Hello guys, I am new here to the 914 World forum. I have really enjoyed the topics that are covered here and loved watching all of the build threads and restoration projects everyone has posted.
I just bought a 1972 914 from a friend a couple of weeks ago and I am trying to come up with a plan on how to get this car back on the road. It seems it has been off the road for more than 10 years and it has just sat since then. Luckily it had been kept from the elements so there is minimal surface rust and most body panels are straight.
The engine seems to be missing some components and the harness for the fuel injection is in pretty bad shape. Also the engine seems to be from a 1973 model year because the number on it is EB005705
Now since the engine isn't original for the car I do not know if it's worth to go on an all out restoration or to just do a repaint, fix all the mechanicals and get it on the road again, what do you guys think?
Oh and since I know how people hate threads without pictures here are some of the car for you.
And this is after I got the engine home on my truck.
I know the paint looks rough but it looks clean and straight, good door gaps - take the rocker covers off to see the longs better and take some pictures of the engine compartment and post - if those areas and under seats look good no structural rust I would clean it up, - if your budget it tight I would do a vinyl wrap until you can affor a full out paint job, or paint now - but if you are anxious to drive it , well then go thru the brake system first, check compression on motor, clean , drain etc and reinstall it and drive and enjoy for a while, - but it looks like your friend stopped after stripping it down some to do more work, maybe now if you have time, $$ and space, to do it now- but safety first- new gas lines and hoses, brakes flushed out and make sure new pads and no frozen up calipers, while motor is out it might be a good time to really check it out- do you know when motor ran last and what its condition is?
good luck, you know you will find the help you need here !
Also look in the classifieds or post a WTB ad, as some people are swapping engines like crazy. You might be able to find a good running example to bolt right in, and get you on the road.
Most of the other questions you have to answer for yourself.
And 10 years off the road that was a short jack stand break.
Since your new to this place you might notice at the bottom of my posts in my signature, I am poking fun at myself and my family.
I have an engine swap build that has gone off the deep end.
I have one of the oldest 914 restorations or rebuilds know to man.
To paraphrase McMark - A running 914 beats one on stands any day of the week.
Best wisdom ever, get yours running, get it on the road. These cars are pretty easy to upgrade in short time or fix items as you go. And driving these little things is what keeps all of us coming back here. I could never muster all the work I do on these cars if I did not like to so much.
Nice car! I love seeing restorations from cars in the shape yours is in.
Welcome! Original or not, I lean towards getting it on the road again.
off topic; that's a bitchin' 620 you've got there. takes me back to my youth...
i used to scoff at low rider mini trucks until i loaded my motorcycle into my friend's...
welcome!
I bought a 1600 pickup in June of 73, then my first 914 in August. Both brand new! Great little truck. Wish I still had it.
Your project looks like a great starting point!
Thanks guys really appreciate it
@ The Cabinetmaker, I think there are always some cars we regret getting rid of.
The engine compartment looks dirty, but doesn't look a rusty mess like most of these cars usually are.
Good luck with it.......and,
I'll be watching this thread because this car has particular allure for me. Like Larmo said, it's rare to see one of these that is crusty but not rusty. Very interesting...
bbrock, I'm glad you like it. I sure hope that I do not find too much h rust as I hate having to repair it. They paint on it is really crusty jajaja
Got the engine semi torn apart and I also started cleaning up the transmission trying to get all the gunk off. Hopefully here next week I will be able to get most of the parts that I took off cleaned and sent out to get sand blasted.
I've decided to build my 1.7 motor to a 2056 and found a great local guy to get the 2.0 crankshaft and some other parts that I need for the rebuild. I also looking to get a copy of the Bug Me Type 4 Engine Rebuild video in case anyone has one for sale.
I'll be building the engine for street and freeway use but will need to go with Dual 40 carbs, if anyone has any recommendations or tips for me I would love to hear them. Thanks guys
and nice truck!
Konrad
Hi Pedro. Looks as good as most of these projects on here if not even better. Does seem to be pretty straight from the pics you’ve shown. Lotsa luck! Keep
Posting.
From another Pedro
Way ta go man....make it happen!
