Here's the plan:
Tub up restoration/customization (no cutting corners here).
Speedster styling.
40" tall
Under 1800 pounds.
350 horsepower WRX engine.
Let the games begin!
You are a naughty, naughty boy.
This is one Concours Weenie that say F*&^ yeah!!!
First off here is a little history on the car.
In 2002 I found this 1973 1.7 in a field outside Laramie WY where it had been sitting since 1982 with some other VWs.
After bolting on some webers and swapping out the battery, fluids, and tires I drove it out of there.
As you can see she was pretty rough but other than some surface rust she was darn near rust free.
Gee thanks, now I have to get a better job to buy a new house, bigger garage, new tub, and....
Seriously though, are those speedster humps I spy, what are you thinking for a windshield? Would it be rude to suggest flyscreens? I have been waiting to see what you were gonna do since you hinted at this way back when. GL Dana
While in school I added a custom cage and interior both of which will be modified during the course of this project.
Here is a picture of the 914 about a month after I found it, next to it is my '37 Plymouth street rod.
As you can see I had already installed the rollcage when this picture was taken.
After school I moved to Las Vegas to work for Renegade Hybrids. This is when I really started upgrading the car.
Here is a picture of the car with stock body and drivetrain after I had installed the carrera front suspension and polished fuchs.
Here is a random pic I found, the car was my daily driver and I could only weld on half a set of flairs per weekend.
As you can see this shot was taken after the first weekend...
At Renegade we designed the 914 WRX conversion kit using my car as the test bed.
My car is running a 2004 WRX engine with exhaust and computer mods bumping the power up to around 320HP.
The car has been featured by SubieSport magazine and by several online publications including Cardomain.
I drove the car in its subie powered form as a daily driver for about 2 years then decided to move to Wyoming to pursue a Mechanical engineering degree.
I have now transfered into the Architectural Design program at CU Boulder.
I bought a real car for a daily driver and figured now would be a great time to build the street monster I had been dreaming of.
I am going to take my time and build this thing right.
That's a sweet looking mod you're planning. I, for one, don't go in for most of the mods shown in this board. I believe that most of these do nothing to add to the 914 experience. Your design appears to me as the exception!
I can't wait to see more!
You're one sick puppy Dana... LOL
Can't wait to see this one when it's finished!!
Mike
The technical details:
2004 Subaru EJ20
Custom up-pipe
SS Wrx Header
3.5-inch straight pipe exhaust
Renegade Hybrids radiator
KEP stage 2 pressure plate
KEP 9-inch Kevlar clutch disk
KEP billet aluminum adapter plate
Renegade Hybrids high power axles
911 Carrera front suspension
Cantilever rear suspension
Qa1 adjustable Struts, 400-pound springs
2002 Porsche 996 rims 17 x 7-inch front 17 x 9-inch rear
Kumho 712 tires 205/50/17zr front, 255/40/17zr rear
Steel AA 914GT fender flares
Custom roll cage
Custom interior
No radio
No top
No windows
Getty C/F Rear lid
GT-Racing F/G non-headlight Front lid
Getty F/G Bumpers
Getty F/G Rockers
Chopped and raked windshield
Pontiac Solstice door mirrors
Customized Porsche Boxster Humps
Ferrari F430 rear diffuser
F/G Belly Pan
To keep track of my progress have been documenting my weight savings with excel.
Here is my spreadsheet showing the part removed or replaced, the resulting weight and power to weight ratio, along with the info from a few other cars for refrence. So far I have dropped just over 500 pounds.
I have a feeling this car will kill me if I ever get it on the road.
I like your pic above. I always thought that a speedster style windshield would look cool on a 914.
I finished scraping the tar out of the interior and gutted the pass side door.
I was glad to find very clean floors under the tar.
Wow those floors look great. I had just done that a few months ago and mine were not like that.
yesssssssssssssssss!
Eagerly awaiting the updates on the build. You say you bought a "real" car so you felt it was time to build the beast, but I think this will be the REAL car
Jim
No turning back now!
I cut off the targa bar and made this horrendous hole...
The car is pretty much stripped but I am leaving the engine and tranny in for now so I can build the belly pan and design the intercooler system.
I got a heck of a deal on these Boxster Humps. The plan is to 'glass these into one piece and build up the lid to match the rest of the car. Then I will rebuild the metal around the area. I absolutely hate working with F/G so I will make the metal match the F/G lid rather than vice versa.
My dog Bailey checking the fit.
This just might work!
Baily's a cool looking pup
Ferg
nice pics Dana!
and cool car
there aren't many 1900lb street legal teeners out there
good for you!
brant
I raked the windshield posts back as far as the stock windshield allowed.
Next I will chop the windshield posts so the top of the frame is even with the top of the rollbar hoops.
I found a guy that will cut the stock glass to fit. Or cutting a lexan one is always an option if all else fails.
Here's how things are looking now.
That's just cool Dana. Can't wait to see where this goes.
For some reason, I'm down wit dis....
I've been waiting for this thread!
Love the concept pic.
Keep it coming Dana!
Wyotech would frown on the use of fibreglass
Killer idea. Can't wait to see it done
Get a stump boy Stump, ball peen hammer, oxy acetylene torch and a cigar is all any good body man needs
ooooo Me likey
This is very cool!
Make them cry BIG TIME . . .
I personally like any modifications to at least look period correct, but man, I can't wait to see this thing finished! It's going to look cool.
Unreal! Nice!
I started 'glassing the humps today and remembered how terrible fiberglass is to work with.
I 'glassed the two halves together and filled in the area at the back of the lid between the humps. Despite my total lack of skill I think it's coming along pretty well. It's a good thing I got these humps for cheap because the quality was terrible (good thing I am just cutting them up huh?)
To blend in the sides I am stretching polarfleece and glassing it (a trick used by audio guys to build complicated sub boxes). The fleece creates really nice transitions and when covered by F/G cloth is really strong.
Here are some more shots of the car and the garage.
Thanks for the support guys, this is gonna be fun!
I'm usually not a fan of projects like these but this one is different. I like the look and the design. I'd say your committed now and no turning back. Looking good
This thing already looks completely badass and its still on jack stands. What are your ideas for the interior? It could be completely bare and this car would still be amazing by the look of things so far.
This is an awesome project. I like it because it has style, it's clean and it flows. You have a good eye for line and proportion. Follow your instincts and not the crowd.
Many people frown on cutting up a car and modifying it. In my book anything that is not concourse to start is a candidate for customization. A free canvas is what makes the end result a masterpiece.
Reminds me of that TV show from the late 80's "Max Headroom" Stay low!
Very cool!
Truely an awesome look! Great job !!!
Are you going to build a rag top for it, or is it a fair weather ride only?
The lift off hard top looks sick. Sweet!!!
Now to get the price for these down to under $20,000.
You are putting this model into production aren't you???
what a bitchin' project!
I like where this is going
I added a layer of F/g last night:
I sanded the humps down this morning. There are a couple low spots but the shape is getting pretty close. I should be able to get it straight with one more glassing session, after that I will finish the bottom and edges.
Looking good
Is that piece going to lift off or be hinged (for engine access)?
Are you keeping the retractable wing/brake widget, or is that gone now?
Nice work Dana. Loving this!
Damn that is sweet!
How are you going to vent the engine compartment, all from below? Howza bout grill material between the humps, a la C-GT
Attached image(s)
Today I made a wood template to ensure that I install the windshield at the right angle after I chop it.
Then I cut the thing off so I can modify it. Looks pretty cool huh?
I also test fitted my Getty F/G bumpers, they will need a little work but are pretty close.
It is so tempting to just toss the windshield all together.
Nothing like having to wear a helmet to go for a drive! (for some reason I don't think the wife would approve. )
that is smokin'
I thought your car looked sweet before (saw it on car domain and renegade a while ago)
but damn, its gonna look good. I like the concept photo too.
keep up the work, and keep us posted.
I really like what you are doing.... this is definately one of the cooler "mod" builds I've seen. Plus... I'm partial to Subies
With that.... I have to suggest you go a different direction with the wheels.
You've created (or will create) a low, fat stance for the car, and filled the wheelwells with these ricey, skinny-spoked wheels. I'd like to see you go with a more solid looking, less ricey wheel. I personally like mesh style wheels, but there are thousands of other options. Yea, you may gain a little weight, but I think that will be a small sacrifice for such a radical design.
What are you going to do with the "interior" portions of the car that are still painted?? Getting them all sanded down?? Just curious.
Are you sticking with the stock WRX TMIC setup? I was going to suggest a nice STI TMIC setup.... by the looks of the engine bay, I think it would fit nicely. I really don't think a FMIC would work with the radiator.... although that would be pretty cool.
Dam that is pretty sick. Makes me want to cut the top off of mine. HAHA
The roof....Carson Top
Make a buck from wood, PVC pipe whatever you think would be better suited to get the line you want, Then do the panty hose fiberglass trick. Viola you have a removeable top. Glass in some attachment hardware. Tkae a look at the quick top kits made for Jeeps for the front latches and maybe some sort of vertical pin setup in the rear. Obviously the pins would have to have some sort of tension put on them to seal and protect theraded rod would work but who wants to bolt and unbolt the F-in top everytime it rains. Peanut gallery ???
Dana,
You are too damn young to have that level of skills! Get it together for RRC in September! I LOVE modded cars.
How 'bout RRC 2012?
If you do the carson top, cover it is Hartz cloth give it a convertible top look.
SO far it looks great excellent job.
CCLIN914SPEEDSTER
Slate gray body, black wheels. You got my vote!
An upgraded TMIC is always a good idea, particularly over the 300hp range.
What brand are you going with??
My biggest concern is heat soak.... from a poorly ventilated I/C. How exactly are you going to draw air across the I/C with the new engine cover? I assume you're going to vent it somehow.... but how will you draw air across it?
Another question..... what turbo are you using.... and what EM are you using?
I'm REALLY interested in this build.... just curious about the route you're going.
This is what a 914 built in 2009 might look. Awesome hood/cowl treatment. You've taken a lot of the ugly out of the 914 with this. Can't wait to see the finished product. Keep the pics coming.
My dogs decided to wake me up at 4:45 and I couldn't get back to sleep so I got an early start on the car today
I added a layer of 'glass to the humps.
I chopped the windshield frame and mocked it up on the car.
I need to do a little welding and cleanup to the frame such as rounding the top edge and corners before I install it for good.
How funny is this, the car is on 18" jackstands and it's still lower than my Subie!
Well I think that is all for the day, I am running low on homebrew and found a good recipe for some cherry chocolate stout so I think I will do some brewing...
Bitchin. Did you make the front hood too?
Looking very good. You do some nice work Dana.
wow...as if your car was not already gorgeous enough..this is going to be ridiculously awesome
I think you should paint it brown
Very Cool Dana, I think the early 356 grey would look sweet, I think it's Dove grey??
Ferg
just pick a color that will show off the great work you've done/are doing.
Color can make a huge difference. For example, my red 951's lines seem a bit softer than my previous black 951.
IMO a NON metalic would work best on a car such as this...
Sahara Beige would be sweet
For color, I'd love to see you just polish up the metal a bit and remove some of the tooling marks, then just clear coat it ... kind of like the Renegade Hybrids Subie (would be very 550 spyder-esque).
Then paint all the fiberglass parts a nice metallic silver ... or black.
Ok, I'm a dork
This may turn out to be the best looking 914 EVER!
Just to throw a grenade into your planning...
I found this part on a Rocketrally site. 6 speed AWD to RWD conversion sleeve.
If it would work with a STi six speed with your current engine and the other proposed Mods, it would be the Best Damn Teener hands down!
http://www.rocketrally.com/website/index.php?option=com_oscommerce&osMod=product_info&cPath=40_182_221&products_id=40
Awesome project! Gives me inspiration for my Suby conversion!
So I finished my other project for the day, say hello to 5 gallons of sweet cherry chocolate stout! Give it about a month and it will be perfect.
Check out the stainless steel DC sports header I installed along with a custom up-pipe I built. Purty aint it?
It frees up some horses and is 12.2 pounds lighter than the stock manifold
I want some
I'll be in Vegas the weekend of June 28th. Will it be ready by then?????
(hint, hint)
Tonight I pulled my tank and gutted everything in the front trunk, I bagged and tagged everything, next stop for the parts I am keeping is the powder coater.
I will be welding up all of the un-needed holes then stripping the remaining paint in preparation for primer.
I didn't think it was possible to have a gas tank area that clean. Yours looks better than factory compared to mine. KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK!!!!
Absolutley WICKED Dana... this is going to be one of my favorite project threads ever.
Keep it up
Nice job Dana,
the car looks awesome
im looking forward to seeing this beast...
Well, it's been a while. Between painting my house and haven't had much time to work on the car!
I snuck away last night and got the windshield cleaned up and reshaped.
I started out by using the templates I made earlier to position the frame where I wanted it. I was going to mount the frame so the top of it was even with the top of the head hoops but it just didn't look right. Now that the lift off hard-top is looking like its going to happen having the frame a little higher will be better anyway. I ended up mounting the windshield an inch higher than the hoops so now the car will be 41" tall not 40".
I welded up the relief cuts I made in the corners, then I rounded off the corners of the frame and boxed them.
I then ground down the pinch welds and rewelded the frame with butt welds.
As you can see I left a small bit of the pinch weld at the bottom of the frame so I would have something to clamp to for final adjustments, this will be ground down once I have welded the frame in place.
(Did you notice the wall? I did a little painting while I was waiting for the welds to cool, I figure if I paint it four feet at a time that wall will be all white by fall
Here is a good shot of the new rounded frame.
I boxed in the corners but left the center un-boxed. The interior side and back of the frame will be wrapped in vinyl and I will make a matching removable filler piece for the center of the frame. When I make the top I will design it so its front lip fits into the center slot (with the filler piece removed) for a secure and fairly water tight fit.
Here is how things are looking now.
Next I will fabricate the backing plates for mounting the windshield. I am going to plug weld in a second layer of metal inside the frame at the connection point so I will have a backed butt-weld, and double the stock metal thickness where the frame meets the cowl. I will then drill an access hole in the back of the frame so I can weld up the interior support plate, then weld up the access hole. If I do this right the frame will be much stronger than stock.
Looks sweet Dana.
Any chance you want to come out here and make me a cage
yeah, wow dude, you are doing some very nice work!
I'm still not sure why you'd want to paint that??? It would look awesome with a clearcoat!!!
Great work. Are you sure this is your first 914 project???
I expect to see the whole garage painted now
OMFG!!!!
We're not worthy! We're not worthy!
This is the coolest thread and build!
I feel completely inadequate! (Shrinkage here!)
PWN pg 7...
Thanks for the support guys! I plan on doing some more welding tonight!
Too cool Dana! Love the plan. You're doing with a 914 what I want to do 29 roadster.
Damn, I love this thread...Dana - we need more! It's been a week!
I wish I had 1/2 the metal skills you have!
Need Update, Badly!!!!
Sorry guys, I am in the middle of building a 1000 sq foot deck and after a full days work on that I have no strength or patience left to work on the car.
I will finish the deck in a couple weeks and will then have the time and energy to get back to the car. Don't worry you will get your fix in a little bit
Here is your Porsche Mural for your wall. If I come knock out that deck for you, will you please get back to the car?
This is what sucks about living in the city. I don't even have tools I wish I could go out back and build a deck and do some welding in my garage. Oh well I will just sit at my computer.
I am jealous
I do get to detail cars for money but it's not the same.
O.K. guys, the deck is DONE!
Here are a couple pictures of my huge deck, I think it turned out pretty well for being my first attempt at working with wood.
And yes now that this monster is done work will resume on the anklebiter on monday!
It will be so refreshing to get back to working on metal...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a deck. Here's an idea... Put a roof over it, some walls around it, install a lift, set up a ramp and you've got a second garage.
Maybe this will provide you with the extra garage space you need to complete your Anklebiter project...
Eric
I was thinking much the same thing!
Where is the round hole for the lift??
Wes
Wow... You have a really big deck
Get to working on that car I have been wondering when this thread was going to be updated
Due to public outrage regarding my lack of progress I have decided to start working on the car again...
Today I started out by tack welding in backing panels for the windshield frame, I figure the more metal I can weld into this area the better.
I then clamped the windshield frame in place and took what felt like an hour to make sure it was where I wanted it. I intentionally left a gap between the frame and the cowl so I could get good penetration into the backing plates.
Then I welded and finished the area. After I buy the right sized hole saw I will drill into the back of the frame and weld its inner structure.
Here's how things are looking now.
You can put away your pitch forks and torches now.
Wes V
After finishing the windshield frame I went into the front trunk and removed all of the seam sealer. Since the car has no top I figure it won't be spending much time in the rain so seam sealer is unnecessary weight that can be done away with. I heated it with a torch and it came off pretty easily.
I have been keeping track of the weights of everything I have removed from the car so far and this junk is no exception.
By stripping the seam sealer I dropped 1.43 lbs which is equivalent to gaining 0.242 brake horsepower WOOHOO!
So um how about some pics of the Plymouth
Ummm... come on 10 days... WTH
Wow, just finding out about this project, looking forward for sure to see it done. Nice deck by the way
Here ya go Scotty.
This is an old picture I had laying around of the Plymouth next to the 914. This picture was taken about a month after I drug the 914 out of the field where it had been sitting since 1982.
I can't seem to find my box of old pics so this one is all I have to post now.
I love that car and will get to work on it once the anklebiter is done (someday ).
Sorry for the poor quality picture, its all I got.
Kewl, Makes the 914 look a little tiny huh ?
So today I removed the headlight buckets and I've got to tell you it was a lot harder than i thought it would be...
Despite putting up a good fight I got them out with out damaging anything
I also scraped out the black tar from the bottom of the bucket.
Next I need to make a new hood seal channel for the bucket-less trunk.
Here you can see I had already removed the sheet metal that used to surround the spare tire when I installed the radiator the first time.
Also you can see the venting holes cut for the radiator air flow.
To replace the heavy pop-ups I am running KC hilites in the foglight holes.
They are not street legal by any stretch of the imagination but neither is the rest of the car so I might as well stay consistent.
All I know is they work a lot better than the stockers (and look better too!).
Over all I cut a total of 21.6 pounds which translates to 3.66 BHP
Nice werk,Nice car, nice bicycle too
Wow, you sure do very nice work.
When I talk about the cars weight loss I have mentioned the equivalent BHP a couple of times. Since there have been a couple topics and questions on the subject I thought I would explain how I am coming up with these crazy numbers just to prove that I am not making this crap up .
The original weight was 2300 pounds and it had 320 BHP.
Since the car now weighs 1875 pounds and still has 320 BHP.
1875/320 = 5.86
So if the car still weighed 2300 pounds it would need 392 BHP to be as fast as it is now.
2300/392 = 5.86
If we divide the weight lost by the theoretical BHP gained:
425/72 = 5.9
This means that for every 5.9 pounds the car drops it gains an equivalent of 1 horsepower.
The beauty of this is that the lighter your car gets the less poundage it takes to gain a HP! Yay!
So there you go, bored yet?
That's just cool. I want to get my car that lite.
Umm, last time I checked, Wyoming only had a law that you had to have lights, turn signals, brake lights and running lights. I don't remember the law saying that they had to be in the stock place. I remember the Cheyenne Police asking nicely if I wouldn't mind reving my motor, but ( year 2k) but no noise either. I don't think anybody is going to give you grief unless you get caught out at night in the rain, near Gurnsey.
My brother in law is a Wyoming state trooper and I have spent alot of time with his "laws of the road" book, by my count the car is in violation of 12 major laws, so far...
There are a lot of laws like minimum headlight height and required front plates on the books in Wyoming but fortunately you have to be doing something really stupid to get anyone to care about it. So as long as I don't drive like a total jackass I should be ok
The only really obvious legal problem I have is that after I mount the diffuser there will not be any room for a rear plate, and that is one thing I think they may notice, better get on that problem huh?
Rear diffuser? How are you going to do that? I want one
Stater? Cool. Brother in law was a Sherrif in Cheyenne. Can you do a ricer thing and put it up on one side between the tail lights? a little work and you should be good. I loved making the run from Cheyeene to Laramie then down to Ft. Fun then back up to Cheyenne. Loads of fun. Mountains, curvy roads, sand dunes, then back on the freeway.
dude.. that is TASTY!
just fantastic...
I'll try that. Then I just have to wait and see how you do this.
I stripped down the paint inside the cowl area.
Between the original owner and myself we managed to add quite a few extra holes in the cowl that needed to be filled.
Since the car will not have any climate control I filled the vent holes along with any extra holes that will not be needed.
It was tough working with the complicated thin metal but with a little high build primer it should turn out nice and straight.
Yah, such putrid rustage. OY!!!
Glad your tub is worthy. Keep it coming, ya freakin' weiner.
Dammit, I'm an envious SOB. Grr. Sweet project. Go go go.
I also received a F/G GT-Racing hood, it weighs 12 pounds for a weight savings of 21 pounds.
This brings my weight savings total up to 427.9 pounds.
I am a big fan of Getty's work but for some reason they don't make a 914 hood with filled headlight holes so I had to buy a GT-Racing hood.
Over all the hood looks pretty good but it was cut way to small so I have to do a ton of work to make the hood gaps anywhere close to reasonable. Also the filled areas are not supported in any way so they are really flimsy, they really need some kind of inner bracing to keep them from ripping off at speed.
Seriously Getty step up, I know you are busy selling parts to the 997 guys but it is time to start making some filled hoods, this hood is going to take years to fix.
now that chappy's car is done, this is the coolest thread on the net.
...now I need to find a reason for my company to send me to Laramie for a visit!
I agree with all of the above quotes. This is going to be fun to watch..
On my way to Jackson(my home away from home) i will have to make a stop while passing through.
My good friend Charlie who has a nice orange 914 -6 lives in Jackson, i gave him and his boy Sam a ride in my car the other night when they were in town.
Charlie wants me to transform his car now.....
Since you are patching up all the holes under the cowl, you should add a piece of sheetmetal to box that area in and create and nice strong beam in that area. It will stiffen the car up and you won't lose any space.
Did you actually chop the windshield??
