A Hobby Ooops .....

Most of you probably know that Bob has a major car hobby.  

Our garage is twice the size of the cottage – which apparently results in sighs from other car obsessed people
(not me I’m afraid ….).

One part of this hobby is a 1984 Porsche 911  mostly the shape and colour that one pictures if you say the word Porsche.  Oddly, as an older car, it is more a time pit rather than a money pit.  The depreciation is long over and the internet has allowed part replacement to be easier and cheaper than ever. Over the 15 years it has been in the garage, Bob has had it almost totally apart – engine rebuild, replaced suspension, etc.

While in the past Bob raced and did some other competitive things,  for the past couple of decades he has focused on track events., which are non-competitive events held at racetracks to provide an opportunity to drive fast in a controlled environment.  He takes the 911 to Porsche Club events, where he is an instructor, coaching people newer to track driving on technique and how to stay out of trouble. These events are well organized and very safe – with newer drivers being assisted with in car instructors until they reach a certain level of skill.  The entire group is divided by skill so there is not too much of a mix on the track at one time.

That said occasionally one can have an “oops”.

Ouch !


Yup – this is the result of a mis-cue – a spin off the track and into a wall made of tires.  No harm to the driver – except perhaps a bit of embarrassment, especially as an instructor I imagine – but now this needs to be fixed up.

It is hard to see in the photos but there are 2 big body problems here.  The easy to see one is the bumper.  That one is also the easy one to fix since there happened to be a spare bumper hanging on the wall in the garage (of course there was, who doesn't have a spare bumper around in case it is needed!).

The more complicated bit was a caved in rear fender.  With a bunch of work, time, and a visit to Princess Auto (to get some more tools of course, every good hobby needs a visit to Princess Auto) this got pulled, straightened, tapped and molded back into shape. 




The new bumper has been put on and the various tweaking done (apparently one needs to put the holes in for the exhaust, and the license).

It is not yet ready for a final painting (the car still had mostly the original paint, so what to do is a bigger decision than one would think) but a layer of matte black primer and one is good to go.
Now of course this was quite quick to write – but much more of an effort and much more time to actually do. 


Looks quite nice now, but still a work in progress




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