@ Konrad, thanks bud
@ Dion, yeah the body is pretty straight just one issue with a small accident on the left front headlight and a dented left door. At least those will be easy fixes. I'm planning on taking the whole car apart in about two weeks. Only then will I be able to know if there is any major rust repair.
@ Shadowfax, saludos tocayo! jajajaja
@ Fatboy007, I will man, hopefully soon I can show you guys some progress And we are neighbors jajaja
Thanks guys!
That is such a beautiful car Rob I was looking for one of those but the 914 popped up and I got it instead. After I finish the 914 I'll look for another 240Z
In fact I brought the 914 home yesterday and had to put the Datsun 620 out in the street Why can't my wife just give up her parking spot in the garage?
After I got it home I started tearing into it and removed the fuel tank along with other pieces in there. I was surprised that the fuel tank is in such good condition. Even inside it was really nice and clean.
Some pictures of the disassembly process. I built the stand from some pictures and plans I saw on another members thread and I must say it's pretty awesome. Working on the car like this has been a pleasure and by back isn't all sore
Here with the help of some friends we got it up onto the stand.
Someone had asked for pictures of the rockers, well here is the right side and it was in good condition so I am happy about that. The left side is mostly the same.
And a couple more overall pictures
This past weekend I finished taking the car apart and then cleaned it up a bit. Everything came off fairly easily but I need to buy the socket to remove my front ball joints. Body work to start soon
Looking good on your project! keep posting ur progress!
You guys have no idea how good you’ve got it with these solid bodies.
It's been a while, but I had to put the car in storage to finish another more pressing project. Now that it is finished I can get back on this full time and starting to look for the next project
Now that I'm going to get back on it I need to find someone close to me in San Diego to do my heads, so if anyone has a good person to do them please let me know.
When I bought the car I did not find out until later that it came with some 40 Dual Carbs, a set of 96mm pistons and a 2.0 crankshaft with rods. The guy I bought it from called me up and said that I had forgotten some parts and to go pick them up. Imagine my surprise when I saw what they were. Now my engine is a 1.7 but I will need to rebuild my heads and get bigger valves for them. Hope you guys can let me know who I should take them to here in Southern California.
Surprises on these cars usually are not nice like this...
JOEPROPER I agree, wish they happened more often.
So I've been doing some of the tedious work of getting parts cleaned up and sent to get them powder coated. I sent them to a guy I had never used before in Tijuana and I was very pleased when I picked them up. He did a great job and had them ready for me the day he said. It only cost me $250.00 for all of these parts.
Since my car did not have a front sway bar, I decided to buy the on from GR German Parts Restoration. It was shipped out very quickly and I had it the same week I ordered it. I was very impressed with the quality and the parts look great. I really can't wait to put this on my car
Ok, where did I leave off so long ago , yes I remember, I was trying to restore a 914
Added LED's to my gauges and now they are nice and bright, my eyes will be able to see them at night now
Had to do a bit of wire repair and paint, I was lucky that the original stamping was still visible on the parts so I avoided painting over those.
My homebrew plating operation Not professional quality results but I am happy with the way they turned out.
Even though the car was fairly rust free, the rear floor section had some pretty bad rust. I bought the replacement panels from Restoration Design and they fit great right out of the box
At this point I was happy how everything was fitting so I started welding everything up. When I was done I noticed that I forgot to install the bracket for the back seat upholstery Needles to say I had to drill out the welds and put the bracket back in.
Here is the bracket installed and the installation of the seat rails.
Last week I took my engine on a little trip to LA, some of you might recognize the place. It has been great working with them, Jorge and Carlos have been great to work with.
Got my boy some new shoes. Bought these from Maxilite wheels and I think they look great. Sizes are 8x15 and 9x15, tires are FALKEN AZENIS RT660 225/45ZR-15 and 245/40ZR-15
Looking like progress!!!!
With those wheels, looks like you decided to go WIDE-BODY.
Love it...All my current 914's are wide-body but I long for the day I can add a nice original 73-74 2.0 narrow-body to the stable.
Keep this thread updated
Oscar
Another build thread, awesome!
This 914 looks pretty solid and even more so now. Nice!
