I post every so often in the what did you do to your 914 today thread. Figured I would start a separate thread and have some accountability to get this done.
My car is a 72 which along the way I have swapped the original 1.7 engine out for a 2.0 with DJET & a side shift gearbox.
The plan is to convert to a 1974 2.7 liter six with webers. Along the way I need to do some rust repair - which will be a helluva lot more challenging than the engine swap.
Here's what I am starting with.
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The gearbox was leaking pretty bad, I had messed up installing the drive shaft seal on one side, the box was weeping everywhere else. I ended up pulling the stack so I could replace the gaskets around the intermediate plate. I am getting into territory which I have no business poking around in. Anyways its back together and all cleaned up.
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Here's the engine. It is a 1974 2.7 engine (non S) with Weber carbs from one of our world members. It supposedly had a recent top end rebuild. I used one of those little cameras on a cord so I can peek down the plug holes, it has CIS pistons. I imagine this is all stock except for the carbs.
I have taken apart the carbs and cleaned it all up. I also put in a 123 distributor that I purchased from another world member.
I pulled the chainbox cover and found that this engine has mechanical tensioners. I am going to run it this way, may need to revisit that at a later time.
I bought a converted oil cooler which had a leak at the fitting. I had Patrick MS re-do the fitting with a clean and pressure test. Along with that I had the flywheel balanced and put in a stage 2 clutch package with an aluminum faced pressure plate from Kennedy. I used ARP flywheel bolts and tossed the washer as the instructions stated to do.
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Well onto the not so fun stuff. Rust Repair. Several years ago I bought a mig welder and went crazy welding everything in sight. I welded in an engman inner long kit and got the longs too hot which fuquered up my door gaps. I was able to fix this with some good advice here on the site. Since then I have been leary of welding on the car.
Rear trunk floor is shot. I cut this out and have an RD panel to replace it. I also scored a heat shield from a member here. I tossed my old one years ago when it was rattling around in my swiss style trunk floor.
The rear panel on the car was replaced at some point in it's life and only one trunk support survived. I was able to fab up a couple of supports. I also had to weld in new metal to the rear panel as it was rusting where it met the trunk floor. This was an ugly job, I will edit this post later when I take a pic. Good thing the bumper covers that crap up!
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Nice ride.
There is just something VERY cool about the way your car looks, Travis. Just the way it is. I shouldn't like the green wheel centers...but I do, and am trying to think of a color that would look better in there and coming up empty. The gray is killer, too.
What tires are you running? That car is gonna be a lot of fun with a six in...
Moving onto the engine compartment. The top of my long in the hellhole has some holes and needs to be patched. Battery tray comes out too.
I got a shrinker and stretcher tool from HF, along with a cheap-o bending brake. I was able to make the hellhole patch out of 18g steel.
I cut out the offending metal and a piece of the lower firewall. I had to also cut a 2x8 inch patch on the side wall. When welding in the side wall patch the quarter panel pulled tight getting rid of a weird pucker at the leading edge of the rear quarter panel. Quite a bonus and reminder that I need to slow it down.
For the hell hole patch, i spread the welding out over a few days. No shrinking here and looks pretty good.
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With all this welding that I have to do, it is time for some door braces. I used 3/4 black pipe from HD and some right and left thread rod ends & inserts from McMaster. The seat belt bolts were a smidgenfuck too large to fit through the rod ends. I put the bolts in the drill press and used a file to make it the right size. I made the brakets that attach to the longs from some rectangular tubing.
Note to self - I will need to get new seat belt bolts!
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Oh, along the way I cleaned up the engine compartment and under the rear trunk. I also took the plunge and cut holes for the Patrick MS oil tank.
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I have the transmission all bolted up to the engine. I also replaced the alternator with one that had an internal voltage regulator so won't have to use the stock relay board. Perry Kiehl fabricated a conversion wiring harness for me, it is some great craftsmanship. It would be a serious horror show to see what it would look like if I made one
A couple years ago I found a 914-6 engine tin set on ebay for a couple hundred bucks. It was raw steel so I had this powder coated in a matte black.
The side tins will need to go in after the engine is in the car, the polybronze rear bushing shaft sticks out farther than the stock pivot arm - found this out the hard way when taking the 4 cyl out and it hung up there.
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Sometime in the past both jack points were replaced. I think they used some steel plate for this.
Under the long is this little hole, tip of the iceberg..
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Very memorable day! Remember that Prius... Car is looking great! Keep going!
Nice work Travis. I do like the green with the gray. Reminds me of Porsche’s 918 look. Keep it! Looks great.
I’ll be following. Good luck!
Looks great.. Fun projects.. Ping me if you need any help..
I like the green wheels! This looks like the start of an interesting thread so keep us posted as the progress continues.
Nice work! Should be a nice combo. Well worth the time and effort. Keep it up.
With that last photo of the replaced jack point and that itty bitty hole - I started to poke around.
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The long was stuffed with what looks to be Cotton. Damn rodents! I am not surprised I found a whole bunch of dry dog food stuffed in the heater tubes when I installed the inner long kit a long time ago
The longs are rotting from the inside out.
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And a little view of the jack point repair. They cut through the backer part way up, which is kinda scary. However, they used plate steel for the repair and it was definitely strong.
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Wow travis you are flying man. I've still got your spare sitting in my office at work. LOL! One of these days I'm going to stop tripping over it & put it in a box. That replacement panel looks great man. As does your patch for the hell hole. Keep it up man
Wow amazing job !!!
Been sidetracked for a few days. Battery tray patch in the sidewall. I took the car off the jackstands, I had to do some funky shimming of the jack stands to get the chassis level. Plus I need to figure out a plan to support the car while I start cutting into the longs.
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Long steal tubes welded a front crossmember and tie into the rear suspension outer mount.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=76791 has a great version of this as does http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=262220&st=0.
I'll be watching
Still trying to decide if I am going Webber / PMO or straight to EFI. Any worry about elevation changes?
I am hoping that I do not need to build a frame.
I was looking at this thread http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=226585&st=40 where Rick had made wheel stands instead. My rust repairs will be about the same as that thread.
As for being worried about elevation changes with carbs? I am more worried about figuring out how to jet and tune them in the first place! I know that elevation changes can cause some funny running issues, but I don't think that is a deal killer.
Nice work Travis!
Thanks Bryan! Good to see you
I found my floor has a slope side to side at about 3/8 of an inch. If I use some left over 3/8 bamboo flooring on the drivers side it gets me level side to side.
For the back I used a couple 4x4 screwed together and then screwed the ramp stands to it in the back. I dont have any more ramp stands for the front, so I used jack stands at the forward lift points and then a single jack stand at the front trunk floor.
Its mostly level, I need to drop the drivers side rear coilover a 1/4 of an inch or so. I will do that tomorrow.
What do you all think?
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I will change out the mechanical tensioners, but I want to get the conversion done and make sure it runs first.
I am doing a patrick motorsports Tank, Engine mount & front cooler. I have not tackled the shift rod yet. The Tangerine racing one looks good to me. I might try building my own from my spare tail shift linkage and side shift linkage.
Nice looking car and all the work looks good. But those jack stands.... that looks dangerous to me. I would like to see something more secure or at least some redundant support if you are going to be getting under that thing. There are some horror stories about failed jack stands.
Go forward but be safe.
What are you using for exhaust?
I’m a chicken shit. I would never work under a car set up like that. Be careful about putting torque on a fastener.
Travis I would screw a bunch of 2z4s in a stack to do it, then shim the bottoms with metal plate.
Easy and sturdy
This seemed to work also, but not sure I would trust my rotor to hold the car up
Just wondering on the carbs, as I tend to over think this stuff, and figure somebody would know who might deal with elevation changes more than I do. Just don't want to setup the car drive to Georgia for Okteenerfest and hate the drive due to miss behaving carbs.
Also I can say Tangerine Racings shift rod is a thing of beauty, yes it can be made, sometimes I prefer to support the vendors that support the community. That is why I would got your mount from Rich, Maddog, or Forgot his name and the oil tank from Ben. Spread the love to the guys trying to make my life easier. And yes I have purchased items from PMS also, so I get it. High quality pretty easy to deal with. completely get that idea.
