The 25-year/250,000-mile refresh, UPDATE 5.15.2017: After first 1,000-mile trip Options

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So I've decided to confront a few rust bubbles on my car, before painting it (the car looked great, but I never liked the wavy sides due to poor prep and no blocking).

If you can't stomach this first photo, please don't continue... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

pete

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After much discussion, reviews of all the installations detailed here on 914world and on 914club, reading the Engman instructions, and reading over PRS's directives, two race mechanics and I talked over how to actually install the kit -- with the car on the lift or on its wheels. Since you could watch the door gaps grow when you lifted the car on a *very* good lift, and because the gaps were good when the car was on its four wheels and there should not be any distorting if you follow everyone's advice, we decided to weld in the pieces with the car sitting on its suspension. To that end, I went back and got the car's real wheels, with four brand-new Vredesteins, bolted them up, and left for an anniversary weekend.

Imagine my horror when my welder told me he started to see the door gap close up on the passenger side as he started to plug weld the rossette holes -- following everyone's instructions and following his own experience and being cognizant of this potential problem. That's when he decided to finish the right side with the car on the lift, and do the same with the left side. The left came out GREAT when the car was back on its wheels, but the right side was a bit tight. You could still open and close the door, but it was a bit sticky. So, he jacked up the car at a carefully selected point along the longitudinal under the door, and then heated up the plug welds until we arrived at the right gap.

I'm not saying we got it "right," but it is one more data point in this ongoing saga of learning the best way to add the stiffening kit. And no idiots were working on this. Well, at least if you don't count this one...

I'll add pics of the kit in place and some other progress next time I get down to the shop with a camera. I hope this thread is as useful for some of you as so many of your threads have been for me.

pete