I know you were scared of getting it cut.
If you are getting it cut, please share the contact details of the company that is doing it.
I would like to send them a template to have cut from a 914 windshield.
Rich
I'd be willing to bet that is the hood I sent back to them a month ago. I ordered form them for the same reason. No one else makes a race hood that I could find.
Chris made a hood using my stock hood and the headlight covers.
I would have loved to drop some weight but what can ya do?
Not trying to highjack this cool thread but what about Fiber-Lite Racing?
http://www.fiber-literacing.com/store.html
Anyone ever tried their front hoods or deck lids? They have a front hood w/o the headlight cut outs.
I bought the hood used so I am pretty much stuck with it, on the bright side it was cheap enough to make fixing it worth while.
And no, the guy I bought it from had nothing to do with the poor quality and fit, it was this screwed up when it was brand new!
Time to pull out the 'glassing gear!
By filling the holes in the cowl area I added about 7.2 ounces.
Since this is a light-weight car I couldn't add this weight without cutting some weight too!
I cut off the remaining unused brackets and tabs, whipped out the hole saw and managed to trim off 7.2 ounces to counter-act filling the other cowl holes.
Here is the final product:
Yummy swiss cheese!
Expect to see a lot more swiss cheese in the future!
This build is incredible!
Since I am doing so much to update the the cars looks I couldn't just use the stock mirrors. There are a lot of choices out there but i finally settled on 2006 Pontiac Solstice mirrors, they are quite a bit smaller (and cheaper!) than the Porsche Aero mirrors and I think they fit the cars style pretty well.
Here is what I had to do to make them fit. I had to grind down the base to fit the contour of the door, then drill and tap deeper mounting holes. It was actually pretty easy to mount these mirrors, overall it took about an hour.
Those look surprisingly amazing.
Yup, I think they look good with the style of your build.
Jim
jesus dude, those look like a factory fit. nice work!
While your changing things you could go to a 5spd subie tranny. A OBX LSD is pretty easy to put in and stronger gears are available. The OBX goes for around 400.00. Porscharu had some nice adapters made to use the type 2 larger cvs so the axle deal is ok you probably only need two inner cvs and the adapters if you are already using bus axles.
I'm going to try the suby with just the LSD mod and see how it holds up.
The one thing that will save this subie application is the two wheel drive and low weight.
As the other poster stated a vf39 sti turbo will make more volume without the heat you are now making by over running the 2.0 turbo.
I am still stuck on the awic to avoid the air flow problem over the motor.
Also while your in there I thought about cutting out the bottom of the longs and putting in a 2x3 rectanglar tube with one of the 2 inch sides removed to provide a channel on both sides for the plumbing. Once it's welded in it should really make the rails stiff. I know you have a nice roll cage setup but I am trying to avoid a cage.
I'm going to use all the normal tub additions to try to stiffen things up so I guess I'm really going a little different direction than you.
I really like the style you have come up with. I have always thought the 914 was ugly and you have made it look fast and lean. The soltice mirrors are very nice. Some else used a gm mirror that also looked pretty good.
On the 6spd. sti tranny the mod that was mentioned was for a REAR wheel drive not a front wheel drive as I am using from Bremar. The Bremar I have will only work on the 5spd.
Several people are installing subie trannys in 914's.
I also have thought about maybe putting scoops in front of the rear wheels for a air intake and the ataic. A fiberglass duct could be made pretty easy on each side.
I am so glad you are so far ahead of my project so that I can study your approach.
You are doing great work. Are you tigging or miging?
I did my first rust repair 30 yrs ago with a stick welder boy what a job.
I have been miging for a long time but I am now using tig and it's really the lowest heat and the welds are more malible. Also there is lots less grinding and sanding of welds.
My 914 will be a street car and I also don't like the stock lights so I am trying to work that out also.
This may prove to be the best thread I am aware of.
WOW, sounds like you have a lot planned for your project!
To answer some of your questions:
Can I have this when you are done??????????
Sorry Jonthan. He said he was going to give it to me already
Oh... That's what you meant. I get confussed easily
I'm sure the stock tmic is ok for the wrx at 12 psi but the stock turbo really makes a lot more heat when it is pushed beyond it's capacity. To make 320 hp reliabily you will need a bigger turbo that makes it's volume at lower rpm and makes less heat. BUT it will need a bigger intercooler to handle the larger amount of cfm. On my son's sti at 20 lbs of boost with a 30r turbo at the top of 3rd the turbo was making 340 degrees f. With a fmic it was 106f on a 95 f evening at the tb.
It sounds like you have a perfect tune on the setup you have. The only thing I hope is you don't get some bad gas and get to build a better motor. 320 is A LOT for the stock 2.0 turbo setup.
I have lots of ideas but you have done a lot more than talk that's whats important. You have really raised the bar for the 914. Who cares that you started with a really clean tub. This will be sooo much more performance and style that a lot of guys with bought cars will not want to be seen next to you.
Like I stated before I will be running an upgraded Bell intercooler, even though the stock intercooler did a great job of cooling over the last 2 years I drove it. I agree that an sti turbo is a great upgrade but I don't feel the need to replace the stock one. I had this engine tuned to 320 HP by Vishnu performance and I trust their judgement and experience, they told me the stock turbo is fine and after 2 years of beating the crap out of it they have been 100% right. The main key to making this kind of power reliably in this car versus an STI is that the exhaust has a very short trip to the rear bumper. I am literally running a 3 foot long, 3.5 inch perfectly straight tube from the turbo to the rear bumper, the exhaust has no restriction and trust me that unties a couple ponies and makes the turbo's life a lot easier. Not to mention the fact that the engine is under almost no stress pushing around my 1850 pound car compared to the tank like STI
This thread is making me want to build another car. I cant wait to see how it turns out. Great job so far...
Thanks for the great support guys! 200 replies and over 10,000 views, wow, how crazy is that? It is so great having you guys follow along, it keeps me motivated and excited about the project. It's funny, when you post a picture of everything you do to your build it's really hard to cut corners, you all are keeping me honest and my car will turn out better for it!
Thanks again!
Dana.
The views really speak towards the craftsmanship. The work is awesome and your attention to detail is amazing. :trophy"
I think threads like this just increase the quality of everyone's work. Looking at your thread and others like Jeff Hail's are really good motivational tools for me. Now I feel compelled to finish every little bit to the best of my abilities. Thanks.
Very nice work
this is will be the sweetest modified 914 ive ever seen. keep up the awsome work. keeps me motivated
I think the thing that I like the most about this project is the hint of old school hot rodding, coupled with excellent handling and extreme power.
What is not to like about this car. I cant wait to see it finished.
Anything... this is my favorite build by far... second only to Chappy's
Sorry for the lack of progress guys, the whole engineering degree thing is really eating up a ton of my time, I am averaging about 6 hours of homework a night, sheesh. I have 4 huge tests next week, after that I should be able to finally get some work done!
The me is so important in your life. My son hotrods a STI but he is chomping at the bits for my start on the 914 suby. He has a great job as a me and a great place to work. He has dropped in on a Seibon vender in Oregon on a business trip to see why his damaged hood had taken months to resolve. He travels about once a month. He is single and has a great income and he also has a great mechanical apptitude. The science and math overwhelm me on my hotrodding challenges. On that subject he is outstanding. He only lacks the hands on that will come very fast as he helps with our fabbing projects. To him programming is a fun but very time consuming challenge. I took programming in college (to me very boring) but when it makes the car go faster it is way more interesting and of course very different.
GPA is pretty important in looking for a big job but the mechanical apptitude that you have is something that can't be taught.
I was too lazy to finish college in the 60's, I thought my mechanical apptitude was enough so I switched to Industrial Engineering, welding, machine shop, drafting and design and etc. Not as much boring math and science, a lot more hands on. Needless to say I never got to where I could just buy the car of my dreams.
really though I enjoy making things other people want to buy.
Charlie brings up a good point - the mechanical aptitude will serve you WELL. I didn't get my ME until I was 30 (started out of HS, dropped out of ME when the Aerospace (AS) economy collapsed in SoCal, got an AS in Auto Mechanics and an AA small biz mgmt degree and went off to hot rodding.
After getting my BSME I got a job with a large AS company.. with just a few weeks of experience messing with the simulation software I was asked to consider a structural issue. I applied all I had learned working on tube chassis cars and where tubes work and don't work, real world load paths, etc... I beat the senior analyst and the computers optimizing software and I could hardly use the software at the time. I was the lead on that in 3 months... out of college 3 mo. and a lead analyst.
I am not BSing or tooting my own horn, just making a point that instead of going straight thru college - doing the auto thing was a better education and put me further in my career than 5yrs of engineering experience would have. You will hands down kick the ass of every one of your classmates when the time comes to start interviewing assuming you keep a good GPA of course.
I had a guy one night in DiffEQ ask me why I was so greasy (would literally go straight from working on building race engines and managing that biz to class), told him about my work and he said "You're fuching up the curve. Engineers are supposed to be stupid from the elbows down!" I will NEVER forget that comment.
Dana, I know you are moving toward your design, but I have to ask you something. Since you have the skill, and are transfoming your car, but still have the 914 bloodline "look" (does that make sense ?) have you considered doing the front end like the "concept" car we have seen? I know what you are doing is a lot of work, but I just can't believe no one has done it yet.........Also- I know this sounds crazy, but for some reason, I keep seeing a chrystler 300 front end on a 914 !! I'm going to see if the computer artists can do one up to see what it would look like over in their post going on rite now (fake band challenge). Your car is looking great.
I have crossed paths with several engineers that can talk very effectvely but can't hold a wrench or turn it without going the wrong way first. On my son and my adventures I have repeatedly told him to try to take something apart that he has designed. He is amazed at the effort of some disassemblies we do and how awkard they seem. I told him the first time is always the hardest and if you do it every day on "high maintenance units" IBM's term for junk, you get real fast, it's called specialized. In his job he travels and supports a product he helped design and of course tries to teach proper maintenance, but sometimes the operators really frustrate him. Overall most of the good engineers I know have loved every job they have had though. My job fixing business machines was not nearly as rewarding, and usually depressing. Only when the asian competition came along did we see a improvement in or own designs. I know they sort of copied us but their engineering was better. Electro mechanical control versus relay logic/mechanical control mostly. Most jap bikes are many times over better engineered than a harley. Even the vrod is a take off of the 83 honda magna, 130 hp., and still not as powerful it is a better harley though.
To me the front of the 914 is screaming for improvement especially on the radiator cars.
No big progress but given my crazy schedule I am amazed I got anything done!
The stock Boxster humps were made out of two thin fiberglass layers with a gap between them. Since I am doing extensive work on the humps I needed a thicker fiberglass base than the top layer was made out of.
I cut out the lower layer to expose bottom of the top layer.
I then added four layers of 'glass to the underside.
Now that the fiberglass is strong enough I can sand and smooth the final layer of 'glass on the top of the lid. This thing is almost done!
Hopefully I can get the rest of the 'glassing done before the snow falls
I still vote that you do the carbon fiber look (could be vinyl or just top coat) to the rear bumper, rear trunk, humps/decklid, roof, front trunk and front bumper...
Then leave the sides all metal exposed and clear coat that...
It would look awesome.
Rich
might be interesting with flat black satin finish...
Or
Chrome paint...that would be cool.
Rich
Glasurit used to have this anthracite grey in a single stage. You could darken that up a bit and it would look dope. I like the idea of a black or dark grey - it will really show off the lines. Bling will just draw attention away from the shape of the body...
This is the first thread I have ever bookmarked. You got me checking this shit like every day. Keep up the good work...
Trev just turned me on to this insane build. sweet concept.
I just finished up my ME degree in May. I really didn't have that great of a GPA and I will blame most of that on being in Formula SAE.... but I had a job before most of my friends so it worked out. Compared to the other younger guys I work with I am far and away more experienced at actually doing pretty much everything besides writing reports which I am catching up on pretty quickly. I don't know how much my boss is noticing of what I am capable of yet, but I know the guys in the shop notice it. Out of everyone at work I know the most about composite work and I learned it all because of FSAE.
How far into your degree are you? I know my junior year was the worst... and my senior year left me in the lab about 6 hours a day, then I would go home and do more hw.
What type of resin are you using for your fiberglass? If you want to make your glass parts lighter I would suggest pulling a mold off of the part you currently have, then make a new part with just the shape that you want. Also vacuum bag everything. We don't do it at work yet, but it only makes your work lighter and stronger, and it can be done pretty cheaply if you do it right.
After graduation, but before the FSAE competition I built the body for our formula car by myself in my garage. I wish I had a little more time and I wish the mold was nicer, but I think it turned out pretty well for only having about a month after work to build it.
Attached image(s)
Formula SAE looks like blast!
I have thought about pulling a mold off of the humps, I want to see how they end up, i they don't end up right a mold may be the way to go. Now that the 'glass is thicker I need to sand them down and lay on some primer, after mid-terms are over that is...
I finally had a weekend off and decided to do some welding today.
I plan on cutting out the rear trunk floor but decided to weld in some rear bracing first to ensure that nothing moves.
I am not really sure if this will drop any weight from the car but it should make it stiffer and easier to work on.
I welded in 1/8" steel plate as a base to weld the 1.5" diameter 1/8" wall tubes to.
I weighed the tubes, plates, and the difference in weight of my welding wire spool and found that the whole structure weighs 14.7 pounds, next I will cut out the floor and hope it weighs more than 14.7 pounds .
I will probably also tie this rear structure into the roll cage.
The black structure you can see in the photos is the old mounting bracket for the retractable wings actuators, it will be removed along with the floor.
I cut out the rear portion of the floor and cleaned things up.
The removed floor section weighed in at 6 pounds so it looks like I will be able to drop 5 or 10 pounds by replacing the floor with tubing.
I should be able to remove the rest of the floor tomorrow.
GO COUGS! (Served my four years in Pullman 92'-96')
Awesome werk DANA!!!!
Skillz baby skillz!
lookin' good - I sure wish I had something to weld Mendeola is still waiting on shift forks to assemble my transaxle
Typical "only takes two weeks to assemble and ship out" but they fail to mention the 4 weeks they will mess around waiting on parts. I will be lucky to have it before the really cold weather sets in.
WOW
You are a neat freak prior to your pictures...
How are you making it so shiny??? Wire brushed grinder???
Rich
Dana, I sent you a PM.
Wow, you used .125 wall tubing? You could have easily done that with .065 or even .058 wall. Plus there is no flex back there to speak of. The chassis doesn't bend in the direction you put the bracing. You could have saved 50% of the weight and still had the necessary level of stiffness.
The suspension does not twist that way. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it is right. Look at how your suspension moves. The rear shock towers see no lateral load at all. There is no reason to build that structure in the rear of the car. All the metal after the shock towers is pretty much hanging on for the ride.
When you need small quantities of metal check out these guys:
http://www.speedymetals.com
That looks like it Ed, any WRX header that does not incorporate an uppipe will fit.
I really like the DC header though, they make great stuff.
Good to hear from you buddy!
I finished cutting out the rest of the trunk. As you can see it will be so easy to work on the drivetrain and managing the cooling around the engine should be easier now as well.
I still need to do a little welding around the frame rails to get everything solid but it is getting close.
By cutting out the floor and welding in tubes I dropped 7.2 pounds which brings the total weight cut up to 434 pounds so far.
Now I have to clean up the drivetrain because it looks like crap behind the shiny tubing!
Well put, I used to have bars running from the cage to the towers when I was running a type IV but I had to remove them to get the WRX engine to fit. I just started prepping the rest of my cage this afternoon to weld in some new tubes that will clear the taller engine.
I was under the impression he was just doing the tubes and not connecting it to a cage structure.
there is little twisting force there that you need to deal with.
the passenger compartment firewall and the rear tubes you put in provide the shear strength for that area...the firewall doing most of the work...
The twist is forward of that firewall...put the car on jack stands under each donut only...then rock the rear of the fenders and watch the door gaps and door alignment as you do this...
the rear of the car...firewall back moves as a unit...the twist occurs forward of that...basically right where the longitudinal cracks....
drop a line down from the top of the windshield to the long...that is the stress point..
You will see what I mean if you wiggle the chassis while its on jack stands under the donuts.
Rich
A couple things.
First, I am surprised at the weight savings. My eyeball job on the area told me that it would be minimal or a push. I've been wrong before. Taking weight out of the rear of a 914 is a bitch....7 lbs is significant.
Second. IMO you're doing it right....after you tie it into the roll hoop/cage. The hoop alone won't cut it for overall stiffness.
A lot of opinions ventured on the necessity of bracing various parts of the 914 chassis. Those are about as good as mine....except my chassis is stiff....for a 914. Could it be better, sure, I've seen better...or what appears to be better. Nobody has supplied numbers, just speculation. I don't have numbers either but my butt dyno revealed a huge improvement when I tied the front & rear towers into the cage.....shoulda done it sooner.
If I were me Dana I would hack that rinky-dink stock shock mount tower completely out and run a tube from the cage back near that area*, make a bend and head down to the trans mount and create a rear structure exactly like Paul (URY) did. Then I would weld a couple tabs on to mount a new, better shock with rod ends at each end. Get rid of that rubber crap in the stock shock (which puts a shock on your shock and I would rather have a hard interface so the shock can do its job).
* I say near the area because you would need to have the bar in that region to create the upper mount.
Here is a shot of my shock assy and upper mount and what I am essentially describing.
Dana, I agree with Tim. A friend and I were looking at pictures of the rear cutout this morning, and we were both thinking a mount like above would be the way to go. Its not too much more work, and really opens up a whole new world in relation to shock selection and mounting precision.
Due to some computer problems, I can't load the pic of a car which I think was done better and got rid of the "rinky dink" shock tower mounting of the shocks.
I think "Bads" frame is stiffer than most all racing 914......by God, it should be.
And, by God, he shoulda gotten rid of the rinky dink McPherson strut suspenders up front tho.
Yeah, since you are removing the rear trunk may as well go ahead and cut out everything including the fenderwells and just hang the back of the body off the tube chassis stuff. It would be lighter and you could make custom wheel wells in the trunk.
Plus you can use regular double eye shocks. I would come straight back from the fire wall to the shock towers with tubes, Cross the firewall underneath the the engine lid, right up against the fire wall. Weld it to the chassis in several places. Then build an Xbrace out of 1in or 1.25 in tubing for the engine compartment. Make it removable so you can get into the engine bay.
Update(s)????? Half a month is too long to wait!
Since I have removed my trunk floor I no longer need the turbo relocation kit, I figured it would be better to bring the turbo back up to its original position. Here is the turbo in its relocated position, notice the mangled oil lines, custom bracket, and intake extension.
I removed the turbo and found that my intake was cracked and that the oil and coolant lines running to the turbo were also damaged. I ordered new lines, mounts, and a high performance silicone intake. According to it's maker this intake will increase performance by 10HP but I have my doubts, it looks good though! Here it is compared to the restrictive stock unit.
I installed everything and now my turbo is back where it belongs. And don't worry that missing nut is on order!
I love this thread
I also removed the remaining excess sheetmetal and cleaned up the frame rails. Next I am going to rebuild the area where the rails meet the towers and weld in the tubes that will tie the rear structure into the main cage.
FYI... The newer Subies have a plastic coolant tank instead of the metal one. The top of the metal tank tends to corrode. I just replaced mine.
I also did the silicon inlet hose. My race shop says they are beneficial.
While I was there I also added the Hondata intake manifold gaskets. They reduce the temperature from the block going into the intake. Also, there is a coolant line going into the throttle body. You could remove that as well. I think it's only to prevent the throttle from sticking in (really) cold weather. People also remove the tumble generator valves (TGVs) between the intake manifold and the block to free up some airflow.
These are some simple things to improve on the stock design. Just trying to be useful .
-Walter
Cool! Nice to see some updating going on today.
Very nice, I can't wait to see how the defuser fits in with all of this. Are you going to move the radiator to the back now? Looks like you have a bunch more room now.
I had thought about moving the radiator to the rear but I think it will bring alot of extra heat to the engine bay. I have a feeling it will be hard enough to get the intercooler cool as it is, running a belly pan and diffuser will seriously limit airflow to the engine bay. Who needs trunk space anyway?
I did a little welding today.
I reinforced the rest of the tower and tied the rear tubes into the main cage.
While I had the welder out I patched all of the un-needed holes in the "trunk" and engine bay.
I had planned on welding tubes into both sides today but it is 9 degrees here so I gave in to the cold after only finishing the passenger side.
I should be able to weld in the other side tomorrow.
I also properly attached the framerail to the tower, it looks like the only thing attaching the two in the stock car were 3 tiny spot welds.
Are you using that bzt-bzt-bzt-bzt welding technique that I see so many kids using now days when welding with a MIG machine? Your welds look funny.
Yeah I use the bzt-bzt technique, the welds run a little on the cooler side but I find that I have better control of the weld quality this way.
The welds do look a little crazy in the pictures, because I polished them with the wire wheel the cameras flash goes nuts and makes them look all wonkey, trust me they look a lot better in person!
I finished the cage today.
After cutting out the trunk floor and welding in all of the rear tubes I dropped a total of 3.2 pounds, not bad considering what was done.
Now there should be no problem in finding room to upgrade your 901 to a WRX 5 speed someday.
Looks awesome!
I'm concerned that the hoops of your roll bars are not continuous to the frame rails and are entirely dependent for their strength on the welds at their bases. They are also not triangulated and worry they will fold over onto your noggin in a crash. Don't get me wrong, I like what your doing overall, just want you to be safe.
I totally agree, at this point the hoops are not nearly as strong as they could be.
I have decided to run 5-point harnesses so it would probably be a good idea to triangulate the hoops with another bar.
It will be tough to squeeze another bar under the humps, I will have a better idea of what is possible after I finish the firewall.
great job!
Today I started rebuilding the firewall. Since I cut off the targa bar that held the upper seat belt bracket I have decided to go with 5-point harnesses. Luckly my main hoop is in a great position to anchor the shoulder belts but the firewall needed to be recessed to clear the belts.
I made these blisters then welded them into the firewall.
.
