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Posted by: saigon71 May 2 2011, 07:33 PM

I have now attended the Hershey Porsche show three times without an operational teener...NOT being part of the caravan is getting old.

Finally got my new inner long welded in with doubler plates on all seams. Verified the incline of the new long with an incline gauge (with the car level) following Jeff Hails build thread. Door operates well! Entire inner long has been coated with rust encapsulator.

Still have a long way to go but I am hoping that this was the toughest part.

Thanks to Scotty B, Jeff Hail, and everyone else who has posted a build thread on this topic. I have read all of them & learned a lot.

Bob

Posted by: Racer Chris May 2 2011, 08:17 PM

That looks real good Bob!

Posted by: saigon71 May 2 2011, 08:42 PM

Thanks Chris...I need to stay away from drunken cupcake display bets to preserve my bankroll and get this done!

Posted by: mrgjones May 2 2011, 08:44 PM

That long is a thing of beauty. Good job

Posted by: Scarlet75 May 3 2011, 03:13 AM

Looking good Bob. Keep up the momentum. Remember only 11 months left until Hershey 2012

Posted by: hot_shoe914 May 3 2011, 10:25 AM

Looking good Bob, stay focused and keep up the good work!

Posted by: rallysport70 May 3 2011, 10:33 AM

Bob, I agree, your work looks great . Keep it up. I have not made the trip to Hershey, but plan to in the future. I've mostly been lurking here the last year or two. I am hoping I may have my car roadworthy by next year as well. I have 2 boys in college, so even though I have time, my budget is the limiting factor.

Posted by: Racer Chris May 3 2011, 09:48 PM

Gambling on Food Network programming while intoxicated...hmmm...sounds like you have a serious problem.

Posted by: scotty b May 3 2011, 10:00 PM

Nice job Bob, ya hob nob snob:)

Posted by: PanelBilly May 3 2011, 11:07 PM

I think you should post some action shots next time. Let us see you working.

There that's my tip for motivation

Posted by: scotty b May 5 2011, 07:55 PM

is it done yet ?

Posted by: MikeSpraggi May 5 2011, 08:23 PM

Bob, that is a thing of beauty! I'm kinda jealous .... I've haven't been that intimate with either one of my cars.

Posted by: jsayre914 May 5 2011, 09:44 PM

Looks great!

Now drive it down here to York and lets have a beer

Posted by: saigon71 May 6 2011, 09:02 AM

I am cursed with a name that rhymes with way to many words.

Thanks to all for the thumbs up on the work being done...this is the biggest car project I have ever taken on. The prudent thing to do would have been to bail out and buy a good shell, but I got attached to the car. I hope to do it right, once, and then just enjoy driving it.

Posted by: saigon71 May 8 2011, 07:11 PM

Some pics during the inner long repair:
Leveling the car:


Checking incline factory side:



Incline - new long:


Jack in place to tweak angle of new long:


Inner plate pattern:


Plate layout:

Posted by: saigon71 May 8 2011, 07:17 PM

Finished reinforceing plate:


Cutting back end of new long...indexed off rear trunk torsion bar bolt:


Needed some side pressure on the inside of the new long in the rear so it would fit flush, had to improvise with a wedged in 2 X 4:

Posted by: saigon71 May 8 2011, 07:28 PM

Got some more work done over the weekend.

New channel formed and welded into front trunk channel....

Before:


After:


A shingle tab blew off the neighbors house, they werent looking for it, and I needed a new tar plug for the inner long, as I melted my old one while welding. Scraped most of the stones off of it...not show quality, but will work fine for me.


Jack post support welded on with advice from the world in another thread:

Posted by: Vacca Rabite May 8 2011, 07:31 PM

Holy crap!

Fantastic!

Zach

Posted by: saigon71 May 8 2011, 07:50 PM

More weekend progress...outer clam shell welded on after coating inside with weld thru primer/rust encapsulator & seam sealing the heater tube. I still had part of the original clamshell in the front, so I was able to index proper fore/aft placement by taking measurements from the cheese head screws in the bottom of the still intact drivers side clam shell. A long straight edge along the bottom kept it true horizontally.

Posted by: Scarlet75 May 9 2011, 03:43 AM

Looks like someone is gaining a little bit of momentum

Posted by: hot_shoe914 May 9 2011, 09:04 AM

Very nice Bob, you look like you have been taking lessons from Scotty. Very impressive work. Git 'er Done!

Posted by: saigon71 May 9 2011, 01:50 PM

Thanks Shoe...I ask Scotty questions every time I see him.

Posted by: Ian Stott May 9 2011, 03:31 PM

Beautiful work like that is the reason we never want to give up our cars, I don't think there are many shops that would be that picky about angles and straight lines. My hat off to you, gonna be a great example of a nice teener when done, hope to see it at Hershey or some other event in the future. Oh and don't forget what a great motivator cash is, your jackstands will bring a better than normal amount when you are finished if you show pics of what they have been holding up!

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

Posted by: saigon71 May 15 2011, 06:32 PM

While waiting on the inner "ply" for the outer wheelhouse from Restoration Design, I decided to start tackling the passenger side firewall and some other miscellaneous items. This is what I started with:



I opted to cut out all rusted metal in one chunk:

Posted by: saigon71 May 15 2011, 06:42 PM

Cutting - continued:


Luckily, it looks like the rust only crept about an inch or so up into the firewall...this shot is looking between inner & outer firewall.


The damaged area:


Short on money, but long on time & sheet metal, I decided to try to fabricate a replacement piece...started by cutting the bottom curved piece at the base of the firewall and went from there. The most difficult part for me was the compound bend, where I had to cut slits to get the right contour, then fill with weld. I left it a little long in all dimensions, so I could trim it as needed for the final fit. Still need to weld all seams on this, but I am pleased with how it is shaping up:

Posted by: saigon71 May 15 2011, 06:49 PM

Fabrication - continued:


Finally finished the front hood channel. One section was fabricated & replaced. All rust was treated with Ospho, two coats of Rust Bullet then two coats of brushed on acrylic enamel:



My virtual junkyard:

Posted by: saigon71 May 15 2011, 06:50 PM

Shingle tar plug glued in:

Posted by: kg6dxn May 15 2011, 09:45 PM

Nice work!

Posted by: Scarlet75 May 16 2011, 03:26 AM

Looking good Bob keep it up

Posted by: saigon71 May 16 2011, 05:22 AM

Thanks gents!

11 months till Hershey...11 months till Hershey...11 months till Hershey

Posted by: type47 May 16 2011, 06:14 AM

Like Spraggi says, don't set yourself a deadline

Posted by: saigon71 May 17 2011, 07:10 PM

Zipped up the seams on the replacement floorpan piece today, the piece is now in the crawl space (paint room) drying, after getting sprayed with primer:



Pulled out the gas tank, following the Pelican article...was not surprised to find more rust under the tank:

Posted by: saigon71 May 17 2011, 07:23 PM

Found another large spot of rust where the front trunk latch cable attaches under the dash. The mounting point is completely gone and all that remains is a hole. My question is...what would cause this area to rust out so bad? Fender to cowl seals?




Finally, my gas tank is rusty inside. How rusty is too rusty? Can I dump all the rust out and expect this to not get much worse if I keep gas in the tank? My goal here is a reliable daily driver...am I asking for trouble if I don't re-seal this tank?

Posted by: mepstein May 17 2011, 07:53 PM

My white car had the same issue. The pocket holds water. Mixed with dirt and a mouse nest it stayed damp for a long time. Also check down near your pedal cluster, in back of seats under the tar and any "pocket" that holds water.

Clean out the gas tank to bare metal. There are lots of how to threads.

Posted by: draganc May 21 2011, 03:46 PM

Great work man!

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2011, 07:26 PM

Restoration Design shipped me the inner ply for the wheelhouse section last week:


Drilled holes for the rosette welds:


Fabricated a cover plate for inside of the jack post & welded it on. Sprayed both parts with weld thru primer:


Two plies welded together:


Finished product...weld thru primer on the seams, rust encapsulator everywhere else. I hope to start welding this in tomorrow:

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2011, 07:27 PM

Dropped the rusty fuel tank off at the radiator shop today. The guy said he needed to drop it in an acid bath and see what is left before we make a determination. I had to take it apart at the shop and I forgot to take note of the layout of the tank outlets. Does the large one go in the front or rear with the tank in the car? Sock on the larger line?

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2011, 07:48 PM

The area where the front hood release was rusted so bad, the hood release was just hanging there under the dash, supported only by the cable tube:




The cable assembly had to be removed to gain access to the area. Plus, the bolts were a rusty mess. Vice grips were the only way to break them loose:


Welding upside down really sucks! I had better access to this from under the dash. After hitting everything with a dremmel tool wire wheel attachment, I bent up a doubler plate out of 20ga sheet metal and tacked it on with my body folded up under the dash. I had some burn through on some of the weaker metal so I had to rule out completely welding the seams, but was able to get it tacked in place. Raked my spine on the body braces twice getting out of the car - ouch.

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2011, 07:50 PM

With the burn thru problem and the fact that it was such a PITA working in this tight space, I opted use a liberal application of JB Weld on both top & bottom to fill between the tack welds. It is certainly not my best work, but I believe it will be strong and functional. This area will be inspected once in a while after the car is on the road:

From above:


From below:

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2011, 08:22 PM

Thanks Ian.

Interesting...never saw jackstands as an appreciating investment!

Is is springtime in Monctom yet?

Bob

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2011, 08:26 PM

Thanks...a lot of time was invested in that piece...hope it fits well!

Posted by: saigon71 May 30 2011, 07:16 PM

I am not sure my liver can survive the rush of 40th birthday parties this Spring...but anyhow:

Got word from the radiator shop last week that my tank was repairable. They said they can patch, clean and seal it for no more than $200. It seemed reasonable to me, so I pulled the trigger on it.

Picked up metric allen bolts at Home Depot for the front hood latch attachment point:




After reading a thread on the world about proper cleaning of a transmission, I realized that I never plugged the overflow when pressure washing mine at the local car wash last year. I got worried about water in there, so I drained the old fluid out...did not see any water but the magnetic drain plug was chock full of filings. Tranny was re-filled with proper fluid and put back in the shed:



2nd ply of the outer wheelhouse was welded in last week, prepped and ready to be installed:



10 months till Hershey...10 months till Hershey. It was a scorcher today. But I really wanted to get the outer wheelhouse welded in:



I measured the distance from the middle screw on the original drivers side long to a plumb bob off the front of the jack post. Matched the 20.5" measurement on the passenger side for proper fore-aft fit:

Posted by: saigon71 May 30 2011, 07:32 PM

Everything lined up pretty well, except for one section at the rear of the inner long. This area was rebuilt 6" at a time hand formed in a vice. The last section seemed to twist up in the rear when I was welding it in. However, it lined up well with the inner long section previously welded in. All things considered, I decided to add a small extension piece to the bottom so the rosette welds would line up properly:




Final fitment outside:


Final fitment inside:


Fabricated & installed a doubler plate for the rear...had to modify it several times to clear the inner ply of the outer wheelhouse:

Posted by: saigon71 May 30 2011, 07:48 PM

DAMNIT!!! After filling about 7 rosettes, I realized I forgot to drill the holes directly above the jack post support. Improvised with a large screwdriver wedged in to get enough clearance to drill new holes. Snuck a dremmel tool in to deburr the backside of the holes:




I found the fitment of this piece to be challenging. It was clamped on and removed about 25 times before finally filling the first rosette. Probably due to the "learn as you go method." Overall, I am pleased with how it has turned out so for. The heat started to get to me, so it was time for a cold beer and cold A/C. Will zip up the seams this week and should get the gas tank back:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 5 2011, 07:06 AM

Picked up my gas tank from the radiator shop last week. Cleaned, patched, sealed, pressure tested, primed and painted for $160. The only problem is that they painted it in gloss black. So I spent a few hours sanding it down and re-painted it in semi-gloss black. The shop used "Red Coat" as the sealer:

Posted by: Scarlet75 Jun 5 2011, 07:14 AM

Looking good Bob keep with it. Hershey is right around the corner

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 5 2011, 07:21 AM

Welded up the seams on the outer wheelhouse, then started grinding...

The inner long needed some trimming at the bottom for a flush fit. A cutoff wheel made quick work of this:


"Finished" job - outer:


"Finished" job - inner:


Closeup of rear seam:


There remains a slight (about 3/16") alignment issue with the upper portion of the lower wheelhouse under the rear door jamb. I should be able to get this aligned with a hammer and block of wood.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 5 2011, 07:34 AM

Thanks Andy...I must be part of the caravan next year! Trying to stay motivated and put in at least a few hours each day.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2011, 09:15 AM

Progress continues at a slow, but steady pace.

Continued working on the area under the gas tank and the front trunk attachment point. Areas were cleaned, rust treated with ospho, followed by two coats of rust bullet and new seam sealer. Note to self...when working upside down applying opsho with a hollow acid brush, do not hold the brush in your mouth while getting out from under the dash.









A crazy hail storm interrupted my work on Thursday...it sounded like someone was shooting a machine gun at the house!

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2011, 09:26 AM

Put the tank back together with a new Foley fuel sock. The threads were a little gummed up from the red coat the shop used to seal the tank, so I had to run a tap through the holes to clean them out. The fiber washer on the small line was in bad shape so i picked one up at the local ACE hardware and modified it to fit.



Flash rust is a bitch! I understand that it has been humid and that my washer & dryer are in my garage, but this is ridiculous. This area was freshly welded just last week:



I took a look at all the other bare metal...it was happeneing everywhere. Time to treat with ospho and get some primer on:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2011, 09:34 AM

I wasn't in the mood to spray primer yesterday, but I must admit that finally seeing these areas a single color was motivating. Primer - inner long:





This project has become bigger than my one car garage can handle...teener parts now have a strong foothold in my shed as well:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2011, 09:38 AM

Shed - continued:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2011, 09:39 AM

Posted by: scotty b Jun 12 2011, 11:24 AM

FWIW the panel fit issues you have encounterd are 100% normal. The aftermarket pieces just do not line up perfectly and will always need some reshaping to fit the car. Thanks for posting pics of those spots so everyone can see what they are in for. Keep up the good work

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2011, 03:24 PM

Got a decent amount done last weekend. Installed a section of the Restoration Design upper wheelhouse panel. I didnt need a whole lot of it, but I did need the indented section. Indexing this piece was a challenge. All I had to go off was matching up the curve on the indented section of the piece I cut out to the new panel and a bevel gauge to get the proper pitch of the rise. I opted to weld a bolt on to the piece so I could hold it in place and tweak it slightly while getting it tacked into place. The panel seemed to shrink along the bottom edge while tacking it in place, so I had to bend the back of it out and trim it down for a flush fit. I ended up with a non-weldable gap where the lower wheelhouse meets the original metal, so I had to cut up a small filler plate for this area.


Attached image(s)

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2011, 03:26 PM

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2011, 03:29 PM

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2011, 03:32 PM

I was also able to get the rear chunk of floorpan (previously made) welded into the passenger side floor. After trimming it up a bit, it fit quite well!