During my kids summer break I put him to work on all those little jobs everyone loves to do
He actually did a pretty good job at it
Primer inside the cab so it doesn't rust again.
Here it is, ready for the bodywork to begin
Another one coming back to life, keep up the good work.
A few more. I was able to finish the whole car and now it will be ready for body work.
Well now that the whole body has been taken down to bare metal and epoxy primer applied, it went to my friends shop to get the body work done . I really hate doing body work and my friend has a really good bodyman and will finish it a lot faster and better than I ever could.
Upon arrival at my friends shop, couldn't wait for the work to begin
First thing I did was install suspension and wheels to check the fitment of the fenders. At this point I didn't have the front tires, but I got them before the final fitment of the fenders.
Now that the car is at the body shop, I can concentrate on working on restoring other parts. First up was the handbrake, it was in really bad shape and thanks to parts availability I was able to get it working again.
Here is what it looked like when I first removed it from the car. It didn't have the spring, handle or any of the internals.
The hole for the cable was deformed so I welded it up and then drilled a new hole
Removed all the paint and rust
Here are all the parts that I had to get to make it functional
And the finished product
Another thing on my to do list before paint was the front sway bar modification. I bought it from GR German Parts Restoration. Made the bracket for the inner fender well, and then drilled the holes to fit the sway bar. Here I'm checking the alignment prior to welding the bracket on.
Lots of bodywork has been going on, here are some of the highlights. Cutting the fenders took a bit of courage, but I love the widebody look so no looking back now.
Here most of the body work is finished and from here I will be taking it to a garage I have to do the final blocking and getting ready for paint.
Got it back to my shop, hopefully I won't have to move it again. It is always stressful to move it with the dolly on a flatbed tow truck. I'm always afraid its going to fall off.
Front end nearly complete
I still had to take care of some details for the floor so I thought this was a good time to get them off my list. I needed to add the hand brake cable guide and the rear bracket for the small cover.
Then I had to make some of the little posts to hold the floor mats in place.
All finished on the inside and now it is basically ready for paint, finally
Attached thumbnail(s)
Finished first round of guide coat and blocking and now the car is in full primer. Ready for the second round of guide coat and blocking, then a third one
I turned my attention to the wheel wells to make them nice and pretty before I spray on the Raptor Liner. I already ordered the tintable 4 liter kit and it should show up early next week.
And some full shots to see it in its current state.
Underside of the car is now finished, just waiting for the Raptor liner to show up and start spraying some color
There's something about a bare, ready to paint 914 tub that makes my heart flutter a bit. Nice progress!
A body in “white” & a proper power plant. Coming together beautifully Pedro.
Like the Datsun! Keep it coming.
This body is looking fantastic
Looking forward to the next steps
Antoine
Great build and well done. You move quickly.
Not too much to show this week but I did get a few things done. I blocked the hood and sprayed some more primer on it. I think after this second round of blocking it should be really good. Also got a little bit of work done on the firewall, for some reason it had some small dents that were bothering me so I decided to fix them also.
Had a productive day yesterday, I was able to get most of my engine assembly complete. Everything went smoothly thanks to the great work from European Motor Works. Assembly was made easier thanks to all the great resources here and the videos from Ian Karr, thank you for putting out such great content
Anyways here are some pictures of the assembly process. Frist one is the bare case half.
Here we have the crankshaft, crank and the permatex aviation sealant all ready for the other half of the case.
And finally the two case half's joined and torqued. I also installed a Type 1 oil pump that EMW modified.
Moved on to cylinder and piston installation, I started with the #4 cylinder. Verified my deck height to be .04 in. and that the cylinders were even to have a good seal with the heads. Everything checked out ok.
Bolted on the heads and installed my lower cooling tins.
Installed the Billet Taco Plate I got from Rich at 914 Werke. I love this thing, very well made
I forgot to add these pictures of where I left off that day on the engine build.
So before spraying the Raptor I wanted to finish priming the body. I finished blocking everything after the second round of primer and I only found a few spots that needed attention. Here is the 3rd primer round and the guide coat applied. From here I will be blocking with 220 and then 400 and 600 wet and it should be ready for paint.
Finally we have some color and most of the hard work has been finished. This week was getting the underside done, I went to the paint store and they were able to match the Raptor to the color I will be spraying on the car. Since I wanted a smoother texture, I modified a spray gun from Harbor Freight by drilling the tip out to 2.0 I also reduced the raptor liner by about 5% and that seemed to give me the texture I was looking for. I was very surprised at how well it covered and how easy it was to spray. I bought the 4 quart kit and I still had a bit left over once I was done. I did the floor, lower engine bay and the wheel wells.
way to go
saving another one.
and that is a great looking truck!
brant
Hey Pedro. That came out great, I was wondering about these bed liners as a undercoating. Price is right and being able to tint it is awesome. Nice job.
Very nice. Reaching the point where you are putting on paint, and assembling parts, is a great milestone.
The pictures with the raptor look so great..now I want the underside of mine to look like this !! One day maybe
Antoine
My latest set of pictures, painting the interiors of the car. I always find these areas so much more difficult to paint than the exterior of the car. With this done now, I can finish sanding the exterior and will be ready to paint in about a week.
But first I had to build a makeshift paint booth.
A couple from the engine compartment
After that I needed to paint the inside of the doors and trunks. Here are the parts ready for painting.
With basecoat only
Great update, love that color
Oscar
Likely need new tires.
Beautiful!
Don't recall seeing this thread earlier. Comparing your recent paint photos to your starting point is remarkable progress! Well done!
Nice paint work.
Awesome colour. Nice work.
Awesome seeing this fresh Paint, what a cool progress !
Antoine
Really nice!
Great job on the makeshift paint booth - that makes a huge difference in ability to lay down paint without contamination.
That's beautiful paint dude... You should be proud.
Just started reading through this build, looks great!
So no paint on Saturday, no paint on Sunday but Monday was my day. I left work early to go paint the car, this time without any problems. I'll leave the car in here for the rest of the week and on Saturday I will paint the doors and trunks.
That blue....wow! Looking good!
It looks great!
Charlie
great color!
@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=21797 - Pedro, Terrific work and color; is that Adriatic Blue? Regardless, nothing prettier than a freshly painted chassis.
That looks delicious! Beautiful job there Pedro!
Love this thread, excellent work.
I have some of my refurbished GT Modified front & rear trunk hinges at plating. Should be back by next Wednesday. So if you are interested I'll have plated (Yellow Zinc), raw bead blasted, or primered available.
PM me if interested
These would look great on your 914
Oscar
Thanks, Glenn and Robert!
Cairo, thanks for the compliments. The color is from Porsche and it's called Shark Blue paint code D5C. I agree a bare painted chassis no matter the car is a thing of beauty.
It does look a bit like candy Dion, I'm not a flashy color for a car kind of person but my wife and kids helped pick the color. Wife says she will be driving this one
Oscar, those look great I would love to get a set from you.
Doors and several other parts painted. Still need to do trunks and miscellaneous parts next Saturday.
Got a little bit impatient and started putting some parts on the car. Brake lines and rebuilt brake pressure regulator from PMB.
Master cylinder and a few brake lines also from PMB
Now for some of the reassembly bits. Starting with the steering rack.
Rebel Racing front bushing set installed. I used JB Weld to apply the races provided in the kit to the A-arms. I love how silky smooth they feel. New ball joints installed.
Installed onto the cross-member
Assembly of the front end continues, my goal is to get it off the stand I built before it gets too heavy.
A-Arms and Sway Bar from GR German Parts Restoration installed.
Looking very nice.
Beautiful, even love the color. Let me know when you’re ready to ship.
I love it when you get to work on the car all day without getting bothered. Time flies though and before you know it you didn't even eat lunch.
5 Lung Conversion from PMB
Absolutely beautiful workmanship, really enjoy the progress reports. Also that blue has got me hooked - I might have a new favorite 914 color. Congrats!
Fantastic
Antoine
I like that you're not messing around, getting things assembled so you can drive it.
Better than a brand new 914 for sure!
Now to the rear suspension. I bought the coil over kit from Rebel Racing and I absolutely love it, I could stare at these all day long
Laid out everything I needed, I had previously installed new bearings in the rear arms and had everything powder coated.
