not be easily adapted to the 996 body flange. So I cut the 996 hinge baseplates and swapped the sides that the hinge was mounted to.
I made the cuts at the correct angle to give me the length and angle (hinge height) I needed and welded them back up. The small separate piece was cut out to provide the correct length (just in case anyone wants to do this in the future). After the welds were ground down and under paint, they look OEM.
Then the front end was assembled completely for the first time.
I picked up 2 quite damaged 996 fenders (actually, just the rear halves) and the body guys got back to work again - after a small delay of 4 1/2 months.
After that things happened quickly and the car was finished and primered within a couple of weeks.
One more post should bring us up to the present status.
Thanks guys. OS, I nearly spewed my coffee. I know exactly how you feel. Nothing like armchair-car-building
I will try to get the last post on the body shop up this week. Then I will have to start work on the car in earnest so that I continue to have something to post...
Lots of pics - so more than one post to come up to date...
Quick interlude: GT2 RS front flares.
The GT2 RS was available with steel fenders and stick on flares or with full carbon fiber fenders that are already flared. My car came with brand new OEM 997 steel fenders and stick on flares. These do not weigh much to start with - and CF fenders cost $7000/pair. So I am going with what I have.
I had also read on forums that you can install RS flares on 997 fenders w/o cutting the fender lip. Yes, you can. But then the flares are purely cosmetic. Here is the difference in pictures.
RS Flare<br/>
The flare from the tire's POV. The fender is the white part and the flare the blackish part. The cut line on the fender is where the primer is chipped. Cutting the fender lip gives 1/2" of additional clearance and the flare another 1/2".
So with the flares, you gain nearly 1" of additional room for larger tires or greater offset for a slightly wider track. Def something I would do if installing the flares. No point otherwise.
Went to my local Porsche dealer to pick up parts. They had a gorgeous line-up of GT cars shortly before Christmas: a 991 GT3 RS, 991 GT3, 997 GT3 RS, 997 GT3, and at the very end of the row...
...a GT2 RS
And this is why I am building one. I could not imagine driving this thing in anger even if I could afford it...
It was good to be able to check details, though. For instance, the cut in the fender has a plastic edge-protector-profile clipped over it under the flare. I do not know if I like this idea: good place to trap moisture. On the other hand, the hard edge will chip paint quickly with rocks and such... Not sure what I will do yet.