Attached image(s)

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2011, 03:37 PM

Finished up the repair of the front hood cable attachment point. One coat ospho, two coats Rust Bullet, seam sealer and two coats of brushed on acrylic enamel.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2011, 03:45 PM

Thanks Scotty B. Yep, while I am happy with the overall quality of the replacement panels, it seems that things need to be tweaked from time to time to get the best fit.

Posted by: jsayre914 Jun 22 2011, 04:13 PM

Wow Bob, your almost done, Looks great!!

Posted by: dlee6204 Jun 22 2011, 04:19 PM

Wow, keep up the good work!

Posted by: Series9 Jun 23 2011, 07:05 PM

It's nice to watch someone else work.



You're doing a great job. Keep it up.

Posted by: scotty b Jun 23 2011, 07:24 PM

Posted by: saigon71 Jul 20 2011, 02:37 PM

Problems with both the Mazda and motorcycle have cut into my 914 time over the last few weeks, but I was able to get some more done.

Drilled holes in new metal patch on drivers side, installed new allen bolts and re-ran front hood cable.



Took a wire wheel to the inner wheelhouse section to prep for primer...discovered a lot of surface rust in ths area that will require treatment before primer.



After reading other build threads on here, I have been pretty vigilant about keeping an eye on the door gaps and taking my time welding to keep the heat down. I have made a couple of small tweaks along the way, but the gaps have held well. Checking gaps after welding in the upper wheelhouse section, there was a more noticeable difference. After some adjustments to the turnbuckle, I was able to able to get it within .030" of the drivers side and still have the door close OK. The door now requires more effort to close it and will need some final tweaking.

Posted by: saigon71 Jul 20 2011, 02:47 PM

Ended up with a bit of a mess where the floorpan meets the firewall on the passenger side & will have to make pieces to fill the areas. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have bought this section(s) welded them in and been done by now.




Needed to fabricate the verticals of both the inner and outer firewall. I was able to get a close measurement by measuring the rise of the old piece and adding the width of the metal cutting wheel. Something warped in the floor, leaving too narrow of a gap on the outside. Had to drive a solid wedge between the original firewall and new floorpan to pry these apart for the correct spacing and weld a chunk in to hold it in place. The wood splitting mall was crude but effective.

Posted by: saigon71 Jul 20 2011, 02:52 PM

Outer firewall patch:

Posted by: saigon71 Jul 20 2011, 02:56 PM

For the front firewall patch, I opted to make a template to simplify things:





Both pieces finished:

Posted by: Scarlet75 Jul 20 2011, 06:16 PM

Bob you are making great progress keep it up

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 2 2011, 07:45 PM

Welded in the lower inner vertical firewall piece:



I had a large rusted section above the long on the firewall that had to be farbricated and replaced. Went with a posterboard template to get the shape accurate:











Finally, a solid inner floorpan on the passenger side! I decided to prep this 1/4 of the pan for finish...one coat of rust converter applied:

Posted by: Jon Fernandes Aug 2 2011, 07:55 PM

Nice work

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Aug 2 2011, 08:31 PM

Looking good Bob, I better see this car at Hershey if I drive up for the 3rd year in a row.

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 30 2011, 06:04 PM

Seeing two stellar teeners at Matt's cookout as hurricane Irene approached made me realize it was time to get back to work.

18 GA patch pieces were made to close up the hole in the outer firewall:








Finished the rear passenger side floor pan on the inside. Two coats ospho (on rusty areas) followed by two coats rust bullet (again, only on rusty or pitted areas) two coats rust encapsulator and new seam sealer. It was nice to look at a small section of the car and say "this is done."






The jigsaw puzzle that is the rear floor pan on the passenger side continues to get pieced together. It became very complicated trying to make this part all in one shot, so I decided to go with a section at a time and weld it all together:





Experienced some cracking after applying the initial primer on the upper wheelhouse. I suspect it is from over-doing it on the rust converter, as I have run into this before using the product. From now on, I will only apply one coat. Wire brushed affected areas and re-sprayed primer:

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 4 2011, 05:22 AM

My welding skills have improved significantly, but it still seems like I spend a ton of time grinding...

Tying the firewall, floorpan, and inner long together has been a challenge. Two small patch panels were fabricated and welded in where the outer firewall curves rearward to meet the inner long. Final piece welded into the floorpan where it meets the long. Took the wire wheel to the whole area to prep for a light Ospho treatment in one area and I hope to get this area primed tomorrow:













Tomas donated a used set of plastic MC lines to the cause as my originals were accidently strafed by a wire wheel. While the Ospho was drying, I installed them, taking any means possible not to disturb the new master cylinder. Thanks Tomas! Started cleaning up my rusty muffler bracket as well:

Posted by: FourBlades Sep 4 2011, 11:38 AM

Great progress!

You are getting there.

It will be worth it.

John

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 5 2011, 07:04 PM

Shot two coats of primer on the rebuilt pass side firewall/floor pan. It was a lot of patchwork, but I am pleased with how it all worked out.







Cleaned, treated and painted the exhaust bracket.

Posted by: Cairo94507 Sep 5 2011, 07:19 PM

Very nice work; you should be proud.

Posted by: Scarlet75 Sep 19 2011, 04:02 AM

Looking good Bob whats the current status?

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 14 2011, 05:47 PM

The outer suspension console and engine mount were completely shot on my car, so I bought a relatively rust free chunk of longitudinal from a member of 914world and started disassembly. What a PITA drilling out all of the spot welds and grinding down the outer welds, then beating the pieces apart with a large hammer and screwdriver. My "original" inner suspension console must have been replaced at some point, because it was in better condition than the one I bought as part of the used longitudinal. All three pieces were treated with POR-15 on the inside while the weldable areas were shot with weld thru primer. I continually ran a piece of safety wire through the drain hole of the inner console while treating with POR to make sure the drain remained open.

Parts:




I decided to start with the inner console. It was a real bitch trying to measure exactly 28 1/4 inches from the hole in the center of the firewall to the front of the suspension ear hole with a tape measure while holding everything in place. Plus, this needs to be spot on for proper alignment. I decided to cut a piece of steel brake line to exactly 28.25" to simplify the task.




The inner console had a little bit of "rock" to it on the new long that seemed to be coming from the indent behind the bracket. Had to beat this area with a hammer for proper fit:



Still nervous about having the measurements EXACTLY right before tack welding this thing in place...I decided to call it a night.

Posted by: trojanhorsepower Oct 14 2011, 06:37 PM

Great Job!

Keep it up!

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 26 2011, 08:14 PM

Got the inner suspension console tack welded in place today.

Figured out the slight rock I had in the piece was from two previous rosette welds on the new longitudinal not ground completely flush.

I spent quite a bit of time bending, hammering and adjusting the areas to be welded on this piece, to make sure it fit as good as possible. There is a slight gap at the top of suspension console that will be addressed with a big hammer and block of wood after the rest of it is tacked on.

Took one more measurement, from both the front and rear firewall, dead on both ways.

I started with the leading edge, because of the alignment mark. I was amazed to see how much the whole console moved forward from two tack welds! Re-checked the measurements and they were off. Had to grind off the spot welds with a dremmel tool and start over again.

The trailing edge needed some side pressure before tacking it on, so I broke out the special tools.

Needed to put a little pressure on the bottom of the console before tacking the bottom on.

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 4 2011, 08:51 PM

Before finishing all the welding on this piece, I double checked all measurements. Firewall hole to front of inner console hole was still dead on and side to side came in at 33.5".





As another sanity check, I leveled the car and took a measurement from the garage floor to the bottom of the ear and checked it against the original drivers side...both were right at 14.25".





There was a slight gap (less than 1/8") at the top of this piece where it forms around the top of the long...reformed with a big hammer while tack welded in place.

Top edge before adjustment:



I decided to seam weld this piece on. I am re-using a replacement piece in very good shape installed by the PO. There wasn't enough meat on the some of the edges to drill holes for rosettes. I had to re-use the previous monster rosette holes on the top. I took my time and cooled the area with compressed air after every few welds. The roughest part was welding the bottom area near the seam where the inner and outer long meet upside down.

Posted by: scotty b Nov 5 2011, 04:53 AM

Well done my man

Posted by: maf914 Nov 5 2011, 11:15 AM

Beautiful work! Thanks for posting all of your photos. Excellent!

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 17 2011, 08:18 PM

Indexing the right engine bar mount took some time. I had saved the original chunk of long I removed the mount from, so I re-aligned the holes and took a measurement from the edge of the inner suspension console to the edge of the mount and came up with 1 3/8". The suspension console that I welded in was aftermarket and did not have as much meat on the edges as the factory piece. I measured off the start of the bend of the installed console and marked a line on the long to match the factory edge. Up & down was verified at 3 5/16" (taken from the original long) with a combination square from the top of the mount to the top of the edge of the suspension console.







Used a big C clamp & jack to hold it in position for welding and verified all measurements one more time:





Re-filled the factory rosettes and seam welded a few 1" or so sections on both sides.

Posted by: pete-stevers Nov 17 2011, 08:29 PM

impressive!!!

Posted by: Scarlet75 Nov 18 2011, 05:00 AM

Looking good Bob dont make me break out the whip. You know its right around the corner. Your work is looking really good. Glad you are remeasuring everything before welding

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 18 2011, 09:57 AM

Thanks Andy. No need to break out the whip as the car will be at Hershey.

I have decided to make the car reliable and roadworthy by tackling all of the big stuff that I need to. Everything else will become a "weekend project" after I start driving it.

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 19 2011, 07:54 PM

Fitted the engine shelf yesterday & today. This piece caused me a lot of frustration, largely because the front and rear firewall sections that hold the engine seal channel were not there to index from.

I got nervous that the engine mount was welded in too high, so I leveled the car and took measurements from the floor to the bottom of the mount. Driver and passenger side both came in at exactly 12". Additionally, I double checked all other measurements on the engine mount. Everything was good.

The shelf itself needed to be flattened a bit in the front where it meets the inner long. I also had to adjust the top edge of the engine mount in the front where I had welded a repair in.













I will need to fabricate both front & rear firewall metal to tie them into the engine shelf. Waiting until these pieces are made until I start welding anything. Filled holes in the rear firewall left from removal of the old sheet metal.

Posted by: type47 Nov 20 2011, 07:20 AM

Oh, death knell for projects; a deadline...

Nice work, keep the pix coming

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 25 2011, 10:20 AM

Fabricated and installed the section of rear firewall that holds the rear engine bay seal. I leveled the car and measured from the floor to the lower edge of the engine shelf on the drivers side (19 5/16") so I could determine proper height of the passenger side engine shelf:





Made a template out of poster board for the replacement piece. I was able to use the mirror image of the drivers side to get the proper curve:







I measured the thickness of the original metal - it was about 19GA. I opted to use 18GA metal for the repair panel. Finished product:

Posted by: rallysport70 Nov 25 2011, 07:50 PM

Very nice work, keep the pics coming.

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 25 2011, 08:09 PM

Got some more done today. Started treating rust on the front firewall engine shelf. Part of it is missing and some areas have a little rust - thru, so I fabricated a doubler that will be welded on the bottom. It will serve two purposes...beef up the remaining factory shelf and serve as a backer/support for the piece I need to fabricate to tie in the passenger side engine shelf. I had to make relief cuts every 3/4" so I could match the factory bend:







There were a couple of small holes under the gas tank on the passenger side that needed to be patched. This will not be a show car, just a fun, reliable daily driver. I cleaned the area, fabricated a doubler for the bottom, rosette welded it on and sealed the edges with JB-Weld:









Started fitting the outside suspension ear before I ran out of steam.

Posted by: Socalandy Nov 25 2011, 09:24 PM

Awsome work, Keep away

we are on the same journey!!

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 26 2011, 07:11 PM

Thanks Andy...do you have a build thread going? I am surprised that you have these rust issues on the left coast!

Bob

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 26 2011, 07:21 PM

With the nice weather, I had to finish some painting on the house...but I was able to get a little more done.

Welded the engine bay seal channel on the rear firewall. This product was not available pre-bent from Restoration Design, so I had to make relief cuts to get the proper bend:





Treated the rear driver side engine shelf with ospho:



Brushed two top coats of acrylic enamel on the patch panel, passenger side under the gas tank:

Posted by: Socalandy Nov 26 2011, 07:26 PM

Thanks Andy...do you have a build thread going? I am surprised that you have these rust issues on the left coast!

Bob
[/quote]


Really, Its all that work your putting in on your car, no time to watch 914 World

let the sharing of rust begin


http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=101062

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 11 2011, 09:22 AM

Welded the doubler plate that I fabricated for the front firewall engine bay:



Applied two coats of rust bullet to the drivers side rear firewall:



I needed to trim the lower edge of the outer suspension about 1/8" on the bottom for proper fit:



With the inner suspension console and engine bar mount in, it was time to tackle the outer suspension console. PM'ed Scotty B about the best way to index this piece. He said the best way was to take measurements before cutting out the old long. I hadn't done this, but I still had the chunk of old long in the garage so I was able to make a template. I really hated drilling holes in my brand new long, but I had to temporarily attach it with sheet metal screws to mock-fit the suspension:



As a double-check for the template, I measured from the drivers side jack post to the front edge of the suspension console and came up with exactly 12.5". This number matched on the passenger side. Additionally, I ran a straight edge accross the bottom of the inner suspension console to make sure things made sense:













With everything in place, I decided to mock fit the suspension before starting any welding. It was a relief to see things line up properly!

Posted by: scotty b Dec 11 2011, 11:49 AM

SO you'll be driving it to Hershey in a few months right ??

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 11 2011, 02:33 PM

Got some quality shop time in today. Fabricated the connection piece that will tie the engine bay sheet metal together up front. Made a template and hammered out the piece I needed. I had to cut back about an inch of the engine bay seal channel on the replacement piece. A dremmel tool with a cut off wheel did a fine job:











Hit the passenger area under the tank with ospho, two coats of rust encapsulator and new seam sealer:




Attached image(s)

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 11 2011, 02:39 PM

Yep, I will be joining the caravan in South Central PA. Its pretty cool seeing this thing start to come back to life.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 14 2011, 09:09 PM

Welded the outer suspension console on today. Pretty smooth installation overall with the sheet metal screws holding things in place. Cycled between welding and cooling with compressed air. Put two coats of primer on:













Brushed two coats of acrylic enamel on in the area below the tank on the passenger side:

Posted by: jsayre914 Dec 15 2011, 12:52 PM

Great work Bob !!

Looks like you will have it up and running in the next few days

Hershey is gettn closer

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 20 2011, 04:36 PM

Been rollin pretty good on the teener...