Big news, My wife and I are moving to Boulder Colorado in a couple weeks. I am transferring to CU Boulder in time for the spring semester. We got a nice place with a garage so work can continue on the Anklebiter. I dropped it back onto it's wheels to move it and decided to take some pics.
After having the car on 18" jackstands for a year I could not believe how low it was after I dropped it down on its wheels.
I took a couple pictures of the car next to our Subies to show just how low a 41" tall car really is.
The car is sitting at 5" from the ground to the donuts, I could go a little lower but I think things are looking pretty good as they are.
DAMN that thing is wicked !!
WOW. I am thinking Porsche should reintroduce the 914 ala the Camaro/Challenger/Mustang and just copy your design. Sign me up.
SS
F'ng Cool....
Moving to Boulder!! Great News.
Let me know how If I can help in any way. Where in Boulder?
Ferg
Hey Dana,
That thing is bad to the bone. By the way, how wide are the spacers on the front wheels?
Ed aka W9R1
That is by far the coolest 914 I have ever seen. Hands Down. Can we vote now for January car of the month.??
incredible
Ha!
Isn't it WEIRD to see your 914 so low on the ground after seeing it every day for months up on jack stands? I felt like an NBA player or something.
Lookin good!
nice! I am thinking Illegal Pete's on the Hill at least once when it warms up and the scenery is nicer (hahaha hey, I'm getting old)...
It's awesome.
But we would expect nothing less from you...
Eric
That pegs the cool factor meter
Holy sh!t!
Love the look of the rear area; what type of side mirrors are those?
Never mind, I just found the page that talks about using Pontiac Solstice mirrors. I should really look harder before asking obvious questions!
and of course
the work, your wife must be a great gal......
Oh man that thing is BAAAAD!!
In touch with a guy locallly who is doing a subie conversion. He's got some plans..big plans.
Here's his subie powered Ghia that he built. http://f-bautomotive.com/ghia.html I'm trying to get him on here, but he's too busy in his shop for the net.
that is awesome,, You might have said but what are you doing for headlights.. I was playing with the idea of some motocycle lights mounted next to the fogs kinda rally style but Im not that far to worry to much about it??????
Just set as my desktop background. Cant stop staring at it........need help.........
Jim
Fantastic looking car! I agree, Porsche should scrap their "new" 914 attempt, and just clone your body style. For a fee of course... A nice big one...
And welcome to Boulder!!!!
I work just up a short way from you! We'll certainly need to get some lunches going!
-Josh2
Thanks for the kind words guys!
Welcome back to Colorado, I've shown this thread to friends who aren't into 914s and they can't wait to see the car in person. I think you could charge admission.
Wow.......nice Fiat!
My girfriend's uncle used to have one just like it, sep it were a four door.
The car is looking fantastic. The only thing not working for me is the bumps behind the headrest. I say get rid of them and keep the line clean.
Really thought this thread makes me want to chop the top on my car.
Any updates Dana?
WOW, over 20,000 views and over 300 replies! You guys rock, thank you so much for the support!
Good luck in Boulder! I lived right out side of there for a couple of years. Lots of runs out of there during the summer.
Very stoked to have this car local!! I am just two exits away from you on 36 - really look forward to watching the progress and seeing the car in person.
Welcome to the nieghborhood!
-Scott S
This car is looking awesome. I can't wait to see the car finished and what you are going to do. It's going to look awesome.
Looking great Dana! Love the direction you took with your car. Hard to believe thats the same car I was looking at in Renegades parking lot. I drove down to Las Vegas 3 years ago to pick up my V8 conversion kit. You were showing me your car and around the shop and I kept thinking I should have done the Subaru conversion instead of the SBC. Now I want both! Was nice to meet you guys and the conversion was painless. Good luck with the project, can't wait to see the end result. How bout some HID projectors behind some clear replica turn signal lenses? Just a thought. Have fun! Paul S.
I've been stalking this page for a while now (a while = since May 2008). I've never really had anything to say, and still don't since I'm a newb to 914...
But damn. Dana, that is a good-looking car. The chopped windshield, front KC's, motor choice (sans bracing dilemma), and mirrors are well done. The look is mean, and the brushed metal is so unique and fitting for the car. But, with the fiberglass, what about a tan (bottom) / high gloss black (top) 2 tone paint scheme with a red stripe going along the length of the car?
I just Googled the first 2 images I saw.
http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/attachments/5-0l-talk/36079d1195266596-help-w-two-tone-paint-2.jpg
http://www.digimods.co.uk/images/Virtualcarimages/cars/fordequatorconcept2.jpg
Congrats on the successful move, btw.
By the end of the build, YOU will be weighing more than the unloaded CHASSIS!
I'd say good luck, but it looks like you don't need it.
Pete
Dana, ae you really 5 years younger than me? Even more impressive work now. Someone with this skill in their mid 20s
I have sat here at an can truly say that I love this build. I came across a Porsche 914 Carrera GT rendering and didn't seem to like it as much, but your work has prove me otherwise. Keep up the good work!
Nick
Isn't he like moving from Windy Wyoming,to Colorado!
wow, been gone from the site for months, and i come back to see this masterpiece has arose.
good job so far man.
I really like the brushed metal treatment.
I can't wait to see it in person. Need any help?
It's sping break and I finally had some time to spend on the car. As some of you may know I moved down to Boulder, CO in January but my car is still in Laramie, WY. I drove up on Sunday and was finally able to make some progress on the car.
I started out by welding in the center beam for the new cross member.
Then I welded in filler panels for the corners, as you can see they are crazy pieces that needed a lot of shrinking and stretching to fit.
Then I moved on to the most complicated piece of the cross member. I was remembering a 550 spyder I had worked on years ago and designed the cross member to echo those lines.
I finished up the cross member by capping it's back and bottom.
Here is the firewall with the humps on. I think the gap between them turned out pretty nice.
Here is a cool pic from the trunk looking into the engine compartment.
Not much left of her...
To finish off the fire wall I welded in some patch panels to fill the holes left by the speakers.
Thanks to Leo Imperial for getting out his sawzall and cutting me the perfect patches!
He's Back
Most excellent
Very nice work!
That is cool...similar thought and deeds going on here.
I am making that piece removable...and I am making three of them.
So, I am struggling with this.
One will be for a single hoop.
One for a double hoop.
One for no hoop.
I may just have a removable piece to add the second hoop and call it a day.
I love how you tied in the inner fender...do you have any progress pics of that funky area...I had a tough time due to the jog in the inner fender.
Rich
Yay!!!!! I've had my "fix"! Thanks!
love the metal work, I really have to start practicing some of those skills
Jim
As always, excelent work Dana
I'm inspired. Now to just get out and work on mine.
This project is really bitchen. Sooooo what color?
Looks awsom!!!
Oooooop's, Green it is. I also added a wheel and the front windscreen.
That looks perfect! You rock, thanks Paul!
My Pleasure.
Pure artistry, Dana . . . .
This next picture may slow down your progress and add more work.
It uses two motorcycle windscreens. I really thought you should see this.
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You have no idea how many times I have thought about that...
I would love to have to put a helmet on to run to the grocery store!
Damn it, I had just gotten over that concept and now you have to go and bring it up again, it is so tempting.
Use the bmw electric windscreen that raises up and down...its on the big cruiser bikes from bmw...no helmet needed.
rich
The rules may say the windshield must be safetyglass. And if there's a windshield there must be two wipers.
Looking great man.
Still can't wait to see the car finished.
Custom laminated glass for the windshield is easy to do and most decent glass shops can get it done.
Custom tempered glass for the side windows will cost you dearly.
The hot rod guys I spoke with all use laminated glass for the side windows just due to the price...
Go find a decent glass shop and talk to them...there are glass factories all over the country,,,you just need to make a metal template that is supported from behind with struts to keep its shape. (they will explain it to you)
Rich
I think I will just use lexan.
Its lighter and cheaper.
If I am going for the chopped look that I have now I will buy a lexan 914 'shield and cut it down, if I go with the Callaway 'vett look things might get a little more interesting...
still gotta go for a decent bend to make it look good.
Metal form...pizza oven (easy guys to convince...)
Rich
I did some work on this car. It has an upside down Saab 99 windsheild that was re-cut.
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The rules may say the windshield must be safetyglass. And if there's a windshield there must be two wipers.
does that mean a helmet is legal on the street.. or goggles?
Hey Dana,
What's goin' on? Been two months and no update.
Dana, I just have to say... I hate you... in the nicest way possible
. Nice work. You have some seriously mad skills. Sweet bike. I have an old Yamaha I need to fix up some day.
The motorcycle is major cool!!
I particularly like what you did with the paint.
Wes
This is the first time seeing this thread and I have to say... dude you are friggen AWESOME!!!! Keep it up!
Putting the photoshop skills to use...
Old school look with chrome steelies and a 916 bumper.
No hurries,
you can't rush "Perfection"
Nice work Dana,
I picked up a 71 BMW R75/5 for my wife, doing a lot of similar work. I have the solo saddle, but she likes the shape of the full seat, so we are going to keep that.
She wants clubman or straight bars for that vintage racer look, and is spinning wrenches to get all of the little stuff done. The frame should be all stripped and ready for powder coat at the end of the week. Then let the build begin. It should be fun as the front end is off of a R75/6 and has a single disk up front.
Looking forward to seeing your project in final paint.
I just finished up the bike. I just need to re-configure the garage to work on a car instead of a bike and then pull the car out of storage. Work on the Anklebiter will resume soon!
So what kind of top will this have? Convertible or Carson removable hard top? Very cool build, your blog is what brought me to the forums.
I am thinking a F/G lift off hardtop, there is a rendering of a possible top on page 3 of this thread.
My buddy has set up shop in my garage without asking so as soon as I can get rid of him and his bike work will resume.
Welcome to 914world Greco!
Its time for an update!!!!
Hi Dana
Give the guy a break already. He's so busy he can't even spell his own name correctly!
Hi Dana.
Yeah Dana, better get to it before the snow flies....
Oh wait. Glad I'm in Feenix!
Mike
So after almost a year of down time I have finally started back into the car.
I was originally planning on running a custom intercooler. After playing with the stock one and calculating flow rates of other aftermarket intercoolers it became pretty clear that the stock intercooler was a pretty good fit for what I needed, and it's free! I will just have to get its fins straightened and give it a good cleaning and it will be ready to go.
I am going to cut subtle but effective venting slots in between the head humps and use a couple small electric fans to draw air into the intercooler.
To mount the intercooler I threaded a couple 1/2" aluminum bars at each end. One end screws into the engine block and the intercooler bolts into the other end. I think they look pretty clean and they are surprisingly sturdy, most importantly they weigh almost nothing.
I wanted to get a start on running the inlet tubes for the intercooler but out of the thousands of feet of tubing I have none of it is 2", looks like I will have to hit up the exhaust shop tomorrow...
Sweet. Glad to se you back at it Dana
No matter how many times I look at this thread, I am always impressed. Keep it up Dana.
OK..... I'm good now.... For a while!
I drove down to Littleton, CO this morning and picked up some 2" mandrel u-bends. I then pieced together the intercooler intake tubes. They are only held together with tape now because I still haven't figured out my welder situation. I only have 110 at my place and my 220 welders are up at my in-laws place in Cheyenne. I may have to make some time for welding when I go up there for thanksgiving. Some day I would love to swap these out for aluminum but that is more trouble then it is worth right now, I still managed to drop 4 pounds because this plumbing system is much shorter than the previous version. That brings the total up to around 414 pounds shed. Sorry for the fuzzy pics, my camera couldn't figure out all of the shiny tubing.
I just saw this on the Porsche website. Didn't know they made a roadster.
I like yours better.
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I think they copied me, I started production way before they did!
hey, just gotta say "wow!!!.." what an amazing effort and it sure is turning out looking really good. keep up the good work man, looking forward to see the updates.
oh btw, i noticed that you're rather a subie fan. i really dig my saabaru except on the 05 ej205 had a crappy oil pump and straved my crank bearings.. i'm looking into ways to get that puppy back on the road..
Last night I mocked up the blowoff valve tubing. Other than welding these pieces up the intake system is fairly complete. I think I will have these three tubes painted body color.
We all give you a hard time, but this IS the coolest thread on the "world". We just love to see what you come up with and how you build it.
We are... so not worthly!
A little poo flinging is all in fun.
Now, get back to work so that we can feel inadequate and small!
Believe me, one of the main reasons I hang out here is to give you all a hard time, I appreciate it when someone throws it back
Looking good Dana...
Just a heads up, the MAF might need to be clocked slightly to get a pure reading. Ran into an issue on an 05 stang w/ a vortech. Some places it would read very erratically based on RPM, and just twisting it around really cleaned up the signal.
BJ
good to see your back at it Dana!
keep us posted and someday i will see it in real life
Ah!!! Winter is setting in and there was "something" keeping from my "long winter nap".
Something was missing, something was wrong!!!! WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE???
"ANKLEBITER, ANKLEBITER, ANKLEBITER" UPDATE!!!! WHERE IS IT?
There it is---------------
EVERYTHING IS GOING ALONG AND I NOW HAVE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROJECT.
Looking forward to a long extended Winter nap; see you in the Spring.
Steve Hurt
OMG..I have been living under a ROCK! I just found this build and it's great.
The law and my .02$: Don't apply the law on currently manufactured vehicles(Chevy/Ford/etc). Read the laws for a "specilty" vehicles or "KIT" vehicles. I PERSONALLY know WA has them and there are laws that allow builds such as these. Have it licensed as something other than a Porsche, maybe a "KIT" vehicle. It will apply. Then carry a print out of the laws tucked somewhere in a nice little binder near your registration/insurance.
Fight smarter....
WAHOO....I love this car!
After going all night a few years ago on the motor we put in my son's sti it wouldm't run smooth. About 10am I had to crash and he woke me up about noon and said someone on nasioc said to check the maf and that was it. No arrow or anything. It was mounted on a aluminum housing and we turned the housing around on re-assembly.
Holidays are done. We're in need of an update!
Hi Dana
You gonna be at 3R tonight???
Ferg
I will post an update on Sunday
No big news on the car but my wife and I moved from our apartment into a little house with a huge shop. So now I will actually be able to get some work done!
My other vehicles.
And of course the awesome REZNOR gas heater to combat the Colorado winter.
How she sits now
I need to meet your dog, is it a doodle?
Swet....looking good Dana
Last night I started to cut out some extra sheet metal around the engine bay. I finally got sick of working around the engine and decided to pull the drivetrain.
Now that the drivetrain is out I am going to detail it and work on shaving some weight off of the engine. The stock alternator bracket weighs a ton and the intake manifold needs to have a ton of extra metal shaved off of it.
Sweet.... I'm so happy you're back to work on this.
This car is so unique and so cool it really needs to be finished.
Any book, chapter, or article on custom 914s needs to cover this car.
What kind of color scheme do yo have in mind for the engine?
John
I'm soo happy now!!!! I look forward to seeing your posts and pictures of your work.
I hope its not too presumptuous of me to ask, (but I am going to anyway) what are your plans here? (See pic) I'm very interested to see how you resolve how the trunk meets the fender and the cover...
Thanks!!!!!!!
Hey Dana... when do I get to see this car in person? I could bring over a real camera.
glad to see you're back at it. very sweet indeed.
Love this build, it's actually the car that inspired me to go for the subaru conversion.
Here's a nice online "photoshop-like" program:
http://www.pixlr.com/editor
After pulling the drivetrain I stripped the engine down to almost a long block. There is a ton of weight that can be removed from the engine and a couple small power adders that are easier to do with the engine out of the car.
Now I need to take this opportunity to clean things up a bit.
Next I pulled the Tumble Generator Valves off of the intake. For those of you who are not familiar with these little bastards, they are located between the intake and the heads, during cold start ups they close to improve emissions. The problem is that when the valves open during normal driving they still block a ton of air flow and rob mid range power.
Here are the stock TGVs:
I removed the butterflies and the motors and sensors related to them, this procedure does trigger a check engine light but I am going to have the car tuned anyway and this code can be eliminated from the ecu.
Here you can see the casting that directs air around the closed butterflies so the engine doesn't stall.
I bored out the cast partitions and ported out the TGV bodies
Here is a shot half way through porting:
Lastly I finished porting the bodies then ground off any unnecessary mounts or brackets on the exterior of the TGVs then hit them with a wire wheel. The holes you see where the rods used to go will be filled as soon as I get my tig down here.
And now for the Bonuses: I lost a total of 2.2 pounds by removing the motors, sensors, butterflies, driveshafts, and extra aluminum.
Here is a TGV mod before and after chassis dyno sheet from a guy who has almost exactly the same mods on his engine as mine:
Check out the gains at 3000 rpm, and this is at the wheels!
Not a bad gain for a days work!
Hey Dana,
You gonna have it back together and running for Cars and Coffee tomorrow?
Mike
There are alos companies that make an emulator for the TGV sensors... just the TGV motor on one side, a short shaft and the sensor on the other...
Re-programming is a better choice.
There are decent gains to be had gasket matching everything, and cleaning up the heads (requires removal though) The Exhaust ports have lots of room for improvement.
Look at the throttle body inlet, and where it meets the intake... lots of areas to clean up, and decent gains for some time and lil money.
I was looking at the stock intake manifold and realized that I have eliminated the need for any mounting brackets on the manifold.
I gasket matched the TGVs to the manifold.
I have wanted to go with a little more of a stock look so I decided to put a brushed finish on the manifold rather than full out polishing it.
I took a grinder to the mounts and casting marks on the manifold then hand sanded it down with 60 grit, 100 grit, and then a scotch brite pad. It is so nice to have a wife that doesn't bat an eye when you pull an intake manifold out of the dish washer...
Then I bolted the gutted TGV bodies and manifold up the the engine with new gaskets all around. The process of shaving and polishing the manifold dropped an additional 1/2 pound.
Here are another couple shots.
The manifold looks gorgeous!
The WRX engine is not the best looking engine, I am trying to make it look as good as possible by re-routing and tucking everything I can.
I want to make the engine as easy to remove as possible so I am moving the connection points for all of the fuel and wiring to one location in the front of the engine.
Here is the original routing of the fuel lines.
I cut off part of the original lines and ran my own feed and return. Once I run the wiring to the "connection area" I will make a nice aluminum bracket that mounts both lines and the wiring to the alternator bracket
I also deleted the heater loop, I cut off most of the steel tubing for the system then replaced them with a couple rubber elbows and my temp sensor housing. I still need to find some sexy hose clamps since this area will be pretty visible.
Since I am not running A/C or P/S I cut down the accessory brackets so they are only set up to hold the Alternator, I lost 1/3 pound in the process.
Hey dont forget another 7-8 lbs in a lightened front pulley. You can find a good 2 lb one out there. Awesome manifold polish!
small point.. the svx oil fill tube is shorter and points to the outside which might actually work better in our cars..plus cleans up the look some..
Hi Dana, I've been following your build with great interest, fantastic job so far. I just received this months MCN and their innovation of the month is the Oetiker clamp. These clamps are meant to be used for fuel injection fuel lines. Check them out at www.oetiker.com. They are very attractively priced as well...daveyboy
Thanks for all the tips guys! Lots of good info in the last three posts!
Does the original pulley not act as a harmonic balancer? If so, removing the weight could be detrimental.
from my research, on another suby thread:
I finally got an answer directly from Subaru of America...I asked them if the crank pulley for the WRX and the STi is used as a harmonic damper/balancer. Here's the reply...
Hello F. Flores:
Thank you for your patience as I checked with our Technical Services
Department regarding your message below. They advised that the crank pulley
is a pulley and nothing else. It is not used as a harmonic damper/balancer.
Thanks for the opportunity to be of assistance. If you need any future
assistance, please feel free to contact us again.
Best wishes,
John J. Mergen
Subaru of America, Inc.
I think this topic can now end!:D
Awesome looking engine Ed, I remember welding up that intercooler kit for you like it was yesterday!
Good tip on the SVX filler Greg, I have been trying to figure out what to do to the odd WRX one!
here is a quick pick to see if this works for you..
Yeah I have a long way to go before I see a running car..
Might be a dumb question from someone who isn't all that mechanically inclined, but with the fuel line connections rerouted to the front, do you risk catastrophe if the alternator belt breaks?
It doesn't take much inspection of a suby 2.0 or 2-5 damper to figgure out it is truly a damper. It has different pieces mounted in rubber. Being a oem damper means it is designed to work in the lower rpm ranges. ATI builds a nice aftermarket damper that works in a much broader range. Don't forget the oil pump is directly behind the damper any hormonics created will be directly sent through the internal part of the pump. Check out ATI's site. I originally tried to find a fluid damper like the one's on my sbcs but then read ati's info and decided to go that way. Who knows what all goes wrong on high strung subys but why screw with whats a known thing, all motors hotrodded need all the high tech mods you can afford to make them live longer. Also on the fi clamps you could use the one time use ones like what is on a harley. They are cleaner looking than a screw type clamp. You can get them at a harley shop or once you have some I bet they can be found online. You will also need the installation tool to squeeze them.
Oh yeah I have two light weight pulleys one is a perrin, I think the other also has a additional pretty pulley for I guess the alt. I will sell them if anyone is interested, they have never been on a running motor.
Also Grimspeed has thin or thick phoenolic sp? spacers to keep the engine heat out of the intake. I think I remember they are 3mm and 7 or 11mm the longer ones come with bolts. With those guys on you can put your hand on the intake on a hot day while the motor's running. Justin Grimm is the vender on nasioc.
Hey dont forget this pretty filler from outfrontmotorsports.com, but i bet it adds a few ounces to stock plastic one.
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So here is a good demonstration of how huge modern cars have gotten, or how tiny the 914 really is.
Here is a Ferrari F430 diffuser at home on an F430, looks pretty reasonably sized right?
And here is the same diffuser on my 914, got a little bigger huh?
Another couple shots, I am just mocking it up, fitting all of these new components into such a small car is getting to be tricky! I have ground out all of the cracks in the fiberglass and filled them, a little more sanding and it should be ready for paint. Keep in mind my car is sitting about a foot higher than it will when I lower the suspension and get it off of the wheel dollies, that thing is going to look even bigger dragging a couple inches off of the ground!
