Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 10:37 AM

I have owned a 914 for the most part of the last 30 years. 5 drivers and 3 parts cars later, for the first time EVER, I will soon have a 914 that runs great AND looks great.

The PO did a great job of collecting and installing all the right and best parts. I've had to "adjust" the execution from time to time, but I still believe there are few conversions out there that can hang with this one mechanically. I have really enjoyed the last 3 years with her, but between work and family, other than driving it, unless there is a problem that demands attention, I've had very little time to love on the old girl. The paint has always been a generous 3/10, and I certainly can't justify the cost of making it right with the oldest starting college in the fall, and her sister 2 years behind her. So, I try to keep it clean, and don't let anybody get closer than 30 feet to the car.

Recently, I had a client who was so grateful for some things I was able to accomplish for him, that he told me he wanted to paint my car. This guy is a world renowned restorer of British vintage cars. Just having him agree to work on my car would be amazing, and that's what I thought he was offering. I politely thanked him, but explained the whole $, kids in college blah blah blah. . ., and he said, "no, you don't understand. I'm doing it to show my appreciation. Free."

I still can't wrap my brain around this, but this spring I will for the first time in my life have a 914 that looks as good as she runs. I'll try to keep up the progress here.

Posted by: Tom_T Feb 27 2013, 10:40 AM

Great story! ...now you can pay it forward.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 10:50 AM

This is Steve Miller. He has a shop called Classic restorations Plus on his property, and specializes in vintage Rolls Royce and Bentley restorations, but also does other cars if the circumstances are right. it's a 1 man show, and like many craftsman, Steve is great at the "art" part, less so at the business part, and has no real desire to change that. People ship him these cars from all over the world, pay him giant piles of money to do everything from soup to nuts on them, and he does it all single-handedly. he's done the bigger shop with several employees bit, but now he just wants to do the work, and skip the adult day care drama. He got fuched over in his last business model by a shiatbag partner, and it has taken him years to recover financially. Now, he is back to being able to be an insanely detail obsessed guy doing true art.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 10:55 AM

These are the kind of cars you usually see in Steve's shop.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 11:03 AM

PO tried to buy some room for rubber with the old baseball bat trick. Didn't buy much room, but made a serious depression where the fender tried to stretch away from the door post.

Steve pulled out the dent, and he's going to sculpt some sleeper flares a la John Kelley style, front and back to give me some actual clearance. I literally have less than 1/8" on the rears, and the fronts rub on a full to the stop turn. We gonna fix that.

Posted by: JawjaPorsche Feb 27 2013, 11:18 AM

Wow! Keep us posted of the progress with lots of pictures. We like to drool and drivel!

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 11:23 AM

Steve has spent some time working my hood, but we may have to fall back on that.

It has never really lined up very well curve-wise with the front fenders. In this picture you can see the oversized cutouts in the the front bumper area. PO lived in the south, and between the AC he installed and the humid weather, cooling was a apparently problem, so he tried to solve the problem with bigger cutouts both in the bumper and the inner wheel wells. Unfortunately, he went too far. You can just barely see in this picture that the center "strut" PO tried to leave to stabilize the bumper area was too narrow, and it just cracked straight across near the top. The result is that the lower part of the hood latch moves around, and doesn't hold the damn hood down, so it lines up and looks like poo.



The hood has also separated from the frame, and the standard hillbilly repair of JB Weld done in the past did not hold , which has now resulted in the frame cracking at the inner corners. I need to look at my parts cars to see if I have a better hood, or else I will be in the market for a good one.

Posted by: Chris H. Feb 27 2013, 11:57 AM

Hey nice to see you back. Does your car have a 350 in it? I remember issues with the engine initially but no need to dredge that up! Not much finer than a black 914 with wide fuchs...it will be sweet. Hey Chris Foley makes some pretty nice flares like you describe...

http://www.tangerineracing.com/body.htm#Tangerine%20Signature%20Flares,%20With%20Stock%20Fender%20Lip

Posted by: balljoint Feb 27 2013, 12:04 PM

First time with a pretty car? Didn't you used to have a Bentley?


Chris you must be a heck of a guy to have the friends you do.

Keep us posted with lots of pics.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 01:45 PM

Agreed Tom.

Truth is, that's kinda how we got here. Being a partner in this firm allows me the latitude to help people who can't really afford my services from time to time (Maybe even a few folks around here. ) Even before I was a partner, I did it, but now I don't have to hide it. Like I said, Steve's last business effort left him with a king sized butt reaming and a mountain of debt. He came to me with a pretty big problem, and very little obvious ability to pay me, but I liked the guy right away, so I decided to get involved, and if I got paid some day, great. I didn't really understand at the time who he was. I just knew I had been told he was a talented "car guy", and I have always had an affinity for guys who do amazing stuff with their hands. So, after much time and hard work, I was able to resolve his situation better than either of us thought was probably realistic originally. He's back on his feet, so to my surprise I did get paid in the end, and now one of the most gifted car guys I have ever met wants to show his appreciation by putting my car into a shape I couldn't afford in a million years.

I truly still can't believe it.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 01:53 PM

If only. . . . If you added up the value of every car I've ever owned, they wouldn't add up to the price tag on that GT. The Bentley belonged to a friend. I was just babysitting for a while.

I've been very fortunate. I try to treat my clients like people, not checkbooks. Ironically, most of the time that just results in me getting taken advantage of. I keep doing it because I sleep well at night, and the times that it turns out well make the rest of it worthwhile.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 27 2013, 02:06 PM

Thanks Chris. Ya, this is the 350. She blowed hup on the trip home when I bought it, but we're all good for a long time now.

Those flares on Foley's site are EXACTLY the look I'm going for. Steve does insane stuff by hand on these 150K cars every day. He's just going to do that here from scratch.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Miller-dba-Classic-Restorations-Plus/146477275395413?id=146477275395413&sk=photos_stream is he photo part of his cheesey facebook page. His wife throws up pics so customers can watch their cars progress from the comfort of their far flung homes. You can get a feel for the really top shelf one of a kind sort of work he does.

Posted by: FourBlades Feb 27 2013, 03:17 PM

Very cool thread.



Being nice to people pays off far more often than being a dick does.

John

Posted by: Cairo94507 Feb 27 2013, 05:37 PM

What a great guy. I look forward to watching it turn into a 10/10.

Posted by: rick 918-S Feb 27 2013, 06:36 PM

Nice to see you post Chris!

Posted by: Jgilliam914 Feb 27 2013, 06:43 PM

What color? I hope Steve doesn't talk you into British Racing Green

Posted by: speed metal army Feb 27 2013, 08:01 PM

BRG would rock!

Posted by: sixnotfour Feb 27 2013, 08:34 PM

Germans call it Irish green

Posted by: JRust Feb 27 2013, 08:47 PM

I've got a few good front hoods if you need one. It's yours if you pick it up

Posted by: gms Feb 28 2013, 03:14 PM

Looks good!
BTW if you need a new hood I have several and am only about 1 hr away from you

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 3 2013, 06:33 PM

Thanks Rick.

I miss keeping up here, but you know the drill as well as anybody. Family, job, house. . . Too much to do, way too few hours to do it all in. I lurk when I can, but don't have time for much more than that very often.

My favorite threads are usually the progress threads with lots of pictures. I thought this adventure might interest a few folks, so I'm going to try to keep this one up to date. Just got called to dinner, so I'll post a few more pics after chow.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 3 2013, 07:52 PM

Here are some better pictures of the problem with the hood latch & cutouts.

Here you can see how PO really only left the bare minimum or metal behind the bumper.



And, as it turned out, less than the bare minimum, since it cracked right across and left the hood latch without any support in 2 of 3 directions.

Steve is going to come up with something to replace the strength without closing down the air flow any more than necessary.

(BTW, we are planning to come up with something a little nicer than chicken wire when we put her back together)


Attached thumbnail(s)

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 3 2013, 08:01 PM

Here you can see the wheel well cutouts. Again, bigger than Renegade recommends, and they both cracked where you see the primer.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 3 2013, 08:50 PM

I found one of the hoods on my parts pile was very good. So, thanks for the offers, but it looks like I'm covered there.

Steve's plan on the wheel well cut out problem is that he's going to make custom "grills" out of rod to try to carry the load the same way the original metal did before it was cut out.

Steve's savant like skills came from his time as an aircraft guy in the Marines in Viet Nam. There were times when lives depended on fixing battle damage to the planes and choppers, but the proper parts weren't available. He's also a mechanical engineer, so he became the guy everybody knew when they were in a jam, he could fabricate and fix things whether parts were available or not (and he's got the medals to prove it). As a result he's got a great understanding of how structure carries weight. He thinks that rather than brace the struts to the front of the torsion bars to regain the structural stability, he can make the grills in a way that it can carry the same load that the sheet medal did. Honestly, I'm skeptical, but given the guy's resume', I'm more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

He's got some one of a kind 1927 Rolls Royce Silver Spur Cloud Coupe' Saloon something or other that he's doing a body off bare skin repaint on. The show is in 4 weeks, and the car is already on the cover of the show program, so it HAS to be done. (I don't know what the car really is. I know it's some ultra rare one off. He gets on a roll telling me all the spectacular details about these cars and after 5 minutes my eyes glaze over. After another 25 minutes, he's usually almost done. ) Anyway, he's going to focus on that for a while, so I may not have anything new for a couple weeks.

Posted by: Chris H. Mar 4 2013, 07:54 AM

Yikes on the cutouts...but at least you're fixing them before anything happened! You caught those cracks just in time.

The front (intake) cutouts are getting smaller and smaller around here. Take a look at SpeedMetalArmy's and 76 914's build threads. Good plan on the exhaust side. A lot of people are just drilling holes with a hole saw rather than cutting a larger hole. Seems to be just as effective.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 15 2014, 04:00 PM

Holy crap!! I didn't realize it had been almost exactly a year since I updated. Steve had had some really good big jobs come it, and since he's doing my car for NOTHING, I have of course given him unqualified approval to push my car to the shadows when he has opportunities to make some cash. He has really kicked it into high gear for me as spring approaches, and I have a full-on 914 puffy after seeing my car today.

All four corners are done. (I only had my phone, so forgive the pic quality) I now have hand made, all metal flares which are exactly what I wanted.



The flare is still "sleeper", but he has given me 3.5" in the back and 2" in the front. No offense to the those of you with the factory flares look, but the "beer can shelf" has never been my thing. I wanted a gentle bulge (yeah baby), not a rounded 90' corner. He absolutely nailed what I was looking for.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 15 2014, 04:12 PM

When I saw the flares, I was speechless. As I'm looking at them, he's saying "if they aren't exactly what you wanted, I can still change them. . . ." and I'm just thinking "I know it's wrong, especially when he's gnawing on that cheap stogie, but DAMN I want to kiss that man"

If you look at the picture above, you can see how he has modified the rear valance already to perfectly match the new curve of the fenders. He had to reshape it and extend it to make it match, and it is so perfect, it reminds me of the perfect curves on a late 928 rear.


It's hard to appreciate from the crappy pictures, but the flow of the lines from the flares to the valence is just beautiful.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 15 2014, 04:32 PM

As I was leaving his shop today, Steve hit me with a question I hadn't anticipated, and it really got me thinking.

We had planned all along to paint the car "ultra black". He has a '68 Camero in the shop that he's just finished, painted in the ultra black, and it literally looks like it's made out of black mirror. Not sure it will be a great mix with my gravel driveway, but damn, it's incredible. Today he shows me 2 metallic blacks he has mixed up to show a customer who is trying to decide what color to paint the '69 Camero Steve is restoring right now. He suggests either of them would be nice on the "914 Plus Body" (as he's begun calling my car. I think it's some quiche eater terminology from the Rolls Royce crowd he's used to. )Initially I'm thinking "No glitter for me, thanks", but then he shows them to me, and they are really striking. Very subtle. So much so, in the shop it's hard to see the flake, and we have to take them outside to really see, but now I've got some thinking to do. (I took a pic, but the colors and metallic flake are really so subtle, the pics are useless). Nonetheless, I'm asking: You guys have any opinion on a very subtle flake on a 914. I'm afraid that on the whole car, it will look like an 80's bass boat, but dang those samples were pretty.

Posted by: PanelBilly Feb 15 2014, 05:26 PM

I say solid black with satin highlights.

Posted by: scott_in_nh Feb 15 2014, 06:11 PM

I have a metallic black a PO painted mine and I like it a lot.
I also get a lot of unsolicited compliments on the color from woman.
So I say if you like it - go for it!

Posted by: Cairo94507 Feb 15 2014, 06:24 PM

Solid black. Looking good BTW

Posted by: rick 918-S Feb 15 2014, 07:21 PM

The solution. Black top the driveway.

Posted by: billh1963 Feb 15 2014, 07:55 PM

I like those flares!

Posted by: Dasnowman Feb 16 2014, 12:55 AM

Looking really nice so far!

Pearls, candy's and metallics can look awesome done right!

Posted by: hot_shoe914 Feb 16 2014, 07:27 AM

I had an Acura that was a black metallic, very subtle and very pretty, but just wasn't as nice as a pure black, IMHO, but as they say, if you like it, go for it.

Posted by: Bartlett 914 Feb 16 2014, 07:51 AM

Hi Chris

I love the flares! The lines look so much better to me than the more abrupt flares normally seen. Looks like it should be ready this summer.

Posted by: KELTY360 Feb 16 2014, 08:09 AM

Solid black is pure.

Posted by: jaxdream Feb 16 2014, 08:40 AM

Jack

Posted by: ww914 Feb 16 2014, 08:56 AM

I love that look. Nice job Steve. I am looking at Chris Foley flares here:
http://www.tangerineracing.com/exterior_panels.htm. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Posted by: ww914 Feb 16 2014, 08:57 AM

I love that look. Nice job Steve. I am looking at Chris Foley flares here:
http://www.tangerineracing.com/exterior_panels.htm. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Posted by: RickS Feb 16 2014, 10:20 AM

Those are the flares that Porsche should have created. As far as blacks, it's tough to judge without seeing examples side by side. Metallics always have a bit more visual interest when subtle but a pure deep, wet black (sounds a bit sexual) has a lot going for it.

Posted by: aircooledboy Feb 16 2014, 02:13 PM

Oh if only that were an option. Unfortunately as currently configured, it's 300 feet long, and traveled by fully loaded semi trucks full o' grain as they travel in and out to the grain bins we rent out at the back of the property. It would literally be cheaper to build a new garage with a separate driveway. I will do exactly that at some point, but at the moment I see no signs that college will become free for the 3 North American Grocery Scarfing Locust who inhabit our home. So, it looks like gravel driveway for a few more years at a minimum.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 1 2014, 04:03 PM

Today started pretty out good. I installed the stainless tunnel fuel line in that I've had sitting around for "a while." I picked this up in a group buy I thought was a couple years ago. Then I open the box and found the invoice inside: 2006 Ooops. Guess I've had it for a little longer than I thought. Oh well, can't rush greatness, right?

Then, using the 2003 350Z billet grille I snagged on ebay for $34, we modified and mocked up the bumper. SWEEEEET!!!



Steve's going to see what his plating guy will charge to fill the tit holes and re-chrome the bumper. The bolt head there is just so we could get a feel for the shape and size, and DAMN does that look better than the open hole I've gone with for the last 10 years or so. Thanks for the tip to Andys. Steve's chrome guy does plastic too, so I will have the fog grilles re-plated as well.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 1 2014, 04:37 PM

Then, things went a bit south. I was pulling the interior because I am going to treat some rust in my tunnel, and since I got new carpet for christmas, it had to come out any way. That's when I found this:



Son of a . . . . . Fiberglass.

Gotta be honest, I'm a little pissed. Way back when, I flew out to Georgia to look at the car, I crawled under it and saw this:



I asked the PO what was going on there, and he told me it was just basically a cavity cover part of the floor pan, and it was the only sheet metal issue anywhere on the pan. I thought, "well, its not structure, and I don't see any other issue with the pan" and I couldn't examine the interior side because he had glued sound proofing to the entire interior floor. The rest of the pan does look solid as a rock from the bottom, and the entire area around the suspension ear is a 9/10. So I took his word for the "no other issues" part.

I know, I know, "buyer beware", and I was no 914 newbie either, but what hacks me off is he HAD to know about it even if he didn't do it, because HE glued the soundproofing to it. So he not only knew about it, but he knew I couldn't see this fiberglass bullshit without pulling up the glued down carpet and soundproofing that was covering it.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 1 2014, 04:39 PM

So, what do you guys think? How bad is that, and what panels am I going to likely need to make it right?

Posted by: Chris H. Mar 1 2014, 06:39 PM

That sucks man. Very disappointing.

So it's a fiberglass patch in the floor pan or is it other places? You won't know what you actually need until you chip/grind that crap off. I'd do that and report back with a bunch of pics. Underneath it looks like you're missing the triangular piece and the jacking donut, or there's crap slathered over it. The underside of the long might need inspection as well.

It looks like you'll probably need a floor pan section and maybe some other stuff depending on what else you find. All the passenger side mid-section pieces are available so you'll be able to get it fixed. Brad Mayeur down in Peoria can fix that easily BTW....in case your guy hasn't done 914 underside rust repair.

Here's a resource for the panels and pieces:

http://www.restoration-design.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=914

Posted by: r_towle Mar 1 2014, 06:47 PM

Buy a rear 1/4 pan, once you see it, you will what you can cut out and replace.
you do not need to replace anything more than is needed.

Posted by: rick 918-S Mar 1 2014, 09:41 PM

Could need to do this....

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=226585&hl=

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 2 2014, 09:23 AM

I'm gonna see if I can get out there today and clean it off. I know Steve would do it, but given what he's done for me already for nothing, I feel like we're getting pretty far outside what he signed on for at this little cluster.

I'm reaonably confident I don't have that level of cancer. The long, jack post and all the other trouble areas look like perfectly intact 40 year old sheet metal. Paint is worse for the wear, but metal looks uncompromised. Thinking back now about some other things I've seen on the car, I suspect the damage is from a leaking back glass while the car sat. The remainder of the pan is literally perfect. I guess I'll see.

Posted by: Chris H. Mar 2 2014, 11:37 AM

If the long is OK then you're probably right. "It's just a flesh wound"...

rtowle's method is the way to go. get the fiberglass crap out, get a floor pan section, replace only the metal that you have to. Or send it to Brad. He does that stuff all the time.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 2 2014, 06:32 PM

Yeah Baaaby
It is in deed just a flesh wound.

I peeled off this:


And found this:


Surprisingly, the fiberglass did not stop the rust underneath it at all. Who knew??The long is unscathed. Some minor pitting, but strong and solid. The firewall at the floor is rotted about 3/8" up for about 2". I'll order the floor pan from resto design, Steve says he can fab up the small patch for the firewall, I'll be all good.

Will cause a slight delay, but I'll have a better car for it.

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 2 2014, 07:21 PM

This, BTW is Steve's next big project. It's a 1936 Bentley Barker.



It came in a container yesterday. The steering rack had been disconnected so the front wheels could be moved for rudimentary steering, since the column is frozen in place. The parts are all inside in boxes, most of the beautiful hand made wood interior trim has been painted black, then blue. The exterior paint was so insanely poor you could literally flake 90% of what's left on it off with your fingernail. I asked Steve what it was worth in this condition: $80k. Apparently the coachwork having been done by Barker makes it a very rare and desirable car. I didn't know until today, but back then, when you bought a Rolls or a Bentley, you actually bought a chassis. Then you took that chassis to an actual coachbuilder and they built the body. The body framework is made of Ash, and then the aluminum body panels were hand formed over that wood frame. He told me the running board/ front fender assembly was likely made of of more than 30 individual pieces. It seems that Barker was the shiat for this era, because Steve says after a likely 2 year restoration, this car will be worth between $450k and $480k.

Posted by: Chris H. Mar 2 2014, 07:51 PM

Nice...if your guy is entrusted with that Bentley project the floor pan will be cake for him. Hey what's up with this section?

Posted by: aircooledboy Mar 3 2014, 01:01 PM

Just what it looks like. Fuchin' body filler.
Hy-evah, the fire wall is intact and solid on the engine side. My guess is, consistent with my belief the floor damage was from a leaky back glass, some water probably collected on the top edge of the seam, resulting in some minor rust. like I said, solid on the engine side, filler seems very thin, and holds a magnet well all over. Since it's in a non-visible area, I'm not going to lose any sleep over making it cosmetically perfect. I'll keep an eye on it, and address it later if need be, but I'm not going to ask Steve to deal with it now.