I'll take a look at adding a 4x4 as a 2nd i-beam. Again they each rear is now one piece as the wood is screwed together and the ramp is screwed to the wood.
Yes the front is pretty far up there. I think I will take off the front wheels and stack them under the front for insurance. The 2x4 route looks good but I can't get the car much higher than it is. I would need to go up another 8 inches or a foot
PMS is 15 minutes away from me and they have done some work on another car for me in the past, so I try to keep that relationship alive where it makes sense. I bought a lot of these parts before Ben started making them.
For exhaust I have a used set of rusty looking 1 5/8 headers that I got off of another forum member. I have a used dansk 2 in 2 out sport muffler
Bob Saville , naro Motorsports for the engine mount.
I was going to buy from Bob as his looks like they are stronger than the PMS. But at that time he was out of stock
Thanks for all the input so far, I appreciate the feedback. I added a 2nd 4x4 to the I-beam and went a little screw crazy on the new and existing wood. It's not going anywhere.
Still thinking about what to do for extra support/insurance for the front. I have the jack stands oriented 90 degrees from one another so it does not rock on the same plane.
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good work
I throw extra wheels with tires under the car. I also have an old safe that I roll under sometimes. I’ll keep the jack under the car in addition to the stands. Like I said - I’m a chicken.
I added a 4th jack stand underneath the tunnel about 1/2 way back for the time being. I will stack the tires under the front as well.
I just ordered these jack stands. Pin lock and screw adjustment. Everyone needs at least 5 sets of jack stands https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085IJNNY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Now to try to get the drivers side 4 cyl mount out.
I need to post the picture of my no fail jack stands. They work for leveling.. I actually thought about making them and selling them but that could be a major liability.
The ramp stand is already screwed down to the wood, its all one piece.
Really great thread!
Consider using a water level to make sure your chassis is perfectly level before you start cutting things. Super easy to do and you will be guaranteed dead nuts on.
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Water-Level
David
Your project looks well on it's way to success!
I used a lot of Patrick Motorsports' products in my conversion, and I'm glad I did. I took a ribbing from some fellow 914 "friends" (who will remain anonymous, and who have nothing but trouble with their cars) for being a spendthrift and a "retail buyer" for using costly PMS stuff.
It's quality stuff. I'd recommend the PMS rear shift linkage bar, mine has worked out very well.
I loved the wheels when I saw the car in Arizona, keep up the great work.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Larmo!
OK, I need to get something done today and the new jack stands wont arrive until saturday sometime. Did a tire stack and then a couple sections of leftover wood countertop, and a couple of 2x4's to bridge the gap.
Then got to work and finished cutting out that damn engine mount on the drivers side. What a bitch! I have just a little bit of cleanup and wire wheel it clean and I can call it good enough.
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It was a Montana car that I got from Craig at camp914. Pretty happy with it so far.
The passenger side is a little worse off, I'll patch that because I am going in to cut into the bottom of the long there anyways.
Now, off to see about maybe getting the engine mount in.
I started grinding the paint away where I needed to weld in the mounts, and I cut part of the tailshifter flange off to give me more room to weld.
Prepped with UPOL Weld through primer. I then fitted up the mounts and traced around the welding area and ground back down to bare metal. I don't have good luck welding directly through the primer.
I then drilled some plug weld holes in the mounts. If I was to do it again, I would have only done the top two holes. Painted the backside with weld through primer, took off the primer on the plug weld holes and the edges of the mount.
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All burned in. Not the prettiest, but it will work.
Tomorrow I will do the plug welds and grind the crown off the welds
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Speaking from a welding instructor stand point you are best off not grinding the welds off for this as it adds strength. The only reason to grind a weld is to hide the seam.. It degrades the strength of the weld joint.
Understood. I am in the middle and just cropped off the tops. I'll get back whatever I lost with the plug welds I think.
Got it, thank you
Btw I like the project. Looks like a great start.
I see you took the /4 mounts out, I left mine in. I felt that they strengthen and square up the chassis at that critical point.
I know /6s don't have them, but I ran my oil lines through the driver's side one, just so it could make itself useful.
Looking Good!
Cool! You're going to love that motor when its done! Carb'd flat sixes are amazing!
When removing my 4 mounts I made 14 gauge over lay reinforcements.. I will see if I can dig up a picture.. oops just found one.
I thought about leaving the mounts in when I had them halfway out. I was getting frustrated that I might not be able to get them out without a huge leftover mess!
I like the overlays and am thinking about something similar. Ollie's 914-6 blog has something like that as well. I will decide once I get the longs all fixed up.
I took Ben's critique on my mounts and while I didn't really like to hear it, I needed to. And I am thankful to get the feedback. So I went out and did some practicing and fooling around with the controls. I am going to try to practice a little bit each day before I start doing any more weld in work. Also on plug & butt welds. It's easy to rush to get something done vs. trying the best you can and slow down a bit.
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Beautiful! Obviously not done with a metal glue gun.
More practice today. I won't keep boring you with all this, but I am happy about the improvement and wanted to share.
I found that doing the plug welds, I got the best penetration by starting the puddle in the middle and pull out to the side of the hole, then do the same in 3, 6, 9, 12 & follow up with filling the hole. Where I filled the hole in one shot, amazingly I had the least penetration.
For the welds on the top, I redialed in my auto-darkening helmet so I could see better as i go. I did about 2" at a time and still need more practice were I start a weld next to the old weld (hope that makes sense). Also need to focus on using all the real estate on the side of the flat stock.
This is new metal to new metal, so no blowing holes. I practiced on some old sheet metal I cut out of the car and that was much more tricky to not blow holes.
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Keep it up.. Now your up to the job. Carry on..
Let's pucker up and start to cut..
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Btdt.. Oh what fun.
A bunch more cotton and mouse trash fell out of the hollow section of the lower firewall. Those little bastards can get everywhere!
Now to figure out where to start patching. I have the huge urge to cut out the jack point area, but knowing my luck the car will collapse in half. I'll need to patch what I cut (and a few more cuts, like the inside corner of the passenger compartment), then move onto the next spot.
I think I will cut these 2 parts next. I will need to figure out how to bend the replacement long pieces to make that smooth, rounded corner. Anyone have any insight on this? I have a cheap-o 30 inch HF brake. I guess finding some conduit or something to help make the shape.
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I have the same cheapo HF bending brake and bending the radius on those inner longs is actually pretty easy. I welded a piece of 3/8" solid round stock to a piece of plate that I bent the patch around. Matches the radius very well. You can see it about half way down on this post: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&showtopic=307290&view=findpost&p=2516927
A little more cancer cuts
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Alright, I will get both sizes and some flat bar stock to create the recesses.
Scrubbed things down a bit more with a smaller sized wire brush I found, then hosed it down with Metal Prep. That stuff has some STANK.
Found it! Thanks for the tip and thanks to Ben to show us how it's done.
I only need to worry about the first 2 recesses (left)
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That would save me some serious time!
I would need from here to here with the flange that meets the outside cover on the bottom, and the radius curve on the inside that goes up about 1.5 inches in height.
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Brent, thanks for the tip on the round bar. 1/2 and 3/8 round bar works out great.
I welded the bars onto some 1/4x1.5 flat stock for my cheap-0 HF brake. Then tested it out on some 20g.
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Either way would be fantastic!
Patched a small part of long and put a backer in place over the original backer. I will have to jigsaw puzzle that part back together. Will have some pics tomorrow. Welding upside sucks, I think I need to seriously bump up the wire speed, as soon as a good puddle started it wanted to drop out onto my chest LOL.
I cleaned up the floor section that I removed and the the back part of it was super pitted and bent like tin foil. I fabbed a patch up, which was a bit of a chore to make that corner. But it seemed to work out. Blow a bunch of holes trying to section in the flange with the firewall section.
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Forgot a pic of the good looking side
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I put in the backing panel against the inside long wall. I had to leave a gap so I could get the welding gun in there to weld to the side of the long. Then added in a filler piece with a flange so I could plug weld and run a stitch at the seam. Its a little ugly, but it will be covered up.
Went on to make the bottom of the long to cover the same area. Made 2 recess to replicate the original long. I made them about a 1/4 to wide, and thought hard about making another panel. Then I said screw it, it will all be covered by seam sealer anyways. It's in, I'll share pics tomorrow for that.
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Patch is in. Had to grind down some the welds to get the floor pan piece to fit flush.
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Moving on..
This cut exercised my pelvic floor pretty good. Looks like I am just about into all good metal, may need to cut another inch higher. I haven't poked around in there, but I may need to cut out the divot for the -4 engine mount. Not sure if it is worth trying to replicate that divot part.
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Looked a little further and the bump for the -4 mount indentation had to come out. You can see the backing piece is totally gone.
After cutting this out I was able to get the backer off and I think I can save this piece.
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I am officially sick of rust repair, LOL.
I made a patch for the inner long, outer long and created the 2nd layer backing for both. I was able to patch in the -4 cyl bump too.
A little more cleanup that needs to be done, still thinking whether or not I want to do an overlay as suggested before.
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Floo no mo..
The lower rear firewall compartment was full of mouse crap and the floor under there was weak. I don't want to have to re-do any of these repairs, so time to cut..
I could have got away with a short rear floorpan piece. But just a few bucks more and piece of mind, I went with the full back half.
I will have to do some patching of the lower firewall, and as luck would have it I found a crack in the long on the drivers side. At least I am all practiced up from the passenger side.
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Was the crack near the e-brake handle?
When I did the engman kit there was a crack by the ebrake handle I repaired that before I hot glued the kit in.
This crack is on the bottom of the long. Lemme go take a pic
Here.
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The e-brake crack is common on early cars.
I didn't have any cracks on the interior of the long but since my floors were totally rotted, the rust had made leetle teeny holes at places at the junction of the long and floor. I made some inner/bottom reinforcement and fixed er up. It's better now to accept the new floor pieces.
The stress crack is not limited to early cars, I've seen it in probably 1/2 of all 914's
Oh, I love this piece you added in!
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Thanks Travis - it goes all the way back to where the rear reinforcement kit takes over. With the new drivetrain, reinforced trailing arms and big fat tires, I figured a little extra strength is worth the weight I've added. Working on the other side now...
That particular spot never seems to get any extra beef when people do the inner kit and the engine bay reinforcements. In my opinion it becomes the new the weak spot.
Cut out the offending metal. The crack is a little rusty on the bottom, but flip it over and you can see the crack in the backer as well. I would guess this is from the engman kit I put in and the 250lb rear springs I have been running. But, who knows?
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Go big or go home. Scored an unused 25mm SRP sway bar. I bought a maddog front swaybar reinforcing panel that I will put in too.
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Another goodie, vent and jet kit for my webers. The carbs I have now are setup for a 2.0t engine with 30mm vents. I went with a 32mm vent & jet kit from partsklassic.
Also, not pictured is rear swaybar mounts from Brad Mayuer.
I snatched up a MSD coil and plug wires from Forrest.
And I picked up a 914-6 rear bumper from Hill in Scottsdale. I got to see his -6 he is putting back on the road.
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I'll try not to be a slacker and not post pics.
I also ordered a tunnel fuel line kit, suspension brace heim joints, -6 shift rod kit from Tangerine Racing.
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Looking good. I want that rear bumper man. So shiny
I've gotta admit, I never would have guessed that your car had 250# rear springs in it from the way it rode at Rt66.... it seemed very compliant and handled well. I'll be pushing more weight in the back end and ordered 225# springs the other day - now I'm rethinking my strategy.
Its pretty balanced with the 22mm torsion bars up front and 250lbs in the rear. Get it on some crappy roads and you'll be bouncing around pretty good. I intend to go down to 21 or maybe even 20mm torsion bars with my new big bar up front and try 175's in the rear with a rear swaybar.
Easy come, easy go. I sold the SRP bar to Hans and have the Welt bar in the classifieds. I didn't understand that the hollow 25mm bar is the same stiffness as my solid 22 bar.
I ordered a 32mm .095 bar from Tangerine Racing.
I was able to patch where I had the crack in the frame rail on the drivers side. I will add a reinforcement to this area on both the driver and passenger side.
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forgot a pic.. When I weld this in it will tie right to the existing stiffening kit in the corner, along the seam of the inner side of the frame rail and wrap up to the heater duct. I will worry about the engine compartment side at a later time. Need to get this in so I can move on with the floor replacement.
I am also cutting about an inch up on the lower firewall and patching that area before the floors go in.
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Not much to report on progress.
I have the floors partially done, the perimeter welds are in, still need to plug weld along the interior and do the butt weld from old floor to new.
Jamie Rust sent me a little gift, a 5 lug spare. I probably would have driven around without one until I learned my lesson the hard way, I appreciate the gift!
I also received new SS fuel lines and a tangerine shift linkage kit,. I picked up some Monoballs for the front struts that I found in the classifieds here.
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Very cool. I need to get a 5 lug spare as well..
Engine shelf is in.
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As you can see the in the pic above, the trunk pivot looks like a booger farm.
Lots of braze and some weld, looks like this was attempted to be repaired a couple of times. Good thing I took this out, it was cracked and smashed.
The wall behind the pivot has given way and I will need to patch. I am a bit worried about access and needing that patch to not fail in the future.
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Hole cut. I smoked my dremel with the flexi wand and had to finish with a cutoff wheel.
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Hinge patch piece is in and the hinge is as well.
Moving onto reinforcing the frame rail in the engine compartment. I wasn't sure about recreating the -4 mount divot, but went for it. Turned out decent enough that it wont go in the scrap pile. I will go around the bottom of the frame rail and make the remainder of the divot there, I think it will be easier to do. Then weld the 2 pieces together as one - then hot glue it into the car.
I am not going to commit to welding this in unless I can get the drivers side to turn out the same.
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Driver side is complete. I was going to recreate the divot piece entirely, but I think I will leave it like this and stitch it on in. Bending a very small peice of 14g into a cup shape and have it fit, then trim to size sounds like a half day ordeal for my skillset.
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Good call! I had to recreate those $%^#ing divots on both sides and it was no fun. I need the 4-banger mounts so no other option. Then I got to cut one of them open and do it again when it was time to reinstall the mount because I didn't get it quite right. The less you have to do with those divots, the better. Fantastic work. Enjoying watching the progress.
Thanks Brent, I appreciate the kind words. This turned out better than I expected.
Looks very similar to what I did..
Finished making the passenger side reinforcement. Got most of the driver's side welded in. I had a few challenges with weld contamination, otherwise it's ok. I will finish this up tomorrow and then onto the other side.
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Hijacking my own thread. Did a distributor rebuild for the SC and new bronze shift coupler bushings. The car has been running hot and takes its time getting back to idle from cruise once warm, at 94k miles it was time.
I got a nice kit from PartsKlassic for the rebuild. I hope i didnt jack anything up
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I got both reinforcements welded in, in the engine compartment.
I needed to find something to do for my lunch hour. I have the reinforcement plates for the front swaybar from Maddog. They are 16g, I used them as a template and made a pair out of my leftover 14g. Overkill? maybe. I want to run a smaller torsion bar and a big swaybar, and why the hell not. Plus I had to hog out the swaybar hole for the 31mm bar. i hope to get that this week! Excited about that.
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I made my own stiffness out 14 ga for everything. I like the way you think.
Giddyup! I don't feel so foolish now
SC distr. rotate the wrong way wont go in your 2.4
end of hyjack
That's good, I put it back into the SC. Got lucky and fired up on the first try and runs much better at low rpms. I have a 123 distributor for the 2.7
I think those plates are overkill at 16ga.
hmmm
have you drilled your door handles yet...if not no worries on weight
I was gonna take out the handles completely and use a piece of rope with a knotted end.
I shitcanned the front reinforcements. The maddog ones and the ones I made needed some extra trimming to make it fit. I had previously welded in the backing plates and fixed the crack in the tub, from the old swaybar that didn't have the backing plates. We will see how it goes as is.
I also traded out my 22mm torsion bars with Yeahmag for his 21mm bars.
When I pulled the front struts away to open up the swaybar holes I found that one of my Koni's had bit the dust. I bought them 15 years ago and don't have a receipt for a warranty rebuild. I will have to find someone who can rebuild them for me, I hear that not many places rebuild the Koni's and the wait time is pretty long.
I got a surprise from Tangerine Racing this morning.
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There's a trick to setting up the anti-sway bar so there's no binding. Doing this will go a long way to preventing stress cracks in the future.
Bolt up both bushing brackets and slide the bar in until it nearly touches the other side. Determine which way it needs to be moved to line up perfectly. Pull the bar back out most of the way and lean on it in the direction needed to bend the chassis so next time you slide it in it will go right into the other bushing. It may take 2 or 3 tries to line it up just right. Then follow the same procedure from the other side of the car.
After doing this it should be possible to rotate the bar by hand after it's fully inserted - without the arms attached.
Put some bearing grease on both bushings when you're ready to permanently install the bar.
That'll work, I am super excited about this bar.
Thanks Chris, I just have it finger tight and it seems just about right - I will heed your advice when I bolt her down.
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Firewall forward mount for the suspension brace.
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I made a plate that wraps around the front of the suspension console and glued in the bracket.
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Travis your welds are really shaping up.. Good job.
Thanks for the vote of confidence Ben. It's in, had a couple blown holes that I need to fix.
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Moving onto the inside. The car was crashed at some point and the hump below the seat belt pocket was crushed up pretty good. Hardly noticeable when the relay board was in place. I was able to beat it mostly back into shape, but have a crack in the metal. This is going to be a bit tricky for me to make a patch piece.
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That's an impressive start! You are doing better than me. I had to patch the little bulge where the hood release pull attaches which is a similar PITA dome. I wound up having to make a relief cut to pull the metal around to form the dome. Nice work on yours!
Thanks Brent, got lucky with this part. A little closer now.
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I am going to make another piece for the firewall. I have the basic shape down, but when I looked at the passenger side I see that it should be a little more angular. If that doesn't work I will continue on with the piece I have.
In the meantime i took out the rest of my hood and decklid hinges out for Oscar's spa treatment. And.. I think i need another hinge bracket.
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This one turned out a whole lot betta!
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Thanks Mark, it worked out better than i thought it would.
It's in, needs a couple more welds here and there, and then clean up on the back side.
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I got a care package from Ben today. Turns out i had a tire mount from my last RD purchase. Looks like it will line up pretty good, tire will be lifted about an inch off the floor and still be below the bulkhead.
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I am not sure why I was so nervous to do this. Maybe because there is nothing wrong with my floor and I may end up having some sort of cobblefest getting the new louvered floor in?
Gloves, check
Safety glasses, check
Cutoff wheel, check
Hot cup of coffee, check
Pack of smokes, check
Headphones and some Megadeth, check
two pair of undies, check
Lessgo!
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piece-a-cake
Doesn't taste like cake . Trying to figure out what to do with the channels to transition to the louvered floor piece. A couple of cuts along the top of the channel and beat the fugger flat.
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Closer, ran out of gas. I am only grinding what you will see after the cooler cover is on.
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It is in. There's a couple little pinholes to go and some final grinding. I will wait until I am closer to coating to deal with that. It oilcan's pretty good, I will need to get a shrinking disk and learn how to use it.
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Pretty easy in the basic idea and form.
Disc on metal, heats the high spots. Quench with a mist of water to cool the spots and shrink the metal.
Any form of high heat will work then quenched effectively so a touch, a spot gun, even adding a few hits of a Mig bead will have the same effect.
Welding causes localized shrinking thus the reason some people use a technique called hammer welding. And why you try to minimize the heat build up in the panel.
Thanks Stephen. I have an overwhelming urge to overdo things - I have some fear I will go nuts and end up with one of those scale model 914's lol.
Alright, cut along the dotted line..
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A little hammer & dolly stretching of the ground down perimeter welds will go a long way to reducing the oilcan effect. Now that you have a hole in the front panel it might be possible to reach most areas, although it will be more than a little uncomfortable.
I will give that a shot Chris. The car is high enough off the ground it shouldn't be too bad getting in from the front hole.
Welding the tabs in seems to have stiffened the floor a little bit. I quenched a couple of the tabs after welding with a damp microfiber rag, you can see that it was a red one LOL.
nice job on the tabs for the hold downs I like it.
nice work
Travis looks great.. Good job.
I have to admit, after replacing a rusting frunk pan, it makes me cringe to see a perfectly good trunk cut open, but you did this one proud.
As for using a shrinking disc, a monkey can do it. I'm proof of that!
Thanks for the kind words and advice everyone, I appreciate it.
I ordered a shrinking disk and it should get here by the weekend. In the meantime I took Chris' advice and I hammered and dollied the perimeter weld lines. Amazing that you relieve a little of tension and the floor starts to firm up. I ended up with a few more waves than when I started. I am not worried and believe that I can get it all straight in the end.
I also welded in a cross brace and a 16g plate underneath. I was able to save my tow hook and will weld that on the bottom of the floor. There is no interference with the lower duct and it is all hidden away.
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I ventured into the unknown. Not many people share pics of the frame rail penetration from all angles. I started with 2 1.5" holes stacked. Turns out where I cut on the outside was close, but didn't match the inside. Also I did not cut far forward enough to clear the J tube.
Time to make lemonade. I ground down the flange on the front of the J Tube. Then enlarged the holes a little bit, and then a bit more. I will have to patch where I did my exploration cuts.
I made a rectangular duct and had the idea that I could build in a splash shield along the front. Both -12 hoses fit, fittings passing through will be tight, but not impossible
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I think I am turning into one of them tweakers.
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Welcome to the dark side of this hobby. You by no means have it as bad as some of us. Your new in this journey and well their are lots of us here to help you transgress into a make 3 times sort of guy, and never be quite satisfied with the end result.
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I will give you a hint here! Make it once, get it on the car, move on to the next thing. There is always time to go back and redo it. Or you might not have to because the joy of driving might just replace the joy of perfections.
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It will never be perfect, it will never meet your own standards, it will never meet the standards of the Instagram trolls who see a perfect Weave TIG weld in Titanium and wonder why they can't do that with a MIG, when they have only welded for 2 weeks tops in total pull the trigger time.
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I want to say thank you for posting the details, the good and the bad, being willing to put it out there. As of today I will not get any 914 work done. So I am living via build threads like these. Thank you for putting it out here, thank you for taking the risk and asking the questions. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your journey. Enjoy the ride.
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I do have a bit of fabrication and welding in my plans for today. But that involves putting a new discharge shoot on the 72" zero turn that I am re-powering also. Yes I do engine swaps on my power equipment also. I got it bad, maybe I need to bolt something on one of my 914s.......
Thanks for the encouragement Stephen. The further along I go, I keep repeating myself "nothing is perfect" and keep the momentum going.
Patched in the extra cutout. A 3" piece of PVC pipe I had laying around is just about right for replicating the bent around the corner of the tub. Had to trim the patch piece to fit the rectangular tube.
Cleaned up the welds on my tweaker tube and its about ready to be glued in. Amazing that this started out a flat piece of sheet metal.
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Lets see if the lines fit. I first cut the fuel evap holes into a big oval, that seemed to work ok. The turn after the first sill support to penetrate the cabin didn't make me feel all squiggly inside, so I cut the support out. It had some rust going on anyways, so I shed no tears.
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You HAVE to be happy with that!
Yes I am very happy, its the coolest goddamn thing I have done so far.
You might try some of these PEX metal 90deg bend supports they will keep your hose from flattening and losing sectional area:
https://www.pexsuperstore.com/pex-accessories/bend-support-elbows.html
They also come in 5/8"
a 1" will take 1.5 OD tubing - 3/4" takes 1"OD tubing etc. They can be put on and taken off in situ.
Several companies make them the Uponor brand is probably best; below is a 3/4" support, they lock on with friction:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-773412erl/overview/
Earl's Performance Hose Inner Support Springs
Okay learned something new today, Never thought that SS line would collapse in a tight bend. I knew they had a recommended bend radius.
Filled away
I am not sure what you guys are saying.
One post is saying I should look at external strain relief to make that 90 degree bend.
The next post I think is being stated that an internal wire strain relief is what you want, rather than external. But not specifically that I need any strain relief at all (for either post).
Minimum bend radius for -12 standard braided hose is 4.5 inches. What the hell does that mean? I have no clue so I looked it up.
=90/360*2*3.14*4.5 Which comes out to 7.065 inches of length required to make a 90 degree bend. I am not sure if this is right or not.
Attempting to measure my overall length of the bend.
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I am implying its the rubber that will collapse, that is why you support from the inside ... you will probably be fine..but cheap insurance...
I know alot of peeps have never had a problem... esp with new line and its basically a push system..no sucking
made you 7.0675
I agree that would be cheap insurance. I just don't know how I would fish that wire down 3-4 feet of hose, that bend is right in the middle of the run. You monkeys had me up worrying about it all night and first thing this morning I then realized that maybe I should try and find out if I need it at all.
From the measurements and me pretending that I understand math - no support should be required at all.
If you want to be sure just look up the specs on the manufacture's site.
Example Aeroquip
FC363-12
Cover Material Stainless Steel Braid
Dash Size 12
Hose Family Teflon
Max Temperature © 204
Max Temperature (F) 400
Min Temperature © -54
Min Temperature (F) -65
Operating Pressure (PSI) 1100
Operating Pressure (bar) 76
Product Line Aeroquip
Tube Material Teflon
Agency Listings: Government Specification FDA, USCG/MMT
Burst Pressure (bar) 303
Burst Pressure (psi) 4400
Description Convoluted PTFE-Nonconductive tube
Family Hose
General Application Chemical, food, water and waste handling, and various transfer applications
Hose Base Number FC363
Inside Diameter (in) 0.81
Inside Diameter (mm) 20.6
Min Bend Radius (in) 3.75
Min Bend Radius (mm) 95.3
Min Kink Radius (in) 2
Min Kink Radius (mm) 50.8
Outside Diameter (in) 1.06
Outside Diameter (mm) 26.9
Reinforcement Material Stainless steel single wire braid cover
Vacuum (inHg) 28
Vacuum (kpa) 94.8
Made me a thingamadoodle Harder to make than I thought. Not sure how much I like it, oh well it was something to do this weekend.
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Looks great..
Its a bit horrific. I did it in 20 gauge as I have a 1/4 sheet of it lying around and need to find a way to use it.
I tried doing it in one piece and gave up. I did 2 pieces each with a 90 degree flange and stretched them to make the initial curve and welded them together. I put a dolly in a vice and then spent all day beating the hell out of it to get the shape I was after, then used the shrinking disk to help smooth it out.
Here are some profile shots. Its mostly there and a little body filler and it will look good. I tried welding some pinholes and after beating on it so much it turned into swiss cheese from the heat. Its not structural, so good enough I guess.
Also, a pic of the one I tried to make out of a single sheet of metal
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wow ..mine was the easy button...Great Job Travis
glue some perlon on it it will be good
Awesome work! Thanks for sharing the details.
Thanks guys, it means a lot coming from you two.
I forgot I did some more work this weekend. I got my shinking disk and shinky dinked the floor. Of course I went overboard but I was seriously entertained for the day.
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BTW, hows the rigidity of the 20ga piece after it is formed? I am interested in your fabbing technique because have a secret project I want to try on my project in a couple months that requires similar compound curves. I'm going to try my hand at flow forming and was thinking of even going to 22ga things easier. If the flow forming doesn't work, I'll probably need to piece it together. I need to get a sandbag and some better beating hammers to have those in the arsenal too. I just love this stuff. Don't have a clue what I'm doing, but it sure is fun.
The shrinking disk is like magic!
After putting in the flanges, and the J bend it is pretty stout. When I started you could bend it pretty easily by hand.
If I get courageous enough towards the end of the project I think I will try to replicate the GT shroud in 20g steel. I'll need to get a bead roller and figure out how to use it first.
The time spent on it is also what I experienced and this went with this as it's basically the same just without the huge radius that I felt didn't really matter.. That's what I ended up selling..
Btw looks very good.
I see now why you made these the way that you did. The radius curve is a non functional detail and hard to pull off. While the ones you made do appear to be bigger. When looking at mine as I was making it, I see it is about the same size. Having a flat vs rounded shape along the top gives a different illusion.
having one in my GT ...I can say the larger radius makes for a nice dead pedal kinda feeling for my foot..
You've started something..
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love that dead pedal!
My initial mock up for the pedal was way too close to the clutch pedal. From the "show me your dead pedal" thread I see what I need to do.
I build a new oil line cover and bent a piece for the dead pedal to see how I like it. There will be more changes before I glue it up together.
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Switching gears from the oil line cover and dead pedal. I better finish off the front trunk floor.
I got my tow hook off the chunk of floor I cut out. I bent it a little to give some room to hook. Then, when looking at the factory GT pics on Armando's site I see that these cars has re-used the tow hook but dropped it down a bit with a piece of metal that looked like a frisbee.
So I bent up a box. I will weld the hook to it, then the box to the floor. I screwed up on my bends and you can see one side is a little taller than the other. Almost looks like I intended it to work out this way from the pics.
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I used etch primer and scratched away the surface that I was going to weld. Weld through primer is super expensive and that crap always clogs, even if you store the can upside down. Plus you need to scratch away the surface anyhow..
Welded in and a little burn validation
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Travis nice job there, and I must say your welds are looking better and better each time. And your metal fab skills have also improved. Doing a great job, can't wait to see what you have planned next.
In place. I didn't get all the etch primer off on a few holes and that gave me a couple problems. I am ready to retire this leather jacket I bought at goodwill for $10. Welding upside down is no bueno. I have to stop what I am doing every few minutes because the hot metal that falls on me burns through the coat and the inside of the jacket smolders all over the place
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I cut out the rust in the rocker and patched it today. Then got the cooler line duct glued in. Needs more finishing, I will tackle that another day!
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Forgot, got the bulkhead hole opened up about as far as I can & got most of the surface rust out with acid and a small metal brush. I see now in the pic I have a little more cleanup to do along the top. The duct is not a perfect rectangle, it is angled along the top from the lower left to upper right.
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Oh Boy! I sent out my hinges for Oscar's special treatment and got them back today. I am afraid what these would look like if I tried to take this on. The zinc plate is a nice touch
In the box I got two unexpected surprises. Thank you Oscar!! This has made my day @http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=16669
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Another part to patch, the metal is pitted all the way through in a couple of spots. The piece I pulled out I could crinkle up in one hand.
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This escalated quickly.. When I welded in my patch some of the creases from a previous crash came back in full force. I popped out the rear window and can now hammer/ dolly out some of the crinkely dinks. I got some paint stripper and POR15 is no match for this stuff. Pretty satisfying listening to it crackle and peeling it off like old sunburnt skin
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Like a tweaker picking at his face..
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I am having no fun with this patch. I did get a bunch of the crinkled up metal in other areas fairly straight though.
If you see where I cut, I left a the lip of the indent and was going to weld to that.
Well it was like a game of whack a mole blowing holes along the whole damn thing as the metal was too thin and I was set too hot on the welder. When i got the metal finally all glued down the indent along the middle was pretty much flat along the bottom seam
I don't care too much if it is ugly in the interior, it will be covered. Would like it to look a little more seamless in the engine bay. I am thinking this is a cut out and do-over, I could extend a couple inches along the indent as I found some more pitted metal when I stripped all the por15 off.
Well it is not the worst and it sure as hell can be a lot better. Lets see if I can make a patch piece first before I commit to cutting bait.
This is just about the right width. Had to get ingenious on how to do this 4 bend so close together, I can only do 2 primary (center) bends on my cheap-o brake.
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There are a lot of little things that only YOU would know about that no one else would spot. funny how it eats at ya.
Out it comes. The metal on the bottom (darkened metal) is paper thin. I will cut a little further down as I have some extra on my patch.
Test fit and it looks like a good start.
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I like my battle scars to show. Of course, I primed here and painted it black, but it shows.....
time to feed the OCD. I cut a little more, if the pic looks like it is paper thin towards the lower left - it is! I am down to better metal. I am contemplating patching the entire flat area, there is some weird built up tension. When I cut the piece(s) loose the back wall instantly did a pucker.
Fitting the new piece. I am no good about putting my tools away so a little improvisation with some allen wrenches was needed. I will fine tune the bends a little more too.
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A view from the side you will see. Hmm. I am going to attempt to remake this and shoot for a sharper line in by bend.
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Made another test piece to see if I can get the profile a little sharper.
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That was just to test out if I could get the profile sharper. And yes, its off on the overall width
I ended up modifying the patch I previously made and got the edges a little more crisp. I am cleaning the hell out of the new and old metal as best I can. Wish me luck
Love the allen wrenches in the panel clamps
It's in. No butt weld would be complete without being able to play musical stringers once your done.
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Well done!
More work on this. I ended up having to weld the backside. Ground down and dealt with shrinkage of the joint. There are a couple of pinholes still, but I am going to quit while I am ahead and move onto something else. I'll come back to this later. Pretty happy with the results so far.
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well done...dead pedal??
Yeah, yeah. I have so much OCD on the pedal that I am getting stagefright. Going to weld in the seat hinges next. I can then put in the driver seat and figure out the dead pedal.
seat hinge mount thingies in place.
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Finishing up the oil cooler setup. I cut the opening a little bigger and used some of these nifty weld nuts I got from RD. I am going to have to re-glass the top flange of the cooler duct. Someone cut it a little short when they made it.
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Fantastic....next....
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Are those two layers of steel with the grill in between? I can do it, but it won't look as pretty as that.
yes, but does not have to be ...your style...
Started with some 20g and will do two layers All the metal is cut up. Since I can't cut a straight line for the life of me I made the strips a little bit wider and it overlaps the oil cooler hole. I will will grind it down once all together. I Had the bottom piece cut but it tuned into a shitshow, will need to make a a template
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Thanks Stephen, now I remember seeing how one was built! I have to take note to look at your thread if I want to make something that i haven't done before and have it look good.
As soon as the coffee kicks in I will get back at it. I need to figure out grill material. I hope to find something that has some spine strength to it to keep its shape
Made some progress, only feel lukewarm about how it turned out. But I might change my mind after some more finishing.
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A little lunch time bendy session. One bend is a little off, will fix that when I cut out the center hole. Next up is a stretch and shrink session to match the radius of the front of the tub. I get the shrink and stretch backwards, lets hope I don't screw that up
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Dude! You are kicking this thing's butt! Fun to watch.
stretch the top and shrink the bottom. It is close. will screw it down to the car and cut out the middle. My only fear here is that I have a bunch of tension built into the curve and once I get the inside free, it may be over bent
Thanks for the confidence vote Brent. Sixnotfour has spoken and I must obey
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How about them apples?
Really happy with this so far. The hole is very conservative, will cut to match the opening in the tub later. More fitting along the bottom is needed.
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This turned out great. Even my Bavarian Princess has approved.
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Love the perseverance! Great job!
I appreciate the encouragement. You guys are tough to try to keep up with
I ordered some mesh, based on Stephen's grill material from Pegasus
Coarse Mesh Stainless, #4 x.047 Wire, 18" x 24" Sheet
That should work just fine, keep going.
She looks so..........................................................enthused.
She is supervising my progress. I better hurry up..
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new project ...keep her.....interested..
Whipped up a dead pedal tonight. I did this similar to the factory GT part. A little fine tuning is needed and I'll weld up the corners & weld it to the tub. Getting the dynamat off the wheel well is an asspain.
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Well, looky here. This thing is tiny and featherweight. I got the same battery (i think) as Andyrew was using.
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Care package came from Pegasus racing, for the oil cooler grille (stainless). Now to figure out how to attach it to the mild steel frame. I have tried welding stainless to mild steel a long time ago, it wasn't pretty. I am thinking I can drill through the grille and just weld the mild steel front to the back. Can anyone offer some enlightenment?
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What about small tabs welded at each corner that hold in the screen without welding the screen to the frame.
That would be the easy button Mark!
No work on the car this week.
However, I got a set of used Cibie H4's off of a 924. I think they are the z beams. one says DOT and one does not - otherwise the pattern on the lenses looks identical. not sure what I have here, but the price was good.
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Travis RE: GT oil cooler grille
http://www.pbase.com/9146gt/oil_cooler_cover_support_grill_repro_finished
You may have seen this, but thought I'd post it on the thread anyway. This excellent set of photos document a real GT grille and a duplicate fabricated to match. Couple of points to note:
1) the grille material is not 'woven', it appears to be straight and just 'laid over'
2) the duplicate grille looks to have used epoxy or JB weld to secure the grille material to the frame
All this FYI. Keep posting on the build progress, BTW some great work in there!
- Tony
Travis the woven looks just fine. I was actually not going to run one at all but this has me thinking I might. From the pbase site it almost looks like it's staggered but maybe straight. Hard to tell..
It does look straight on the pbase pictures, but I like the texture with the weave. Thanks for the link Tony! I have been poking around his site for ideas and totally missed this one. Ben, If I get this done in one shot I should have extra grill material, enough for one more and can send it to you gratis.
Z-beams look like these
Your set looks more like the standard H4 European pattern with the sharp cut and the kick up the right side. They make a huge difference over the standard sealed beam head lamp.
I used the engine lid screen on my front end.
But I'm a hacker.
I have to quit buying shit 914-6 rear calipers with a fresh rebuild came in the mail today from another world member.
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Yes it is very easy to do, lots of cool parts popping up. LOL I have my eye on a RSR speedo right now. Just not sure what they are worth. I guess is what ever I am willing to pay for it.
Nice find on the calipers, and you can't go wrong with the H4 upgrade either euro pattern or the legendary Z beams.
why torture yourself with venting clearance ??? 911 hand brake and cheep calis.......... wam bam pad changes
I do have a set of SC rear calipers in good shape. Also a set of PMB redone 911 rear calipers with the spacers removed (just don't have the pins or spreaders). I saw the 914-6 calipers and couldn't resist.
decisions,,decisions,,,
Grille is mostly done. I welded on a lip around the rear perimeter, sort of like an envelope. I am going to JB weld the corners of the mesh so it doesn't move around.
Ben, I'll ship out the leftover grille material next week.
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no glue , a few plug welds,,
I would use a spot welder, nice and easy, not a huge risk of blowing through. A spot of JB weld to fix the height of the dimples, it can be used as a body filler. Actually it is really good as a filler.
If plug welding do them on the back, penetrate to the front. Don't blow thru, back the front up with a heat sink. I have a big copper spoon I use for this, really helps at times.
Done enough. I want to powder coat this, but there is some lines along the welds that I have ground down as far as I feel I can go. I am looking into filler that will withstand powder coat and has metal in it.
Not all things are perfect, on a couple plug welds I hit the stainless grill material and vaporized it. If you can't see it in the pics - good! Overall it turned out better than i thought I could do.
Now I gotta figure out the next mini project!
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Nice Travis...
@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=447 looks great.
How about a GT lid? Sure why not.
I have a couple extra lids I picked up along the way. This one was from a 914 I towed backwards on a trailer. It was pretty exciting watching the rear trunk lid fly open while doing 70 and wrapping over the roof. So this one is a little bent up, like a metal taco. Perfect one to start with, seems Like I gotta do things 3 times to get it right.
I am going to try to replicate the center supports on the back instead of being one big whole. We'll see how it goes.
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Started bending of the flanges.The center supports looks like it will work.
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I have an engine lid I got years ago that was done really nicely. They cut the frame off of the skin, and then cut out the solid section and left about 1/2 border, and they had flattened out a piece of engine grill and put it in the cut out. I'll post a pic if I can get it out of the rafters
I would love to see that.
Thanks for the update Travis, keen to see how this somes out.
Travis,
I forget if I documented my GT lid build.. I will see if I can find pictures or snap new ones.. I did mine a little different..
Thanks Ben! I am shooting for a little bit different than just hogging out a hole.
I did some image searching and found a grille that has the look I am after on this first lid.