I can't remember where I bought the rear bushings from but they were proud of the shaft so I had to sand them down.
End result
Let's start off with this shot, just a few more pieces I want to install before I put it down on the ground.
Again, 5-lug conversion and brakes from PMB
Some more rear suspension shots.
I love this shot with the fat tires.
Catching up on this build thread. Absolutely stunning!
The blue is spectacular!
Looking forward to seeing the rest of the assembly! Have fun!
An absolute stunner Pedro! That colour works so well with the arches.
Nice work on the suspension. What size rims & tyres did you decide on? Never mind, just read the sticker on the tyres. Heheheh
Over the weekend I got a little bit more done, not as much as I would have liked but progress is progress.
Hung the doors, latch and strike.
Also finished painting the rest of the parts, everything that goes blue should be painted now.
And my carpet kit showed up, so I was taking it out to make sure all the pieces were there.
I wasn't even done taking everything out of the box, I turned around and this happened. Guess she likes it
For the color sanding and buffing I asked a friend of mine for help. He is an expert at it and his job is to go and give classes to body shops around Mexico. Nobody I would trust more than him.
Hood installed and color sanded
End result nice, shinny and smooth as a baby's bottom I couldn't wait for him to finish and I had to install the door handle to see how it looked.
Now that the color sanding and buffing is finished I started on assembling small parts I had for the car.
Tail lights, trunk opener and 914 emblem
Excuse the dust in this picture, I was installing parts as my friend was polishing the paint.
Hood release
Looking absolutely fantastic. Way to go Pedro.
I’m happy your pup approved as well. :-)
That is really one beautiful car.... Excellent workmanship!!
wow! congratulations!
Dion, slowrodent and ndfrigi thank you very much for the kind words fellas!
I know this is out of place and it should have been done before painting but I didn't have everything I needed at the time it had to be done. So here we are and now I have to be super careful not to damage the new paint.
I needed to make the flairs to the side skirts and the front and rear bumper valance. Here is a little bit of the process of how I made them.
First I made some general shapes with cardboard.
After I get the general shape that I need i take them off and put some packing tape on the inside. These work as my mold.
Even though the packing tape releases well from the fiberglass I always put a coat or two of mold release.
Piece out of the mold and checking to see how they fit.
And now to splice them onto the existing skirts
Added more fiberglass to the back side to bond them.
Then after some body filler and some shaping we have the finished product
A few more shots of the work and the semi-finished parts. They still need prime and block sanding to get them ready for paint.
Front valance
Side skirts
Parts ready for primer, still need to work on the rear valance, hopefully by next week it will be done also.
The fiberglass work is absolutely brilliant. Can you please redo my front belly pan to match? Very sharp Pedro.
On another note the “Taxi” has piqued my interest.
VW Scirocco, Audi Quattro or Isuzu . The square body shape at front is throwing me off.
Keep the pics coming!
Hey Dion, that's my friends AE86, he uses it for drifting and he thought it would be funny if we painted it like a taxi frome here in Tijuana LOL
Sure man, I would be glad to help. Let me know what you need done to the belly pan and I'll do it for you.
Headlight buckets all painted up and assembled. I did re-use the bushings and adjusting blocks as they were in good shape. Painted with satin gray Rust-Oleum spray paint.
That blue, wow.
Upon test fitting the front bumper the fog lights were not quite centered on the holes of the grill. I had to modify the mounting brackets so that they would be centered.
Here is a picture of the back of the fog light and what the mounting ears look like
Here is the modification that was made, excuse the ugly welds I ran out of gas and had to use the flux core wire.
And this is how I mounted them. But I messed up and now I have to fix it. I need the ears of the bracket from the light to be on the outside of the small bracket that gets bolted to the body
At least they are centered and look really good for some aftermarket fog lights from ebay.
I've been working on the war but have been slacking on posting up my pictures so here goes.
Headlight covers before and after. Cleaned them up and let them sit in a bucket with chlorine and water for a couple of days. Hit it with some barkeepers friend at the end and the result was pretty good.
Painted and installed the trim with new hardware.
Side skirts and bumper valances primed and ready for paint
I'm going to wait a little while before I paint all those pieces black because I also want to paint my roof while I am at it. For this reason I jumped to the wiring harness. I have been dreading this job for a while but it also has to get done.
Here the installation of the new snorkel.
Then working on the new washer pump switch. Installation is pretty straight forward and simple for this switch thanks to all the great info that is here on the site.
Then it was time to start running the wiring harness. Started at the tunnel and worked my way to both ends.
Harnes ran through the engine compartment.
Then into the trunk
Out the back for the license plate lights with the new grommets.
Mounted the fuse panel under the dash, some of those fuses are probably still original
Installing the steering column to check that all my lights and the washer pump work.
Then it was a matter of running it to the front of the car.
Doing the euro conversion. I was having a grounding issue by just grounding to the bucket so I ran the ground wire all the way to the harness.
New spade connectors and wiring the the harness.
Boot installed
Nicely done as usual Pedro. Coming along so well. How did you get the front turn signal buckets to shine so well? They look new!
Worked some more on the harness and also the windshield wipers
Cleaned up and installed
New hardware from 914 Rubber
Grimmy and dirty headlight motors and hardware
Cleaned up and ready for install
And thanks to Ian for making this video that made installation much easier:
https://youtu.be/Uhs6pedBOXM
Even though my car did not originally come with a grill for the airbox I decided to add it to prevent stuff from getting down there.
Good call on the grill; should have done that on my build.
The dash material was still in very good shape, I just cleaned it with some soap and water and it looked great. Using contact cement to glue it down.
Took the time to add some black to where the air vents come out.
Double sided tape for the chrome molding on the knee pad
That is as far as I was able to get on the dash until my parts order from 914 rubber shows up. I did get to work on other small detail parts for the dash though.
Soaked the glove box with water and then put a clamp on it out in the sun to get it back into shape.
Took the cigarette lighter apart to clean it up.
Knee pad cleaned up also, luckily this was also in very good shape. Just used soap and water, I will treat it with a protectant prior to installation.
Oh wow! I somehow missed a whole year of your build. What a treat to catch up. Last time I checked, you had a diamond in the rough, and now, FABULOUS!
And I have to say, only real mean take their cigar lighters apart.
Excellent work, Pedro. Keep up the momentum.
I'm happy to report that the glove box is no longer crooked. Leaving it overnight to dry while clamped did the job. Now I need to get some flock because the inside is still nasty from all the rat piss
Since I will be waiting for parts to arrive for the dash I decided to clean all the air ducts. Off into a bucket of warm soapy water they go. Amazing how much dirt is coming off these, couldn't imagine not taking these apart to clean them properly from the inside.
Forgot to take before pics of these but they were just as dirty as everything else.
Wow a couple of weeks and I am really lagging on my updates
The parts I ordered from 914 Rubber showed up in just a few days so I go on the dash to get it finished.
Ian, thanks for the great video on how to upholster to dash. It made this job quick and easy and it came out looking great. The dash also came from 914 rubber and it looks fantastic. Here are some pictures of the dash installation.
This pictures shows the rubber seal between the dash and the windshield.
Now to deal with the wiring harness and all the accessories.
Time to pause and clean the air controls. Cleaned up the electrical terminals, surface rust on the metal parts, painted the face, lubed the cable guides, new grommet and new knobs.
Well, it's starting to look like a car inside now, and I can't wait to finish putting it together. Still quite a ways to go yet though Here I installed the knee pad, switches, air controls, air registers and started sorting out the wiring.
I'm pretty happy with how things are lining up with little tweaking right now. Will work on it some more to get a better fit on some parts.
Couldn't wait, had to test my newly installed light switches.
This car is soooo nice. That front end is sweet.
Just awesomeness Pedro!
Thanks Dion! Talking about the front end, I need to get up and finish sanding and painting the bumpers and other parts. I have just been lazy doing it and was focusing on putting the car back together.
Instruments are in and starting hooking up the harness to the back of them. Starting to come alive slowly.
Also worked on getting the air ducts in and starting to adjust the cables from the levers in the dash.
