So let's see. Time flies when you aren't looking. So I'm on 914 number 3. Number 1 is still with me in the garage. It's still a rust bucket. I look at it as my testbed. Number 2 was an LE that I just couldn't bear to cut up into a suby conversion so it's in TX now getting restored like a good LE should. The new owner looks like he's doing a hell of a job on the car and I'm sure he'll be proud as can be when it is finished.

That brings me to number 3. The keeper. An original black 73 that I picked up here in Charlotte from a fellow board member. Raby 2056, SS heat exchangers, generally in pretty good shape. I picked this car up in April of 2008 and spent most of the time driving it and getting to know the car. It's got some items that need to be taken care of, but all things that can be taken care of over time. I already put new shocks and springs in the rear end as they were a bit worn out. I've got to lower the front end a bit, but that's certainly an easy one. I may go ahead and replace the bushings on it as the rears are getting a bit squeaky.

There are a couple of rust spots that I'm trying to take care of before they get out of hand. Today I started on the driver's side pillar. This car has vinyl around the windshield as it was one of the 1st 1,000 in 73. There was a pretty good rust bubble just above the cowl, and I didn't want it to get out of hand (well and really find out how bad it was). So today I bit the bullet and went to it.

Started off by cutting and then pealing back the vinyl. I'm going to attempt to reglue this down at least in the short term, so I didn't want to chew it all up. We'll see how well this plan works out....



A nice close-up of the carnage...



The tool of choice. Picked these up at Harbor Freight and they seem to be working great. Better than a wire wheel and seem to last pretty good. I'm also working on cleaning out and repairing some spots on the front lid channel and these things work great for getting in the little spaces as they are nice and thin.



Cleaned off the area..... uh oh.... pin hole and some really deep pitting in the metal, so going to have to cut this section out and replace. Figured that would be the case from the get-go. Now just a question of how bad is it underneath?



Busted out the dremmel tool. Side note, seems that dremmel has finally come to their senses and started packaging things that people actually use and at a fairly reasonable price. I picked up a whole "cutting kit" for $12 and it contains nothing but 96 cutting wheels. Normally I would have to pick up their everything under the sun pack for $20 in order to be semi cost effective. Good job dremmel. Anyway, back to the action. So a couple of cuts later and it's opened up.



Things look pretty good inside which I'm really happy to see. On the flip side of the piece that I cut out the metal looks pretty clean and only the small pin hole made it through.



Now to get a patch made up and burn it in.

Mike

Easter Sunday finally got the engine out. Combination of disconnecting, cutting and cussing to get the thing on the ground. Once it hit the dolly and I jacked the body back up, it was butter. Nice to have that thing out of there so I can start working on the longs and floorboards. I'll hopefully have this thing up on a rotary before long.



-Mike

So... been a while since I did an entry. Time has been sort of hard to come by however, I have managed to sneak a few hours in here and there pulling more stuff off of the car.

The driver's front fender is pretty dimpled and had a ton of bondo on it from a previous hit and repair. The driver's headlight bucket is almost completely separated from the car due to rust and it looks like the welds were initially busted when the car was hit in the front left. I have no idea when that damage occurred, but there was some attempt to fix it.... all be it a bad attempt.

The floor pans are toast and the passenger side long is gone as well. Screw driver goes nicely all the way through the lower part of the long. Looks like I will be a welding pro by the time I ever get finished with this car. Funny considering that I haven't even attempted my first spot weld yet.

I am still having fun with it and that is the important part. My oldest son (8) has been watching and playing tool gopher. When I first got the car he thought I was crazy. I think it's secretly growing on him. I figure 8 more years and he'll be begging me to drive the thing..... that is if I get it done in 8 years

So on with the pictures....

So it's the end of week one and I spent several hours in the garage yesterday removing parts and exploring. Let me just say that zip-lock bags, post-it notes and sharpie pens are being put to use.

So the lids have come off and I've started tearing down the interior. Looks like the passsenger side is in the worst shape. It will be in need of some new metal. At this point I haven't given up on this tub, but it will definitely need a lot of body and metal work.

The front end is going to need some metal as well as some of the front lip is too far gone and there are some holes on the bottom front. Inside the front trunk looks like it is pretty much just surface rust. I haven't pulled the tank yet, so I don't know what it looks like underneath there yet. I'm hoping that it's just a little bit of surface rust.

I've been looking at several different threads about rotisseries and keep bouncing ideas around in my head. My plan is to take it down to the bare tub and then media blast it to get down to good metal. Of course, I have a lot of disassembly to do before I get to that point and depending on the amount of rust damage, I'll have to adjust plans accordingly.

On to the pics...

Mike

So I finally bit the bullet and bought a 914 off of ebay. I've only been waiting 15 years or so to have one in the garage. I must say that it feels good. After 23 hours and 1100 miles I had hauled it from Ohio to South Carolina and couldn't wait to start pulling parts off. My plan is to take this thing down to nothing and then go over it piece by piece. I still haven't decided if I am going to stick with the 2.0 engine in it or go full out for a suby conversion. The good thing is that I have plenty of time to think about that. I'm sure I'll be busy with body and metal work for a good while. I have decided for the moment that I want to paint it silver. I have also decided that I have to do something different with the front bumper because I just don't like all the rubber on the front end of the '76.

So this is but the begining of my journey. I know that it will be a good one..... and I'll take lots of pics along the way.

-Mike