I had to cut back about 3/4" of the engine bay seal channel up front for proper fit. Tack welded channel back on:



Started fitting the passenger side lower door sill. I took measurements from the drivers side from the sill seam to the jack post - 3 3/4". With the replacement all the way forward, the passenger side was 3 5/8". I trimmed the front of the piece 1/8" and re-bent as needed. This was one of the easier replacement panels for me to fit:















I realized that some areas would be tough to get to after the engine shelf is installed, so I prepped the area below for ospho and primer:





Drilled rosette holes where possible on the engine shelf & gave all areas two coats of weld thru primer:









Started fitting the sill triangles as well...measured the drivers side setup and used these measurements for the passenger side. It was 24 11/16" from the front triangle to the middle triangle and 4 1/2" from the rear triangle to the jack post:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 22 2011, 06:27 AM

Welded in the brake line attachment point on the passenger side and made/welded a metal strap out of sheet metal for the front engine shelf to replace one that was rusted away:





Welded the engine shelf in. I rosette welded this piece in when possible and "stitch" welded areas where there wasn't enough metal to drill for a rosette:









Attached the door sill with sheet metal screws to make fitting the sill triangles easier:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 30 2011, 12:09 PM

Cut and installed another section of engine bay seal channel in the front of the engine bay...had to make relief cuts to get the right bend:





Fitted and welded the passenger side rear jacking donut replacement. I had to go back and re-grind some welds on the fabricated floorpan for proper fit. Additionally, I had to trim the piece a little and mess with the curve. The bottle jack worked well holding this thing in place. After it was tacked in place, I removed the jack and used a hammer and a large drift for any final tweaking to the metal. Finished it off with two coats of rust encapsulator:















Sprayed a coat of rust converter on consoles and engine mount. I was amazed at how much surface rust already formed on these pieces:





Followed up with two coats of rust encapsulator:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 30 2011, 12:19 PM

Prepped the passenger fender area for welding:



The engine shelf on the passenger side looked a little higher than it should be so with the rear trunk closed all the way (and fitting evenly), I measured from the underside of the trunk to the bottom of the shelf on both sides. Drivers side came in at 17 9/16 and passenger side was 17 1/2...going with "close enough" on this one.







Snapped some pics of the old longitudinal and the reason for this thread...

Posted by: Ferg Dec 30 2011, 12:26 PM

Impressive

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 30 2011, 12:30 PM

Wanted to verify the sill angle, so I leveled the car and used a HF magnetic inclinometer in the same spot on both sides of the car. Drivers side - 27 degrees, passenger 26. Angle was easy to adjust with the sill screwed on:







Started fitting the lower rear part of the door jamb that had been removed for rust repair. I picked up a set of body panel welding clamps at HF - definately a good $8 purchase to help hold things in place. Had to fabricate a piece to connect the sill with the jamb. I used a scrap of metal from a RD replacement panel for better corrosion protection (galvanneal):

Posted by: 3d914 Dec 31 2011, 05:40 PM

Amazing work. You've really taken on some serious rust. I thought mine was enough work. Hat's off to ya.

Curious - you mention repeatedly about using "One coat ospho, two coats Rust Bullet". Why both - don't they do the same thing?

Posted by: sfrenck Dec 31 2011, 06:30 PM

Inspirational work. Makes me want to go out and start hacking my POS passenger long out and fix it.

Keep it up

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 1 2012, 10:04 AM

If I understand correctly, Ospho only neutralizes the rust. Rust bullet forms a very strong protective coating over the rusty metal. It may be overkill.

I have used numerous different kinds of rust treatment/protection on this project...time will tell which are the most effective after I get the car on the road.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 4 2012, 09:45 AM

Upon advice from the world after seeing the rust in the gas tank area, I needed to check the airbox seal. It wasn't to bad, so I popped it in the dishwasher for a good cleaning. I broke one of the plastic arms for the spring clips...but the airbox will still seal well so I am not going to worry about it. Cleaned out the nest in there and blew out with compressed air:







Prepped the passenger rear fender for re-installation. There was a decent amount of surface rust, so I applied a coat of ospho. The stub of the fender to outer suspension mount brace had to be removed as well:













Fitted the rear fender for welding - everything lined up quite well:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 4 2012, 10:01 AM

With everything in place, I wanted to make sure that the outer rocker fit properly. I referenced the drivers side...passenger side matched near perfectly. I measured from the lower rocker seam to the outer rocker panel and both sides came in at 11/16":







Prepped the front passenger floorpan for ospho. There was only light rust in this area. Backing plate for lower front fender repair will be seam sealed:





Shot two coats of weld thru primer on the sill and inner rocker:





With everything in place, I took a measurement from the inner rocker seam to the edge of the new door sill. Measurement was 3/16" greater on the passenger side. With all metal components lining up well and the outer rocker fitting well, I decided to roll with it:





I am pleased to report that I am becoming a good mig welder. I hated taking the door off again after getting it to fit well, but I figured it may save me some grief while welding the front areas of the sill. Started with a few tack welds to hold everything in place. I needed to apply a little torque on the sill with vice grips for proper alignment where the new sill meets the rear door jamb:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 4 2012, 10:16 AM

One of my poker buddies stopped over last weekend. We were in the garage and he asked what was going on with this piece of shit car. Told him that the plan was to drive it to Hershey in April. He said - no way that is happening, care to wager some cash on it? I agreed. The bet is that the car has to make it to Hershey under its own power.

Forget personal pride or a sense of accomplishment - I need to win this bet!

With winter setting in, I have more garage time. I started keeping the heat on low in the shop at all times so paint & rust proofing will cure properly.

Posted by: jsayre914 Jan 4 2012, 04:00 PM

How much we talkin bout

Posted by: FourBlades Jan 4 2012, 07:35 PM

Great work man!

You are really making some progress.

You might want to install the door and check the gaps while welding the rear fender back on. You can easily adjust if needed now, but once it is welded up it is hard to fix later.

John

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 5 2012, 05:59 PM

Just a few bucks, nothing major...its the principle of the thing.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 5 2012, 06:03 PM

Good call John. Found some nice rust on the underside of the passenger door that will be easier to fix with the door off so it may be a few days before the fender gets back on.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 5 2012, 06:35 PM

Considering how critical this area is to the strength of the car, I ran a bead of weld on the backside of the door jamb & sill:





Fitted the sill triangles. They didn't need much and held themselves in place for welding. I have struggled with small rosette welds and can't describe what goes wrong without cueing a barrage of "that's what she said" jokes. So I tacked welded them on both sides:





Ground down the welds on this piece. Scrubbed everything down with scotch brite and shot two coats of primer. Overall it turned out well, but the primer revealed a few low spots at the seams that will need to be re-welded.











Ospho'd and sprayed undercoating on the outer edge of the floor:

Posted by: michelko Jan 6 2012, 03:47 AM

Hi there,
reminds me to my projekt, but differnt colour.
Very clean work. Keep on

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 7 2012, 08:46 AM

Started mounting the new Billstein shock on the passenger side. The nut holding the bottom of the old shock was frozen. Tried penetrating fluid and a big hammer with the console clamped to the workbench. I don't have a regular torch to heat the nut with, so I used a heat gun - it actually worked. I am sticking with stock springs initially...may end up switching to 140's later on. I will have to move the lower spring mount up on the shock about 1 1/8" by moving the circlip.









Noticed some rust on the bottom of the passenger door. Removed the seal for inspection. There is some surface rust and about a 2 inch area rusted through. I don't have time to fix this the right way, so it got cleaned & ospho'd. I will do the best I can to rustproof this area until I can do it right or buy a good set of used doors:









Garage at capacity:



Two coats of rust encapsulator on the passenger front floor pan & applied undercoating to new metal in the rear passenger floorpan:





Went back and added some weld to the upper seam of the door jamb:







I hated the idea of putting the gas tank back in with the original carpet pads because they hold water. Wandering around Home Depot, I think I found a cheap solution - polyethelene pipe wrap. Cut three pieces and tie wrapped them overnight to help flatten them out. Removed remaining carpet and cleaned mounting area:

Posted by: Socalandy Jan 7 2012, 09:00 AM

great progress!!! I'm dealing with my doors now and yours are way better. Need to cut the seal channel to patch the rot holes

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 7 2012, 09:37 AM

Please post pics of your door repair so I know what I am in for!

The drivers side door is MUCH worse on my car. Both will be fixed or replaced properly after the car is on the road. I need to start driving this thing.

Posted by: Socalandy Jan 7 2012, 09:48 AM

I will, I think I may be posting to many pics on my resto and SirAndy will start asking for dues!!

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 7 2012, 09:51 AM

Thanks!

Adriatic Blue is my favorite color on teeners...followed closely by Zambezi Green.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 8 2012, 10:43 AM

Finished putting the new Billstein on the trailing arm. The factory shock was slightly pre-loaded when I removed the hold down nut on the old spring. I ended up using the 2nd groove from the top for the circlip that holds the lower spring holder to match the spring load:





Took a look at the lower suspension consoles. The factory had "caps" of 14 GA metal that tie the inner and outer suspension console together. I snapped a shot of the cross section from another chunk of long. Other than buying 14 GA metal and beating out these parts, has anyone found a good solution for making these?





Loaded up the parts cleaner for another round:



Glued the new gas tank vibration dampeners in with 3M weatherstrip adhesive:



Seam sealed front passenger floor pan:



I realized that I probably won't have time to give this car a complete and proper paint job before Hershey, but want it to be presentable. Tested what two coats of brushed on acrylic enamel would look like on the door sill:



Started fitting the battery tray...have some questions about placement on a separate thread:

Posted by: Scarlet75 Jan 8 2012, 06:54 PM

Who cares what it looks like at Hershey as long as its there Making lots of progress Bob

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Jan 8 2012, 08:52 PM

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 11 2012, 08:35 AM

Original suspension "caps" were made from 14GA metal (~.075"). I picked up some 1 1/2" flat steel for $12 at the local hardware store that measured .100" thick. These things are complicated because they twist in some areas along the consoles. I opted to make these pieces in two stages...side pieces welded in first, then tie them together. Made a template for each piece and hammered them out. I was able to get the most of the twist with a big pair of vice grips and fine tuned with a ball peen hammer against the suspension consoles. I still had parts of the old caps on the outer console that I plan using:



















Sprayed two coats of Rust Encapsulator on the rusty areas of the lower passenger door:





Bolted/clamped the battery tray together so I could see how it wanted to fit and compared measurements to those received from the world. I came up with 3 3/4" from the leading edge of the tray to the firewall (without pad) and 11" from the top edge of the engine bay body panel to the tray. The vertical matches perfectly and I am close horizontally. I still need to level the car again to make sure the battery tray is level for final fit:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 13 2012, 08:34 AM

While welding upside down, a chunk of hot crag fell on my chest & burnt through my sweatshirt. The burn looks like a comet, because as a reaction to the searing pain, I rolled on my side causing the molten metal to roll across my chest leaving a very nice line! This only needed to happen once for me to pick up a welding apron.

Finished making the caps for the suspension consoles yesterday and tack welded them on. I want to wait until the door is back on and I can verify door gaps before seam welding these pieces, as three chunks of the car are joined with these. The factory piece had drain holes in it on the bottom, so I added them on my reproduction pieces:









Finished up the "quick fix" on the passenger door. Shot two coats of hi-build primer on a low area, sanded, then two coats of Zambezi Green acrylic enamel from an aerosol can. There is absolutely a paint line, but it will look OK from about 20ft:







The air duct in the door jamb is loaded with surface rust and started pitting in some areas. Wire brushed with a dremmel tool and sprayed with ospho:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 13 2012, 09:02 AM

The last thing I want is to get hung up with the DMV a week before Hershey, so I started looking into classic/antique plates for the car. It looks like you have to take pictures of the car to submit with your application which would not bode well for me right now. Depending on the timing of everything, I may have to get a regular registration this year and apply for antique or classic plates next year.

Posted by: jsayre914 Jan 13 2012, 11:23 AM

No Way

Ask Zach for pictures of his car, front side and back (No Tag) Then you need a pic of the vin on your car. They also required me to bring a rubbing of the vin, which is impossible for our cars unless you are missing a windshield.

If I can help I will.

Joseph

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 14 2012, 08:36 AM

It's possible I had one too many beers working late on the car the other night. Without thinking it through, I drilled holes for rosette welds in the bracket of the battery tray thinking I would weld it all together before installation. The problem is that I would have no real access to the rear metal tab on the bracket that gets welded to the long. I tried bending the tab the opposite way, but it rested on the innser suspension console, not the long. The holes needed to be filled. I found some old copper pipe to clamp on & use as a backer:





I have decided to wait untill the car is on all fours to install the battery tray...it will be easier to get it perfectly level.

Pulled the engine bay cover out of the shed to address some rust:



My lower passenger door seal was in remarkably good shape. Ran it through the dishwasher twice, treated it with RV slide out seal conditioner and put it back on. The "J Man" stopped over to help fit the passenger door. Wanted to have this in place to check door gaps before final welding on the caps on the suspension consoles and the passenger fender. We put the top on as well to make sure everything still lined up. Everything looks about as good as it can with old seals...it was nice to see after all this work:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 14 2012, 08:47 AM

Joe:

Did you go with antique or classic plates? I want to be able to drive this car as a daily driver most of the year. Based on this, I was thinking that classic may be the way to go.

I will see what kind of progress I make over the next month and decide from there. Hell, Zach's car is almost the same color!

Bob

Posted by: okieflyr Jan 14 2012, 09:07 AM

IIRC, they are looking for pics of the car in an unmodified state, as it came from the factory. No window tint included. There are specific picture angles required as well.
I took a rubbing from the front stamped VIN on the right front fender. When you insure the car, they may want pics of the car as well whether it is collecter or regular just given the age.

Posted by: okieflyr Jan 14 2012, 09:21 AM

Bob, I admire the time and work that you've put into your resto work. The PO of my car did alot of metal with the pans and such. But I could see a difference in the quality of work as he progressed in different areas of the car as I think he was getting tired or in a hurry. I'm gearing up to do some rustoration work in the areas he didn't do as well and the downtime is going to drive me nuts. So where I'm headed is, keep taking your time for your quality work. If you miss your Hershey deadline it will be a bummer because youv'e worked so hard and we won't get to see it, but you won't have any "I wish I had" regrets down the road. Keep up the good work, you are my inspiration!

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 14 2012, 09:40 AM

Man, thanks Kevin. Your advice is top shelf!

This project has taken on a life of its own...much more than I bargained for.

Keeping up the quality has been a concern all along for me and I normally call it a day when I get frustrated or burned out on the car. I have rushed projects in the past with poor results & recognize how bad it would suck to have to re-do major stuff that was rushed. I don't want to be dropping the engine/tranny again for rust repair in the engine bay area, so fixing these areas correctly is the #1 priority before Hershey...I am OK with finishing other rust work down the road.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 17 2012, 10:34 PM

The Optima 34R arrived today. I look forward to installing it.

Finished zipping up all the seams on the suspension console caps. This was the hottest setting I had used so far on the welder. I turned down the wire feed where the gaps were close, took my time, cooled with compressed air often, and wore a welding vest. Went back and touched up a few areas with the mig. Pics are after grinding.





There was one small area on the engine deck lid that had some surface rust. Wire brushed it and applied ospho. Took inventory of the P O R S C H E letters I had picked up at swap meets. I had a few duplicates, but couldnt make a set that all had the studs. Dremmeled the plasitc studs off, drilled the letters & installed #6 X 32 machine screws with the heads cut off. They will work well with the nylon nuts from home depot:

Posted by: Racer Chris Jan 18 2012, 10:34 AM

I guess I haven't been following this thread close enough Bob, sorry!
I have templates to make the console caps - shaped from single pieces of 14ga. (I could have sent you a jpeg)

Looks real good!