I was wondering when we would see the diffuser mock up
Is your exhaust going to exit through the hole in the center of the diffuser?
few random thoughts
I've wondered how a diffuser would work on a 914. Seems it would need to have a smooth underbelly across the whole car for them to work right. Since the back is open from the firewall back how could it work?
Since your car has a subaru motor I guess it's possible to make a pan across the whole thing. With the air cooled cars that doesn't seem possible.
This is assuming things work like I imagine they do.
I removed the rear valance and made an exhaust that tucks up out of the airflow. I kind of figured there is a hell of alot of air coming out the back end and the more open the better.
I have also wondered how it would work mounting a wing down where the diffuser is mounted. If done right it would almost go unnoticed. Of course it could be the air is in such turbulence it would never work.
I was planning on making an aluminum belly pan all the way from the front valence to the diffuser, With a little creative cutting I should be able to get the belly perfectly flat.
Other than the diffuser the rear of the car is going to be hexagonal expanded aluminum mesh. Probably some hidden led taillights to keep weight down and not block airflow out the back.
I guess I need to look at that more thoroughly to see what the ferrari guys did in front of the diffuser. When you add a street bumper there is more room to get it all worked in. I will probably use a aluminum tube under the fg gt bumper I have but a added on diffuser valence was always a thought but it also seems like a great air catcher without a under pan at least from the oil pan back. Also to cover the rear of the tranny and cable shifter, that will be visible. I also will need some air movement over the ic in the engine compartment so side vents might be a needed thing and the air's gotta go somewhere. No blow off valve to atmosphere for me the short fat suby exhaust will be loud enough as it is, my sons sti blow off valve in the intake is still noticeable in a enclosed coldair box and his waste gate is still in the exhaust and on full throttle it's not quiet and very obvious for at least a mile and his 3 inch exhaust is at least 7 or 8 ft long.
I would like to shed some light on the pulley/damper. It does indeed have a damper in it however it is not a harmonic damper. It is meant to lessen the shock when the a/c kicks on. I have had a lightened pulley on both of my Subaru engines and have had no problems other than when I turn the a/c on (this is in a Subaru not a 914). When the clutch engages the belt slips a second and you can feel it through the steering wheel. I don't use the a/c for this reason.
Thinking about your diffuser on my drive today and saw a Honda Fit with one 05-07 I think. Cheaper than a Ferrari part, new
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Only issue i've heard of is using a light flywheel, and a light pulley, the Crank pos. sensor can give some screwy numbers.
we've got a bit of extra mass on the flywheel side, and shouldn't have any issue w/ the light pulley.
this just keeps getting cooler and cooler
Love it! A nice Ferrari driver too! very kind of him.
The hole in the diffuser is gagging for an exhaust imo.
Loving your project, it seems to me that you are doing everything to a car that I wanted to do in my daydreams at fourteen years of age. very envious and admiring your skills!
I installed the intake and the snake's nest of vacuum hoses that is associated with it.
Then I started working on the engine's wiring harness:
First I zip tied the harness into its basic stock shape and stripped off most of its insulation.
Then I loosely installed the harness on the engine.
Here is the harness half way through me re-routing the wires, I also added a couple wires to the harness for my boost and temp gauges.
This is the point at which you wonder if your car will ever run again.
After tucking, re-routing, and eliminating the plugs for the TVG assembly and a/c pump, this is how things looked, after I get it running and work out the bugs I will pull the harness and wrap it.
Jeff Bowlsby would have enjoyed looking at those
Looking great! Now remember what you do to the loom and recreate them for sale - the VW crowd would bite your hand off!
Last night I brushed the intercooler and installed it, I still need to get a bottle of gas for the welder so the intercooler tubes are taped together for now.
I still have a couple little things here and there to do to the engine but overall it is pretty much complete.
.
Now if you wanted to get rid of all that annoying FI plumbing underneath the intake manifold change over to Perrin fuel rails....Prettier and supposedly more efficient too.
Ed
Just wanted to thank Marc (KELTY360) for making a kickass donation to the project.
Here is the original oil filler:
And the SVX filler he sent me:
This a pretty nice upgrade to WRX powered teeners, it looks a lot better and makes for a much more rational location for filling the oil. It was not a direct bolt on, the tube that fits into the head is a couple millimeters to big and needed some light filing to fit, the mounting holes were also a little too wide and needed to be slightly ovaled. It was an easy mod, 10 minutes or so.
Thanks again Marc!
Wow! That really opens up the view of that section of the engine. Your engine is looking great. I've really come to appreciate the underlying simplicity of the Subie engines, once all the modern complexities are stripped away. Glad I could help.
Just for a little more Subie bling, here's a shot of the SVX that's going in my Syncro Westy. Couldn't resist getting the intake polished. As you can see, I went to the Sir Andy School of Photograpy.
Hijack over....now get back to work on the Biter. The 914 Nation awaits your progress.
I'm guessing it was Dana who broke into my garage and started tearing into my Matchbox
HAHAHA, The resemblance is uncanny!
I finally finished a tough semester and I leave for a month long stay in Rome in 13 days so I decided to really push to make some progress on the car before I leave.
I took a big leap and decided to take the car to the next level and go with a full tube chassis in the rear. I will be able to drop a ton of weight and can custom build everything to mount the Subie engine rather than relying on a conversion kit.
I would love to go with a double a-arm set-up in the rear but with out a chassis bench I don't feel like it's something I can do right. Since I will be retaining the stock swing arms I had to build a couple jigs to locate the swing arm mounts on the new frame. In addition to the jigs I took hundreds of measurements to make sure everything ends up where it needs to be.
I will be raising the swing arm mounts 2" so the swing arm sits level at the cars lowered ride height.
After a couple hours of careful cutting the two halves were separated.
No turning back now!
Here is what I am working with, I managed to remove the rear half of the car without hitting the jigs and according to my measurements the swing arm mounts are right where they should be.
The tubes of the rear frame will tie into my existing cage and into the longs.
The Renegade conversion cradle weighs 28 pounds and the bare rear section I removed without suspension, lid, or diffuser weighed 144.4 pounds, I would be amazed if the new tube frame and f/g fenders weigh half that.
I couldn't resist mocking up the 2 Anklebiters in the garage shot
Stay tuned, lots of work on its way!
Holy !
That's something I didn't expect. Looking forward to the (re)build!
Holy crap! You've got stones the size of boulders. This pic reminds me of the old vaudeville magicians that sawed their assistants in half. Rock on!
Did you cut it with the saw hanging on the wall?
I agree, you're very brave!
HAHAHA, I suppose I should put a not safe for purists warning on this!
Don't worry, it will be done perfectly, no corners will be cut.
On the bright side I got a kick ass 914 trailer out of the deal!
Tis but a scratch!
A scratch? Your car is cut in two!
No, it isn't!
Well, what's that then?
Sorry, that's what through my head when I saw that pic, Monty Python aside you sir are crazy (in a good way)
Ferg
Uh.. you cut it in half to do... what?
Holy Snikeys
Bullshit, he's doin a limo. And while the guys are away in Tahoe his going to get it done and claim the first right to a 914 Limo. He scheemed and waited till they were gone. This is going to divide 914 world into 914 universe and 914 world. Oh the drama.
Are you going to use the existing rear bodywork for a mold to do the whole ass end in FG?
You do realize it's not stock anymore.....right?
Yeah that whole stock thing kinda went out the window huh
I am thinking about a one piece tilt rear like a 904, probably f/g, same shape as before.
I thought you didn't like fiberglass... ?
Wow. Just discovered this thread and read all 27 pages. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got to that last little cut... Amazing stuff. Thanks for doing it and sharing it.
I built the trailing arm mounts today.
I welded threaded 10mm X 1.50 couplers in between two 1/8" steel plates.
Then wrapped the coupler sandwich in 1/8" steel and tacked it all in place. I tacked it together with a nice gap so I can finish the pieces without taking off much of the weld.
I tacked inside as much as I could as well then shot some weldable primer inside before everything was sealed in.
And here is the finished product, The tranny mounts are the same shape and almost done, I will post pics of them when they are done.
Here is how they will mount only 2" higher.
I also mocked up the drivetrain today.
The renegade kit moves the whole drivetrain forward 1.5" and I am keeping that position, however I moved the drivetrain up 3/4" so everything clears the belly pan.
After I finish the tranny mounts I will start mocking up some bars.
wow. huge stones. that is right on! thank you for keeping this thread.
double a-arms..
Rich
Perfect time to go Suby 5 speed!!!
Awesome work, Dana!
he would have to move the motor backwards about 2 inches if he did that.
Great ideas.
How does the rh kit move the drive train forward 1.5 and still use the stock axles? I intend to use the suby 05 legacy tranny with the obx lsd and still angle the axles forward some. I haven't decided on the axle length yet because I also want new trailing arms to do away with the spacers on the axle hubs. Now would also be a good time to make some new trailing arms if you don't want to go to a arms. Think about all the benefits of the suby tranny while you are a this stage. I don't know how strong they are but suby now has a 6 spd that is the same size as the 5 spd, they also have the cvt, paddle shift?. The only thing about the six spd is in the light car it might be usless unless the tires are a bigger diameter. I think the leg tranny also has a 4:11 so you might want the wrx 3:90.
My opinion on the squeal is it's the aluminum slickness. nascar uses ati and there is no motor made that can't benefit from a front balancer especially one that has the oil pump right behind it.
The renegade v8 kits move everything back 1.5", the subie kit moves it all forward 1.5" I have never seen that degree of angle cause problems with the renegade high power axles.
I have been thinking a lot about the subie tranny, I am not ready to pull the trigger on one now, it is tempting but the beauty of a tube frame is it will be easy to adapt to new drivetrains in the future. If the 914 tranny can't do the job once I get this thing running I will lop off some tubes and start thinking about other options.
Does the rh use higher angle cvs? I was hoping to use 100mm bus cvs and at least go 2-3 inches forward of the axle centerline. Someone here is using 944 stubs that have the cv built in and are welding adapters on the inside to move the cv toward the tranny some. That will get it out of the bearing carrier some and give a little more room for the angle of the axle. I know a angled cv wastes a little power but the binding is my concern, I didn't really want to go to high angle 930 cv's unless it's the only way.
Nice job on the arm pivot mount. Just think, if you had a rear subframe made out of aluminum and those were billet with helicoils.
I am pretty sure they are just bus CVs and axles, I have not gone farther than 1.5" in either direction but I would have to think that is pretty close to their limit
I think blind chicken racing has the angles of most or all of the porsche cv's listed mainly for offroad stuff. Actually the t4 has more angle than the t2. http://blindchickenracing.com/How_to/CVJoints_Axles/cv_joints_101.htm
I welded in the rear frame mounts, The entire back half of the frame and the body attached to it will be removable for easy access and/or replacement.
The couplers are really machined well and are guaranteed to some ridiculously high shear strength.
I also fabbed up the tranny mounts, the tranny mounts are oriented in the stock direction but I put them under the tranny rather than hanging it from them.
This location will work much better for the cage design I have in mind.
I moved the swing arm mounts up 2" so the swing arm sits level at ride height and ran the main tube back to the tranny mounts.
Very cool! Nice ideas and execution.
I finished up the passenger side "frame rail" and moved on to the drivers side.
I then wrapped up the drivers side.
When I get back from Rome in a month I will build the X-Brace and the lower tube that will connect to the tranny.
Porsche needs to hire you and have you in charge of the 918 or 'modern 914' project!
This is insane!!!
Say 'Hi' to Roma for me.
Nate
Breathtaking
Wow Dana
WHAT A SURPRISE!!! I LOVE IT!!! Very, very nice adaption and goes beyond the normal car conversions, either body and/or engine configurations. I love projects that are being developed/are developed such as this one. Warms my heart to see engineering and project execution done with such talent, thought, and . . . . . . . . .! Keep going!!
You probably are doing what a lot of us would like to do - I am pulling for you, Tiger.
Steve Hurt
Like building a house, everything starts with the foundation. You've shown us part of the framing, but not the foundation. What is happening forward of the firewall?
I couldn't resist mocking up the trailing arms and wheels to see how it looks.
JP, you can kind of see the main cage in these pics, I will post better views later, I am going to add some tubing to the passenger compartment to strengthen the tie in points for the new rear chassis section in a month or so.
The rear section that I have fabbed up so far weighs in at 52 pounds, the rest of what I am adding will not weigh more than 30 or so pounds including the f/g fenders so it looks like I am looking at losing around 100 pounds bringing the grand total to 550.4 pounds lost or the equivalent of gaining 100.7 horsepower.
Do I win the "most jackstands used to hold up a 914" award?
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Unreal stuff, Dana. You're turning into a mad scientist before our eyes.
Dude, you have a real problem. When you get tired if this foolishness (after it is completed) you should sell it to me. I will start donating plasma now to save up
you get more done in a week than I do in a year!! Cant wait to see the car. Simply fantastic work!!
Still not sure how you'll make it rust.
Okay so here is where it gets interesting, as you can see the frame is not set up for the conventional vertical coilover placement. Having to build the frame a foot higher than it needed to be seemed like a waste of tubing and an unnecessary weight addition up high so I am going cantilever. And I rendered a little diagram:
Here is an exploded view:
And here it is with one inch past maximum travel in either direction.
I am using QA1 aluminum shocks with 400# springs and 4" travel, with the 2-1 lever the suspension will see 8" of travel and a 200# spring force.
The top of the shocks will mount on the X-member right above the diff, kind of like this very loose mock up. The coilovers also weigh a total of 6 pounds less than the stockers and that is pretty significant for a partially unsprung part.
SICK!
Like I said, Mad Scientist. This is actually the apparatus that channels the lightning strike into creating life . . ..
I dunno...don't want to question your care in aligning things, but there are a couple photos that make it look like the rear structure is not aligned with the center axis of the front of the car. See how the rear looks to be too far to the passenger side in this photo? Maybe its the camera angle? Otherwise
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Jeff, I think it is just your eye as he has the triangle on the right side but not yet on the drivers side tricking your eye.
does this look any better jeff?
the camera angle is off a little to my eye, but i see what your talking about-
Trust me, it is dead on, that second main tube literally took 2 hours to place. It's funny I looked back through the pictures and they are all a little to the left, my inner compass must be a couple degrees off!
We know Dana wouldn't build something crooked. You can see the shot is at an angle... Look at the bump hoops compared to the windshield frame and mirrors.
Dana, you never cease to amaze me. The only thing I'm worried about is you'll keep doing crazier things and it's not going to make it back on the road soon enough.
What I don't see in the pic is the car center line scribed/marked on the floor.
I've been doing dimensioning all my professional life and that is where I would start.
Take a couple hours and establish the center line of the car ( that will take some doing), drop it down to the floor, then extend it out past the end of your work using a straight edge, string, wire, fishing line, yada. Be prepared to go back and check/realign the car if it *might* have moved.
Taking the possible camera angulation into account, it still looks off to the right per my eyeball.
My attempt to help.
With the help of the good doctor I rebuilt my tranny yesterday.
This is the point where you hope the Doc knows what he is doing because I was sure lost!
And back in the car the same day it was pulled, not a bad turnaround!
Thanks again to Dr. Evil, it was an awesome workshop and I learned a ton.
JP, I built a jig to locate the rear suspension and worked off of that for the location rather than a C/L because I was designing around the engine rather than off of blueprints. Rather than taking measurements off of the car to make a c/l I took measurements off of the car to make the cage, both techniques work to make a straight cage. Believe me, I am a student of architecture, I know how to measure things and I have quintuple checked with an actual measuring device and it is right on, the wheels on the other hand are not aligned so they do make things look a little wonky.
I bet you looked at this stuff and went, "Hmmm, if I omit all this junk I could save another 32lbs!!"
This is toooo funny. BTW, I've been following this thread for some time, and I gotta say I'm lovin it, I really like the cleanliness of your shop, and your attention to detail. The tower of Pisa had an architect too, it might have worked had the masons/dirtbags been listened to, they knew it didn't belong there. JP is just sayin' its almost impossible to pick points out of space w/out a proper foundation. You need to have solid a datum line to start from (not the car) in order to build correct fixtures (PC) from.
So, at this point in the build, line it all up, create a centerline on the floor and double check...seems like a reasonable double check to make. You know what is kinda cool to use for this is a laser level.
The little ones that look like a telescope can project a line wherever you point it...so you can set up a few (they are cheap at Home Depot) and have a few straight lines to measure from...and they look cool at night.
One thing I wonder is how much things change as you weld...a mm here a mm there...
Rich
I didn't remove the jigs until everything was totally welded and cooled and it was spot on, welding tweaks are a bitch and I was keeping an eye out for them.
There is a lot of good advise on this page so taking that in I drew a c/l with a projecting laser level and a plumb bob, the left suspension points are dead on, the right are in by 1/32 and the transaxle mounts are to the left by 1/16. I think I am okay with that.
I will pick out a few more points over the next hour of so just to be sure everything is beyond reproach.
Thanks for the help double checking that everything is okay!
When it turns better one way than the other it will make you wonder. Or why it needs more air in the right rear that the left rear to set straight. Or when it's wet you get used to it always going to the left when you get on the brakes hard. A guy can get used to all these things. It will probably be just as straight as any other car with a tube frame.
Dana, you clearly do not know what you are doing on your car
He can always fall back on 914 tranny rebuilding in the denver area.
wow! great work!! Makes my conversion look like its nothing. Amazing!
Does anyone know that this thread has been moved over here...it is quite.
-Britain
I agree, it is kinda moving.
I think someone hyjacked britain's login and posted for him.
Just flew in from Rome yesterday, the build thread is still where it has always been as far as I can tell and work will resume soon.
Just kidding
Welcome home Dana!
Well, there is a new Build Sub-Forum and a bunch of thread got moved there. Then all of them were stale...just wondered what was going on.
Let life resume...
-Britain
Looking at all the work going into this one I'd almost think it would be easier to design a fiberglass 914 body and install it on an Ariel Atom
Nothin' new goin' on??????
I actually spent all day welding on her today, I will post pics in a few days when I have made more progress.
I have been doing some welding over the last couple of weeks.
I wanted to raise the door bars in the cabin to meet the rear tube chassis' upper bars but there was no way to do that except by having to wear a chunk of tube like a seat belt. Instead I decided to strengthen the existing cage and rockers in addition to making another tie-in point for the rear sub-frame.
I totally forgot to take pictures until I was almost done but here you can see the inner structure of the long, I welded in tubing to connect the two horizontal door bars and then continued the cage down through the rocker.
At the end of the lower bar I made another tie-in point for the lower portion of the rear tube frame.
The next step is to finish the lower section of the rear and weld up the rear suspension mounts.
You make me sick
Nice work as always Dana.
I have the cage pretty much wrapped up. I ran out of mig wire so there are still a couple bits I need to finish.
Marc (Kelty360) stopped by today so I figured I would tidy things up and take the car off of it's semi-permanent bed of jackstands.
Next step is to design and fab up the rear suspension.
Awesome job as usual, Dana!
Simple question: how did you get the machined look in the bare metal? Wire wheel or another tool?
Thanks!
Nate
I think this thread should be nailed
I made some progress today. I pulled the drivetrain, finished welding the frame, and made the new suspension mounting points. I should be able to mock up most of the suspension within a week or so but here is how things look now. It is hilarious being able to pick the car up with one hand while placing a jackstand with the other, this thing is going to be so light!
You know, the more I look at this the more I like it.
-Britain
Wow!
Do you have a pipe bender in house or do you take it somewhere? Aslo when you made the trailing arm mounts how did you bend the 1/8" metal around, english wheel?
I made some progress over the weekend. I did a string and level alignment on the rear of the car and dialed in the the caster and camber. With the wheels aligned the bolts that hold the outer trailing arm mounts are exactly in the middle of the alignment slots so when the time comes to get it professionally aligned it should be an easy
(or at least possible) job.
I also tacked on the central strut mount and mocked up the struts.
I M N awe. Definitely one of the best threads EVER on this site
looking forward to see what you are thinking with the pushrods and rocker assembly in the rear suspension.
Very C O O L!
I just read all 31 pages! WOW, simply amazing! Your car was the inspiration for my project, the way it looks is stunning!
Randall
What are you going to do with the rear body? After seeing some cars on this forum, I'm in serious doubt about which rear fenders to use with the tube frame.
I am either going to buy stock looking fiberglass GT fenders or make them if I am feeling brave, then bond them to a lid to form a 1 piece tilt rear (kind of like a Muira). Then if I feel really really brave I will take a mold of my bonded rear and create a non-bonded 1 piece F/G rear.
My focus right now is on the chassis, I would like to get it drivable by next summer, then focus on fitting a body to the independent chassis.
Brave undertaking!
I'm thinking about buying GT complete fenders from a German company here, They are not just the bulges but complete fenders including sail panel and door frame. According to the 914 parts guy here, they are of good quality. This company also sells just the rear bulges but then a tad wider then the GT. I'm thinking of re-crafting these on the GT complete fenders and also buying the rear bumper/lip that fit's the new width and after making these to an exact fit, have them reproduced in Carbonfibre. Then also the rear trunk in CF.
I love the Sheridan rear, especially the wider one, but i would like to be able to open the trunk, on the other hand, I guess it would also be possible to adapt the sheridan to single fenders...
Here's what I mean
The GT fenders
The tad wider fenders
And the bumper to match
Great looking build.....your rear shock set up looks like what a friend of mine did to his race car....BTW this car is/was up for sale....unique center drive, hand built from the ground up 914 race car.....
Glad your Dog made it in the pic Can't wait to meet her Sunday.
Ferg
Yes, Very interesting.
Do you have a picture of the shock actuator pivot arm and mount? Do you know what the ratio used was?
LOVE THIS STUFF!
Don't know about the actuator ratio or don't have a better pic....he was a little secretive about it but I'm sure he'd share info. He was a student of mine when I was instructing DE's. He's missed his calling in life. He built it from the ground up including body work & paint. PM me and I'll see if he'll share info. He's not a member of the world. Last time I talked to him it was for sale......
A older pic....
What it looks like now.....
Nice...if it is for sale, try to get some more pictures.
-Britain
Very nice car and amazing craftmanship, but I am always curious why someone puts so much money and time into a car and then sells it. Was the car not competitive? Hardship? Got bored of it and wanted to try something else?
