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The Matador rounds the corner… the home stretch!

If you have been following along on this series of articles then you’ve made it to the final chapter! Last month we saw that the Matador had made amazing progress and was loaded onto the flatbed and heading off to Jim’s shop for the two sections of cars to become one.

Talk about excited. I couldn’t believe I had made it to this point. As I mentioned in the last article, just seeing the grafted piece clamped onto the rear of the Matador was a glimpse of what was to come but some of the most difficult work lay in front of me.

As I communicated with Jim about the project’s progress, he had carved out a week in his schedule to do the work on the Matador. I had also arranged to take time off from my job to assist him. The Matador arrived at Jim’s shop on a Sunday and we planned to start work first thing Monday morning. 

Recall from last month’s article that I had told you that as the grafted donor piece sat on the Matador it was only about 70% correct. Getting that last 30% was what was in front of us and this was the most challenging work but when done correctly, it would define the final result. What we were looking for was easy enough to determine – it had to be straight. And you would know it was straight based on the body lines. Did the gap between the door and the quarter panel look straight and consistent? And most important, did that original hatchback come down and close into the grafted donor section with straight lines all around? If you got those right you were in good shape.

The Matador arrives

With the Matador in Jim’s shop and situated in the proper location, the car went up on jack stands and the rear wheel came off. Jim evaluated the situation. There was going to be plenty of work to get to that proper fit. So the donor section came off again and Jim went to work trimming, pounding, tweaking, and adjusting. When these cars were new and assembled on the line they added panels on top of panels and built the car out. We weren’t doing that here. We were adding an already assembled group of panels from one car to an assembled car. Getting it to fit properly was challenging to say the least.

Note the screws very effectively holding the two pieces together prior to welding.

Jim would continue to work the metal in order to bring the donor piece to a closer fit onto the car. One way he would do this would be to drill a small hole in the Matador, then a slightly larger one into the donor piece, then slide an awl through the donor piece and then into the Matador. He would then use the tool to pull and tuck the donor piece in tight while temporarily securing the donor piece with a screw. Applying this approach over and over again while working and trimming the metal allowed the donor piece to slowly but surely work its way into the proper position.

Lines look good. Ready for a buck weld.

Seams were trimmed to the point where the metal no longer overlapped but met up just right for a pending buck weld. This gives the metal a more natural transition resulting in a smooth and even body line from the grafted panel to the original panel.

We spent the entire Monday working the donor piece in this way, only breaking for lunch, but by the end of the day the donor piece was sitting pretty and ready for welding, or so I thought…

I reported for work at the shop bright and early on Tuesday morning and was looking forward to watching the welding sparks fly but that wasn’t Jim’s plan. I was very fortunate to have secured Jim’s help with the project as he was a perfectionist. We were probably 98% there by end of day Monday but Jim spent the entire Tuesday morning going after that last 2%. A trim here, a pull there. If the paint color matched you would have thought the donor piece was born there. The highlight of this activity had to be the first time the hatchback came down and closed into the donor section with a firm “clunk” sound. The body lines were spot on and boy did it look great. The two pieces were becoming one right in front of my eyes. Just amazing.

The sparks fly as Jim goes to work.

After lunch, Jim rolled out the MIG welder and it was now finally time for the sparks to fly. The donor section was clamped and screwed tightly into position. Jim went to town welding the donor to the Matador. Screws were removed, spot weld holes filled in, and the seams were filled in with weld. Special attention was paid to the driver’s side boxed rear frame rail where the outer section came from the donor piece and the remainder stayed from the Matador. Slowly but surely these two pieces became one resulting in a rigid structure just as strong as when it left the factory. Jim was an artist with the MIG as he moved strategically around the car, adding a weld and removing a nearby clamp which was no longer needed. His only challenge was dealing with the welding primer I had added to the work areas to keep them from rusting up. Turns out this stuff causes more problems for the welder than it helps. My recommendation is, don’t use it. 

After Jim cleaned up the weld you could barely tell there was work done!

With the arrival of Wednesday, Jim finished up the remaining welding and then moved on to smoothing out many of the welds with his belt grinder. The results were very impressive. You couldn’t even tell where the weld was when he was done.

The money shot. Wow! All one piece.

By mid-Wednesday afternoon, Jim’s work was done. Driving the car around the shop the Matador seemed to stand taller with its new rear end now fully bonded. It was a sight to behold which was a long time coming.

With the job done it was time to bring the Matador back home. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results and I felt so fortunate to have found Jim. His expertise and skill were just what was needed to do this job and see the car through the journey from parts/project car back to a solid automobile. After thanking Jim and making the journey back home I still had some quick tasks to do. The bare metal of all the repair work had to be promptly addressed or rust would set in. I went to work doing bodywork on the seam repair areas while covering the less-visible repair areas with brush-able body seam sealer and undercoating.

Weld areas primed, undercoated, and sealed.

Once the seam areas were done I applied a couple coats of Grand Prix white urethane paint and popped the side window back in. With the rear bumper and taillights installed I stood back and took in the view of the reborn Matador. It was once again a drivable Porsche 968.

So that brings us to the end of this series of articles. I hope you enjoyed them. It was very cool to bring a rare car back from the dead and I’m glad I was able to accomplish that. It’s ironic that if not for the COVID pandemic I don’t know when I would have found the time to do the project but it did happen and I have something positive to show for it. There is still much more to do on the Matador but the remaining tasks pale in comparison to the journey that took place in 2020.  I’m going to focus on getting the mechanical bits fully sorted out before moving on to the rest of the body and I’m going to leave the grafted corner with its blue paint for a while so if you see a white 968 with a blue tail you’ll know that you’ve just experienced a 1 of 2 Matador 968-sighting. See you on the road!     

Wow, a nice straight 968!
Next up, a long-overdue timing belt!

One Comment

  1. Nice job Jeff.

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