Posted by: jsayre914 Jan 18 2012, 11:09 AM

I went with the antique tags. Drive the car every day. I always have extra parts in the car (working on it) and I have never had a problem. I also have a speeding ticket on those plates and the issue never came up. I think there is a big gray area on the antique tags.

p.s. I live right next to brimmers tag and title and penndot if I can help in any way. As far as the pics YES there are certain angles they require. Piece of cake

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 19 2012, 07:28 AM

Light work on the car yesterday. Got a set of letters ready and installed. Seems as though every time I touch one of the original speed nuts, the associated stud breaks. Lost another "H" trying to tighten it up.



Sprayed acrylic enamel on the passenger side door vent:

Posted by: struckn Jan 19 2012, 02:16 PM

I have three vehicles with Antique Pa. Tags and I'll be going that way with my '74 when it is due for regestration renewal in Sept.

You'll need four pictures, front, rear, right side left side. Also they want an etching of the vin but I used a close up digital picture which they accepted. The pictures don't have to be current if you have some from before you started restoring and frankly other then the vin shot they don't come to your house to varify. If you want shots of mine let me know, only thing we might need to do is put your current tag on it for the rear shot.

Pendot seems to have a policy to reject the first time you submit. One time they said my 69 Chevy Pick up had the wrong hub caps and I had to find two original hubcaps for the side shots require and resubmit. Strangely they missed that the truck is lowered, nosed and decked and has several other non stock mods.

My K5 Blazer was rejected me because I had a trailer hitch, which I had to remove and redo pictures to resubmit. Then I put the hitch back on. They missed that I have a non stock Grill.

The great thing with Antique Tags is $$$ no more Annual Registration or Inspections required for a long as you own the car. You're supposed to only drive it in the daytime and only to Shows, Parades or to a Shop for maintenance, which could be your garage. I had a Cop ask me what the restrictions were because they don't know and aren't really interested in enforcing. So go for it.

Also, the insurance is dirt cheap for Antique cars and they don't care how often you drive it because they don't have a lot of Claims to pay to people don't rack up high milage and who love and take extreme care of their cars. Usually less then $100 per year and JC Taylor doesn't charge for more then two if I recall.
Some companies have a 5,000 mile annual clause so if you commute daily to work they could reject a claim possibly.

Posted by: jsayre914 Jan 19 2012, 02:41 PM

besides.... who would drive an antique car to work 100 plus miles every day

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 19 2012, 10:16 PM

Seam sealed a few areas:





For the first time in about a year and a half, my car has four complete fenders! Final fitted and tack welded it in place. It took me a long time to get everything right. I had to go back a couple of times and grind a spot weld off, tweak the metal and re-weld:













The door needs to be lowered about 1/16, but overall things are looking pretty good:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 22 2012, 03:11 PM

Finished welding up the seams on the fender. I took my time and went in about 1" bursts rotating around the panel until it was done. The toughest part was the lower door jamb where it meets the door sill. I had to go back and re-weld this area about five times to get it right. I will need to use a thin coat of bondo on the exterior:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 25 2012, 08:24 AM

It has been a while since I bought good quality (Dupont) automotive paint. Yesterday I picked up all the painting supplies (paint, primer, activator, etc) I needed to paint the car...got jacked for $350...this stuff ain't cheap! I went with single stage acrylic enamel.

Applied bondo to the outer seam of the rear fender. Hard to believe how many hours I have invested in this one repair:



Primed the inside of the fender well:



Seam sealed the inner fender:



I noticed a small bubble on the paint below the windshield on the passenger side. Went to work with a small, sharp screwdriver. Scraped the area down to bare metal and treated with ospho:



Took a look at the drivers side "hell hole" area and jack post. While this is in much better shape than the passenger side, it is still pretty bad. There are rivets & bondo holding the jack post support on. It would be nice to be able to fix this area without cutting the fender. A screwdriver easily made its way through at the outer seam:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 29 2012, 09:28 AM

My Dad's old Sears Craftsman 2 HP, 20 gallon oil-free air compressor gave out on me Thursday night. It had a heck of a run. Started getting really loud then siezed up. I am still finding ball bearings and chunks of metal throughout the garage.

I needed a new compressor quick, so I bought a 30 gal twin cylinder oil filled, cast iron Husky at HD. I like it so far and it is much quieter than the old one. Had to re-organize the garage as the built in electric garage heater was blowing hot air on the cylinders of the new compressor.

Ladies, please...one at a time here. How could you not be impressed with this unique blend of washers, dryers, mig welders, air compressors, laundry supplies, hot water heaters and Porsche parts:



After three coats of bondo and three coats of spot putty, I am STILL finding imperfections in the fender:



I got zero replies for my WTB drivers side engine shelf post in the classifieds, so in between work on the fender, I started fabricating what I need. I cut out the old shelf about 1/4" forward of the blower motor mount. Naturally, I nicked the steel brake line that rides directly below the shelf. I started with the recessed area for the motor and went from there using 20 GA sheet metal:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 2 2012, 07:03 AM

Slightly lesser known than the LE "Grasshopper" and "Bumblebee" models...I present the very rare "Green M&M" 914. One final coat of spot putty got the fender where I wanted it:



Conditioned the airbox seal and re-installed the airbox. I remember reading about what a bitch this thing was to install...I agree with all comments on the subject!



I have an airdam on the way from a member of 914world who told me that both sides were the same. Took measurements off the drivers side and drilled holes for the passenger side:





Like many before me, I ground down the edge of a socket extension to make a CHT tool. I found BOSCH 012 on Ebay, reasonably priced. My D-jet was running pretty well when I pulled it, but "hunted" at idle. I will put in a new CHT sensor before the engine goes in:



Finished welding up the front section of the drivers side engine shelf. This part turned out well. The recess is a little deeper than the original, but will be just fine:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 2 2012, 07:23 AM

Picked up an "E" clip at the local Ace Hardware to fix the rear roof hold down:



I didn't want to have to pull the suspension back off for paint, so I shot color in the fender well and the underside of the suspension consoles:



Wrestled the trailing arm assembly into place with a floor jack and a pry bar. The strap that holds the rear part of the fender was in the way, so I had to adjust it with a big pair of vice grips, a hammer and a large drift. The strap will have to be re-welded at a later time:









For the first time in about a year and a half, the car sat on four wheels and saw sunlight. The J-man stopped over to help roll it out of the garage and back it in so I can gain better access to the drivers side:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 2 2012, 07:43 AM

Went to work with a screwdriver on the bottom of the drivers side long. The worst spot on the bottom is at the curve between the inner & outer firewall where it curves to meet the long:



The sail vinyl on the passenger side was peeling off at the bottom and it looks like it "shrunk" a little bit as it would not go below the line of the crome trim. Installing new vinyl is not in the cards at this time, so I gently pryed up the vinyl, applied 3M adhesive using a fine paint brush and clamped a piece of kindling on to hold everything in place. I was left with two small bubbles about an inch up from the bottom:









Started cleaning/inspecting the tunnel. I had to remove the shift rod for better access. The car was shifting pretty well before, so I measured the spline depth at the shifter as a starting point for re-assembly. Overall, the tunnel itself doesn't appear to be too bad...but I discovered a few small holes about half way back:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Feb 2 2012, 07:52 AM

Looking good, keep it up.

Posted by: Jon Fernandes Feb 2 2012, 09:24 AM

Wow, great progress, looking forward to more

Posted by: Eric_Shea Feb 2 2012, 11:14 AM

Amazing Bob.

Posted by: scotty b Feb 2 2012, 11:45 AM

now get crakin'

Posted by: jsayre914 Feb 2 2012, 11:56 AM

I am soooo excited to see it at hershey this year.

Great progress, and I think it looks awesome out of the garage

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 2 2012, 04:24 PM

Thanks! It dawned on me last week that Hershey is about 80 days away...it's "go time!"

Eric - I get your posts confused with Zachs now - not sure why.

Joe - looks like we may both be putting an engine in shortly before Hershey. Let me know if you need a hand with the install and I will do the same. We live pretty close.

Posted by: Eric_Shea Feb 2 2012, 09:23 PM

I'm the skinnier, better looking one.

Posted by: Eric_Shea Feb 2 2012, 09:24 PM

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 4 2012, 09:14 AM

Picked up a pretty awesome tool on Monday. I wanted to be able to look in the tunnel and the rusted out areas between the inner and outer firewall to know how much I need to cut out:



With the car sitting on all fours, I relieved the tension on the passenger side body brace turnbuckle. The gap is slightly smaller at the bottom of the door, but it opens and closes very well:



Leveled the car and installed the battery tray. The Optima 34R battery is a full inch taller than the old Interstate that came with the car. After tack welding it in place, Hollywood stopped over and helped me get the engine bay cover on (with rain tray installed) to make sure everything would clear. With the terminals on the inboard side, there is interference with the rain tray...I should have bought the 34. It should be fun returning a battery purchased off the internet. Plus, I will beed to trim about 1/8" off the bottom of the battery case for proper fit. Side note...the MFG installed the red protective cap on the negative terminal and the black one on the positive.

Posted by: Valy Feb 4 2012, 09:47 AM

Good work!

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 5 2012, 10:10 AM

Removed the drivers side jacking donut and most of the drivers side jack post. Found a large mouse nest inside the long...looks like it has been holding water and rusting for a long time.

This side is nearly as bad as the passenger. I am bummed out and taking the day off:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Feb 5 2012, 10:35 AM

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 4 2012, 05:46 PM

My quest to drive the car to Hershey this year ended upon discovering how bad the driver's side "hell hole" was. Had to take some time off and step away from the project.

Like Spraggi says..."next year."

I was devastated about it, but got back to work today.

Started drilling out spot welds on the underside of the long, sill and clamshell and cut the rusty sill and door jamb out...trying to do it without a massive cut on the fender:















Wire-wheeled the seam between the upper & lower firewall....this looks eerily similar to the same area on the passenger side:

Posted by: FourBlades Mar 4 2012, 06:59 PM

You are making great progress and got serious skills.

Loving this thread.

Keep the faith.

John

Posted by: scotty b Mar 4 2012, 09:48 PM

GO BOB GO !!!

Posted by: okieflyr Mar 5 2012, 11:41 AM

Bob your car is in very capable hands and will be a nice treasure when your done!

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 8 2012, 06:58 AM

The cutting continued yesterday.

Got a line on a drivers side longitudinal from Bruce (Bdstone) on this site from a recently restored car with front end damage. The problem is that I need tell him where to cut it at.

Drilled out the spot welds on the rear firewall that held the rusty metal in place and cut out the bad section & cut away part of the rusty clam shell forward of the jack post and the long aft of the jack post. I was able to get a good look back into the long. It looks pretty solid aft of the engine mount, but I still need to get in there to clean to make sure. Damn that mouse nest held a lot of water!

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 11 2012, 06:48 PM

More cutting. Just like on the passenger side, there was rust through at the bottom of the front fender well where it meets the long. I opened it up to take a look. The front 2" of the inner long is rusted through on the bottom and it crept up about an inch on the outer clamshell. With both sides open, I was able to blast compressed air through the remaining section to get the loose rust out:







Cleaned the bottom with a wire wheel. The rust through on the bottom is isolated to the very front and about 9" around the old jackpost...right around the area of the mouse nest:





After cutting out most of the rusty sections of longitudinal, this is what I am left with. The car started to sag so I tightened up the turnbuckle...still not sure I want to replace the entire long, but I am scratching my head for another solution. I have been in contact with Brad Mayner about his long kit:

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 21 2012, 06:36 PM

While figuring out the best way to repair the long, I started tearing into the "box" below the front door jamb. Three layers and all had serious rust problems. I saved what I could of the old pieces and added new metal. The innermost level was completely shot and had to be made from scratch. Additionally, the vertical support piece in the front of the wheel well was rusted out about an 1 1/2" up from the pan.

Went to work fabircating all the pieces. Sprayed all rusty metal with ospho & hit everything else with weld-thru primer:

























Found some rust under the seam sealer in the front fender well, cleaned the area and prepped for ospho:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Mar 21 2012, 08:33 PM

Dude, you are amazing!

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 4 2012, 07:47 PM

Had to pull the antenna out to get at some rust in the wheel well. While it was out, I cleaned it up, lubed it and ospho'd/painted the rusty mounting point:





Primed, seam-sealed and painted the passenger door jamb:





The drivers side inner suspension drain hole was plugged solid with dirt & scale. using an assortment of screwdrivers, small picks, safety wire and compressed air I was able to clear it:



Picked up a rattle can extension for use with Eastwood's rust converter so I could reach into the clamshell to protect the metal...it made a hell of a mess. I have had problems with heavy coats of this stuff staying tacky so I applied a little extra heat with a space heater for a couple of days:

Posted by: scotty b Apr 4 2012, 08:14 PM

2 weeks left

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 5 2012, 04:04 PM

Next year!

Posted by: jsayre914 Apr 5 2012, 04:08 PM

Just put the engine in and the wheels back on. Its not so far

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 5 2012, 04:15 PM

Prepped all parts for welding the lower fender well and front box & started welding. I had some problems with burn-thru on the inner layer of the box, so I had to turn the mig down to a lower setting:











The lower fender at the door jamb was rusted through so I hammered out some small patches. It was a royal PITA welding & grinding in the bottom of the front door jamb:

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 8 2012, 05:38 PM

Welded in layer two of the rebuilt front box today & applied rust encapsulator. Progress is slow in this area due to the rustproofing after each layer:





Welded on a newly made holder for the gas tank expansion lines:



Finished sanding the spot putty on the lower fender & shot it with primer:

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 16 2012, 12:10 PM

Welded & ground the outer layer of the front pillar box:



Had to modify some tools to clean the inside of the remaining long. A small wire brush fit well into a 3' piece of PVC so I could reach into the long to remove some scale. To get the crud out of the outer suspension console, I taped some hose on the air chuck and fed it through the holes on the inside of the long. The area was then sprayed with Rust Encapsulator:

Posted by: OllieG Apr 20 2012, 02:59 PM

Fantastic thread!...discovered it just in time before I start some major hell hole repairs of my own.

Meticulous work Bob, nice one!

Cheers, Ollie.

Posted by: saigon71 May 1 2012, 07:43 AM

Went to work on the bumper I bought at Hershey. It was pretty clean, but there was some "surface" rust under one of the tits. All four bolts broke off when removing them. I tried pulling the tits off my old bumper and the same thing happened. I wasn't a big fan of the look of the 74 bumpers, so the bumper got backdated. Welded backers on the holes & filled with weld. There were still a couple of slight low spots where the tits were, so I had to apply a light layer of filler before priming and painting:

Posted by: saigon71 May 1 2012, 07:52 AM

Started cleaning between the inner & outer firewall on the drivers side. I pulled out a lot of scale with an extension magnet:





Treated rusty areas of the door jamb and painted. I wanted to knock this out early so I don't have to remove the door again:







There was some more rust up in the long that has to be removed. The only way I could reach it was with a Dremel tool and a cutting wheel...very tedious:

Posted by: saigon71 May 1 2012, 07:55 AM

Ospho'd, primed and painted the air channel in the rear door jamb:









Did the same with surface rust in the inner fender well:

Posted by: saigon71 May 1 2012, 08:03 AM

Thanks Ollie!

