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Posted by: scruz914 Oct 1 2004, 05:29 PM

Copied this off of the 'cheap engine' thread:

Reminded me of back in college. I visited a school mate and his wife at their apartment. I walk in the place and in the middle of the floor is a half torn down VW engine. My first reaction was 'whoa Syd, what does Marsha think about this?'

This couple isn't trailer trash types that you would expect this kind of thing. It was just that a job needed to be done and the aprtment living room was the best place to do it. BTW, These folks are still my best friends and Syd is the PO of my 914.

So, where have you rebuilt an engine?

-Jeff

Posted by: jim912928 Oct 1 2004, 05:37 PM

Basement of our first house I rebuilt a 66 912 engine. I carried it down in 5 boxes and spent the winter cleaning and rebuilding this baby (in a room right belowthe kitchen...that really made food smell good somedays! lol). When it was all done (spring)...I was so excited to get it outside to the garage to put it in the car I realized it was way wider then the door ways! I panic'd and started in on the %$##$%'s when my wife simply said...TURN IT SIDEWAYS STUPID!

Boy did I feel STUPID!.....but, got it out and was driving around later that same day!

Posted by: vortrex Oct 1 2004, 05:57 PM

in high school my brother degreased a VW 1600 case in the bath tub (mom loved that) and built a chevy 350 on a stand in his bedroom.

Posted by: DonTraver Oct 1 2004, 06:33 PM

Here's a picture of me in the frontroom during the rebuild of the engine for my Harley. I was getting her ready to paint the lower end with wrinkle finish paint. Shot the paint outside, then carried her into the closet in the spare room. I'd put a heater in the closet to get the heat up about 110F. Wrinkle paint wrinkle's best with heat.


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Posted by: spare time toys Oct 1 2004, 06:56 PM

Back in 77 helped a good friend build a blown 350 for his 69 camaro. We did it in the living room of his apartment. He was on the ground floor so we took it out the sliding door in the diningroom. We had it on a stand and put down a plywood strip to cross the door track. He did not get his deposit back when he got kicked out. But he was a freak and it was a heck of a party pad.

Posted by: scruz914 Oct 1 2004, 08:23 PM

Don, There is no way you avoided getting grease on that couch!

vortex, That tub must have lived the rest of its life with grease embeded in the porclin.

-Jeff

Posted by: Headrage Oct 1 2004, 08:33 PM

Dude I had a converted garage for my apartment and rebuilt a '75 "Fiat 124" and a '75 MG midget motor in it. Not only did I lose my deposit but got sued for the deep cleaning costs. It sucked!!

Posted by: DonTraver Oct 1 2004, 09:00 PM

My wife took the picture, we'd just got married, so I was still getting away with a lot, lol. It was her couch, and I did not get any grease on it.

I used to rent a 1 bedroom, parked my bike in the frontroom, told the owner, if I ruin the carpet, I'll replace it, when I left 4 years later, I didn't have to replace the carpet. She did freak when she showed up and I had the primary tore down in the frontroom.

Posted by: Jeff Bonanno Oct 1 2004, 09:29 PM

Sweet, Don. I have built many bike engines in the livingroom and kitchen. Valve job with bike pulled in the kitchen was a mainstay.

jbb

Posted by: URY914 Oct 1 2004, 10:16 PM

My best friend in high school rebuilt his MGA engine in his bedroom and I don't think his mom ever knew.

Posted by: blaize Oct 1 2004, 10:28 PM

A few years ago I rebuilt a type 1 engine in the living room of a TINY third floor walk-up apartment. had it on the stand in one room and the spare engine (came with the car) on the floor in the bedroom. mind you I was in college so the "bed" was just a mattress on the floor with a spare hood for a honda as the headboard.

Silly thing was we pulled the engine and carried it up three flights to the appartment and as mentioned already it wouldn't fit thru the door. turned it sideways and then realized we forgot to drain it first. yeah, carpet looked OUTSTANDING! at the time I had a CRX, a bug, a midget, and three bikes. the complex had one of those rules about no dead cars in the lot so I would have to push the bug and mg around the lot every few days so they thought they were being used. all the bikes were in one spot so they let that go.

I didn't even bother calling about the deposit when I left.

Posted by: scruz914 Oct 1 2004, 11:02 PM

So how did your evening romances go? "Excuse the engine on the floor and the oil smell, the bed is right over here."

These stories are great. The things you can get away with when you are young.

-Jeff

Posted by: Aaron Cox Oct 1 2004, 11:07 PM

tables arent for engine building! theyre for rich kids with 30k trucks to have sex on!

Posted by: charlesmac Oct 1 2004, 11:15 PM

My 2nd year of college i had the 2.0 engine from my '73 914 in my dorm room, pieces everywhere. One night i came in and my roomate told me that the RA (resident assistant) came by for a room check and ask what the heck all this was, he told him i was in the auto-repair class and this was a project for the class , they never said anything else.

Posted by: scruz914 Oct 1 2004, 11:18 PM

Lock those doors!!!!

-Jeff

Posted by: Meredith Oct 1 2004, 11:38 PM

Man, is he ever going to live that one down?

Mer

Posted by: scruz914 Oct 1 2004, 11:41 PM

Nope.

Posted by: Sammy Oct 2 2004, 10:22 AM

I'm rebuilding and engine right now, get this, in the GARAGE!
Ya, I know, but it's the only place I have to do it.

I've done a bunch of engines over the years, every one was in a garage except one.
Had to replace a connecting rod on a chebby V8 on the side of the road in mexico. That was a fun day. it ran good on the way home tho.

Posted by: J P Stein Oct 2 2004, 07:50 PM

I built a SB chebbie in the basement of our first rental house.
I planned to just do the short block....but it was a long winter.
It took 5 other guys & a case of beer to get that fucker up the stairs. Iron sux.

Posted by: iiibdsiil Oct 2 2004, 08:09 PM

Hey guys, never on the kitchen table. It was some old antique thing that I am sure would have fallen apart on the first movement.

Ya'll are hurting my feelings. :finger2:

Where's the boo hoo hoo smily?

Posted by: Aaron Cox Oct 2 2004, 08:27 PM

ill stop hurting your feelings when you pass me a 3.2 914 jk your a VERY funny man

Posted by: scruz914 Oct 2 2004, 10:23 PM

That reminds me of the time I swapped out an engine in a junk yard in Modesto. Story is we were on the way to Yosemitie in a VW bus and the engine threw a rod (not my bus). We were able to nurse the thing (don't ask, it was like Thor's Hammer pounding around) to a wrecking yard in Modesto and negotiated to buy an engine. I mentioned that I (the owner of the bus had no mechanical ability) was planning on renting a floor jack and swapping the engine where ever I could.

Man, that got those guys going. Within minutes I had full access to pneumatic tools, the "new" engine was delivered to a clean covered space and they had a fork lift to raise the bus up so I could get to the underside stuff.

To make a long story short, within 2 hours we were back on the road and cross country skiing in the back woods almost as planned.

-Jeff