Looks awesome. Where is it listed for sale?
Cool project, it's nice to see that a cantilever suspension like this has been done before on a 914, thanks for the pics!
I ran wheel to wheel against your friends car. Nice car
that was about 1996 ish...
heartland park, topeka kansas...
spoke with him at length. The car was a lot less modified then. He that same front hood (metal) and gave me the idea of doing it to my hood. That is actually how I learned to weld too. After talking to your friend and building up the courage, I bought a welder and cut my hood. First thing I ever MIG welded... Twas not pretty... but with enough bondo it worked fine.
brant
Dana... here's your thread. It's lonely. It wants more pictures of recent progress that you've done.
Yep
Here is what I have been playing with, it is a nice compact setup with a low cg. The springs are 400 lb/in and with the cantilever this is equivalent to about 250 lb/in at ride height and around 280 lb/in at full compression.
Just my 2C: but by putting the pivotpoint of the cantilever that far inward, in your setup, most of the force is used to raise the complete coilover instead of using that force to compress it. I could be wrong but by glancing over your drawing, that's the first thing that springs to my mind.
Randall
From what I can figure out, there is a good amount of force used to rotate the assembly but ultimately the spring should properly counteract the rotation of the cantilever arm. I could be wrong though, anybody else have a couple cents they want to pitch in?
Your upward movement of the trailing arm now results in a lateral force on the pivot arm. By moving the pivot point out and slightly tilting the triangle you get only vertical force as a result from trailing arm movement, this is what you want. The cantilever only translates this into lateral force onto the coilover. Avoiding slight up/down movement of the coilover is almost impossible, but in trying you wil get the best linear suspension travel.
Trying to find a pic, but doing this from my i-phone in a hotelroom...... Doesn't work
Randall
I see what you are saying, I have played around with a couple designs that were closer to what you are talking about. My main issue with those designs i was that it forced me to mount the springs very high in the car in order to make the geometry work, which in turn was blocking the path for my exhaust to make it to the back of the car. Should have sucked it up and gone with double a-arms in the rear, would have made mounting shocks a lot easier.
some inspiration from our motorcycle friends
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What would be the effect of a simple 90 deg bellcrank to transfer vertical motion into horizontal motion? The off center triangle designs exist for the tightest confines and non-linear travel like say bikes and such, like a mechanical means toward progressive action. Please correct me if I am wrong however.
This is what I was looking at before, a simple bell crank converting vertical motion to horizontal.
And here was my rendering using this concept.
I think this is the most straight forward solution but I was thinking about the offset cantilever because of space restrictions and the fact that the design above has a high center of gravity while the off set one is relatively low.
How do you guys think the handling would suffer if I went with the offset cantilever option? I think I am fine with the equivalent spring rate acting like a progressive spring adding around 7 pounds of extra spring force per inch of suspension compression, any opinions?
Here it is again for easy reference:
Here is a shot of an aftermarket wrangler suspension that looks similar, granted the Anklebiter will have a slightly different driving experience than this guy...
And another similar setup for a Nissan Titan:
My springs will be pointing towards each other rather than parallel but the lever action will work in the same way.
Dana, you make me sick. I love your work. Keep it going. I keep looking at the pictures I took when I was at your house and druel regularly.
I just spent two evenings reading all 33 pages. Absolutely amazing work. I'm inspired and motivated.
Bee Jay
So I decided to go ahead with the design I posted earlier, I blew up my drawing to full size and made a template for the arms.
Today I built the suspension arms, I welded all of the seams from the inside, then welded and finished all of the seams on the outside. Now I have one bead of weld for structure and one for looks. I have a feeling I overbuilt the crap out of these but I would rather not risk it with suspension components. Even with the beefy arms this new suspension system weighs about a pound less per side than stock with a super low and inboard center of gravity.
I shot the arms with a coat of primer and will mock things up in the morning.
Lookin' good Can't wait for the mockup....
I did a loose mockup this morning, everything is just held on with zipties but you can get a pretty good idea of how this is supposed to work. I ran it through its entire range of movement and it looks like I am free of interference and binding so the next step is building mounts for everything then connecting this assembly to the trailing arm.
Looking Good!
Hey you going to the Rod show in Denver Friday?
Ferg
I am going to be in Wyoming until Sunday night so it looks like I will miss it, too bad, looks like it will be a good show!
Nice work, can't wait to see the rest of the construction!
OK I have a stupid question that I have wanted to ask you for a long time. Why does your car stay so shiny?? Did you clear coat it? I love this build and am just wondering since every thing I touch turns immediately to rust. Would you consider leaving it shiny with grinder marks.... I think it looks cool.
Eagerly awaiting more pictures
-Pete
I'm not sure I understand. Seems like that orientation will achieve very little shock compression, because the pivot point is not between the trailing arm attachment and the shock attachment.
What am I missing?
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The trailing arm will push up on what is now the open bolt hole in the pivot arm. That upward motion will cause the trailing arm to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction (on the passenger side). The upward force of the trailing arm is counteracted by the vertical and horizontal forces of the shock, given the angle of the shock about 392 pounds of its force will be acting horizontally on a point that is 5" above the pivot point while around 75 pounds of the shock resistance acts vertically on a point 7.5" off of the pivot point. These leverage points are counteracted by the trailing arm that attaches at a point 10" off of the pivot point. Since the trailing arm has a mechanical advantage on the shock the 400lb/in in the shock gets reduced down to about 250lb/in at the trailing arm which is just about what I want. Not sure if that clears anything up, I won't know for sure exactly how this thing will react until I get everything done and jump around on it
Will the trailing arm connect to the lever arm via a rod? Or will it be a direct connection. Your explanation makes sense. It seems like a small range of motion, but you sound like you've done your math and I'm just armchair speculating. It's cool looking, regardless.
Be careful you don't build in a metronome effect with the vertical connecting rod from the trailing arm to the rocker. Could cause a weird vibration at speed. Just an arm chair observation.
Cool. I like that shock placement.
One more observation: your new rocker is the perfect place to add attachment for a sway bar arm for fine tuning. Just think if it; you could have a blade arm with cabin stiffness adjusters...
Hey Dana thanks for posting all the progress on your project. I love learning along the way and am fascinated by suspension design. I drew up your arm and shock into a simple CAD program as I was skeptical that you could compress that that shock 2.5"-3" with the geometry you designed in.
I discovered (and i will attempt to upload a pic of my drawing but have to convert it i think) that you can compress your shock and spring 2.5" with a vertical trailing arm motion of 4.25" which I believe is possible in a 914. But I noticed that the actuator rod between the trailing arm and the cantilever arm has to be 6.25" long. This is due to the cantiliver arm moving on an arc away from the trailing arm so the mounting hole on the cantilever arm gets further away as it moves vertically.
It is probably hard to visualize without my drawing but I think your design would work fine as long as the actuator rod is at least 6.25" long which means it probably would have to mount an 1" to 1.5" below the shock bolt hole on the trailing arm. Your drawing shows the actuator rod to be 5" long I think but that would try to pull the trailing arm inboard causing a binding issue. This is all a novices observations, I could be completely off my @$$ and confused, that has happened before
I love your project and cant wait for more pics of the progress,
Jim
39k views. keep it up Dana, great work.
Well I slept on this, and like I suspected I was wrong
Attached below is a bitmap of the drawing as corrected this morning. Looks like a 5" actuator arm will work fine, and you would get the 2.5" compression with a vertical trailing arm movement of 4.22". Like I said I like learning along the way, and as I should have suspected YOU had it worked out right from the beginning
Here is the drawing:
Nice rendering! It is so much easier to understand this drawing than anything I have created, thanks for the help!
I may still need to make the connecting rod a little longer, as the suspension unloads the pivot arm kicks out over the trailing arm and there is a potential binding/contact issue between the trailing arm and the connecting rod there, still won't know for sure until I can tack in the mounts and run the suspension through its entire range of motion though.
......Got Milk?
Okay, I'm going to go ahead and stick my neck out.....
The trailing arms pivot from the front of the arms so any compression will tend to ultimately move the rear wheel forward given enough travel, correct? However, it looks like the planned mounting point for the horizontal shocks is going to be behind the wheel centerline. This makes it seems to me that there will be a twisting motion on the linkage and shocks.
Takes a lot more time to "conduct class" while doing the work rather than just forgetting about "schooling" all of us and completing the project, huh?
Really cool stuff. I actually am in the middle of redoing the suspension on my 914 track car, and am currently modeling my ideas using susprog, a suspension analyzer. It's extremely helpful to test out stuff that i otherwise would probably discover only after building the parts I haven't read your whole thread, but it might be worth trying something like that if you haven't already done so. Susprog also has an option to visualize your design while moving the suspension through it's full range of motion.
Edit -- modified post after I realized that your design already has a push rod. That part should be OK. Only other thing a lot of bending forces on the rocker. I would think the push rod would try to push the rocker forward and rearward (relative to front/rear of the car). Would a wider base help where it mounts to the chassis?
Scott
There is a potential for bending in the arms but I would think that since the entire cantilever component moves on a single plane and is connected to the trailing arm with a heim joint the chances of significant off axis movement occurring would be minimal. To counteract any twisty forces that do appear I had planned on making wide reinforced attachment points on the chassis and the arms have already been built with additional reinforcement points at that point.
I decided to take a break from the suspension to wrap up a couple little projects on the car.
A year or so ago I pieced up this intercooler system but since I was in an apartment couldn't weld it up.
Now that I have my house I can play with welders all I want so I decided to weld up the intake system, I also welded in a bung for the boost gauge sender and a ground stud for the sender.
Then I sprayed the parts with high heat paint and hung them in front of my trusty Reznor heater to bake.
This is starting to look like progress!
Very nice!
Hey Dana... got a tig machine? Can you weld aluminum? My Audi has a crack in the oil pan.
I do have a tig but it is in storage up in Wyo, never been great at welding aluminum either, wish I was though.
I finally finished this semester yesterday so I decided to spend some of my new found freedom working on the car. I wanted to start nailing down details like exhaust but I had to get the engine in a fixed position before I made any more progress on the drivetrain. I fabbed up an engine mount cross member, this one is almost identical to the Renegade one I used to run on my car, just the ends are at a slightly different angle.
Here is an under side view of the engine mount setup.
And a shot from the top, I am going to weld in threaded mounting holes into the chassis but everything is just hose clamped together until I can pick some up.
Lookin' good, as usual!!!
Dana,
I'm most impressed young Jedi...
Maybe I should just rack, stack and tow my 2 out to Colorado for skiing.
Hmmm, maybe drop by for a cup of cocoa, 3-weeks of body and chassis work and take in the big skies
2nd thought - I'll just freeze in the deep south and dream a little dream...
-- Dave
Aka Wingnut
Nice Dana. Can't wait to see what you are able to do over the break
Really bad to the bone !!!!! Keep up the excellent work.
Excellent!! Always glad to see updates in this thread, its one of my favorites. Thanks!!
I had an hour or so to work this morning and pieced together an f-ing huge exhaust. I wanted to use oval tubing but since the exhaust had to follow a kind of complex path I decided to fabricate it out of 3" round tubing with a 1" spacer in the middle, the equivalent area is about that of 3.5" round tubing. Once I have a little more time I will weld it up, add an O2 sensor bung, and finish it smooth.
I think this should flow pretty well . I will run this portion of the exhaust when I test the bare chassis, then eventually add on a full (but still muffler-less) exhaust once the body is on.
Thanks! I used to build headers for Renegade so fitting tubing goes pretty quick for me, I can't wait to hear how this sounds, the turbo is going to scream!
Sick, talk about zero restriction.......
Hi Dana, I've been following your thread for quite a while (lurking) to say the least. Whats the chance of you making it to the WCR in June ?
At the rate you are going I think its possible..
Everyone needs to chime in
I finished the exhaust today. And here is a little diffuser action for you Kelty .
I'm just waiting for the day you get it all finished then get bored or have a kid. Then I will buy it off of you. Just make sure it works good first.
I got the last piece I needed for my exhaust system for Christmas, a stainless DC Sports up pipe to match the stainless header I have from them.
I managed to pull 4 out of the 5 studs from my renegade up pipe with out damaging them. Unfortunately one got a little galled while I was pulling it and cost $8 to replace!
I am glad I only had to buy one!
I am planning a couple big work days this week so stay tuned!
nickle high temp neversieze helps with stainless and aluminum and steel exhaust bolts and studs when you need to take them apart.
I will be watching I love seeing new posts to this thread.
I only got in 3 or 4 hours of work today.
I welded up the blow off return tube and welded in the cantilever arm mounts.
I also built the grounding harness for the boost and coolant temp sensors.
This is the ultimate go kart.
Driving it will be a blast.
Plymouth, where did you get the adapter to bolt that engine to that trans? What trans did you use?
What clutch package are you running? Awesome build!
Lookin' good Dana - can't wait to see the final product!
I can vouch for your great car building skills - I get a lot of props on the work you did on my 914AROO when you were at Renegade!
Later,
I finally wrapped up the rear suspension. I built all of the linkage so it was a bolt in, leaving the trailing arm unmolested. I still need to buy a couple bolts and bushings but this is pretty much it. I aligned everything and ran it through it's range of movement, everything looks and feels good as far as I can tell, the real test will come when I get it on the road.
Sure is nice to get it back on its wheels!
Stunningly inspiring work!!! Beyond words
So how much suspension travel do you have in the rear? I know some bomb thrower in a previous post said that the up down motion of the arm would bind or something like that with the angle of the shock motion.
By removing the springs and jacking the car from the bump stops to full strut extension I get 7.5" of bind free travel, the suspension runs out of travel well before the linkage gets a chance to bind.
Looking at this rear assembly, just for poops and giggles, seems like you could do a "kit" rear assembly that "attaches" to rollcage points in the tub.
looks like a V8 or other engine option might fit....Hmmm
You may have found another "side" business from this build, Dana! Ill bet Britain and others might be interested in a rear half kit that is assembled and ready to install!
Great job!!!
Nice! I will be availlable to drive and sort out the bugs when your ready.
What a Rube Goldberg setup
Stunning as usual
[quote name='KELTY360' date='Jan 5 2011, 08:34 PM' post='1414152']--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(scotty b @ Jan 5 2011, 08:19 PM)
</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
What a Rube Goldberg setup
[/quote]
It's like he's making it up as he goes.
" maybe I should cut it in half and make a tube frame.....
i could save a lot of space by dampening the suspension laterally.....
I've got a couple of minutes, maybe I should bend up an oval exhaust.....
this needs Ferrari parts"
Like a trapeze artist working without a net. Wonder if he dreams in technicolor?
[/quote]
Then there is the fibreglass. Don't get me going on that crap. Is he building a car or a boat ??? Oh I know it's a Corvette..... At least we know he isn't buying anything from AA for this car
[quote name='scotty b' date='Jan 5 2011, 08:37 PM' post='1414154']
[quote name='KELTY360' date='Jan 5 2011, 08:34 PM' post='1414152']--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(scotty b @ Jan 5 2011, 08:19 PM)
</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
What a Rube Goldberg setup
[/quote]
It's like he's making it up as he goes.
" maybe I should cut it in half and make a tube frame.....
i could save a lot of space by dampening the suspension laterally.....
I've got a couple of minutes, maybe I should bend up an oval exhaust.....
this needs Ferrari parts"
Like a trapeze artist working without a net. Wonder if he dreams in technicolor?
[/quote]
Then there is the fibreglass. Don't get me going on that crap. Is he building a car or a boat ??? Oh I know it's a Corvette..... At least we know he isn't buying anything from AA for this car
[/quote]
Well, he might need bumper tops.
It's funny 'cause it's true...
Rube Goldberg indeed, it might not be functional but at least it's entertaining!
Dana, why does your exhaust terminate forward of the diffuser?
I apologize if this has been asked before, but I noticed your tranny mounts are upside-down in relation to how they are normally on a 914. Would that cause any issues for the mounts themselves since they are being "pushed on" instead of being pulled? Just curious...
Great work. Love it.
Do have a minor question, with the exhaust as it is, anything that falls into the exhaust pipe will it not end up inside the turbo? (Water, nuts bolts, hamsters...) Am I missing something?
Awesome build. And since you got all of us in the peanut gallery at 914world watching, you are never really without a net
Interested in seeing the rear suspension with axles in there. Looks like the axles go either behind or inside the black squared-off piece?
Also super interested in a rear diffuser for the 914...
That exhaust would be just fine popping up out the top like a stinger on a Baja Bug! I love that look!
Thanks for sharing all the great photos and posts
I built the speed sensor bracket today, installed the axles, and painted the intercooler tubing and exhaust.
Check out inside the exhaust in this pic, you can see the O2 sensor and all the way back to the wastegate, this should flow pretty well!
Looking at that bracket makes me wonder how your weight saving tally is going. Do you have a target weight?
Right now the weight savings are somewhere around 525 pounds give or take. If it ends up around 1800 pounds when it is completely done I would be happy, could end up much lighter though.
What are you using for a speed sensor?
I got a Hall Effect Sensor from Small Car Performance for mine, but I haven't installed it yet.
-Britain
Superb Dana!!!! Excellent work.... can't wait to see how you are going to build the body..
I'm pretty sure when Dana gets an idea, right before he executes it, he goes "BWAHAHAHAaaaaaa . . ."
Too cool for words.
I made a little progress yesterday.
I built the mounts for the coolant tank and the fuel pump/filter assembly.
I am running a 928S pump on its stock bracket, the filter is on its way. Sorry for the bad shot, it is hard to get a good view of it.
The coolant tank is stock WRX, just relocated to the other side of the engine.
By deleting the throttle body heater I was able to lower the coolant tank by about 3" while still keeping it at the highest point in the system by 4 or so inches.
Then I plumbed the rest of the engine's coolant lines.
Looks like you had to modify the oil filler tube. Is that still the SVX piece or did you use something else?
What did you use for a throttle cable?
-Britain
I got it custom made by http://www.terrycable.com/index.aspx when I did my conversion at http://renegadehybrids.com/, I think they sell them now.
Really...I will give them a call. How do did you route it? What does the end at the throttle pedal look like? Does it just go into the stock ball socket?
-Britain
Looking at their catalog, didn't see the Subaru conversion cable....but it is a good thing they list a cable for a Porsche 935. Bet they sell a lot of those.
-Britain
It is a custom cable, you specify length and what threads you need on the ends, then they supply the necessary hardware to adapt to whatever you need. It is routed like the stock one through the tunnel and attaches to the pedal like the original.
Dana,
how much room is there physically between your suspension pickup and the subaru cam covers? I'm also using your method of hollow tube over the pivot point on the trailing arm, but I'm thinking of moving them out to create a wider track at the rear and at the same time give me more room for whatever engine in the future..
Thanks
Randall
No real work done today, I am pretty much done with the rear half barring a few bits I need to buy. For now I am going to set it aside to start cleaning up the rear of the tub in preparation for its amputation. I am going to rebuild the area where the back half was cut off so it looks a little more "finished".
Here are a couple pics of the car separated. I timed myself and it only takes 20 minutes working leisurely to split the car in half.
After you take it apart and put it back together will it need to be realigned? I can't tell from the pictures how the back end connects to the tub.
Can we see a close up of the connection details. How the rear tubes connect to the mid section. Thanks
This is what the connectors look like, they fit together like puzzle pieces and have 2 bolts coming in from opposite sides to hold them together. The other end slips into the tubing, I welded the seam as well as a few plug welds to attach them.
Here they are installed on the car, you can see the smaller diameter end that the tubing slips over as well as the seam that divides the 2 pieces. In the top of the lower connector you can see the ends of the bolts that hold the pieces together.
There are 6 connection points like this that attach the 2 halves, making a total of 12 bolts holding everything together. The connectors are circled in red and linked to their partner in yellow.
I don't think everything will need to be aligned every time the car is split, the suspension is bolted firmly to the rear half. I would think that even if the cage were to move a little when it is unbolted it will regain it's proper alignment once it is bolted back to the car.
As always, very slick.
I really like the removable rear just from a servicing standpoint.
It will take up less space in the shop also....lol
Rich
Where do you get those connectors?
I'm still of the opinion that you should market this set up with a roll cage and front clip. Three parts easily shipped, put together with either a donor teener, a 550 or 904 kit. Even a sheridan body kit. Just a rear half and roll cage kit would be cool!
Seems like you've designed it so that it fits a number of engines.
I'd be first in line for one!
You need a bracket to bolt on to each half so they become self supporting. That way you can easily move each part around when separated.
I just trying to slow down your progress.
Oh, and I can see your fuel pump now. Take a nice picture of that and go back and edit your earlier post to bring it up to date.
I have 4 casters that would be perfect to make each piece rollable, now if I can just get my homework done I could drag out the welder and get back to work!
I pulled the front suspension today, I am running a full Carrera suspension including the aluminum cross member and underbody sway bar.
I also finished plumbing the turbo hoses.
Now that the suspension has been removed I am pretty much left with a bare tub.
I also started cleaning up the fire wall, I have a lot of metal work to do back here over the coming months.
HAHA, Just saw that too, glad to see Lamborghini is thinking along the same lines as I am for the new LP-700
I am pretty envious of those double A-arms though!
What size of wheels are those? We could use the wheel diameter and a little bit of math and get some dimmensions for the a-arms. I'm liking the way those a-arms look like they mount, too.
Dana, you used to work for Renegade right?
I have a question regarding the tacho; is the stock 914 unit compatible with the Subie output? (probably not) How are you going to run this? I bet you have experience with this.
Thanks
Randall
Thanks!
I did a little wiring yesterday. I started out by building a harness for the car's rear lights and rear mounted sensors. The harness will plug into the main harness at the firewall and at the other end the rear clamshell will plug into it for the taillights, this way it is still possible to break the car into components easily.
Then I pulled the subaru engine harness, ran any extra wires I needed to, and combined it with the car harness I had just built. Within the harness I ran a few extra wires to various parts of the car, this way any extra sensors or electronics I want to run in the future are already wired and ready to go.
Remember when it only took about 4 wires to hook up an engine? Well those days are gone!
