Page 30 - Sample pages "Forty Six: The Birth of Porsche Motorsport"

CHAPTER 10
THE RESTORATION
The inter-locking egg crate became our modern “wooden bucks,” not for forming the metal but for checking the shape of the metal during the forming process with the English wheels and pneumatic planishers. The scan data was also used to produce contour gauges for creating the dashboard, door skins, firewall, quarter windows, and the inner steel structure for the cabin. These patterns were also printed out and transposed onto rigid material.
The workspace was surrounded with images of SL 063. Several enlargements were printed of key photos from the 1951 Le Mans race.
A large screen TV was brought into the shop to ease the viewing of images and research materials. These visual tools helped to shape my memory and provide guidance as the beer-can-thick aluminum sheets were formed. The original aluminum used on the SLs was probably leftover aviation material from World War II and was 1000-type Dead Soft. Joe Cavaglieri, an expert in vintage aluminum car restoration, recommended that I use 3003 HIY, a modern version of Dead Soft. The shape of SL 055’s roof was different from that of SL 063 so the “buck” would only be of limited use. The perfection of the shape came after many hours of hand-eye refinement, constantly referring to the images (and some of that work would happen after the bare metal debut at RRV in October 2015).
Chris continued his forensic analysis of the most useful images then available; those by Rudy Mailander of SL 063 on the pre-grid before the start of the 1951 Le Mans race. They offered vast amounts of information.
Chris Greenwood’s experience with black and white photography was put to use for a potentially long-lead item, the license plate. Using algebraic equations with the dimensions we could gather from the physical and virtual worlds, Chris was able to establish, with a high degree of accuracy, the size of the license plate we needed to reproduce. The color was in question; it had a white background, but what color were the letters? He knew to a certainty that they were not black. A deep dive into post-war European license plate
[RIGHT, BOTH] Rod Emory uses a variety of tools, many of which were first used by his grandfather, Neil Emory, to create and massage the aluminum panels comprising the roof section.
244 FORTY SIX The Birth of Porsche Motorsport
© DALTON WATSON FINE B
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS © DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS TON WATSON FINE B