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Is that grill "just" pattern metal from Home Depot?
extra engine grill I think he said for GT style engine lid. Or are you talking about the inlet grill for the oil cooler, that was sourced from Pegasus. Which is very close to Ben
The grille is just a spare 914 engine lid grille. There are a lot of these that use whatever mesh material they can find.
More bending of the flanges.
Hey, I still need to find a couple of flat boxes so I can send you and Ben some xmas packages
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I used the grill from another cover for the upper part of the grill. I found that flatting out the edge flanges helps fitting it to the cover. Take the cup out of it.
I can't find a better picture and you have already seen this one.
Travis, I also flattened out the leading edge. Maybe I can get you a better picture.
I am going to flatten out the mesh I have and re-bend to get the radius out of it. I'll also have to shrink it in a few spots, the mesh took a lot of damage
inching along.
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Successfully lightened up the cross brace. I also ditched the mesh support tabs and will pin the back edge of the grille to the flange I made. Anyone know where to get weldable pins?
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Do you have another engine grill, I would just cut them off and tack them on, and use the OEM push on retainers.
Or, you make the. Steel stock the size you need, grind a taper if you want to jazz them up a bit, and cut to size, use push on clips, or speed nuts.
The CSOB way, a couple of small machine screws and use some nuts, and loctite.
Good progress
Travis,
I stole this from my thread but this is my version.
Thanks for the pic Ben.
Hmm. Screw the pins, I weld the back grille in place! Also I see that the center supports should have more of a bow than what I have.
Nice progress on the engine lid., Travis.
I bought my lid from Sergio and bolted it on, I admire your ingenuity and skill.
Happy New Year!
Thanks Lawrence. I had a couple of spare lids and had to give it a shot, plus I need something to do so i can stall getting the conversion done LOL.
Ready for media blast and powder coat.
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Nice job for a beginner.
You're probably not going to run the letters?
I am gonna have to learn how to spell if I do.
I am gonna have to learn how to spell if I do.
I am gonna have to learn how to spell if I do.
Really nice work. Following
The adventures of bracket man..
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Well Bracket man that is a super job
Nice work Bracket Man!
Bracket Man, my hero!
Hey @http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=447 I really like this set up.
Where did you obtain the filter? I also have the
PMO reg. & gauge. Will be using with Weber’s.
May I steal your idea.
@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=2766
Absolutely! I got the filter from Summit and it wasn't a gazillion bucks.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tfs-23006
My mount is right about at the crease in the fender well. I can get the canister off to replace the filter, just barely. I wanted to put it in the engine bay where the OE pump would go and then it would be a super easy R&R of the elements. But OCD set in and I started worrying about the engine bay heat and the aluminum being a heat sink.
The brackets were easy, I was trying to make a battery tray for my mini battery and bent it a little too short. I cut it in half and made 2 brackets out of the scrap, how lucky is that!
Thanks Travis. Keep up the great work.
Time to start thinking about the dead pedal again. This has the right amount of ridiculous for me. I will need to cut off the rear attachment piece (it was made for a floor dimmer switch) and figure out how to mount it. It is not magnetic so i can't weld it on.
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I like it, I would just counter bore two holes and just use machine screws to bolt it to you base.
Followed your advice, I spotfaced the holes with a leftover milling bit, dished it with a large bit and then the hole for the screw shank. I am going to try to find some nuts that are mild steel instead of stainless so I can weld it to the back. Once the pedal is in place i wont be able to get back there again.
I also decided on going with my original oil line cover, it looks like hell because I am trying to fix up some of the screw ups.
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rivet nuts would also work
Did some more work on the dead pedal. Added more to the attachment flange, drilled and belled a big huge hole in the side and filled in the top with some sheet metal.
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Bottom open I hope? That would be my suggestion just to keep it from trapping crap in cavity via the hole.
I do like it, just odd enough to make me
Yes bottom open, top closed.
Hmm... something's missing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1dCAQfkqyA
Rebuilt the front of the passenger torque box, it was rotted through both layers of metal. I was able to save the outer flanged piece, that was the only part not rusted.
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Time to revisit one of the first repairs I did. I have been hiding this ugly from all of you for a while - but here it is.
Well, when I put the trunk floor In I had to pull in the back panel in a good 3/4 of an inch along the center. While this will be covered by the bumper, I need to try and fix it a little better. I think I need to cut a slit in the back of the trunk floor and get the back panel flat again then stitch in metal along the cut.
I had to patch the back panel too as it was pitted through in a couple of spots. A long long time ago the rear panel and the passenger quarter were replaced with factory parts I think (red oxide primer on the backs on them). The panel has some crinkles in it too, time to remove some paint and figure out what's what.
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Look at all that unused shelving, someone quick get that man two or three more projects!
Paint removed. Found some more rust and the backing plate didn't have any primer on it. I am thinking that the whole panel needs to come out. Something is not right with the inward bow where the trunk floor meets the back panel.
Plus I am not sure how to get to the drivers side damage and fix.
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What an asspain!.I win..
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I could only get so far with straightening this side panel. not much access for a dolly. I cheated and used a torch to heat it up before I could beat it sorta back into shape. There was a few spots of braze and sure enough it was for some holes. This corner piece is shot.
So after all that, I cut out the corner and will have to make a replacement piece. It will be a challenge because of the curve.
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That is one tough spot to fab a part for. I always have considered just buying the entire back piece from restoration design for my car.. Though mine worked our pretty nicely..
914sixer sent me a part from a car he's cutting up. Maybe give him a PM.
@http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showuser=3457
Kicking ass this morning, el fabricato
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Couple of pinholes and I have to trim the side to fit, other than that I am VERY happy how this turned out.
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Whoa!
Nice!
Great work Travis.
exceptional work Travis, if you look back over the thread you can see your progression on skills. It is really neat to see.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I am either getting lucky or I am getting better.
Anyways. I was looking at the rear corners of the inner rear trunk. On the drivers side, there is a crease that almost looks factory. On the passenger side it does not have the same crease. It is a small thing and I wouldnt really worry about it - but I have access now.
The car always looked high on the passenger side rear even though the height from the rear jacking donuts were even from side to side. What do you all think. I am adding a pic from Cairo's car, you can clearly see this rear corner does not have the crease.
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I cut out the patches I put in and am starting over. found more rust and had to patch the bumper mount portion. Don't have a drill bit bit enough for the hole and my holesaws are too big. I will get to that later. Passenger side is done, driver side is next.
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Other side patched in. Have a little more hammer and dolly work and final sanding. At least its not all warped to hell like the last attempt!
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Looks good.
When you're reattaching that panel, don't forget to test fit the rear bumper and check that the curvature matches before you weld it in solid.
Was just thinking that same thing, it's close!
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A little metal work was needed along the bottom edge, it wants to flip outward. Getting closer though.
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Thanks for the updates. Time, time, time, it all takes time.
Oh, and you are most certainly getting better.
:-)
Thanks TDSkip!
Farted around with the shrinker and it is close enough. Burned into place.
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Travis maybe I missed this but that looks like 75,76 replacement right rear 1/4 ?
Well I got rid of that 75-76 rear bumper flange
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Really nice progress. I do love those green rims with the silver... something about it...very cool. :-)
Next up is fixing that door gap, they got the panel on all screwy. Its all brazed on and the went a little short so the gap is wide. Door closes great though! Anyways I got the bottom section fixed up and now moving onto the top side. I should have cut the whole thing out to make it easier. Oh well. Picturs later
You cannot leave me unsupervised. I noticed that the rear quarter next to the engine grille was sticking out a good 5mm more than the drivers side. So i drilled out most all the spot welds along the top and was able to get the panel close. However, the sail did not want to budge, there was something in the way.
Off comes the sail panel. When they repaired the car they left the flange on the roll bar piece, the old quarter panel and welded the new one on top. While they were digging around they cut and bent the roll bar structure out of the way. So I found that the bottom horizontal reinforcement piece was bent up in the back and that was causing my problem. I heated it up with a torch and beat the fucker back to where it should be.
Then Noticed the front horizontal reinforcement was cut and bent all to shit, so I made a new piece and welded it in.
No to figure out how to make the rear of the roll bar piece. I tried last night and it didn't turn out. I think I will have to make it in two pieces and weld it together.
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I got the rear part of the roll bar piece in and welded back on the sail. Will share a pic of that later.
Anyways, take a look at the passenger top of the door jamb. Lots of braze and the metal is like tin foil. I will have most likely cut it out and fab up a new piece, as it will just blow apart if I try to weld it.
So I was there scratching my head and figured I would take a look at how the drivers side was done and I would have a good reference. Well, what do you know. LOTS of bondo! Lessee what's under it? Ugh.
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Was the braze around the air vent tubes? If so, you can thank the factory for that. Makes it a pain to work in that area, but makes sense that they did it that way.
Drivers side door jamb had been replaced with a used. they lap/seam welded it on with braze. If they had it in nice and straight I would leave it be. but was done poorly and either I bondo bomb it like before or try and make it right. The door jamb was rust bubbling in a couple of spots where the quarter panel met the jamb, so the problem will come back if I don't get them apart and take care of it. Not sure about the snorkel.
I guess I am going to have learn a few new skills LOL.
I didn't realize that RD made these pieces. More exploring tomorrow that may be the route to go on both sides.
I've become a bit fan of buying pre-shaped panels, even if they need tweaking they are usually 1/4 the time/effort of hand making everything.
I figured I would take the paint off the edges of the quarters and doors. There was a weird angle on the front quarter. Pieces were rusty and the patch was junk. Looks like the drivers sail was replaced too. 1/4 of bondo to cover the welds.
Spent the morning fabbing parts
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Continuing to chip away at small stuff, but was distracted this past weekend.
My Daughter finally got her drivers license and I am a proud dad! The drivers exam person said in the few years she has been working there, only two people did the test with a manual trans. Ye-uh!
Anyways I worked on polishing up the paint and tending to the little details on her new ride. I hope she gets bored of it and wants a different car, I am ready to scoop this up from her when that day comes
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Picked up a new ride. 2006 gto with 44k miles. Got it from my dad and drove it down from Bellingham over the weekend. Vroom!
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Nice GTO, I had an 06 for a while. Loved it, my neighbors not so much, it was not stock.
Been busy with life and other never ending projects. Anyways, I got the car back onto the ground and hopefully gives me a little more inspiration to move forward.
I am replacing the passenger door jam, and have to figure out how to massage the door gaps at the back of the door before I weld it in. The passenger side gap is about 10mm at the top. The lockplate is at 1039mm as it should be.
I have a feeling there is more massaging to do on the rear quarter. I hope I don't have to cut it. This has always been a problem on this car, the rear quarter was replaced at some point and they didn't get it right.
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Slow and steady wins the race.
Those Holdens are dandy cars.
The cutting continues. Turns out the sail panel on the drivers side was replaced at some point. They didn't do a butt weld, but a lap weld and left a good half inch of the sail behind the fender.
I cut through the weld and pulled out the excess metal and will be able to butt weld the joint. To make that fit the way they did, the fender line is a bit lower than the top of the door. I am hoping to get the shape back a little better.
At the back of that joint was some seriously jacked up metal, cut that out and made a patch for it. Put a new door jamb in and tacked it to the body.
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Thanks for the update(s). Nice work.
Great looking project!!!
Frankensteined. I haven't welded in a lotta months, we will see how this looks once ground down.
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Parts are hard to come by, there are a few places that snatched up what was on the shelves, but they don't have everything. It's a fun and nice driving car, pulls like a freight train. The mustang gives up the power a little easier though.
First pass of grinding, I'll need to bodywork along the long seam before I do anymore.
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Thanks Travis, nice updates...
I thought I should dig out your B-day present,,kinda got a bit nervous when all I saw was this....
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Went to another undisclosed area and found this...
H-Bday..
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Woohoo!
Funny story. For my 40th birthday I bought myself a 3.2 DME engine and was in on the group buy for the flares. I found out that I was in a position to buy a house and sold those items off. So, 10 years later.. I get to finish what I started. Happy Day
Chipping away at it. Replaced the passenger door jamb, still some clean up to do. And ended up replacing the sail panel. More bodywork is needed as it caved in when I welded it. Getting there..
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Love it!
slight delay, i last saw them ...
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No worries. I have stuff to fix before I am ready. I ordered some clekos this morning
Thanks Pete. I like them both ways too. But I have gone this far, might as well go all in. Next one will will be a narrow body. I have another 1/2 a car in parts.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
Pete has me thinking...
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uh 951.....8x16.....ask your realtor.............I have no more.
................................9x15s
I wish I had the cash for 15x9's and the damn tires that fit.
I can ship the flairs anywhere , boxed ready to go ...wherever..LMK
7.5x16......just off the golf...only prob. is the look no lip..,,made from 6x16s
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7x16 china cheep,,but fit...let me help you spend momoney..
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1yr only C4S wheel,,all 4 here are 7x16....
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Fiskie this Fiskie that, Momoney 17x7.5 ,,have 4
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Look up Muellers frankenflares. This is close to what was described. I had to find these on Rennlist.
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24 or 36 grit reloc disks on an air die grinder. An angle grinder with a knotted wire wheel. On the big panels a da with a 36 grit disk.
My -4 race car was flared like that, not pretty but I had a week to do it between races. And it ran that way for years.
Takes 3 cuts one at the top, and one about mid way up the side in front of the wheel, and one on the rear to keep the shape of the wheel arch. Then pull out to where you want, and run a filler in all the areas. My car ran a bit of bondo to get it a 20/20 car, 20 feet and 20 mph, it looked stock.
In reality there is plenty of metal in there if you wanted to stretch it a bit. Lots of time with a palm nailer and a polished head will get it done. They also now make heads for short stroke air chisels you can move some serious metal with them.
I did it all by hand with my trusty English leg wheel. A leather purse with a bag of shot zipped in it, don't tell the wife, it had a bunch of ugly ass Gs all over it, it was just calling me to hit it with a hammer for days on end. She complained a year latter about a Gucci this or that,
No it was a cheap leather purse all black that she gave me. Luckily she is not into fancy purse with Gs, just cars, specifically German cars that tend to cost me more coin than a purse with a G on it.
I am one lucky SOB
Needed to get some tires for rollers for the 16x8's. Found on the facebook classifieds brand new set of RE-11 225/50/16. Date codes are a bit old (2015), but price was good. They don't make these in 16 anymore. He threw third one in gratis.
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I spy a not so hidden 911....
The parts car? yes
I bought hoops for fiske's in corvette /chev forums,,,,they bend em up pretty often,,well they used to.10 yrs ago they where still around..
I had em on a 930, untill I sold it ..the guy totaled the 930 with in a month and got em back,,
what was 17 is now 18,19,20..
Busy morning today. Got the tires mounted, the re-11 tires run really wide, more like a 245 carcass.
Then a ring at the doorbell and I have a big box from Jeffe'
I know that these repro flares need some adjustments right out of the box. Trying to figure out where that has to be is a little puzzling.
If I put the flares up and the lower lip matches the bottom of the fender return, the main wheel opening is about 1/2" higher than the stock wheel opening. If I move it down so that it matches closely to the existing fender openings (front, back & top of the lip), i will need to do some work to the bottom of the flares where they meet the fenders.
I also think that the top of the fender, the flare should be more flat. Looking for input.
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those 8s blasted up well....
the front of the rear , and the rear of the front will be your last thing to think about ten times..
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since your showing ass draggers, here is my 87, 10yrs ago, yellow bird bumpers,
16x9, 951 -8s,,, now has RS brmpers/long hood..sorta...
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A little more work done. Cut out some of the rear fender and did a test fit of the rear wheels. The flare needed a little work (that's why there is a ton of clecos back there. The rear top corner wants to pull out. Fixed some of that; but will need more work,
Measured up and locked down the front passenger side. This will need less work
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Lookin Hippy
Front passenger flare is mostly on. Still have to finish welding at the bottom and found a couple of pinholes when I was grinding down. Then onto body working it. The rear and front of the quarter panel is thin from previous work and the first tack weld it start falling in.
Lots of ripples in the top of the flare and I think it should have a little more shape. Anyways, progress.
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Progress is always good
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