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Trial and Error: How an Aircraft Mechanic Made a Complete Conversion by Hand

I like bright colors. I’ve had orange, yellow, green. Porsche didn’t have any purple when I did this color, so it’s actually based on a 1971 Dodge Charger color called Plum Crazy. I did it over a white base instead of navy blue or black which is why it’s lighter. It has a little bit of metal flaking in it, so there’s some movement, and it’s a pearl. The orange that I had was called Sunset Pearl, and it had a metal flake too. I think Lamborghini did a color with it a few years after I did it. This paint job is probably 5 maybe 6 years old. This drives people crazy, but I hate waxing. This car has never been waxed since I painted it. I just wash it and drive. I’d rather pull an engine out than spend 4 hours meticulously going over the car with a toothbrush and a rag. I don’t have the patience for it.




I started out with a 1976 912E, which morphed into a 993. Then I picked up an ‘02 Carrera, which morphed into a GT3 RS and I widened it. This started out as an 2001 Twin Turbo, but I wanted to build a GT3 RSR street version of it. I basically did it in my backyard because Porsche wouldn’t do it. I did all the work myself, except for the paint, like I said I don’t have the patience for it. Doing the work by hand takes a lot of trial and error. Back in my day they didn’t have Youtube, so you’d go to car shows and just ask guys, “Hey, how did you do this?” Then they’d let you know, and little by little you’d just progress from there. But I’m also an aircraft mechanic by trade, so that counts for something. When I built this car, the left half took three months. Then I had to figure out how to mimic the right half to be exactly the same as the left, that took six. I had to do grid patterns every eighth of an inch so that I could pick up the dimensions, without 3D graphics, which is what they have now. Mostly it just takes a lot of patience to do it by hand, just trial and error, trial and error.


I basically did it in my backyard because Porsche wouldn’t do it.
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