Good luck with your hell hole repairs. Be sure to brace the body, measure and re-measure before welding and above all...take your time!

Bob

Posted by: Eric_Shea May 1 2012, 08:33 AM

Looking good Bob. Great to meet you at Hershey!

Posted by: saigon71 May 29 2012, 07:14 PM

Had to cut out some more rust on the inner firewall:





A small section of the rear pan was shot. I couldn't justify buying a full replacement panel:

Posted by: saigon71 May 29 2012, 07:20 PM

The rust from the boxed section crept into the bottom of the front sill triangle. Fabricated and installed a replacement:

Posted by: saigon71 May 29 2012, 07:51 PM

Wedged a wire brush in a chunk of copper tubing so I could reach in between the inner & outer firewalls to remove some scale, then welded the new floor piece in:












Started rebuilding the inner long hand forming pieces in a vice. Pine 2 X 4's provided a near perfect curve at the bottom where it meets the floor. I forgot to drill holes for rosette welds on the bottom before tacking it in so I wedged a screwdriver in between the pieces and used a spot weld cutter:

Posted by: saigon71 May 29 2012, 08:33 PM

You too Eric...thanks for the education on brake systems that have been sitting for 10 years.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 21 2012, 09:13 AM

After the dust settled, I was left with about a three inch strip of the original drivers side long at the top. Luckily, there was a bend in the good remaining metal to keep the car relatively stable. I didn't want to buy a used longitudinal from a donor car. With new replacement panels not being available for this side, I bought the Brad Mayner longitudinal reinforcement/repair kit at Hershey. The plan is to weld in a section of 1/8" steel bar on the inside (both vertical and horizontal) for strength on the inside, use the Mayner kit for strength on the outside, and fill the rest in with a single layer of sheet metal.

Started fitting the Mayner kit:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 21 2012, 09:16 AM

Mayner kit fitting continued:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 21 2012, 09:44 AM

Welded in the front wheel well piece and finished this area off:









Fabricated and installed the final inner flat piece on the long. I was able to take measurements off the passenger side to determine where it begins to curve up:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 21 2012, 09:57 AM

For extra strength on the inside of the long, I picked up a strip of 1/8" steel plate, 3" wide and started fabricating the horizantal section (a vertical section will be added). It was welded to both the egnine mount and long at the rear and tied into the long at the front with rosette welds. It was tight welding in the rear section...I have a lot of grinding to do back there to make sure the weld is solid all the way around:

Posted by: FourBlades Jun 21 2012, 01:07 PM

That is some rocking metal working and welding!

I know how time consuming this stuff is...

That will be one solid car when you are done.

John

Posted by: jsayre914 Jun 21 2012, 02:53 PM

Yes, we are still waiting for you to finish !!!


as always




p.s. Looks great, nice job!

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Jun 21 2012, 08:17 PM

Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur Mayeur

Posted by: OllieG Jun 22 2012, 02:46 AM

Great stuff!...brilliant fabrication..very impressive.

Ollie.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2012, 07:21 AM

Thanks for the subtle hint Shoe.

My apologies to Brad for continually mis-spelling his last name.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 22 2012, 07:26 AM

Thanks to all for the props on the metal work, I am learning as I go. John (fourblades) is right...this stuff is extremely tedious.

Posted by: jsayre914 Jul 12 2012, 03:15 PM

Its time to get this thing ready. Dont make me drive up there and finish it


Updates ??

Posted by: saigon71 Jul 24 2012, 06:55 PM

Business expansion got in the way of my shop time there for a while. Went back to work today. I had some touch up welding to do inside the long on the horizontal reinforcement piece. It was tight working in there - at one point, I used an inspection mirror while welding so I could see where I was at. Stuffed some rags into the "completed" portion of the long to keep scale and grinding dust out. Started fabricating the vertical portion of this support piece out of 1/8" steel. The toughest part on the vertical was matching bend of the original long:

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 19 2012, 08:25 AM

Got some more done on the teener last week. Welded in the 1/8" thick vertical inner long support that ties the engine bar mount to the inner long. It was tight welding the rosettes at the engine mount. My first attempt was an epic failure as the welds didn't hold. I re-drilled for bigger rosettes:







Fabricated an inlay to match the factory lip in the area of the reinforcement. I should have made it about 1/8" longer vertically...but I should have plenty to weld to:



















Fabricated the final piece to close in the inside of the long, rustproofed and seam sealed a few areas:

Posted by: mepstein Aug 19 2012, 08:54 AM

Go Bob Go!

Posted by: jsayre914 Aug 19 2012, 01:45 PM

only 7 months left to finish it.

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 22 2012, 07:20 PM

914 gatherings are awesome for two reasons. First, I get a chance to catch up with 914world.com members. Secondly, I get additional motivation to actually want to drive a teener to such an event. Been firing on all cylinders after Matt's event.

I have decided to go a different direction and only use part of the Brad Mayeur longitudinal reinforcement kit. This is not a knock on Brad's product in any way, shape or form. His solution is both well-engineered and well made. It would be nearly impossible for me to replicate the double wall design of the original long. I took a look around the shop and realized that I had a surplus of RD clam shell. With the 1/8" thick reinforcements already welded into the long, I decided to use ribbed sections of clamshell to complete the remainder of the outer flat section:

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 22 2012, 07:24 PM

Welded in the aft piece of clam shell, indexed to matched the passenger side. Flattened out a piece of copper tubing I had laying around to use as a heat shield for the heater hose that runs through the long:

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 22 2012, 07:31 PM

Aligning the jack post was a lot of work. I mock fitted the rocker panel cover and held a ruler behind it to see where I needed to be horizontally. Vertically, I measured down from the fender lip. For depth in the clam shell, i measured out from the rocker cover:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Aug 22 2012, 07:40 PM

Would you quit screwing around and finish this thing already!













































Keep up the great work!

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 22 2012, 07:41 PM

A key concern with using the ribbed clam shell in this section is the strength of the jackpost area. Both sides of the post itself were welded to the clam shell. I had previously bought a standard jackpost support, so I cut it down to use on the inside. I will be using the Brad Mayeur support on the outside. The post was capped on the backside to prevent crud from getting in there:

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 22 2012, 07:51 PM

Took advantage of the nice weather and shot weld thru primer on the post supports and "clam shell jack post" outside. I added drain holes to both the inner and outer support plates:





There is a section aft of the flat part of the long that was completely rusted away. I started screwing around with templates to make the piece by hand, then looked at the surplus clamshell again. The overall fit is nearly a match, it just needs to be bent. I made some relief cuts so it would bend and went to work. Still have some more to do on this, but I think it will be a solid solution:













The current state of affairs in my garage:

Posted by: okieflyr Aug 22 2012, 08:00 PM

Sweet work Bob! I am envious of your metal shaping skills. Keep up the good work and she'll be back on the road soon enough!

Posted by: Porschef Aug 22 2012, 08:09 PM

Welding is a skill; it is also an art. I'd like to learn it, the abilities shown on this forum are nothing short of amazing.


Looks like you're getting close Bob, keep pushing.

Posted by: OllieG Aug 23 2012, 02:08 AM

Incredible stuff as always Bob...you should write a book!

Ollie.

Posted by: Racer Chris Aug 23 2012, 03:39 PM

So you're gonna drive it up to my open house on 09/15/12, right Bob?

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Aug 23 2012, 07:39 PM

I bet he would for one of those nifty bar b que spatulas.

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 24 2012, 08:34 AM

Thanks for the encouragement gents.

This project is daunting. So many times I roll out to the shop with the best of intentions but end up doing something unnecessary like sorting bolts instead of actually working on the car.

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 24 2012, 08:36 AM

Not gonna make this one. I am confident I will be attending more events when the car is on the road. Hope all who attend have a great time.

Will the food network be on the big screen?

Posted by: Vacca Rabite Aug 24 2012, 11:00 AM

Bob, great work as always!
Roll man roll!

Posted by: Eric_Shea Aug 24 2012, 11:08 AM

Hershey 2015!!

Posted by: saigon71 Aug 24 2012, 07:16 PM

Seam sealed and applied "rustproofing" to areas that will be enclosed when the jack support plates are welded on:







Finished up the final piece of outer long fabricated from surplus clam shell. Going this route saved me a lot of time:

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 6 2012, 02:06 PM

My calculations were a bit off on one of the pieces for the drivers side long. Needed to add a filler piece:







Welded the outer jackpost support on and sprayed piece with primer:

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 6 2012, 02:13 PM

Need to fabricate a rather large panel to fix the drivers side rear firewall. The plan is to make this with one piece and weld it in. The reinforced area for the engine deck lid cable was still pretty solid, so I opted to cut it out of the old panel and re-use it. I had to add a little weld to it to fill some holes. Measured from the outer edge of the panel so I know where to install it in the new panel. Traced the old panel on new metal to get the rough shape:

Posted by: dale73914 Sep 7 2012, 10:35 PM

i've just spent the morning reading through this thread.
You really should be very proud of the work you have done in saving this car. Bloody fantastic.
No it wont be concours , but it will be one hell of a good strong resto, and something you'll be driving for years by the looks of it.
Well done,

Cheers

Dale

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 18 2012, 04:01 PM

Seam sealed the clam shell jack post section & prepped for welding:





Did one final alignment check on both pieces. I needed to shave a little off in two places for the best fit. Ran a long level accross the bottom ridges of the existing clam shell to check how true this new section was vertically. It was within 1/16" with everything else lining up well, I decided to roll with it:





Welded the final two lower long pieces in place. Took my time and cooled with compressed air regularly. I tried to remove as little of the fender as possible, so there was some tight welding at the top seam behind the fender. The door opens and closes well and the gaps look pretty good :

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 18 2012, 04:27 PM

Thanks Dale. The plan is to take the time required to do it right once, then enjoy the car for a good long time.

Posted by: Nürburg Nomad Sep 19 2012, 08:58 AM

This is an awesome thread for the fabrication, welding, and thorough documentation shown alone... but even better knowing it's all going towards the restoration of a 914! Keep up the good work, I am impressed!

Posted by: saigon71 Sep 26 2012, 07:44 PM

Spent a few hours grinding down the welds on the jack post area. Had to go back and touch a few areas up, but overall, I am pleased with how it turned out:







Made a poster board template for the final patch needed to close up the drivers side long. There is about a 3" section at the back that is missing the vertical lip to rosette weld. I opted to leave that section flat and rostette weld it to the top of the old long to button it up. Whenever possible, I use leftover steel from Restoration Design panels because they are galvanealed:















Gave the long a final cleaning with the shop vac before spraying a liberal coating of rust encapsulator into the long using the extension nozzle:

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 2 2012, 08:12 PM

Spent the evening welding/grinding the final patch piece of the drivers side long:





Fired up a template and banged out the final piece of the inner firewall that joins the firewall and floor pan:

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 5 2012, 06:25 AM

Welded in the lower inner firewall patch on the drivers side. The angle of my bend was slightly off, so I tack welded the vertical section, then used a hammer and drift to beat down the piece that meets the floor:

Posted by: wingnut86 Oct 20 2012, 07:25 PM

Man, this is almost like watching Chip Foose

I like your work and admire your fortitude

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 24 2012, 07:47 AM

Finished up the firewall patch. I decided to make this a one piece repair for simplicity and had to bend it to match the existing factory firewall. Installed the engine bay release attach point and the tab that holds the brake line:

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 24 2012, 07:52 AM

Naturally, the edge of the front firewall shelf had some rust damage, but most of it was isolated to the forward portion. Rather than re-make this entire piece, I cut out the bad areas and welded in new 18GA metal. Brushed a coat of ospho on the surface rust:

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 24 2012, 07:58 AM

The final section to fabricate is the wheelhouse above the long. I had to cut into the indented circular area behind the blower motor to get rid of all the rust. Went to work making the main piece...I will add a small connection piece after this one is welded in:

Posted by: saigon71 Oct 24 2012, 08:06 AM

Thanks wingnut...it's a sickness.

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 1 2012, 07:04 PM

As many of us have experienced during a restoration, my engine ended up out much longer than expected. The engine will be sitting in my shed for another winter & I had never done any type of preservation to make sure it stays free and will fire up without a lot of hassle when the car is finally done. Poured oil in the cylinders and rotated the engine, stuffed rags in the exhaust ports and duct-taped the throttle body. Swapped out the CHT sensor as well, in hopes that the engine will be "plug & play" when the time comes. Under advice from the world, I used a dab of superglue to hold the CHT washer on during installation. Used an inspection camera to view the inside of the tin to make sure there were no mouse nests in there...all looked good:







While I had "easy" access to the inner drivers side rear fender, I hit it with Ospho to halt the surface rust:

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 1 2012, 07:14 PM

While checking out what I need for what is hopefully my last Restoration Design order, I took a close look at my drivers side door sill. I only needed about 5" at the rear. I had a pretty clean section from the passenger side so I cut out what I needed. The factory piece dips down at the rear (about 1/2") to allow the door jamb to rest on top of it. To re-create this, I cut off an extra 3/4" chunk of the donor jamb and welded it to the bottom:

Posted by: mepstein Nov 1 2012, 08:02 PM

Way to go Bob. We'll see the car at Hershey 2013 for sure.

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 3 2012, 07:40 PM

Got some light work done on the car the last few days. Brushed two coats of color on part of the underside of the engine decklid (previously ospho'd) where there was some surface rust:





Took a close look at my supply of used sill triangles and found two of them with only minor surface rust. Drilled the welds out of the old passenger side clam shell from the inside. Cleaned and treated with Ospho:







Applied rust encapsulator to the inner portion of the drivers side rear fender before welding in the final wheelhouse piece:



Removed seam sealer from portions of the rear trunk. I was pleased to see surface rust only. Hit rusty areas with a wire wheel and applied ospho. Did the same on the lip under the rear trunk lid:







Applied weld-thru primer to the top of the clam shell where the sill will sit:



Took a look at the drivers side jacking donut...I need to do a little more grinding on some of the floor and long welds for proper fit, but didn't want to stir up a bunch of dust with paint & opsho drying in the shop:

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 10 2012, 12:23 PM

Used a mixed assortment of three grommets from the local ACE hardware held together with permatex to make a new sheet metal plug for the CHT:



Prepped the jacking donut for installation. I had to trim a little off the piece where it meets the pan and add a little bend:





Needed to replace some more engine bay seal channel...removed the bad stuff and sprayed weld-thru primer:











Received what I hope will be my final order from Restoration Design for this project. I only needed a small piece of the door jamb...but I knew it would take me a long time to make it by hand so I just bought one along with some engine bay seal channel:



Seam sealed trunk and brushed on two coats of color to the repaired areas:

Posted by: saigon71 Nov 10 2012, 12:32 PM

Welded the inner wheelhouse patch in. Using the Dremmel tool to add the holes after installation was a bad idea - I tore through a lot of Dremmel supplies. I only had half a hole to index from, so I got a pic of the layout from a 914world member. Temporarily installed the firewall patch with duct tape to mark the hole. I had to add a small curved piece of metal to match the circle in the remaining wheelhouse. Holding it in place with welding gloves was the biggest challenge:

Posted by: wingnut86 Nov 10 2012, 12:39 PM

Very nice work...