Next was the installation of the air ducts, but first I had to re-work the clamps.
The air hoses I ordered where from URO Parts in 60mm Part# 644 572 971 00, Part SKU URO-010423 in 1500mm length. The other one was 50mm Part# 911 211 274 00, Part SKU URO-010451 in 720mm length.
I was surprised how close these are to the originals.
Wow, just wow! Really enjoying following the progress of your beautiful build. Thanks for taking the time to share your work.
WOW !
Here's another one of those, I should have done this before. But in my rush to get the car painted I decided to wait to do it later. Here I had to make new brackets for the rear bumper so that it would line up correctly. I am also fixing some of the edges so that all the gaps are even and that they are straight. I knew I should have done this before, it's not fun working on a freshly painted car without scratching it.
Got my gas gauge working, the fuel sending unit was stuck so I left it soaking in some gas overnight and it loosened up.
It's the little things that slowly bring this car back to life.
Trunk light
Seatbelt light is fully operational now with the seatbelts.
Getting these put back together without smearing grease all over the place was difficult, lots of paper towels were required.
It's really coming together! What a great color as well!
Started polishing my windows, I found a product at Walmart that is used to clean and polish glass cooktops. I used it with my sponge polishing pad and it worked great.
I was rebuilding the door stays and to fix the difference in the diameter from the pin to the hole in the arm I used the metal end of a glass fuse.
The diameter fit exactly.
Glued it in with some GB Weld and then grinded the end off.
And the finished product.
Cleaned up my door window lifts and lubed them with garage door lube.
WOW! so much fun seeing it all come together, you're nearing completion! so many fun small details, looks like you havnt overlooked anything for sure. Is the motor ready to go back in? Axel rebuild is messy for sure!. you'll be back on the road soon.
Phil
Ok, so seeing all the recent stuff about the door quarter glass seals in the threads lately made me a little bit scared about tackling this job. Luckily I still had my original seals that were in ok shape and they helped me see how I needed to modify the 914 rubber seals.
First I extended the groove for the frame, here you can see it at the bottom.
Then came the recess for the front bracket. I trimmed both recesses with an x-acto knife.
Recess for the rear bracket
Then I had to do some trimming at the front of the seal so that it would sit properly over the metal edge on the door. Just a tiny bit with the x-acto and it was fitting nicely.
Made sure the seal was fitting well in the door before trying to install it with the frame and glass. The trimming was necessary to get it to fit correctly from the begining.
nice work on those window seals it can be one of the least favorite jobs installing those and the triangle glass and seals, its up there next to air box installation and having your teeth pulled! Hard to believe its been 4 years since your first post!!
*deleted- double post*
sorry somehow on refreshing my screen it double posted,
Even after the initial trimming, when I put the window into the frame with the bracket I still got a bulge. Took it apart for some more trimming until the bulge was gone.
Here in this picture you can see the bulge right above the bracket.
After all the trimming was done, I was able to get the windows into the frames and the brackets installed, this was about 2 hours worth of work to get them to this stage.
Installed the window lift, door stays and inside door handle.
Kept going with my doors yesterday and got quite a bit along. The quarter window and frame went in without too much trouble using some soap for lubrication. Per instructions on here I wrapped it in packing plastic so it wouldn't slip out of the seal.
From there I moved onto the door window installation. Cut and trim all the new 914 Rubber parts, the aluminum channel, window scrapers and seals.
I had to do a little bit of adjustment on the end cap because it wasn't lining up with the aluminum channel.
Wow, I just skimmed this thread from work, but had to reply so I can find it later and refer back. Wish I had the time and funds to go this deep on mine.
Then I added a couple of strips of sound deadener material.
Next install door windows and make sure they roll up and down without binding. The garage door lubricant I used seems to have worked out well. Pretty happy with the window fitment but I really can't do any more adjustment on it until I get the top on and all the seals installed.
Here is a shot of the outer seals installed and trimmed.
Onto the targa seal, good thing 914 rubber had a how to video on this. Had to trim a bit of the metal in order for the seal to fit.