And here is the harness installed, I still need to run the battery cables but other than that the entire rear of the chassis is wired.
Since it was readily accessible, here is a shot of the front of the engine. Also notice that the engine is lacking a Perrin lightweight pulley, gonna have to fix that problem soon!
I did a lot of trimming and wire wheeling on the firewall today. I have stripped the entire rear of the tub and trimmed it down to a point where I can start rebuilding the fire wall and longs.
I also decided that if I am going to build a high quality fiberglass or carbon body I need a perfect steel body to take a mold off of. Because of this I have decided to trade my lightweight lids for stock steel lids, If you want to trade click http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=115528&st=. I think by starting with steel, I material that I am much more competent working with, I can end up with a much better final product. And then once I make a carbon body, one of you can have the steel one
Nice work! Are you excited to start building up again? Can't wait to reach that stage..
I can see a bidding war on the steel shell already!
Looks great!
I got some welding done today, I reconfigured the upper portion to eliminate the stock dip and added about a foot of weld between the cage and the tub in the process. I also seam welded the firewall and ground down the pinch weld that splits the firewall in half.
Before:
After:
Very nice Dana!
I like how you made it so smooth.....
Care to help me with the Kar-B-Q ?
Looks heavy. You must have added at least 8 oz.
I started rebuilding the frame rail area of the firewall. Since the tub will end at the firewall I had to amputate the frame rails.
Here is how much I needed to remove to get to flat, rust free metal.
I welded in a filler plate, the frame rails, cage, and inner structure are all welded to the filler piece, hopefully this should tie all of the inner structure together.
Here is a before and after shot, after I finish welding up the drivers side I will start fabbing up the outer structure that will tie the door jambs into the rest of the firewall
Have you seen this???
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/18/you-can-design-factory-fives-new-mid-engine-wrx-powered-kit-ca/
http://www.factoryfive.com/whatsnew/update/5ffrsurprises/announcement.html
I finished rebuilding the drivers side frame rail area today.
Next I need to fill a couple small holes in the firewall and start building the door jamb to firewall connection.
Lookin' real good!!!
Spring break is upon us and by some miracle I have absolutely no obligations for the next 5 days, time to get some work done!
I pretty much wrapped up the firewall today, I boxed in the outer portions of the firewall and made a solid sealing surface around the bulkhead for the tilt up rear to rest on.
After welding all of this up the tub was noticeably stiffer and the door jambs fit much better.
Stay tuned for 4 more days of huge progress!
.
I just noticed...are you really going with stock door latches? I thought you were going to modify this thing.
Beautiful work.
I finished welding up a couple details on the firewall, then got the tub down off of the jack stands to turn it around.
It is always startling to take a car off of tall jack stands, it is so tiny!
I turned the car around, put it back up on the jack stands, then pulled the doors.
I built a front suspension jig then taped out the cut line to remove the nose from the tub. Lots of cutting to do tomorrow!
I don't care how you slice it, that thing is sexy from every angle.
Ok, back to work. You have a couple more days to overwhelm us with stellar progress.
If anyone was wondering, the nose as you see it weighs in at 52 pounds.
Puzzle Car!
Another advantage to cutting your car into thirds, you can park it sideways in the garage and still have plenty of room for the wife's car!
I bolted the suspension jig back on and mocked up the front subframe.
cough...cough...unequal length a-arms with custom uprights...cough cough. Its looking great!
Dana, you really need to pick up the pace a bit spring break's almost over
Blue Tape!!
HA! Ferg -you just made me shoot water out of my nose!!! (we need a water-coming-out-of-the-nose smiley...)
Again Dana, project is simply amazing. It has taken me two nights to mount the
-6 breather tank in my trunk... about the same amount of time it would take you re-engineer and rebuild the Empire State Building....
Wow! Just noticed the view counter, up over 75,000!
Thanks for the support everybody!
I have been look at alternative front suspension options as well. One question I have when running a set-up from a Miata or something else, what do you do with the bolt pattern? Are you have to have a different bolt pattern on the front vs. the rear of the car?
-Britain
I fabbed up some plates for the front subframe to attach to. (My cordless drill died on me so those rosette weld holes will be a little bigger)
Here is how they will mount. Hopefully I can get most of the front end welded up tomorrow.
I got most of the front welded up today, just the front torsion bar mounts and the other cross bar to go.
Everything stayed square so I should be able to test fit the entire chassis tomorrow.
Just about time to get this thing back on its wheels to see how it looks in one piece!
I finished up the front end today, I will try to mock up the suspension tonight to see how everything fits.
I test fit the front suspension tonight, the chassis stayed straight and everything bolted up the way it should, lost a bit of trunk space though!
I will bolt on the back half tomorrow and put it back down on its wheels.
So I assume front shocktower to hoop in the cab is eminent?
Anyway, so nice to see the front suspension getting tied in terminator style.
Keep it coming Dana!
I must say simply amazing work, it has inspired me to work on my own wich is nothing in comparison, thanks and keep up the great work!
Spring break is drawing to a close, back to school tomorrow.
I bolted the chassis back together and mocked up the body next to it, I have 2 914s now!
I think you should look into this fuel cell. It will fit in the stock location with minor mods and give you clearance for the tubing. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/RCI-2161A/
I did some sidework for my neighbor who is restoring a victorian house next to us and earned enough dough to buy some shiny bits for the car.
If I am going to insist on keeping the antiquated 914 box I figured I had better make it shift as well as possible.
After a call to JWest a Rennshifter and their stage 1 shift linkage showed up.
They are discontinuing the 914 shift linkage and only have the stage one left so if you want one now is the time to order.
You should talk with Mark in Bartlett, IL (screen name "Bartlett 914") about his new shifter setup.
Skip
OMFG
i am inspired, i love this, cant wait to see the final result
This has to be the most mind blowing buildup that I have ever come across. Dana you have to be the most productive fab'er that I have seen. I have a couple of questions... how much of this just comes out of your head and how much have you designed out on paper that we don't see? And how much weight could be saved if you redesigned the rear trailing arms to a chromoly tubing setup...maybe 20-25 lbs a pc? It took me 12 hours to read it all from the start. Very impressed and looking forward to seeing the finished product.
I ran the coolant lines today. There are a few ways to run them through a 914, I used to have rubber lines running below the floor but wanted to integrate them into the car a little better so I decided to try a different route. I poked around the site and really liked the way Britain Smith ran them in his subie conversion and decided to follow a similar path.
First I welded in tubing that led through the front firewall into the passages that pass beneath the gas tank,
Then I opened up the other end of the passage and the end of the long and welded in tubing to protect the hose from sharp edges.
Next step is to make some nice covers to seal off the area where the hose passes through the cabin.
Finally I opened up the back of the long and welded in a tube that passes through the firewall.
Hmmm........
I like it.
Glad you done your homework,Dana!
Looking good. I want to see what you come up with to cover the lines inside the cabin...I might want you to make an extra set Needs to be lightweight!
-Britain
I mounted the radiator today, I am running the standard Renegade unit, due to the new position I had to change the outlet tube's angle and the location of the bleeder. Luckily there is a helicopter repair place close to my house that can weld anything to anything so they could handle welding the aluminum radiator easily.
Keeping with my tradition of mounting everything as low and inboard as possible, the radiator is mounted far inside the trunk, it is at a pretty steep angle but with proper shrouding I believe it will cool the engine just fine.
Here is a close up of the mounts, the radiator is rubber insulated at all 4 corners.
Yeah yeah I know
I actually picked up the last bits of tubing I need for the chassis this morning.
Coolio
DAMN.
You get us all together for a meeting here, and there's no recent emergency/build??
OK
We'll wait
Checking back in after quite some time. I like the progress.
Still excited to see this puppy on the pavement again...
Pete
Where's Dana? Why has he foresaken us?
I would like to take this opportunity to say WOW~!
Hi, I just found your thread, What did I miss?
Seriously though, I just spent the last two days reading from the top, and have concluded 3 things:
1) I suck!
2) I have a new hero.
3) You can hate your hero.
All the other necessary praise has already been heaped upon you in sufficient quantities.
Rock on!
Is it soup yet?
Haha, no, I graduate in a week, between the chaos of school and applying to grad school I haven't had any time to even look at the car.
Hopefully once I graduate on Friday I will have plenty of time to work on the car.
I am really looking forward to getting in some 914 time soon!
Seriously get to work.
Dude
What do you do for a living, you have to be a engineer.
I'm not trying to kiss up, I am just giving credit were it is due.
Rudy
That's fantastic news, Dana - congratulations!
But before you start building really cool looking buildings will you PUH-LEEEZE get back to work on the car.
I dunno. I just feel like I have no direction without this project moving forward. It's like waking up every morning to an overcast sky. I just don't know.
Absolutely!
great work.
My son changed from Biomedical to Electrical and then to Mechanical and Math recently. I like that combo
It's obvious you have a great number us waiting for your every next move.
In reply # 872, we get to see your project in it's 'fabrication aesthetic'...it is purely visceral. Naked. Far from purist. The culmination of vision and the epitome of execution.
As we await the next chapter, would it be possible to see other views of the car?
...the 914world is watching.
(btw, one architect to another)
I have finally managed to make some time to work on the car!
I had an entire day so I decided to finish the last section of the cage; the connection between the front shock mount and the existing cage.
This is a pretty tricky spot to run tubing through on the 914, especially with my low knee bar but I did the best I could with it.
I started out by welding in base plates for the cage.
Not my best welding work by far but welding 1/8" plate to sheet metal is super tricky.
Next I welded in a tube from the knee bar to the shock tower.
Finally I welded in a second bar to triangulate the connection.
Here is a quick mockup with the tank.
I've been waiting for this day to come
Looking forward ot seeing more Dana
Welcome back, Dana!! Immaculate work as always. I kinda did something similar on Dave's car.
Ahhh, The "DANA-NATOR" is BACK!
Not a ton of progress made today, I had a job interview this morning so I only had a couple of hours to work on the car this afternoon.
I didn't get a chance to seal off the holes where the tubing runs under the dash yesterday so I tackled that today.
I am glad I am pretty much done welding in this area of the car, access is a nightmare, welding upside down in a footwell sucks!
Before:
After:
Today I started tackling the rusty spots on the tub, luckily most of my car's rust was on parts that I removed but there is still a little eating the door sill.
First I made a template of the opening to ensure everything lined up once I was finished.
Then I rebuilt the rotten area.
Finally I test fit the rocker.
Man finally! I was starting to have withdrawals.
you and me both brother...
Awesome Dana! Glad to see you back at it! Excellent work as usual
Oh, Dana? Happy Birthday!
Dude, you need to send in a tape to Spike or Speed! I would much rather watch you work than most of the JOs that have shows on those channels now. Throw in a little architecture work as an added bonus - the ultimate man show!
Today I repaired the other door jamb's corner that was rotted out.
I also welded in nuts to mount the Jwest shift rod bushing.
I never really finished the area around the door handle recess when I built the firewall so I decided to clean that up on both sides.
I am shaving the door handles so I filled the area where the recesses used to be and generally cleaned everything up.
Awesome work. Where and how are the door popper's being mounted then?
Even more awesome! That idea is great. I was thinking of running locks and poppers through an alarm system myself...but I also need windows and locks cause I plan on traveling when I finally saw off the rotisserie and reattach the suspension!!
That's a very cool design feature with the doors. It's evident you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Most achitectural/engineering type do. Keep it up.
Almost forgot - congrats on the graduation!
No fun work today, just cleaning up the tub in preparation for paint, I want to fill every unused hole in the tub before it gets sprayed.
Since I had to tunnel through this part of the long for the coolant hoses I figured it would be good to add some metal back into this area.
Since I was working in the area I decided to cleanup and patch any holes in the longs I had created when I removed the heater ducting.
Everything is welded, it is reassuring to find it harder and harder to find projects to do before the chassis is ready to paint!
Hey everybody! I just wanted to check in, I haven't been able to work on the car for a while. I am working full time at an architecture firm in downtown Boulder, so "Garage Time" has been at a minimum. And on a professional note I also want to add that I got accepted to Penn's Architecture Graduate Program! I am not sure how that will effect the Anklebiter, I do know this will be an excuse to get it as complete as I can if I have to store it until I get settled somewhere. Anyway here is a current pic to tide you over, I will try to get in some time this weekend, the drivetrain half of the car only needs about a days worth of work before it will be complete.
Contrats on the Penn part, good school. Sorry about the Philadelphia part.
Congrats!
Hmmm, 6 hrs from me Maybe 3 hrs in the future.....depending on how long you are there.
it would be great to see you on the east coast.....!!!!!!
Hmmm, maybe you could even lend your expertise to Scotty, Zach and Doc on their racer build - show'em how's it's done from a tube frame point of view.
Don't forget to post pictures if you guys become "The 4 Horsemen of the Apocolypse"
I got a little time today to pretty much wrap up the rear portion of the car.
I started off by bending and mounting the fuel return line.
Then I made the bracket for the coolant overflow tank.
I bought a "WeaponR" aluminum import tank, cheap and reasonable build quality.
Finally I made a mount for the intake system, I welded a bung into the tubeframe and tied the airfilter adapter into that.
That is without question the most atractive & tastefulll departure from the 914 style I have ever seen!!
Well now that I have started a 916 look alike I want this look .
Many an afternoon has been spent looking at the rear of the 914 and 914/6 and wondering as I would doodle a fast back or slope or just think "what is this car missing?" was the question in my mind -You have the answer & wowthat is agood answer!! what would it cost to duplicate thismost attractice creation you Fu*@#$% Brilliant .This is way @#$%*&!! COOL!
And let me use post #914 in this thread to celebrate hitting 100,000 views!
Thank you so much for the support and encouragement you have all contributed to this thread over the years, we have come a long way!
I have close friends in Carlisle who are moving soon back to DC area. They have a small house and garage - upscale, but I'll ask for details. Give me a week.
Dave
Well it looks like I am going to Penn! We will be moving to Philly in August, I am looking forward to meeting the East Coast contingent of the club!
Since we are moving I had a decision to make with the 914, I could store it in boxes at my in-laws house in Wyoming, or I could just go for it and try to hammer it out by the end of July.
If it is a fully functioning car I have a much better chance of my wife letting me bring it along. I am taking 6 weeks off this summer to get us boxed up and get the car done. Look for lots of progress in the coming months!
Last weekend I finished the rear portion of the brake lines.
Here is a look at the front of the engine.
I also started fitting the nose to the chassis.
It is an almost perfect fit, I will be welding up the tilt nose soon!
If anyone needs to repair an A/C hole this is yours for the cost of shipping! (Sold!)
keep it up Dana!
plymouth37,
Congratulations on your Architect career Your Anklebiter project is outstanding and beautiful. I love the look.
BTW: Wondering where the headlights will go?? I hope you keep them in the stock location, my opinion, but it's your choice.
Tom
Just let me know when to come over and
Flip'n sweet I can see your not afriad to start from scratch! I love builders who believe limits are for the limited.
I finished hooking up the coolant hoses, it took a 1991 Nissan Sentra hose, half a 2001 Suburban hose and an un-identified hose I found at AutoZone to get everything connected. I am almost done hooking up all of the connections needed for the car to run. Both coolant hoses will be heat wrapped to keep heat from effecting the fuel system once I get to final assembly. Once I am done with the mechanicals I will pull the chassis apart and go into paint.
I also worked on fitting the pieces of the front nose.
Go,Dana,Go!
Fantastic work when will you be in Pa?
I got a little bit of work done last weekend, I am trying to finish up the handful of welding jobs left on the tub.
I focused my efforts on the tunnel, I started by bracing the clutch tube.
There wasn't anything wrong with it but it is the kind of job you have to do if you have the shifter out and the welder handy.
Next I welded in a bracket to hold the Wilwood brake proportioning valve I bought from JWest.
I figure a little adjustability in the brake bias will probably be nice once the test driving portion of the build comes around.
It will also make dialing in future brake upgrades a snap.
Finally I mounted the JWest brake tee to the firewall with a little bracket, making it possible to eliminate the stock brake regulating unit.
I cut the stock shifter end off of the original shift linkage then welded it to the JWest shift rod.
Then I mocked up the shift rod bushing on the firewall.
Next I mounted the Rennshift shifter with a custom shift knob I rigged up.
My stock shift knob was in really rough shape so I mounted the starter button from a Honda S2000 into it.
The button will be functional and the lettering lights up when it is armed.
I thought the button was going to flip up and you were going to have an ejector seat
I was up at our cabin over the holiday weekend so no hands on work got done.
I did manage to design a hinge system that allows the nose to clear the doors as it opens though.
Here is an illustration of how it will operate. Hopefully I can get it built this weekend.
I got the major elements of the nose hinge done today.
I started out by fabricating the components needed to build the hinges I designed last weekend. I used nylon spacers to serve as a bearing, I also drilled out the centers of them to adapt the standard tubing to the metric hardware. The cotter pins allow the entire nose to be removed in a couple minutes at most.
Here is a shot of the nose closed, notice the perfect door gap, my biggest concern with this project was properly aligning the nose and I think I pulled it off.
Here is the hinge system with the nose closed, I will be adding hydraulic struts to the system next. Ultimately you will never see this view because the hood will be welded to the fenders.
The nose partially open.
The nose fully open.
Wow.
OK, I'm officially jealous...
What a Hot Ride
Looks great how about these remote operated ?
http://www.firgelliauto.com/default.php?cPath=110
This one of the best build threads I ever read.
All times a new idea with an excellent implementation
All your work is impressive.
I'm excited.
Absolutely killer Dana.
Great to see you on Saturday!!
Dana - stay focused.
Excuse the pun, "don't get off" track, by focusing on accuators or STROKE!
wow
OMG!!!!! This car just keeps getting cooler!
How about on board hydraulic jacks?
Impressive...
I think that I suggested it a while back in this thread, but you should be on TV with this stuff. There are a handful of shows that I DVR not because I like what they are building, but just to watch the process, and your stuff is WAY cooler!
Awesome work!
I did a ton of cutting and freed the rear fenders from the old frame rails. If anybody wants a fairly rust free chassis half let me know, you can have it as long as you pick it up.
It is shocking how much this weighs.
I started fitting the rear portion of the body to the car. it is really surprising to see how much open space I have back here!
Now that the rear portion of the body is mocked up the next task is to make the hinges to tilt it open.
It will be hinged from the back offering excellent access to the drivetrain, the lid will be welded to the fenders just like the front.
sweet!
PM SENT!
Dana,
lars in boulder just bought his first teener
the longs are rusted, the hell hole is bad, and I think some of his pick up points are questionable...
if no one claims the rear xtra, I would like to claim it for him to use
brant
Just missed it, Mugsy has dibs. Stay tuned for more goodies!
Every time I hit this thread, I am amazed over and over and over...
Pretty soon people are going to stop building 914-6 clones and start building Anklebiter clones!
Dana,
Be sure to get the weight on that beast for comparison. You've gotta be close to 2000lbs or less.
Today I broke down the car into its bare tub and rear chassis. I was surprised it only took a couple hours to pull the suspension, brake the car in half, and pull the engine.
With the extra time I gained I started stripping the remaining stock paint off of the tub in preparation for a couple coats of chassis primer and paint.
I like having a project you can lift onto jackstands with one hand...
Damn that looks good!
Nice work
Bob
Can't wait to see this in paint
I woke up this morning and found out my thread had gained almost 5000 hits overnight!
It turns out http://build-threads.com/build-threads/wrx-powered-tube-framed-porsche-914/ ran a feature on this build. Follow the link to check it out, along with a ton of other really cool projects!
http://build-threads.com/
Thats Awesome Dana
Congratts !!
Crap Dana.
Please say "No" to Chip Foose when he calls, at least till you finish your Masters
Awesome coverage...
Dave
This morning I tackled the under side of the tub. Using every jack, jackstand, and a system of levers and pulleys I got the tub resting on its side with minimal "sketchiness".
To lower the murphie's law factor I anchored the tub to the I-Beams holding up the rafters. It is actually pretty solid and makes working on the belly of the car really nice.
I started out by stripping off all of the old paint, then welded up the forty or so holes I had drilled in the floor to mount the old water lines and after market rockers.
Finally I sprayed on the first coat of primer. I am using the Eastwood chassis black paint system, I used it on a couple cars when I worked at Renegade, it is tough as nails and looks pretty good too. After this first coat I will apply a second coat of primer, then 2 finish coats of satin black.
I think you should make a mold of that tub as is in preparation for making copies out of carbon fiber...hmmmmmm.....just saying.
Nice work Dana...Sure isn't the same car I rode in nearly 7 years ago.
Ed
Please make http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=185293 the East Coast debut of the Anklebiter!
Just realized you'll be out here in time for it.
I prepped and primed the tub and the rear tube frame today. Paint goes on tomorrow!
I'm super pumped for you Dana!
rockin! spectacular work Dana.
It's tomorrow.
Satin black chassis paint is on! I found it sprays the best reduced by about 20%, I put on 2 light coats and got the coverage I was looking for.
I turned the heater in the garage up as far as it goes and will leave it to bake overnight.
Awesome!
Sorry Dana, I can't resist...
That'll buff out!
I did a bunch of little tasks to get the engine ready to install.
First I replaced my thoroughly melted clutch and reinstalled my freshly turned flywheel.
Then I installed a new Perrin light weight pulley, this took 3lbs 8.8oz off of the rotating mass of my engine, that aught to change it's revving characteristics!
Next I installed the rear piece to the JWest shift linkage.
Finally I mounted the rear tube chassis to the drivetrain. I even miraculously avoided scratching the new paint!
Less rotating mass is cool to a point. My rotary setup has a lightened flywheel. It gets a little "jumpy" at low speed low throttle driving. A heavier flywheel would help prevent this but would make the wind up slower.
There are pros and cons to rotating mass, especially when our cars are so light...
I think this is one of the components that I will just have to wait until the R&D portion of the build to see if I like it.
Right now I am sticking to the theory that lighter is better, if my driving experience starts to tell me otherwise I will reevaluate.