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 2 2012, 08:25 AM

Needed to zip up the seam on the inner wheelhouse forward of the firewall:



Re-attached a section where the firewall meets the door jamb where I previously drilled out the spot welds:





Welded in the firewall patch. I started with the rosettes where the panel meets the door jamb, then tack welded the panel on the back to hold it in place. Seam welded from the passenger compartment, then touched up the engine compartment side:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 2 2012, 08:37 AM

The repaired section of the front engine bay shelf and the fabricated drivers side engine bay shelf had to be fitted at the same time. It took a lot of forming and some trimming to get everything to line up right. Needed to add about 1/4" to the tab where the side and front piece meet:

Posted by: Eric_Shea Dec 2 2012, 09:15 PM

This year for sure riiiiiiiiiiiiiight?!?!?

Posted by: OllieG Dec 3 2012, 03:10 AM

Great work as usual...I don't know how the hell you made that shelf piece with the indent...amazing!

Posted by: bcheney Dec 3 2012, 05:33 AM

Keep up the momentum...I just finished mine and it was well worth all the effort, energy and money!

Posted by: jsayre914 Dec 3 2012, 12:08 PM

Looks great Bob !


At least tow it to Hershey next year so we can see it

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 3 2012, 10:14 PM

Welded the last section of the drivers side door sill on. Used a 12" rule to make sure everything was true:









Started fitting the lower chunk of the door jam. Hated to cut such a small piece out of the replacement from Restoration Design, but had to do it to as the rest of the jam looked good. I used the old piece for a rough measurement of where to cut, then trimmed to fit:

Posted by: cary Dec 3 2012, 10:17 PM

Nice work Bob ............. Lookn good.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 3 2012, 10:18 PM

Got burned for some ca$h last year thinking "for sure." But it looks more likely for Hershey 2013.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 3 2012, 10:21 PM

Thanks Ollie. Lots of work invested in that part. Will see how it all works out soon!

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 3 2012, 10:28 PM

Thanks.

How long did it take you? Is there a built thread...I would like to check it out!

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 3 2012, 10:37 PM

Thanks Joe.

The only way the car will be there is under it's own power. May need help with an engine/tranny install this winter. Hopefully some local help is available.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 8 2012, 09:40 PM

Welded the drivers side engine shelf and reworked piece of front engine bay sheet metal in. I hit a couple areas with seam sealer before welding, as they would be difficult to get at after the piece was installed. It took a wide variety of grinding wheels and Dremmel tools to gring down the welds in the tight areas. Overall, it went well, but I took a hit from some molten metal in the arm and scalp when filling the rosettes on the bottom...just very minor burns:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 8 2012, 09:52 PM

14" or so of the tube that holds the enging bay lid cable was rusted away. I had a chunk of brake line in the shop, so I cut it down, bent it and tack welded it in. Used a #1 phillips screwdriver through the firewall hole to keep it centered up front. Ran the cable through to make sure the alignment was correct, then applied a coat of JB weld over the seams:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Dec 8 2012, 10:47 PM

You get to that point Bob and I will drive up there and help you install it myself.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 9 2012, 04:35 PM

With my fantasy football season in ruins, I blew off the early games and welded in the bottom section of the door jam from Restoration Design. I have had consistent problems lately (bad batch?) with Eastwood's Copper Weld-Thru primer, so I switched to a product I found at Home Depot. Eastwood sent me replacements cans for the ones I had problems with - they kept clogging and left a rough finish. When the replacements did the same thing, they issued a full refund. I started with the inside rosettes and worked my way out. Had to beat it into place with a hammer & drift as I went. It took about seven passes of welding/grinding on the vertical part of the jam to build the metal up to where I wanted it...very time consuming, just as the passenger side was:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 9 2012, 04:45 PM

Had to fabricate a small patch piece that connects the lower fender to the door jam. Made a template and banged it out of leftover galvaneal steel from Restoration Design:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 9 2012, 04:52 PM

Start saving your gas money Shoe!

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 10 2012, 05:51 PM

Dug the used sill triangles out of the scrap heap. Had to fill the holes in top of one of them. The rear one needed to be "slimmed down" to fit under the door sill in the area I used modified a piece of clam shell to patch the long. Sprayed the areas to be welded with weld-thru primer:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 10 2012, 06:00 PM

Welded the engine bay seal channel in on the drivers side and a small piece at the front. This stuff comes straight from Restoration Design. Used a tape measure pressed against the curves to get the exact measurement. Drilled holes for rosettes about every 3". Starting with the back, I welded one rosette at a time and moved the welding clamps forward as I went. This piece went in nicely and didn't even distort along the bends:

Posted by: OllieG Dec 11 2012, 03:44 AM

That's odd..the engine seal channel came pre-welded to the RD shelf I bought. It came from a German supplier...???

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 11 2012, 06:46 AM

What side engine shelf?

The passenger side I bought from RD had the seal channel already installed. As far as I know, nobody makes the drivers side engine shelf yet.

Posted by: cary Dec 11 2012, 07:47 AM

Seems I have trouble with just about any kind of rattle can spray nozzle that I get.
About half come DOA and won't fire up.

Nice work ................ things are coming along good.

Posted by: Gint Dec 11 2012, 08:51 AM

Nice work! I need to do the seal channel on the right side of my car one of these days. Thanks for posting your progress pics.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 11 2012, 05:05 PM

Thanks, I am trying to get a few hours in the shop each day.

Overall, I have had good results with most rattle cans, even earlier batches of Eastwoods Copper Weld-Thur primer...I'm not sure what changed with the product, but I had nothing but hassles with the last batch. To Eastwood's credit, they issued a quick refund when I complained.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 11 2012, 05:15 PM

You are welcome. Reading build threads by Scotty B, Jeff Hail and others gave me the courage and education to embark on this journey.

The old channel comes out quickly once you find the spot welds. Spot weld cutting bit was awesome for removing them. Someone at RD told me to heat the seal channel with a torch to get it to bend, which I was prepped to do, but I found that the welding clamps alone drew it in nicely. I was happy to exclude a lit propane torch WHILE welding in the engine bay.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 15 2012, 12:14 PM

Welded in the drivers side sill triangles. Measured position of the rear off the jackpost with a combination square using measurements from the passenger side and the front using a tape measure off the front triangle. Checked for square against the bottom of the door sill before welding:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 15 2012, 12:20 PM

Installed the drivers side jacking donut from Restoration Design. Used a bottle jack to hold it in place. Started with the area that joins to the floor pan and worked my way back, moving the jack as I went. Took a measurement from the passenger side to determine the distance in from the longitudinal seam:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 15 2012, 12:26 PM

Prepped and applied ospho on the door sill, clam shell, outer floor pan and rear wheelhouse area. Always amazed at how black some areas get with very little visable rust after applying ospho:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 16 2012, 09:22 PM

After hearing a few horror stories about engine decklid hinge points breaking loose, I took a close look at mine. Passenger side looked fine, but the drivers side was weak...the lowest spot weld had failed. Cleaned the area, used a hammer and drift to bang the lower section back in and seam welded the edge:





Prepped the door sill & sprayed primer. With the cold weather setting in, I heat up the garage, shoot a coat on the car, immediately open the garage door & window to get the fumes out and repeat as necessary:





Started the final prep for ospho/primer/paint in the engine bay. There is surface rust in a lot of places. This is taking a ton of time. I have been using a combination of wire wheels with a drill, die grinder with scotch brite pads, dremmel tool with with wire wheel attachments and gool old wire brush to remove any loose material. The factory firewall heat barrier will be replaced with one purchased from Mark that won't hold water:

Posted by: cary Dec 16 2012, 10:00 PM

Bob, looks like a productive day.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 17 2012, 09:46 PM

Light work on the teener today. Sprayed two coats of Rust Encapsulator on the clam shell, part of floor pan, rear fender well and suspension ear:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 21 2012, 09:33 PM

While crawling out from under the engine bay, I noticed a lot of surface rust in and around the drivers side shock tower. Checked the passenger side and it was much better. Hit the area with a wire wheel to prep for ospho:





Seam sealed the drivers side door sill and inner fender well, paying careful attention to the patch on the inner wheelhouse. Decided against braising the door jam as the factory did, mostly because I don't have any braising equipment :

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 21 2012, 09:51 PM

On another trip out from under the car, I caught a glimpse of something that didn't quite look right on the inner drivers side suspension ear. A few taps with a hammer and screwdriver and I was through...made me very nervous about the integrity of the entire piece, as the drian hole was completely clogged. Hit the whole lower section with a wire wheel and hammer/screwdriver. Discovered a hole on the outside as well. Will be contacting Chris Foley @ tangerine racing about his suspension arm reinforcing kit. While I'm glad I found it now, it will set me back a bit:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 26 2012, 07:48 AM

Hit the entire engine bay with scotch brite, gave it a good cleaning and applied a coat of Ospho:









Applied Ospho to rusted area in and around shock tower:



Found some surface rust in the fenderwell. Hit it with a wire wheel and applied ospho:



Hollywood stopped over & helped me remove the door and rear trunk lid...the garage is filling up again:

Posted by: wingnut86 Dec 26 2012, 07:52 AM

Great progress!

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 26 2012, 08:01 AM

Wanted to pull the door off again so I could give it a close inspection. I thought it was in much worse shape than it actually was and even started looking for a donor door. It was just surface rust on the lower door skin and seal channel with a single small rust hole near the front. Welded the hole shut up front. Measured the placement of the negative "PORSCHE" decal and removed it as there were a few rust bubbles under it. Cleaned everything with a wire wheel & scotch brite wheels and applied a coat of ospho to the rusty areas:

Posted by: Racer Chris Dec 26 2012, 09:18 AM

Donut was installed improperly at the factory.
The bottom should be flat to the ground.
I've seen that before.

Posted by: Racer Chris Dec 26 2012, 09:20 AM

A pair of console reinforcements will be shipped today Bob!

Posted by: 9146986 Dec 26 2012, 09:36 AM

I hate to tell you this, but that suspension console is probably bad. If you have rust holes like that, it's always worse than it looks.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 26 2012, 08:13 PM

Had to pull the pedal cluster out in to clean the drivers side pan for opsho. Followed the Pelican article, which was helpful, except that my clutch cable was screwed in...not a "cup" connector. Disconnected the accellerator cable, then removed the bolts. Screwed the clutch cable out after getting the pedal assembly loose. If I remember right, the PO said that they had this unit rebuilt at some point. Ripping around the neighborhood a few years back, everything worked well, so I cleaned it and banged a coat of ospho on the surface rust:



Hit an area on the left front of the car with ospho after discovering more surface rust while removing the petal cluster:



Had to weld the tab of a replacement piece to the interior of the car. This piece was fabricated to repair the drivers side fender well. I must have forgotten about it:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 26 2012, 08:21 PM

Removed the glue and cleaned the rear firewall with a host of chemical glue removers, wire wheels & scotch brite pads...what a job! I wasn't concerned about the residual glue as much as rust that could be hiding beneath it. Cleaned, prepped and applied ospho on the drivers side pan and firewall as needed:

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 26 2012, 08:30 PM

Brutal...That piece was purchased from Restoration Design. I thought it looked a bit odd when installing it, but didn't have a stock one to reference. Great, something else to deal with.

Posted by: saigon71 Dec 26 2012, 08:32 PM

Excellent - thanks Chris!

Posted by: Racer Chris Dec 26 2012, 10:07 PM

Usually the clevis is removed from the pedal arm before unscrewing it from the cable.
But sometimes the clevis pin is corroded in place, and your approach becomes necessary anyhow.
The cup connector goes on the throttle cable.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 7 2013, 06:39 PM

Hit the door with a light coat of filler and spot putty:







Hit a few areas with surface rust with some opsho & rustoleum:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 7 2013, 06:43 PM

Finished the drivers side floor pan and most of the inner firewall with with 2 coats of rust encapsulator and seam sealer:

Posted by: turk22 Jan 7 2013, 08:35 PM

Looks great, your moving right along. Great work!

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 11 2013, 02:35 PM

Spripped the paint back with a wire wheel further up the drivers side suspension console to check for any more rust through. Hit any area that showed any kind of surface pitting with a hammer and screwdriver to verify its integrity. In the end, I was left with four small holes, two on the inside and two on the outside. Welded the holes as prep for the installation of the Tangerine inner console reinforcement:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 11 2013, 02:37 PM

Started fitting the inner suspension console reinforcement:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 11 2013, 02:43 PM

Ran the drivers side door seal through the dishwasher a few times & treated it with RV slide out seal conditioner:



Shot two coats of primer on the drivers side door. Upon opening the garage door to let the fumes out, a gust of wind blew the plastic back onto the wet paint. It will need some touch up:







Completely out of space, the front trunk of my teener is now doubling as a hamper for work clothes :

Posted by: jsayre914 Jan 11 2013, 04:16 PM

Looks great Bob!

have you ever drivin this car

Posted by: OllieG Jan 12 2013, 05:06 AM

Great stuff as always Bob..

What was your rationale for putting the suspension re-inforcement in?

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 12 2013, 08:06 AM

Yes.

Had the original D-Jet 2.0 running pretty well a few months after purchase. Used to rip around the neighborhood in the teener. It was awesome! That was the year 2009.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 12 2013, 08:22 AM

Thanks Ollie.

After discovering those small rust holes in the bottom of the suspension console, I was pretty nervous about the structural integrity of the area as these cars tend to rust from the inside out. I don't want to end up dealing with any more major structural repairs down the road and saw this product as my best way to strengthen the suspension console.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 14 2013, 07:05 PM

Welded the inner console reinforcement from Tangerine Racing on tonight. I started at the back of it and worked my way forward with tack welds to get it in place, then zipped up all the seams, cooling regularly with compressed air after every 3/4 inch or so burst. I was welding thicker (16 gauge) metal, so the settings were different on the mig...took me a while to get used to it. Gave everything a good cleaning with a wire wheel, then went back and touched up a few areas with the welder on a lower wire feed:

Posted by: wingnut86 Jan 14 2013, 10:05 PM

Damn Bob, good torch work for a rookie;-)

I gotta learn mig all over again. I was always good with the torch and reshaping metal as a kid, wish I hadn't stopped to play with electronics for 35 years - welding has improved, but it's still a job that exudes satisfaction when you are done, especially if done right:-))

Dave

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 19 2013, 04:03 PM

Brushed two coats of acrylic enamel on the section of door channel with surface rust (previously oshpo'd):



Before buying the cheap HVLP paint gun from HF, I read the reviews on it. Everyone who had success with it recommended a thorough cleaning before use. I tore the gun completely down and cleaned everything up. There was some type of silicone substance packed in there. Ran some mineral spirits through it under pressure to clear it out after putting it all back together:







Started taping everything off for primer and paint in the engine bay. Masking this area was a royal PITA! To cover the wiring harnesses, I cut strips of plastic from a trash bag to wrap the wires & masking tape to hold it in place:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 19 2013, 04:13 PM

Drained the compressor tank of water and added an inline water separator to the air hose. Set the pressure regulator to 50PSI as recommended by the paint gun manufacturer. Practiced using the spray gun on an old piece of plywood to get used to the settings, then shot two coats of primer in the engine bay. Getting into all the crevices with a gravity feed paint gun was rough. I had to go back and hit a few small areas underneath with Rustoleum primer as I couldn’t position the paint gun properly. The gun clogged on me several times and I ended up with a rough, almost "sandy" finish in a few areas...not sure if it was due to overspray, the gun, or the amateur using the gun. Hit the whole area with sandpaper and/or scotch brite to prep for color, then applied a coat of seam sealer to the drivers side:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 19 2013, 05:20 PM

Thanks Dave. My welding is becoming respectable as this project continues. I really do enjoy it! (the welding part at least)

I am sure that your welding skills will come back to you with just a little practice. I was fair with a torch and arc welder before buying the mig set up I have now.