Fitting nice
Well getting the targa seal on wasn't that bad, the most difficult part was getting the sides in the metal rails to sit properly. That is what took the longest as I was being careful not to scratch the paint on them. I wanted to check the fitment with the window and at first this is how it was.
I started playing with it and my solution was to push the window up and then lean it backwards a little bit. This gave me a much better seal but I will play with it some more once I put the car back on the ground.
The rear seal is just in place to check the alignment of the window, I'll do a final fit and trim when I get my targa top on. One down, one to go
Well I got quite a bit done this past week, first I finished the body work on the bumpers and side skirts and then I painted them. Forgot to take pics after I painted all the parts
Mounted all the parts to make sure everything still lined up well.
Then came the big moment after 4 years on the dolly it was time to put the 914 back on the ground.
Wheels on
All the painted parts back on. Didn't paint the rear balance because I still don't have the muffler I will be running and I will need to modify it for where the pipes will come out.
From there I jumped on the engine lid, first I had to paint black under were the grills will be
There's many pieces and trims going on with the engine lid, it actually took me all day to put it together.
All done and ready to go on the car.
It latches and everything
NICE panel gaps! Great work...
Excellent work... Beautiful car. Love the paint work!
Then it was time to add the rain tubes and while I was in there I installed the torsion rods for the trunk lid, not fun and very difficult to do without worrying about damaging something.
Now it was time to start working more on the interior. I was waiting until I had my windows in and the top installed just because everything gets very dusty here in the shop. Started with the sound deadener.
Don't know why I didn't take more pictures of the vinyl coverings, but this is the only one I found.
amazing build!
Seat belt and coat hook
Don't know the name of this but I got it installed and the little screws are a real pain, then I had to take it out because I installed the latches the wrong way around
Test fitting the shifter and heater lever to start trimming the carpet for the center tunnel. Also needed to fit them so I could see how I was going to attach the center console.
Looking good! Have bookmarked this thread and look forward to reading the entire thing later. I might hit you up for some of your suppliers as I am in IB which is probably close to you.
Looking great!
My car did not come with a center console but since I really like the look of them I decided to add one. I bought the console from AA and I really like the way it looks and how it is made. My car didn't have the wiring for the instruments or the heater indicator in the harness, so I had to wire all those up also.
Wiring on the backside of the instruments
Her it is all wired up. Brackets were made to attach to the existing bolts for the heater lever and the shifter, this way no holes were drilled into the center tunnel in order to mount the console. Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the little brackets that I made.
Here just making sure that everything works as it should.
Then after some clean up.
The joy of seeing it all nice and tidy didn't last long because I had to remove the console to start working on the center tunnel carpet. Now that I had all the wiring and brackets made, I could fit the carpet. Since I know I might have to take the carpet off again in the future i decided to affix it with Velcro instead of glue.
Very clean!
Yes Spring Valley is very close, I will take you up on your offer when I start work in earnest on mine. Look forward to seeing it when you are done and taking it out in public!
I got called out by Dion for not keeping up to date on my build thread so here goes. I have been working on the car and it's almost finished but I will try and put up the pictures I have in sequence.
For a 72 the correct sill plates should be silver but I wanted to keep with the blacked out look so I decided to purchase the black set from 914 rubber.
Then continuing the installation of the center console, I followed some other posts that I found that were very helpful and installed the amp inside the console.
Here they are all painted and installed, after this I was able to get on with finishing the engine in order to do a test run.
Fan shroud and alternator installation
Doing a final valve adjustment and making sure the valve geometry is correct.
At this stage I was pretty much ready to test run the engine. I extended the wires from the car to the engine that I had mounted on blocks to the side. Hooked up the fuel pump to a gas can and she was ready to go. I was surprised that it fired up right away without cranking the engine over too much.
I had a small oil leak coming from the oil pump so I removed it and put a new gasket in that was a little bit better and it cleared it right up. I kept running the engine like this for a couple of days while adjusting the carburetors and the timing. After I was satisfied that everything was ok it was time to get it into the car.
But before I put it back into the car I cleaned up the transmission. I had previously sent it to a shop that checked to make sure everything was ok and installed all new seals and gaskets.
Shows last active February 2023 on his profile...
Such a beautiful build, would love to see the car in person.
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