You will know real quick if its causing a balance issue and it will only grenade if you then choose to ignore it. IMHO
I just got through going over your build, very impressive. I am in the process of building a tube chassis based on a914 drivetrain for a landspeed buggy and I find your ideas for the rear setup of your car to be very helpful for what I am doing. Thank you for being so talented and detailed with your build. Can't wait to see what you do next.
It's not the longetivity of the pulley that is the question. The oil pump is right behind the pulley. The balancer is there to smooth out the revolutions. ATI, check out their faqs. Most suby beginners crater a motor from many different things, mostly thinking the oil level is good between changes because it aways was in the na honda they dogged before the wrx they moved on to. Subys are a different motor entirely and were originally meant for under 7k operation in the snow but the engineers didn't cut the cost of the motor by using a solid light weight pulley, wonder why? Most hard hotrodded subys don't make it far enough to find out if the lightweight pully helped cause the destruction. Some people even have cel issues from lightweight flywheels at idle.
Unabomber only writes what he reads, he is not a engine builder or a mechanic. All you need to do is look at a suby stock balancer and you will see the rubber and metal parts of a balancer built to try and smooth hormonics out, but like most oem stuff it's really only designed to smooth it out where the normal guy uses the motor, not at the rpms a high reving hotrodder uses. Thats why nascar uses ATI balancers. You think they aren't looking for every hp they can find?
I guess light pulleys do look better than a stock hormonic balancer though.
New Background... Check.
Dana
Always like your style, form and fabrication skills.
Without going back on your entire thread what did you do in the highlighed area to beef up the area where the lower tube ties into the remaining uni-body? I see that plate that drops down .. just wondering whats behind it. Is it tied into another tube or boxed in? The angle of the pic's gets my brain wandering.
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Yeah, that looks a little sketchy when the chassis is stripped. The suspension cross member bolts into that tab and a cross brace ties the whole assembly rearward to the tub, I tried to find a good picture in my photo archive but couldn't find one. Here is a shot of the bottom of the car, you can see the mounting points that the bolt in brace mounts to. With the suspension components directly behind this tab I feel like that is the most I can do to stabilize it, hopefully the brace along with the 1/8" plate I welded in there are sufficient.
By my thinking, that's pretty much how the cars are from the factory. You didn't really change anything structurally, just made it see-through.
Great idea!
Plexiglass portals in the body work to expose the cutaway "awesome-ness";-}
If you tie that 1/8" plated tab back into the chassis like the red line denotes that should help detune the constant vibration that will crack the chassis over time. I see it as a long term issue more than a point of weakness that would cause sag or cowl shake.
I think he's still trying to finish his 1st year in his Masters program at The Nittany Lion.
Frikkin Dweebs
Yup, I accidentally got accepted to my dream school for my Masters degree in Architecture and had to move to Philly to attend UPenn (not Penn State). Not only did I have to leave the Anklebiter back home in Colorado, this program is so challenging I wouldn't have the time to work on it even if I had it here.
I still have every intention of finishing the project after grad school but I need to focus on kicking ass at school right now. Don't worry though, I haven't let this Ivy-league school take the mechanic out of me, I am taking a series of experimental robotics classes along with my Architecture classes so when I return to the car expect some pretty legit technology to make an appearance in the design.
To tide you over here is a fun little video of a design project I got to make last semester .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4auTp2tyFLM
Thanks for sticking with the build, I am really looking forward to getting back to it once my education goals get accomplished.
Stick with your goals Dana!
Just think of all the new ideas you'll come up with when you get back to your project.
Good luck!
Mike
Best wishes in school. You are absolutely doing the right thing.
http://www.build-threads.com/general-car-stuff/top-10-builds-of-2012/
Dana, does that mean you're coming back to Colorado after school?
If you end up manufacturing that "Crawler" sign me up Might be good for scooting under cars to work on them too!
BTW, if you like Enter the machine you might want to give Phutureprimitive a try too.
I'm looking at those or 99-05 Miata...Wonder if the Solstice mirrors fit in the stock location?
I'll find out and let you know in about a week. ;-)
I WILL be buying another set of Miata sun-visors though. That was a good upgrade on my last 914.
I dug into this a few days ago and fear that I REALLY messed up the angle on the passenger window. I was clearly using the wrong tools. I think this would be easier with a belt-sander where I could use the rounded end to keep it more consistent.
I put the brakes on it for a few days until I can get the right tools. I love the look of them, and think they'd be a great replacement. I've got time before I need to have them mocked up.
I'm also going to add arrow LEDs behind the glass, so (luckily) I got the glass off in one piece.
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love this build. I was really hoping it would be completed by the time I got to the end, damn school!
BRZ/FR-S/ft86 mirrors also look like they would be a nice fit:
Just amazing.
Don't paint it! Just leave it with clear coat don't hyde your handcraft. It's a master piece
Dana?
You still around?
seriously, this one can't die.
Dana, what's going on in your life these days?
Me to!
Didn't he say he was taking a couple years off for school?
Somebody poke him ...
Where is he active online? Anybody Facebook friends with Dana?
IIRC, I read on one of the Suby forums that it was in another garage or hands presently. I'll see if I can locate that thread to confirm.
here's the link. read down a few posts on page 2
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2285822&page=2
One of us is going to get a great deal on a highly modified 914 project someday...
I think they just reference the anklebiter in that thread Kent. The yellow car is not it. Cool car though!
Mike you need another project ! I saw a W8 engine for sale on Craigslist and thought of you.
Hey Everybody,
I just wanted to check in and see how everybody is doing. Finally the end of the Anklebiter's long hiatus is drawing to a close. I just started my last semester at UPenn, which means this summer will see my joyful return to the garage!
In other news I have just accepted a job with ZGF Architects in Seattle so look out Northwest Contingent, you are about to gain a member!
I look forward to becoming more active on the forum soon, I have been so busy over the last 3 years the internet has become a luxury, to see the work that has been keeping me from you check out http://www.danestokes.com
Very Cool! Congratulations!
So that'll mean we'll get to see this project up close & personal!
Can't wait to have you back! This project is bar-none my favorite on the site, so I can hardly wait to see it on the road.
WooHoo!!
Great to see you check in, Dana. Congrats on you success at Penn. Excited to hear you'll be coming to Seattle and we get to see the Anklebiter's progress. Let me know if you need any assistance in the relocation.
Glad to see you almost back. Looking forward to seeing your project move forward. Keep up the excellent work.
Congrats on the job... you are really working hard... nice to see.
Can't wait for the progress to continue.
I love the 914, but I am sorry, it pales in comparison to your architectural design. Keep that part up, the car has a limited focus, but some of these spaces are just incredible!!!!!
Site blocked at my work, I'll check at home.
My wife is in the interior architecture/design field, so your work hours are something I understand. Sometimes I have to give her quick updates on what's going on in the world/news.
Good to have an update from you!
Another reason to look forward to summer.
Okay Dane,
Its July, 2015!!!!!
Let's get back to it.....we have all been waiting patiently.
Congrats on school and the job...so glad you are going to start working on the 914 again!
Wasn't there talk of the next WCR being up North in the Seattle area?
Go Quakers.........great education. Spent a lot of years and money there, and daughter just graduated from Wharton. Best of luck in career.
Awesome work Dana! You definitely have the goods for the field. Best wishes for a long and productive career.
Well, 3 years has come and gone, I graduated with a Masters degree in Architecture from Penn in May:
11 days later we welcomed our first child into the world:
and now we are relocating to Seattle!
But don't worry, I stopped by Cheyenne to pick up an old friend I have been missing for a long time now:
time to get and back at it using all that new found knowledge and expertice!looking forward to seeing this back on track
Oh, and congradulations on both of those recent developments!
Congrats on everything. You are doing it right as usual
It looks like she weathered the storage pretty well, it is going to be tough to remember everything I was half done with, should have left myself a note on what to do next!
Dane,
I can't remember if I congratulated you, so, here ya go!
Dave B...
...note to self.
WELDING RODS!!!
...and JB Weld
I'm still new around here (though I've technically been a member for a while), but can we even call this a 914 anymore? It looks about 15% 914 and the rest is completely custom and Subie powered. Just a thought and maybe it came up in one of the other 53 pages that I haven't gone through completely, lol. Very interesting build, that's for sure!
oh my Gawd I am sooo f'in excited to see some progress on this. By far my favorite build. So outside the box and crazy and awesome and so on.
And now there is an actual Anklebiter to work on it too! Congrats!
Congratulations X3! I so look forward to seeing this car move forward. Oh, remember to add windshield wipers to your build sheet.....
Congratulations on everything!
We're all looking forward to you picking up on your project!
WOOHOO! So glad to see this come back to life. Plus your moving closer to me so I might actually get to see it. Awesome
Congratulations Dane,
I spent an evening reading the entire thread waiting to see what was next. I am glad to see you are back because there is nothing worse than a novel without an ending. You have an awesome imagination and some mad skillz. I am sure with your drive and ambition your project's completion and a very successful life are inevitable. Congratulations again and get back to work!!
Chris
This is a coincidence! I was just reading this thread this morning! I look up to you and your amazing skills
It's not blue tape, but it will do
Reminds me of an embryonic sac...just visible enough to make something out, but not enough detail to know what it might become...
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I just found this thread. I spent some time reading 'diagonally' through a few - in fact a lot- pages, looking at the pics. And every pic amazes me more! What a fantastic job you're tackling. I think I can safely say that I'm quite handy with most tools, but this... You are lightyears ahead of me!
I will start to follow this with a lot of interest!
Menno
They don't call it "Big Sky Country" for nothing! My cocktail of plastic wrap, duct tape, and tie down straps seems to be holding so far!
Getting a lot of attention on the road and lots of questions at gas stations, makes me excited to get this thing on the road under its own power!
Congrats on your graduation. Good luck with future endeavors.
Can't wait to see this project move forward. That's one bad-ass vehicle.
IT IS BACK!!!!! Now, I have to re-read the entire file to get caught up again on this build. Us older people take longer and longer to get through reading these threads and understanding what is going on. DO NOT LEAVE US HANGING AGAIN WITHOUT FINISHING THIS PROJECT!!!! LOL!!
Congratulations of finishing school and getting back to the project. I have missed this thread and the building of your dream car. The project is one of the more interesting items on the board and will be back following it with extreme interest.
Welcome back!
Now that all the greetings are out of the way; GET BACK TO WORK AND KEEP US ENTERTAINED AND INFORMED! Again, LOL/LOL/LOL/ETC.
Steve Hurt
Congratulations on your graduation.
"11 days later we welcomed our first child into the world" That would be Anklebiter II!
Congratulations again! Good to see your back at it.
I see you're heading for Snoqualmie; beautiful place at the foot of Mt. Si. Are you heading for Old Snoqualmie or New Snoqualmie?
This is big news!
Good luck with everything.
John
Geez Dane, you could have used "wreck wrap" in blue
you know, you should really print out some cheap Gucci-flage and hide certain aspects of the car as you drive - all of us here could sign a non-dosclosure and giggle like crazy when the car mags start their coverage
Welcome back Dane. Your car is the cover pic on the Facebook 914 Outlaw group. Looking forward to progress!
Cool project and crazy fab skills. Can't wait to see picts of your continued progress and completion.
Dave
Welcome back Dana!
You accomplished allot in three years!
Awesome! Snoqualmie is a beautiful place, I visit a friend of mine there every year.
There's a cool car show on Aug 16 that runs down the main street as part of their Railroad Days. A very short walk from your new digs.
Got a flat tire on the trailer in Bozeman, it took Budget 7 Hours to send someone to fix it Oh well, on the road again!
Awesome... good things for a god guy... congrats on everything... good luck with the relocation.
Look forward to more progress.
bozeman to the west side is a LOOOOng haul if you do it in 1 day. in a big box truck and pulling a trailer? way not so much fun. then you clear the columbia and the attitude improves. i'm looking forward to this event. bfast first? kinda early?
omg this is perhaps the most interesting thing I've seen on the Internet in years
I remember following ur previous build, which was years ago( this very same car) , and now ur just on the pinnacle point of another amazing building what's even more amazing it's the same car
I've got loads of respect for ur dedication and ur skill full work
Can't wait for u to post more pics
Made it to Seattle! Waited to unpack the best stuff last!
Still in the whirlwind of the unpacking and new job and newborn thing, managed to grab a couple hours tonight to start to get the shop unpacked, after not seeing this stuff for 3 years every box is a total mystery. This is almost as bad as restarting someone else's restoration project. I have been re-reading the thread to try to remember my train of thought.
In the meantime Marc was nice enough to arrange a nice 914 get together for the Railroad Days Car Show in Snoqualmie, WA on Sunday August 16th. My place is close enough to the show to push the car over so I am entering it! More details http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=260984&hl=anklebiter
Dana you moved to Wash...I am moving to Utah....I also got a flat ,,but nowhere to pull over because of construction....made it to a gas station burgerking and it took Uhaul 3 hours on juy 4th.....Remember us coming by youre house in Co. ??
Congrats on the new life ..
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your sled.
Where's the dog?
Garage is pretty much unpacked, I still need to give the car a good cleaning, 3 years of Wyoming dust has collected everywhere.
I wanted to thank Mark (mepstein) for donating a couple steering wheels to the cause, steering it to the show should be easy now!
I had a great weekend with the PNW contingent, it was great to meet everybody. Special thanks to Marc (KELTY360) for setting everything up!
Thanks for the push guys!
The show was great, definitely motivated me to get back to work on the car!
I love this car but I have to say... Loose the 901 transmission. That is the weak link.
Marc perfectly captured the average onlookers "what is this?" reaction to the car...
WOW!!! Very nice!! But the 901 Transmission ist not good........... Take a 986 Boxster Transmission or a 987 this is very nice!! Good Luck with the Projekt !!!!
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I look forward to hearing the straight out of the turbo when this car is up and running. the neighbors? Not so much.
I put the car back up on jack stands. My old chassis instructor used to say a good frame only needs 3!
I then pulled the seats and doors.
Then I opened this box and went looking for my Haynes Manual...
There's a Haynes manual for the Anklebiter? Who knew?
I was looking at a thread from 2010 where you inquired about tube frame 914s and there were lots of pics of complex mazes of tubular structures. Seems like you really simplified the design to bare elements. Obviously, eliminating the shock towers had a huge impact on streamlining the package.
Yep, I once had a supervisor in the Air Force who said to me, when I asked a question, "Look it up, it's in the GD BOOK!!!"
I'm still looking for that book called "GD" going on 30+ years, maybe that's why I have been afraid of manuals ever since;-P
I have been working on prepping the wiring harness for installation, there are some cut wires around the fuse box that I need to replace and repair before swapping in the JWest fuse box.
There are also some disturbing abnormalities whose purpose is still a mystery to me...
I am keeping my modifications to a minimum until I get everything up and running, then I will prune unnecessary wires and wrap the harness after I know everything is working. Here I go!
I am thrilled to see this project getting back on track. As for your skills.....crazy skills dude.
Time to tackle the wiring, this is going to take forever but I want to do it right while the car is apart.
I am relocating the fuse panel and relay board to the area that used to house the blower motor and wipers, first I installed a grommet and fed the harness forward through the firewall.
I cut away all of the relays that were all over the place and labeled all of the connections, hopefully I can figure out what everything is by the time I resemble the harness. I will make a centralized fuse block to house all of the relays in one place.
Here is the wad of wiring I cut out.
And again after organizing everything.
That is going to be pretty.
Why not the small car harness and be done? Cost?
Welcome to the PNW!!!
Even though I ended up selling my Suby 914 last winter I still remember the painstaking process of wiring my own harness with the Smallcar print out.
I am 30 min away in Redmond and can lend a hand or pop a beer and stare at wires if you need to hear what not to do
My harness came out great in the end with an Engman fuse box and stock Suby ECU.
I am back at it with another Suby powered project, http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612650
Anywho, welcome to the neighborhood! And congrats on the new baby!!
Cheers!
Nate
I could buy a basic wiring harness, I did that for my Plymouth and it was great, I just want to build this one myself, and the wires are already there, I will cull what I don't need once I figure out what everything is.
We will definitely have to get together Nate! Love the Beetle!
I am drawing up a wiring diagram so I can build a relay and fuse board, so in the meantime I decided to pull the rear end apart one last time to sort the clutch, paint and clean the tranny and suspension and then put it together again for real with properly torqued hardware. I started by pulling the suspension:
The clutch was getting funky when I drove it last, I have a new disk, but the pressure plate and flywheel have definitely seen some heat and need some love:
83 bolts later... it is amazing how quickly and easily I can break down this car when the body isn't getting in the way, the clam shell body is going to be awesome for maintenance.
If anybody wants to donate an STI transaxle to the cause now would be the time
Glad to see you back at the car !
Dane, as all the others have said Congratulations on your Degree, Anklebiter II of course and it goes without saying....the Beast!!!
I had been following your build for some time so it will be great to see you at it again. I am stripping out my wiring harness as well although not even close to what you have gone through.
Hope you guys are enjoying the new house...we live in 100 year old Victorian as well....old houses are great!
Grant
I have been doing a lot of wiring work on the car over the past couple of weeks but there isn't much to see, I have sorted and identified all of the wires that I need to wire my new relay and fuse panel into, and culled any unneeded wires. Now that the wires are under control I will start building the relay/fuse panel soon.
While I am waiting on clutch components I took the opportunity to clean the transaxle, it will get a fresh coat of Eastwood Alumablast as soon at it is warm enough to spray.
Interesting - you are sticking with the 901. With your fab skills and the insane nature of this build, I am just wondering why you wouldn't go to a Subi or Boxster trans?
While entertaining, switching which tranny I use this late in the build would ensure this car never runs again, maybe I upgrade later but I am keeping forward momentum on this project and not looking back. 901 is fine for now, the car only weighs 1500 lbs, it doesn't need a huge tranny.
So I just finished up the new relay and fuse board wiring diagram. I am using most of the stock wiring harness with a few new additions, and running it with modern fuses, relays and micro switches. All lighting will be LED so amp draw is pretty minimal, next step is to fab up the board and wire it for real! Happy New Year Everybody!
Same to you Dane!
Here's hoping the storms didn't dampen your spirit too much. Let me know if you need something from my sale cache.
Happy New Year!
Dave
Now that the wiring has been diagrammed I have started work on the relay and fuse board. I wasn't really happy with the relay blocks that are out there so I decided to make them myself. I 3D printed a couple mockups and after a couple iterations got something that worked pretty well.
Here are the final pieces fresh off the printer.
I bought a fuse block, and laser cut a piece of acrylic as a temporary jig to mount everything for wiring.
I assembled the board and started running primary power, ignition, and ground wires.
Why doesn't this standard of innovation surprise me? Superb!
Glad to see you posting Dane. Will The Anklebiter move on it's own power this year?
What planet are you from? Seriously, every aspect of this car is just incredible.
Looks great!
Just out or curiosity, why did you go the custom route rather than with a Bussman RFRM/RTMR or Littelfuse HWB combination fuse/relay block?
Yeah, just build your own fuse box and wire a 914 for the enjoyment!
Friggin awesome. This world is going to need you someday!
Well it took couple days but I finished wiring the board!
I removed the jig in preparation for the final plate.
I laser cut the final iteration of the base plate out of black acrylic, I countersunk the hardware and mocked everything up, along with a template for the top cover.
I drew up the file for the face plate. Since I have access to a Laser cutter I used this file to not only cut out the face plate but to cut out masking tape for back painting as well.
Here you can see the finished result, by strategically removing layers of the laser cut masking tape you can layer the paint on the back of the clear sheet creating the result below. The faceplate also locks the relay plugs in place. I decided to connect the common power and ground leads to studs rather than hidden hardware so I have a reliable power source to tap into if I need one.
I used the standard federal automotive icons for continuity but swapped out the normal fan icon for the radiator fans because it looked better.
Now all I have left is to trim the hardware and mount the board, I will buy mounting hardware today and see how it looks in the car.
Just wow.
Dane,
Sending you a PM...
Dane, I had to laugh....geeking out on wiring....I love it....I have been lazy as heck with other volunteer stuff taking up all my free time...Spring has sprung here in Nova Scotia so I am back at it.
The stock location for the fuse panel is just a pain so I too am going to move mine...congratulations on new family and car too!
[/quote]
You are insane
Here is the panel mounted in the car:
And with the gas tank in place:
Now to plug it in! I bought a 22 pin Delphi Weatherpack bulkhead connector to run through to the interior. With only one plug swapping out brains will be easy if I decide to change or upgrade anything.
And all wired up, ready to go in the car!
Well this portion of the harness is finished, time to move to the interior!
So here is the other side of the bulkhead connector:
And here is my updated diagram on how the relay board needs to be spliced unto the existing harness:
I had a fellow avionics technician I worked with back in 1985 in Shreveport, LA. He had his 72' bug wired with a single through-hole hubbel style plug, courtesy of a B52 parts scrap bin. I helped him pull his motor once, we had it out from ignition disconnect in under 12 minutes or similar - I was shocked with how well it worked. I had a 66' Ghia that I was rigging for similar when I got a cash offer I couldn't refuse.
You'll appreciate the ease with which you can do service, especially on a cold floor in mid-winter;-)
I just had to share the state of affairs, what a rats nest!
I think I have the 914 wiring harness (or at least my interpretation of it) just about memorized.
How have I never seen this thread?
This is a fantastic build. So, listen up, I set the standard over on Pelican for how you're supposed to start and finish your thread. (Go look them up - same username)
With a build this awesome and a thread this long, you simply have to finish it.
Thanks for sharing your life with us.
Hal
Thanks for the kind words guys, progress has been slow, wiring takes forever but I will keep plugging away at this thing!
Well the rat's nest has been cleared and sorted, I wired the existing car harness into the interior half of the bulkhead connector.
Then I routed what remains of the stock harness through the rest of the car.
i am not wiring up the cabin yet, i want to focus on getting the engine running first.
The harness has been run into the engine bay, ready to connect my next project, the WRX computer and engine harness.
Here is the WRX wiring harness, as you can see it is about 10 feet longer than it needs to be. I will trim and shorten it in the future but I know it works as it is so I will leave it until I have a running engine to test it with.
I am thinking I will mount the computer and the excess wiring harness in a compartment I build around the back of the firewall bulge.
I organized the harness in a way that should fit in the space provided,
I had to make 3 big loops around the ECU to take up the slack.
Unfortunately now is not the time to change huge things like a tranny, in the future definitely. It will be drivable in the relatively near future and the detour of changing drivetrains at this point would kill this project. Lucky the rear half of the car is replaceable, so nothing is permanent. Once I have play money upgrades will be implemented on the entire car, I just need it to move under its own power first.
Hi Dana - So glad to see you making progress on your car. One of my absolute favorite builds. Good luck.
Sorry for not posting in a while, rest assured, progress continues!
I got the ECU and engine harness wired into the car and engine.
In addition to attaching the engine to the ECU I also attached the car harness to the ECU as well as a custom rear wiring harness.
Here is the rear wiring harness I built, it attaches to the intake sensors, starter, reverse switch, speed sensor, and rear lights.
This is hard to represent properly but here is the state of affairs, I now know the wrx wiring harness by memory, but engine wiring is just about done!
Here you can see the rear harness, plugged into the intake sensors and waiting for a tranny to wire up. Also refurbished the adapter plate and installed it, clutch is on its way!
I needed to start wiring up the battery cables, but wasn't close enough to starting the engine to buy a battery so I decided to make a battery mockup. I started by modeling an Odyssey 680 based on images
Then I 3D printed it.
I painted the print and installed the proper threads into it.
Here is the Battery Mount.
Finally I installed it in a clear spot on the firewall, low, opposite the driver, hidden by the air cleaner. I then ran the harness for the passenger side of the engine and battery cables to the chassis, starter, and wiring harness.
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Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
I finally got all of the parts of my new clutch setup. New kennedy kevlar disk, new stage 2 pressor plate, and a resurfaced flywheel. I will install them and hopefully the tranny this weekend!
I found a great local machinist, look at this beautiful work!
Dane your work is incredible. You keep raising the bar!
Nice work Dana
Flywheel is in!
Pressure plate and disk are in too.
Tranny goes in tomorrow!
Dana,
You should earn "914 Emerald Points" or similar. How many times have you moved that dream across the US? 3 or 4?
It looks great as usual.
Dave
Since 2008 when this project started, WRX transmissions have become common on conversion cars. Did you ever think of ditching the Kennedy adapter and 901 for a Subaru trans with a cable shifter?
Sorry.
No problem, just trying to get this thing on the road!
I installed the tranny to prove that I am embracing this inferior technology, at least for now.
Time to start wiring it up!
Tranny is wired up!
Starter and relay:
Speed sensor:
Ground strap, and plugs for rear lights:
Kind of a shame to cover up all this fine art with body work.
Yea, It's a work of Art; it needs to go to a Museum. It's too clean to drive on a dirty road.
Man! I haven't been around here lately..But I am stoked to see this project activity! Love this thing.
I had a couple people pm me asking about about tranny paint, this is the paint I am using throughout the car, I have found it to be very durable, and looks great.
It is available for aerosol and paint guns, I have used both on the car with good success.
Usually cheapest (but not cheap) directly from Eastwood.
To repaint the tranny I started by cleaning it with soft wire and fiber wheels.
Then premiered with Eastwood black primer.
Here are some higher quality images of the Alumablast finish, clear coating is optional, I chose not to.
Reading this thread... Second honeymoon
How many cans of primer and aluma blast paint did it take to do your transaxle?
Thanks,
Steve
Just found this thread today, man I wish I had seen this years ago. Mine has been sitting in my dads barn for 10yrs and this is defiantly an inspiration!
I am going to give the WRX fuel pump controller a shot, I didn't use it when I had the car running before, it delivers variable voltage to the pump based on engine need, and shuts the pump off after a couple seconds when the ignition is on and you haven't started the car.
Here it is installed, I also wired up the pump, As far as I can tell I think all of the wiring needed to start the car is done. Radiator and everything up front is wired as well. I will get some test runs under its belt then shorten the excess length out of harness and wrap everything. Eventually I will build a cover for all of this.
All of the dash wiring is good to go, and ignition and starter buttons are wired up for testing.
Looks like the chassis wiring is fairly done, here are the leftovers, nice to cull this amount of chaos and weight out of the car!
Now that the fuel system and wiring are done in the rear I got going on the tank in the front. I installed the flexible hose that connects between the stainless tunnel lines and the tank. 1/2" feed and 3/8" return all the way to the engine, should be able to handle any engine I drop into this car in the future.
I needed to modify the rubber tank mounts to clear the cage.
Here is the before and after.
Then I cut off all of the brackets and finished the metalwork on the tank, primer is next!
When do we get to hear that exhaust?
Happy New Year Dane!
No front Sway bar?
I primered and painted the tank.
Then I installed the filler neck and repainted cap, along with the level sender.
All with fresh gaskets.
Since I am running such large fuel line I upgraded the tank fittings.
It is a vw tank thread to AN adapter to hose barb compilation.
Now that I have shifted my focus to the front I decided to pull the front suspension.
I am running an '89 Carrera suspension, I plan on disassembling, rebuilding and repainting everything, then reinstalling.
First I pulled the struts off, going to rebuild the calipers and get new disks and pads.
I continued breaking down the suspension.
I got this batch painted, sticking with the silver and black like the rest of the car.
I added shrink wrap tubing to the metal tabs that hold the wiring harness under the tank, the wrapped the harness and installed it.
I also installed the master cylinder and the front brake lines.
Then I freshened up the steering rack and bolted it to the re-painted cross member.
Finally I installed the steering rack and cross member, the brake fluid reservoir, and the tank brackets. Just about ready to drop in the tank!
Fuel System is complete! I hooked up the feed and return lines:
And strapped the tank down. The stripped down stock tank looks pretty good!
Dangerously close to starting this thing!
Love this build.....
Start up party!!
I have been making progress over the last couple months I promise!
I have been picking away at the suspension, installing the repainted crossmember, brake master, steering rack etc...
Painting and Polishing varius bits.
22mm carrera sway bar, stripped and ready for paint.
We have set the all time record for rainfall this year, 45" since October first, painting has become a well choreographed dance timed to the weather channel, my yard is a muddy mess!
Despite mother nature's best efforts I got the struts painted.
I know this will get dirty instantly but this paint is so nice!
I am tackling the calipers next.
Nice as always.
I got the front suspension installed, still need to sort out the brakes but the rest of the suspension is ready to go.
This probably looks the same to you as the last one I posted but I have reverse engineered a lot of the wiring and spliced in the fuel pump relay, tested the wiring and am pretty confident the engine wiring is ready to go.
I don't think I have shown the fuel pump setup, I am running some kind 911 or 928 pump and filter mount I dug out of the junk pile at Renegade a decade ago, A 911 filter, and a 928 fuel pump, the date on it says 1988 so I might be swapping this out, we'll see how it works first. You can see the loose wires to the pump, I am not wrapping or tying down any of the wiring until i have a running engine.
I don't think I will ever live to see another build like this. Amazing.
I had mocked up the 3D printed battery mount with sheet metal screws so I riveted in some steel threaded inserts as a more permanent solution.
Real Battery is in.
Engine oil and tranny has been changed.
I repainted the trailing arms and installed them, Renegade axles in as well.
Suspension is mocked up, still some work to do here, bushings, hardware etc...
Okay, now we are getting somewhere!
I am glad you kept on this one! Great project and some innovative ideas! Keep it up, you are getting close.
That's really cool. I don't think it will be loud enough.
I got the battery wired up.
Then re-installed the air filter, hiding everything.
Hi Plymouth37,...Your Build is pretty incredible,..I would like your opinion on the Renegade cradle,..is it a good fit ,or did U need to re-work it..a little,..Thanks, !! Frank
Can anybody spot the problem with this picture? Somehow the Carrera suspension I bought and ran years ago had one "A" caliper and one "Wide A" caliper I must have known about this and forgotten... The difference is a 7mm vs an 11mm spacer between the two halves. I decided to keep the one Wide A and order another one for the other side.
It turns out the right side Wide A calipers are near impossible to source while the left side is cheap and plentiful, of course.
This caliper, from a very tired mold with incorrect hardware arrived after a 5 month backorder, but not being in a hurry was a plus, it was only $65! I stripped the other Wide A I already had to match the new one.
I stripped the rear calipers as well, still running the 914 brakes back here, mostly because of the parking brake.
Then I finished them off with 1000 degree enamel.
Dane I love your build. You stepped out of the box then turned around and lit the box on fire!!! Love your work man. It has been an inspiration for my build. You're almost there. But do we really get there? It's a limit problem.
There is more discussion on this starting around page 32 of this thread, but this gives the gist of it, there is more of a mechanical advantage on the spring than the original, I doubled the springs to 400 lbs, this is totally unproven, just like the rest of the car, just need to thrash it around and see what happens!
I wanted to do a test crank on the engine, still no gas in the tank, but a step towards running! I plugged in the master fuse and the ignition fuse.
And as you can see things did not go as hoped... on the bright side, I now know it takes less than 15 minutes to pull the turbo! Check out the stream of oil running out from under the car!
Here is the culprit, stripped turbo oil feed line threads in the head, from what I found this is a pretty common issue, I am pretty sure I can get a helicoil in there, bummer!
Tell me that you will plan a party around the first start!
On the bright side, at least you didn't leak any smoke out.
Plymouth37 Thanks for the cradle info, Being that I can't weld,..I will have to order one,..I just happen to see it installed on your car,..how close to finishing are you ..??
I bought a Helicoil kit, the Banjo bolt is a 10mm X 1.25, so I am putting in a 12mm Helicoil, the inner thread diameter is 10mm.
I think I got it installed correctly, no shavings in the head, good clean threads.
I reinstalled the turbo, cranked it over without leaks, and celebrated by installing rear brakes. The calipers are 914, the rotors are early 911 5 lug, hubs were re-drilled to 5 lug. I stripped the rust off of the rotors and repainted the drum with high temp paint.
The rear rotors were salvageable but the fronts were trashed, I bought some new rotors and installed them on the freshly painted hubs.
Then I installed the front brakes.
Just need to finish some missing chunks of the brake lines and then the brake system will be complete!
I am so looking forward to seeing a video of this car moving on its own power. Can't wait. Terrific build and incredible talent.
Hmmm....are those seat inserts a hint of the color decision?
As I suspected my vintage 928 fuel pump wasn't up to the task, I swapped in a TRE performance pump, I hear good things, quieter, cheaper etc... Had to add in a hard elbow as well, the soft line was kinking into the pump.
I am getting good fuel pressure but didn't get the startup I was hoping for. Looks like i am diving into diagnostic land. On that note I figured out a handy way to mount the OBDII port. The computer is right on the other side of the firewall, so I punched a hole into the cabin and tucked it in here.
Now I can run codes from the comfort of the drivers seat.
I am just sorting out the computers state of mind, nothing really unexpected. There are 3 codes that relate to the missing wrx gas tank sensors, A handful about missing emissions equipment, and 4 on the TGV I pulled. None of these should keep it from running, at least poorly, I will start probing things like coils and injectors and see who isn't doing their job...
Dane wher did you get the hardline from pump to filter? Or did you make it?
I installed the front brake pads, and splurged on new pins and retaining clips.
Same thing on the rear, and adjusted the calipers, parking brake and cables are installed as well. Just need to make 2 lines on the firewall and the brake system will be complete!
Great project, so happy that you are back at it, the details are excellent.
I would like to steal your idea to use the AN adapters on the bottom of the tank for Grey Matter.
Are these the fitting that you use?
https://socalautoparts.com/shop/an-fittings-hose/adapters/6-an-fuel-tank-bung-plain-aluminum/
Cheers,
Scott
This is a neat build, but with all that engine and wheel/tire, it looks to be under braked... sorry if this has been covered previously. Looks to be begging for a boxster setup.
I'm sure these will stop the car, but I'd be concerned with fade after a bit of spirited driving.
Yup, I got mine from http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/latest-rage-201209-6-vw-fuel-tank-fitting-to-6an.html, they also have an 8an size that I am running to my 1/2" feed line.
I tracked this with these brakes when it was 600 pounds heavier and they did pretty well. Always room for upgrades in the future though, Boxster conversion is really tempting!
IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GiV_jFGDxI
It was a bad coil wire connection!
Also thank you for the tip on the AN fittings
The -8 is located http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/latest-rage-201209-8-vw-fuel-tank-fitting-to-6an.html, LATEST RAGE 201209-8 You just change the -6 or -8 depending on what you want or wish to use.
Awesome build! Can't wait to see it buzzing around.
I sanded and painted the dash.
Now that I have a running engine I need gauges to keep an eye on it!
All nice and clean!
I will probably get a gauge upgrade once I start focusing more on the interior, these will work for now!
Congratulations on the first firing! That thing sounds good!
I broke out the flaring tool and bender, time to finish the brake system!
I made and fitted the missing firewall lines.
They connect to the rear lines at the separation point near the firewall, lot of systems bundled here, that radiator hose may need some insulation.
I filled up the system with brake fluid, bled the system, brakes are done!
Congratulations on firing that engine - sounded good.
Time to tackle controls! I broke out the torch and bent up a shifter.
I used a 1/4" rod as a template, then bent the shifter rod to match.
Mocked up the splined ends, the ends are in line with each other, with an engine shaped detour in the middle.
All welded, painted, and ready to install!
You are going to paint it brown right?
Shifter rod is in, I adjusted the shifter and have it dialed in pretty well.
Throttle, clutch, and speedometer cables are in as well.
Still some work to do here but this chassis is pretty darn complete!
Sweet. I can't wait to see that going down the street.
I just read this entire thread, and WOW just WOW. Everything is so well done, the car seems incredible. Ive always dreamed of building a (semi) street legal, tube chassis, LS powered, mid engine car and was looking into the 914 for feasibility. I'm super impressed, hope you made some progress since september. Id love to see some videos of this thing at the track someday, I'm sure it'll be hard to beat considering the power, weight, and suspension setup. Awesome job man keep it up
I dont frequent 914world much anymore, but I still get notifications on this thread and everytime I come back, Im just shocked at the build...
I also watched Leno driving Eric Sheas car last night and the urge is coming back... Luckily I dont have a garage to stuff a 914 into... yet
Hey everybody, fear not, I haven't forgot about you or this build. We bought our first house in August and that kind of derailed the car build, but here we go, time to get back to it!
Now that the car is reliably running it is time to tear into the WRX engine wiring harness, This may look pretty tidy but in reality there is about 10 extra feet of harness wrapped around in here, time to get out the wire cutters and shorten it to fit!
I started with the brown main plug in the engine harness, this holds the power and trigger wires for the injectors and coils, as well as a series of ground wires from the ecu. I shortened it by about 10' and soldered and shrink wrapped the connections.
I wanted to wait to do this until the engine ran so i could start up the engine and check the codes as I modified the harness be able to catch a problem as i did it rather than after cutting literally every wire that controls the engine. I finished the Brown plug, it fired up well, no extra codes, here is how much extra wire I am dealing with here. Next I shortened the black plug's wires, these hold the sensor leads and grounds. There is an extra gray plug as well that has the cam and crank sensor wires that I merged into unused spots in the black plug so now I only have 2 main plugs leading to the engine.
I also removed the stock WRX fuel and ignition relays and replaced them with a new relay panel I fabbed up. These power the two main ignition circuits for the engine as well as the fuel pump.
Here is a view of how it is shaping up from the top.
Here you can see the 2 main plugs and the wires waiting to be spliced.
It is starting to look manageable!
And here is the final product, looks a heck of a lot better, I think the car runs better too. Best part was actually taking the time to understand how this system works, i didn't blindly cut and splice, I got a wiring diagram and figured it out which was really rewarding, this was one of the last big chunks of the car i really didn't understand or want to mess with.
Next I will fab up a cover and wrap everything up for real.
Here is a side view, boy do i have room for a few extra cylinders in there or what?
Well I think that brings an end to the cleaning and modifying of the entire cars harness, I added my newly culled wires to the pile, I have cut so much wire out of this thing!
Nice!
This is a great build thread.
and a well earned bottle cap in the wiring to celebrate....
wow. just. wow. I just finished taking my engine out for the first time, have to replace some piston rings. It took me just about an entire weekend just to get the type 4 out of there.
Impressive work as always on this build.
So, have you calculated the weight savings yet?
Congrats on buying a house; no small feat in this market. Are you still in Snoqualmie?
One of the last big tasks I had for the suspension was putting bushings in the rocker arms, previously there was just a 1/2" hole with a bolt through it.
I drilled out a hole in the rocker and welded in a sleeve, then put in the bushings.
These rocker arms are definitely prototypes, I want to drive the car to see what they do, then reevaluate from there, I have a CNC at work, Maybe we mill version 2.0...
I reinstalled the rocker arms, put on the doors and dropped it back down on its wheels.
Now I am going to run it up to temperature and see if anything blows up...
Such a build! It will be good to see it hit the road.
Well I started running it up to temperature and then I get a little dribble of coolant coming from the Radiator... oh yeah, like 10 years ago when I last drove this thing it started developing a radiator leak, guess a decade of sitting didn't fix it so I guess i need to pull it.
Now for an activity my 3 year old was all about, leak hunting! Ran a bath, capped the outlets, time for a dunk!
(Look at that tub ring, my wife was about as happy about this as the time I put the intake manifold in the dishwasher...)
Bingo! it was small enough that I had to blow into a coolant hose to build up enough pressure to make it bubble but sure enough here it is!
I got so lucky, literally the easiest spot to access. I mixed up some JB Weld and patched it up.
Reinstalled my freshly washed and patched radiator, I will give it a day or so to dry and see how it holds!
The whale is a nice touch.
I am sorting out the rear taillight wiring, looks like another thing I forgot didn't work was the reverse lights. Circuit was good but the switch doesn't engage correctly.
I pulled the switch and the pin was about the right length, I think there is something a bit funky with the switch but I cut a chunk of an allen wrench a little longer than the pin and after a couple filing sessions I got it dialed in.
Reverse light wire gets power when I engage reverse now, one step closer to street legality!
Okay, so a lot of you know the body to this car is still in storage in Wyoming, I am going to retrieve it later this summer, but I think this chassis is ready to start testing now, so I have a plan, a bolt on "bumper" that includes all of the bits to make it "street legal" I cut up some steel stock using an old license plate as a jig.
Welded it up and used the stock tranny exhaust mounting points to hang it
Then painted it and wired up some led trailer taillights. For fun I mounted the license plate that it ran the last time it drove, tags expired 13 years ago... how time flies!
Well it is about to make its triumphant return to the street! This is going to be fun!
10 year Anniversary. Don't time fly indeed...
Helluva project, looking forward to your first drive.
Looking forward to the video very much.
Yaay!! Please make/post a vid, I'm sure we'd all appreciate it
Okay, 10 years to the day, first drive is here, still a long way to go but a major milestone none the less! Thank you to all of you for joining me on the long meandering journey!
As promised here are the videos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqFDY0ZNrk
Got it into third here, tires broke loose at about 4500 rpm in third this thing is going to be a monster...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwWOz25GmaU
This is so far beyond cool that it just made me grin from ear to ear. Congrats!
I also love those taillights...they're subtly "914" with a modern twist. If you can swap the order to have the ambers to the outside, they really would tie in with the car's basis.
Can't wait to see this car as it moves back under bodywork—although seeing all of its systems so low and within wheels is equally fun to look at.
Finally seeing the car on the road . . . well worth the wait!
Great to see this on the road again, I love it!
Haha, that's great!
Very cool.
And looks street legal to boot!
That is just way to cool for words. Congratulations on getting to drive your build.
My 10 year project is learning the piano, I hope I'm as successful!
Good job I admire the staying power!
Damn good job! You rock dude!
Holy Macaroni! I log in for the first time in a while and get rewarded with this.
Nice work!!! Such a Rad project.
So I was just looking through old bookmarks, and came up on this one. Decided to see if it ever got finished. And 10 years to the date your driving it for the first time! Love it!!
Such a cool build.... must stop viewing this thread as i get too many ideas!
Sorry for the short notice but if you want to see the Anklebiter in person we will be at the car show at railroad days in Snoqualmie, WA tomorrow! Come on out and say hi!
http://www.railroaddays.com/events/legends-classic-car-show/
Wow! Love seeing this on the road again!
Any pics of this event..
Had a lot of fun today, our kiddo had a blast too. By the end of the show she could correctly identify half of the cars there. Good turnout, about 150 cars.
I let any kid that wanted to climb in the car, my daughter had a lot of fun showing people the car
Lots of pretty confused people, "is this a miata?" "is that a boxster engine?" "did you mean to do this?" "did you lose a couple parts on the way over?" etc... Good conversation starter!
My Dad brought over his 1960 Rambler as well, good family outing! When I was driving out the local cops were just pointing and laughing, hopefully they are as kind the next time they see me take it out!
Sweet...Thanks for the Pics..Gotta B fast..
Very Cool! Glad it didn't rain.
I thought I recognized that Rambler!
The Anklebiter personifies the minimalist ethic at this point. I was talking to a friend of mine from the Mercury Cougar world and he was telling me about this amazing 914 build he'd read about. He said it was called The Anklebiter.... Your fame is spreading Dane!
Have you got plans for picking up the bodywork yet?
Street legal. Very cool.
So now that the car is running kind of reliably I am trying to go through the engine, replacing some of those things that might be negatively effected by sitting around for a decade... Seeing as this is an interference engine a timing belt was high on that list, while i was in there might as well do a water pump as well.
There is a really annoying design flaw in the Subie EJ Engines, the captured nut that the timing belt covers mount into are captured in plastic, right next to the cylinder head, so when you go to remove the bolts they just spin. did some googling and the best way to fix this is drilling a tiny hole into the captured nut, screwing in a wood screw or something similar then bracing that and backing out the bolt... had to do this 6 times... grrr.
Pulled the belt and pump.
New stuff in, bled the system again and got the new belt on, aligning the 4 cam pulls is no annoying, especially because one of the cylinders is under compression, so you even breath on that pulley and is spins at a million mph out of your hand, finally got it perfect after what felt like forever, the engine runs great so i think I got the cams aligned correctly. One step closer to reliability!
Whoo hoo. Nice Dana.
What cosmetic changes are in order if any?
Ferg