Bob

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 20 2013, 07:06 PM

Gave the engine bay a final once over with scotch brite and sandpaper, blew it out with compressed air, wiped everything down with a tack cloth, then shot 3 coats of acrylic enamel. There are so many curves & edges in this area, I tried to keep the coats light to avoid runs. It was tight working in there with a paint gun, respirator & wires & cables in the way. I looked like a slightly milder version of the incredible hulk when I was done. I had two cans of rattle can paint to match that I used for areas that I couldnt get to with a gun. I had a few runs when I first started on the firewall...adjusted the trigger on the gun for less paint:

Posted by: wingnut86 Jan 20 2013, 08:14 PM

Posted by: OllieG Jan 21 2013, 04:04 AM

Looks good to me Bob...and with any luck you won't have to do that ever again!

How d'you keep your garage so tidy?! Mine's a mess although I guess I'm still doing alot of paint and underseal stripping. It's about -5 centigrade outside right now and my garage isn't heated....brrr.

Ollie.

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 31 2013, 05:45 PM

Used a heat gun on low setting and a plastic razor blade to remove the PORSCHE decals from the car. Once the heat gun softened the plastic, it peeled right off:





Strafed my emergency brake cable with a wire wheel while cleaning the engine bay& damaged the plastic. The ebrake worked well a few years ago, so I used a piece of heat shrink to cover the damaged area:





Had to go back and add some more weld to the passenger side fender brace. I had to bang it up a little with a hammer and drift to get the suspension bolted on. I couldn't get it to sit properly without a lot of heavy banging on the lower part of the fender, so I worked with it the way it was. Brushed on two coats of acrylic enamel:







Put two coats of color on a section of the rear firewall and door jam:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 31 2013, 05:54 PM

Bolted the drivers side suspension:



The body braces came off last week. I cleaned up the areas and brushed on two coats of acrylic enamel. Hollywood and Flying J came over to help me push it up on ramps to gain better access to the floor pan:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 31 2013, 06:16 PM

I was never a fan of the luggage rack that came with my 914, so I removed it and welded the holes shut with a copper backing plate. Overall, it was a smooth operation:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 31 2013, 06:20 PM

Started putting parts back on the car. The first one was Mikeys center cap which I bought about two years ago. Installed aluminum rollers for the engine bay deck lid using a deep well socket and extension, re-installed the brake proportioning valve:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 31 2013, 06:32 PM

I knew there were a few small holes in the underside of the center tunnel. I hit the area with a wire wheel and gave it a closer inspection. A good cleaning revealed more than a few pin holes...I estimate about 30 or so holes spanning the rear 24" of the tunnel. Cleaned the bottom areas of the adjacent floor pan - they looked good, aside from some surface rust. I was pretty irritated with all the rust thru and really want to be driving the car this spring...wasn't thinking clearly, so I Ospho'd the area and even cut a fiberglass cloth patch for a quick repair. After some thought over the last few days, I decided to order a new floorpan from Restoration Design, cut out and replace what I need. My deal all along was to do this right, once and then enjoy the car without more major rust work:

Posted by: saigon71 Jan 31 2013, 06:36 PM

Had to go back with a brush and touch up a few areas in the engine bay that were impossible to reach with the spray gun or rattle can:




Attached image(s)

Posted by: jsayre914 Jan 31 2013, 06:52 PM

Looks great Bob!






(as usual)

Posted by: cary Jan 31 2013, 09:01 PM

You keep working this hard.
We're going to put you on like permanent. LOL.

Looks like your tearing it up. I might have to skip the Super Bowl and get back to work.

Posted by: jdlmodelt Jan 31 2013, 09:29 PM

Un stinking believable! I am inspired to do real repairs on my 76 as a result of the crazy incredible repairs you did on this! wow!

Posted by: OllieG Feb 1 2013, 02:46 AM

...hear hear, glad you didn't go any further with that fibreglass, I think you'd have been kicking yourself ever since.

Seems like you're turning a corner now you're starting to put it all back together. Great!

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 1 2013, 09:09 AM

The shop is kept clean out of necessity. My laundry facilities reside in the garage, so I have to keep it clean (or at least give it a good cleaning before laundry day). It still gets out of hand sometimes.

On the bright side, I have heat! Two small electric heaters with thermostats are able to keep my small shop warm on the coldest of days.

The HVLP paint gun really helped cut down on overspray. After each coat of primer or paint, I open the garage door and window for about 15 minutes and let the area vent.

Bob

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 6 2013, 09:36 AM

My e-brake cables weren't in terrible condition, but after closer inspection, I decided to replace them with a set ordered from PMB. It just didn't make sense to NOT replace these "while im in there."







I needed more room under the car to inspect the entire floor pan, so I raised the front as well:





Started to fiddle with the new rear sway bar bushings:



Applied a thin coat of bondo to the filled holes in the rear trunk:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 6 2013, 09:51 AM

Ordered a new rear floor pan from Restoration Design. Cut out the damaged area with a die grinder and cutting wheel right at the seam where the tunnel is spot welded to the floor pan. I took a good look around in there and discovered very little rust on the verticals of the tunnel where it meets the pan. The tubes show some surface rust, but no rust-thru. Started cleaning the area with a Dremmel tool and wire wheel attachment. The plan is to clean everything in the tunnel well, treat the surface rust, and rosette weld the new section to the existing pan from the bottom. I really hate welding upside down, but I think it is my best option. I know it's not a concours repair, but I feel it will be a good strong repair as the original spot welds that connect the tunnel to the pan will remail intact. To prep, I had to grind down some weld on the rear edge and straighten it:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 12 2013, 09:15 AM

With the temperature over 40 on Sunday, I was able to cut down the new floor from Restoration Design outside. I bought the "rear floor pan half" and cut out the center tunnel, leaving enough of a flange to drill for rosette welds. My die grinder kept binding on me, so I switched to the angle grinder. Found it ironic that I ended up buying an entire floor pan after all the time spent fabricating and installing the rear section on both sides...lesson learned:









Finished sanding the rear trunk lid and banged on two coats of primer:





Finally got three of four bushings installed in the drop links for the rear sway bar. I did a lot of reading on how others did this before actually starting. After trying heat guns & boiling water on the stove, I ended up having my best results boiling the inserts in a coffee cup with water in the microwave, applying pressure with a vice and working the edges in with a small dull screwdriver. I ruined one before figuring out the technique & ordered a new set:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 12 2013, 09:24 AM

I realized that I would never have better access to some areas of the center tunnel & areas in between the inner & outer firewall than I do now. Ran an extension magnet in between the firewalls & tunnel & drug out a bunch of grinding dust. Followed up with a blast of compressed air, then applied a coat of Eastwoods "Internal Frame Coating" to all areas before buttoning up the bottom. I have an extension wand & nozzle that lets the product get into places that are otherwise unreachable:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 22 2013, 04:44 PM

Fitted & installed the bottom section of tunnel on the car. Used a floor jack and an assortment of 2X4's to line everything up. Measured off the ridge of the remaining pan for proper fore/aft orientation. I was left will a little excess at the rear that had to be trimmed off. Drilled holes for rosette welds & coated everything with weld thru primer. Started at the rear and worked my way forward. Angle cut a 2X4 and used a bottle jack to apply up pressure along the sides & front.

My biggest concern was getting burned during this operation...I did not. After filling the first eight or so rosette welds, I pulled the welding helmet off and leaned up...forgetting that I had the rear trunklid on sawhorses very near my head. Managed to bury my scalp about 1/4" deep on the corner of the trunk lid & immediately had a face full of blood. Managed to get the bleeding stopped, so I was able to avoid a trip to urgent care for stitches. The head wound set me back a few days.

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 22 2013, 05:11 PM

Refinishing the floor pan was supposed to be a weekend project for me after I got the car on the road. But after finding all the rust in the tunnel, I decided to knock it out now. Wire brushed all suspicious areas, blasted with compressed air, wiped everything down with mineral spirits and brushed on a coat of ospho. After seeing how much rust the old undercoating hid, I will be painting the pan with good old rustoleum so I can see if there are problems down the road:







Burnt some of the rust encapsulator off the top side of the pan when welding from below. Hit the areas with a wire brush and brushed on another coat:





My snorkel tube had some holes near the bottom of it. I did not want to pull the wiring harness out to install one from 914 rubber, so I used some mastic rubber waterproof tape...I am pleased with how it turned out and hope it will hold up over time:







The dishwasher did a great job cleaning the rear trunk seals:

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 24 2013, 06:50 PM

I got burned by a set of rear jacking donuts and supports bought from Restoration design. They acknowledged the problem and immediately shipped me a new set. I compared the new ones to old and saw that the donut was installed backwards on the originals (there should be more rise on the rear half to keep the donut parallel to the ground). I realized it would be less work to flip the donuts on the support than to install the new pieces. Drilled out the welds with a dull spot weld cutter and re-welded the donuts:

I think all welding is done on the car now!

Posted by: OllieG Feb 25 2013, 03:39 AM

Damn I've got a pair of those to weld in...better check to see if they have the same problem. Did RD say it was just a bad batch or what?

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 25 2013, 06:43 AM

RD didn't give any explanation...they just sent new ones. Chris mentioned that he had seen the problem before with this part. Yes, absolutely check yours before installation. I should have caught this before welding them on.

Posted by: peteyd Feb 25 2013, 05:32 PM

Ya there was a batch a while ago that were welded incorrectly. Im not sure how long ago this set was purchased, but if there are anymore sets out there get in contact with us and we will sort it out.

BTW, your car is looking great Bob. Looking forward to seeing it in Hershey this year!

Pete

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 26 2013, 11:26 PM

"Tented" the lower section of the car and fired two coats of Rustoleum gloss black on the floor pan:







Used the rest of Eastwoods "Internal Frame Coating" on the new section of tunnel just welded in:



Took a look at the hood...it is in good shape aside from some surface rust. Wire brushed the bad areas and applied a coat of Ospho:



With the car supporting its own weight, I took a look at the door gaps. Overall, I am pleased. The doors open & close well and the windows are snug against the seals. The Drivers side gap is consistent all the way up. The passenger side becomes slightly more narrow at the bottom. I found during restoration that the front right fender was replaced at one point, so the car was hit at some time in its life. I regret not checking the gaps before major structural repairs started:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Feb 27 2013, 12:08 AM

So, are you driving the damn thing to Hershey this year or what?

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 27 2013, 11:03 AM

I hope so...it's gonna be close.

You driving a teener up this year Shoe?

Posted by: saigon71 Feb 28 2013, 09:17 PM

Ran new accelerator & clutch cables:



Touched up the underside of the hood with two coats of color:



Seam sealed the floor pan:



Cleaned the area under the gas tank for SS fuel line and tank installation:

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 3 2013, 09:29 PM

The J-Man came over to help last Friday. Got a lot done. We ran the stainless steel fuel lines & firewall grommets I bought from Chris Foley a few years ago at Hershey. I shoved a 2 X 4 under the wiring harness to avoid getting hung up in it. Jacked up the car and removed the passenger side rear wheel to get the right angle to start them. Installed new fuel line (about 2') on the tank and connected everything. After dropping the tank in, I had a kink in the line that I was able to work out from the access hole in on the bottom of the car:









Rear trunk lid on...we ended up leaving the bolts a little loose and lining it up with the latch, then raising it slightly and tightining the bolts:



Got a new set of rear sway bar bushings and pressed the last one in the drop link. Installed them on the sway bar:



Installed the pedal cluster, being careful to NOT cross the accelerator and clutch cables:

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 11 2013, 09:13 PM

Bought a shifter bushing kit & started replacing all of them. For the one on the firewall, I microwaved it in boiling water to make it pliable. The others I pressed in with a large vice and assortment of sockets:









Re-installed the airfoils on the bottom of the floor pan:



Hollywood stopped over and helped me get the hood on:



Disassembled, cleaned & re-greased the shifter mechanism. Getting those springs back in was hell. I ended up holding one end with needle nose vice grips while starting the pins:





Cleaned the back of the engine bay sticker with mineral spirits, applied double sided tape and reinstalled it:





Measured the height from the floor to the rear fender wells and discovered that they was a 1/8" difference between the driver & passenger side. Had to drop the passenger side suspension console and add a washer under the retaining nut. Then installed the seals & buttoned up the rear trunk:

Posted by: OllieG Mar 12 2013, 03:01 AM

Great to see it all coming together! Nice one...

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 17 2013, 09:08 PM

Light work on the car over the last few days. Finished scraping out the remnants of the rear window seal:



Re-installed the hood seal with 3M adhesive. Applied the adhesive then closed the hood to apply pressure:



Decided to paint the rear targa area separately from the rest of the car, hitting this area well during the "full" body paint job would have been a hassle. There was some surface rust in the cravaces, so I applied a coat of Oshpo followed by two coats of primer. Not to mention, I want to black out the areas where the engine grills sit. Will follow up with custom fill Zambezi rattle cans. Masking this area was a bitch:

Posted by: Jeff Hail Mar 17 2013, 09:30 PM

I'm proud of you!

While you are in this area get a mirror and check the underside of the cowl for rust or holes. In my observations if you are getting rust above the hood lock handle water is getting in at the cowl or under the fender press in seal.

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 22 2013, 08:00 PM

Sanded, primed & painted the engine deck lid:







Installed the tunnel shift linkage...it was shifting well when I pulled the engine so I set the shift rod at the shifter at the same setting (about 1/4" splines exposed):

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 22 2013, 08:09 PM

The J-man came over to help install the rear glass. We first tried installing it with 1/4" butyl tape with epic failure...there just wasn't enough meat on the tape to seal properly. I did a search and found Eric Shea's rear window install write up and made a trip to NAPA for their 3'8" butyl. SUCCESS!!!









Painted the two tone area below the rear targa:

Posted by: injunmort Mar 22 2013, 08:50 PM

you amaze me outstandinh

Posted by: scotty b Mar 22 2013, 09:06 PM

GO BOB GO !!

Posted by: jsayre914 Mar 22 2013, 09:28 PM

Hershey

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 26 2013, 08:39 PM

Front hood needed more spring tension so I moved the springs to the most forward notch. After reading a few threads on 914world on how to do it, I went with the "Heavy coat hanger/large vice grip" method:



Picked up some lengths of brake line at the local NAPA to replace the rears that run from the rear controller to the rubber lines. Used an $8 HF brake line bender. Installed new rubber lines from PMB Performance on all four corners. Discovered two of my line retaining clips were so rusty, they lost their spring. Mr. Shea was kind enough to sell me two at a very reasonable price - thanks Eric!













Picked up a pair of 1/4" body plugs at the local ACE hardware store to fill the old fuel line clips on the firewall. New fuel lines were to fat to fit in & will be tie wrapped in place. Added a dab of permatex on the back to make a water tight seal:



Installed a new rear window to engine decklid seal from 914rubber. Easy install:



Two-tone targa area:

Posted by: saigon71 Mar 31 2013, 08:06 PM

No way this car makes it to Hershey this year. I can say with 90% confidence (it's a teener, come on) that it will make it to the ECC in the fall. I thought about banging enough parts in to make it driveable to get to Hershey 2013, unpainted & all, but decided to not rush and do it right.

Hershey 2014!

Pulled the front bumper. Removed the "tits" and welded the holes shut. There were tiny spots of rust throughout the whole thing, partially covered by at least two paint jobs. I decided to strip the whole thing down to bare metal. Started with chemical stripper and ended with a DA air sander, scoth-brite pads on a die grinder and wire wheels, applied a coat of Ospho to the backside:

Posted by: arkitect Apr 1 2013, 11:20 AM

Bob,
Great work, looks better than new.

Let me know if you want to sell the bumperettes or 'tits' as you call them. I'm working on my daughter's car and don't want to fill the holes on the bumper.

Dave

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 9 2013, 08:09 PM

Installed a brand new set of engine bay seals that Matt gave to me at the ECC last year - thanks Matt! They were from 914rubber.com and went in easily with a dull screwdriver:





Finished painting the front bumper. Shot Rustoleum gloss black on the back (over the ospho) and semi-gloss Rustoleum on the front:











After a lot of research and posts on 914world.com, I pulled the trigger on some sound deadening material. I went with rattle trap, a thicker version of Fat Mat. I would like this car to be my daily driver, so I want it to be reasonably quiet & comfortable inside. Thoroughly cleaned the entire interior, wiped it down with mineral spirits twice, then started installing it, leaving the channels open as recommended by Scotty B. & others. The stuff isn't bad to work with, but the process is a bit tedious:

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 11 2013, 08:23 PM

Took a look at both front & rear valences. Both had some damage that had to be bumped out. The rear had some rust-thru on the outer layer above the stock muffler exit. With specks of rust everywhere the only way I could get a decent finish was to strip them to bare metal. Did the front with purely mechanical tools, then went back to three coats of chemical stripper for the rear. Managed to get some paint stripper on my wrist where the gloves didn't cover. Suddenly I have hours invested in these things. Fabricated a patch for the rear.

Posted by: scotty b Apr 11 2013, 08:58 PM

Sweet

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 17 2013, 07:06 AM

A friend gave me a fine Porsche key ring. Put the key on, sealed it in a zip-loc bag and taped it above the work bench as further motivation:



My rear bumper top was trashed, and I wanted them to match, so I went with a set of fiberglass bumper tops from 914rubber. Installed the front on the bumper - it looks great!





Using the old bumper top as a reference, I started figuring out the cut outs I will need in the rear bumper top to mount the license plate lights (which I can't find)







Continued work on both front & rear valences:







Getting tight in the garage down the home stretch:



Kept moving on the tedious task of soundproofing. I ran into a some problems installing large pieces over irregular areas, so I started using 3-5" overlapping strips - much easier to work with:

Posted by: turk22 Apr 17 2013, 06:47 PM

Great progress, must feel great to be putting everything back together.

How much would say all the sound deadening stuff weighs?

Posted by: saigon71 Apr 25 2013, 06:52 AM

Shipping weight for the roll was 23lbs. Looks like I will end up using about 18 lbs of it.

Posted by: saigon71 May 2 2013, 07:56 PM

This site is getting to me I weighed what was left over - 7 lbs, so I used 16lbs.

Posted by: saigon71 May 2 2013, 08:10 PM

Hit both valences with a coat of ospho & Rustoleum gloss black on the backsides:





Finally found my license plate lights so I cut the new fiberglass bumper top with a Dremmel tool and a cutoff wheel. Taped the finished side of the fiberglass to keep it from splintering:

Posted by: saigon71 May 2 2013, 08:44 PM

Removed everything reasonable from the car so I can get sanding:



Cleaned the rear emblem with scotch brite and shot it with primer:





I bought one of the 914rubber.com replacement firewall pads through a group buy a while back. I went with the stock mounting system + velcro. Installed the pad and ran a pick through the pad to guide the plug. Marked anywhere I wanted extra hold with masking tape. Stuck the velcro together on the pad, then starting in the center, removed the adhesive from the velcro so it would stick to the firewall. It turned out nice!

Posted by: saigon71 May 2 2013, 08:46 PM

Finished soundproofing the interior:

Posted by: Cairo94507 May 2 2013, 09:12 PM

Nice work - you are making progress.

Posted by: effutuo101 May 5 2013, 11:13 AM

Looking great! More pictures please

Posted by: saigon71 May 6 2013, 02:43 PM

Fired two coats of Rustoleum semi-gloss on the rear emblem & windshield wipers:





Finished the front & rear valences:







Ran a load of parts through the dishwasher:



Bumpers, tops and valences everywhere:

Posted by: Cairo94507 May 6 2013, 02:56 PM

You ran the taillight buckets through the dishwasher and they came out that nice????? WOW

Posted by: saigon71 May 6 2013, 08:36 PM

Cascade extra action!!!

Posted by: saigon71 May 14 2013, 06:59 AM

My fog lights were a mess...heavy rust & pitting on the back with surface rust on the inside. Brushed on a coat of ospho, followed by two coats of Rustoleum semi-gloss:













Picked up some heavy duty electrical tape & ran two rows across the lower edge of the rear window using the seal as a guide following the Shea installation instructions:



Aside from the airbox and master cylinder, few parts have caused me as much grief as the rear sway bushings during reassembly. After trying a bunch of different methods to install the lower links, I lubed them up with silicone grease, cut a 2 X 4 to length and used a bottle jack on its side to press them on - it worked well:



The finish line is in sight! Started sanding the entire car in preparation for paint. There are a few areas with surface rust that need to be treated. I refused to drop the airbox again, especially with the tank in...wrapped sandpaper around a paint stick to sand the louvers above the box. Masking this area should be fun:

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2013, 09:29 PM

Found some more rust on the underside after removing the front valence. "Tented" the area & sprayed on a coat of ospho & two coats of rustoleum:

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2013, 09:41 PM

Car is ready for paint!

Hit numerous areas with spot putty & re-sanded. There was one high spot on the passenger side where I cut the fender that I couldn't blend. I didn't want to beat on it with a hammer at this point, so I cut a 2 X 3 to length and used a bottle jack against the wall to push it in:

Posted by: saigon71 May 23 2013, 09:59 PM

Bumpers, valences & an Optima 34 on a trickle charger ready to go:



A little nervous about shooting $400 worth of primer and paint with a $12.99 Harbor Freight (on sale) HVLP paint gun, I bought a spare at the same time, tore it apart & cleaned it with laquer thinner today. I don't want to get hung up in the middle of a paint job because of paint gun paint gun problems. I must admit, I was impressed with the job it did in the engine bay:

Posted by: OllieG May 24 2013, 01:54 AM

There's light at the end of the tunnel....

Are you going to paint the final colour yourself or take it to a shop? Looks like you'll have to do alot of masking...

Posted by: hot_shoe914 May 24 2013, 04:53 AM

NO BOB!!! You can't finish it yet. It needs to make it's first run to Hershey, so you will just have to find more repair work to keep you busy until April. I could always bring Christine up if you need some more practice.


Great Job man, I look forward to see her in person.

Posted by: billh1963 May 24 2013, 05:51 AM

I never knew there were so many uses for a bottle jack!

Posted by: saigon71 May 27 2013, 03:58 PM

I went over-budget on my restoration about two years ago. It will be a garage paint job, shot by me.

Not looking forward to masking at all.

Posted by: saigon71 May 27 2013, 04:01 PM

Thanks Don.

Time to be instead of I can't wait!

Posted by: FourBlades May 28 2013, 06:24 AM

Awesome work!

Getting close...

John

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 3 2013, 07:46 PM

Took a look at my backpad. Overall, it is in decent shape, except for the upholstery coming off the back. One of the bottom corners was broken so I used fiberglass cloth on both sides to re-attach it, then worked my way around re-gluing it with 3M adhesive:

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Jun 3 2013, 07:50 PM

Your turn signal bucket is shipping out tomorrow. Anything else you need before I ship?

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 3 2013, 07:57 PM

I was not happy with my rattle can paint job on the engine deck lid so I re-sanded it. It will be painted with the rest of the car:



Started sorting out the interior parts. Most were covered in four years of grinding dust. Overall my interior was in pretty nice shape. There are a few odds & ends to be addressed after the car is on the road, but I am rolling with what I have. The targa pad plugs didn't stay in, so I picked up a couple packs of 5/16 hole plugs at Lowes - they look good. For the door sills, I went with stainless steel screws. I couldn't resist cleaning the dash:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 3 2013, 07:58 PM

I could use a back pad "dome" light that actually fits.

Thanks Shoe, appreciate the help.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 6 2013, 07:00 PM

Re-connected the emergency brake cables in the cockpit with help on the from 914 world, completed the installation and adjusted the parking brake:







Installed the back pad and dome light, I realized tonight that I have to yank it off again to attach the seat belts :





Had to remove the speakers so I could run the grills through the dishwasher. Two of the brass inserts started spinning in the holes. One broke when I tried to remove the screw. Ran to Ace Hardware & picked up an aluminum insert, drilled the plastic out to 1/4" and installed it with a thin coat of epoxy:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 6 2013, 07:03 PM

Interior is about 90% installed:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2013, 08:30 AM

The drivers side suspension arm is plenty strong with the Tangerine racing reinforcement welded on, but I really don't know the condition of the inside of this area. Sprayed a heavy dose of Extend rust treatment in through the drain holes. I will follow up with some Rustoleum:



Donald (Hotshoe) donated a front turn signal bucket to the cause. It had some corrosion on it that I wanted to clean up. As soon as I hit it gingerly with a wire wheel, holes started to appear. It had a good plug on it, so I transferred the socket to my old one. Thanks Shoe!













Installed the eyebrows with new grommets from 914rubber:



Re-attached the rear-view mirrow with a kit from Autozone:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2013, 08:38 AM

I am pleased with how the interior went back together. The drivers side seat upholstery needs to be replaced, but it will do for now:







In preparation for paint, I dumped the garage and gave it a thorough cleaning to remove four years of grinding dust. Don't want any of that crap landing on my freshly painted car:





After reading a couple of horror stories on CV joints coming loose, I decided to install the CV's with new schorr washers and safety wire. What a PITA running safety wire in here:

Posted by: OllieG Jun 12 2013, 10:06 AM

Looking good Bob, nothing like a good garage clean out! I seem to be spending most of my evenings rolling around in dust and sharp bits of metal..need to get the broom out.

Interior is looking sweet..can't wait to see the exterior all freshly painted.

O.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 12 2013, 11:06 AM

I know what you mean about rolling around in the filth. There was a period of time when I would regularly end up with pieces of wire from a wire wheel imbedded in my skin. Many times, I didn't even know it until I moved a certain way...then ouch!

Posted by: turk22 Jun 12 2013, 03:17 PM

Interior looks great, it really came together nicely.

It must feel great to get that done. Cheers

Posted by: OllieG Jun 13 2013, 02:42 AM

Hah!..with you on that. I get my wife to pick the wire out of my face after using the wire brush on my angle grinder - I call it the hedgehog effect.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 13 2013, 08:14 PM

Pushed the car out and made an attempt to turn the garage into a paint booth. Installed a window fan backwards to draw air through the garage and cracked the garage door. Was hoping for a venturi effect, but the fan is not strong enough. Pulled the dehumidifier out of the crawl space and ran the tube outside. It will remove humidity from the garage pretty quickly. Everything running (including the air compressor) was to much for my 10 amp garage circuit breaker, so I ran an extension cord down from the kitchen:











Bent up a test panel for painting with a piece of 2' X 2' sheet metal and prepped it for paint. I am glad I did this before I started painting the car. The $12.99 HVLP Harbor Freight paint gun came with a 1.4 tip that did not allow enough primer to flow. I ended up with a very rough finish shooting primer. I ordered both a 1.7 and 2.0 tip tonight and found it amusing that each replacement tip costs as much as the gun itself . I won't touch the car with paint until I can make this test panel look good:







Started sorting put the ECU and MPS mounting & wiring. Picked up the mounts at car shows over the last few years. Had to replace the female connectors on two of the ECU wires:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 13 2013, 08:24 PM

Thanks!

Oh yeah...I have spent more than a few minutes just sitting in the car.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 13 2013, 08:46 PM

I guess I got lucky never getting the wire imbedded in my face, great name for the phenomenon!

Yep, my girlfriend became an expert at spotting & extracting coarse wire from my back...it became routine for a while there!

Posted by: OllieG Jun 14 2013, 02:30 AM

Ouch..bet she loved that!!

When you do the spray painting are you going to be able to cool the compressed air at all before it reaches the spray gun. I've got a system of copper pipes (about 40ft or so) with bleeder valves to try to cool the air and take some of the water vapour out..there's a bit about it on my blog. It's hard to say if it really works because I haven't done a ton of painting yet.

Here's a link I found useful..

http://http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/spray-painting.htm

Posted by: OllieG Jun 14 2013, 02:32 AM

..noticed the link wasn't working.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/spray-painting.htm

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 18 2013, 05:55 AM

Ran all new J30R9 spec fuel injection line and fuel injection hose clamps on the engine. Working in the shed in the summer is always a good time:





My rear tin was not aligned correctly. Had to take it off to correct some of the bends. Naturally, half of the cheese head screws were frozen. After breaking off an easy-out, I bent the tin down and used vice grips to break them loose. Used stainless steel screws as replacements:



Mounted the ECU and MPS:

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 18 2013, 06:06 AM

Thanks for the link Ollie - lots of good info for an amateur. As far as cooling the compressed air, I don't have anything in place to do it. When I shot the engine bay, I drained the compressor tank immediately before spraying and used an in-line water filter. I plan on running the dehumidifier in the garage overnight before I start spraying the car.

Posted by: saigon71 Jun 20 2013, 07:31 PM

Pulled the fuel pump and hoses out of the crawl space. It was covered in some type of ?sealant/undercoating? Cleaned it up. Consulted the Haynes manual for the original mounting location...not happening. Went with firewall mount. Cut down some 3/8" rubber tubing to mount the pump. Filled some holes with body plugs & permatex: