Front suspension pan repair Options

[real steel]

Hi Guys,

New to this forum and am really impressed with the enthusiasm of its members.

I recently purchased a 71 914 and imported it to Australia (From The U.S.A). I have a lot of experience with 356's and 911's ( I restore them for a living ) I own many early Porsches but this is my first 914.

The car requires some basic restoration but I am uncertain that I will be able to dedicate the time to get it done . I have more than a few Porsche projects and need to decide to sell it as or keep it and restore it.

It requires some rust repairs to the sills and floors which parts seem readily available from U.S vendors

The front floor pan/ suspension mount area has had some previous rust repairs that are not up to standard. It is something I will need to rectify. I have not been able to find suppliers for this repair section. I understand the relationship with the 911 suspension set up but the floor is totally different.

How are you guys doing these repairs? Normally I will fabricate items like this for a non available part, but due to the fact it has had a previous repair there is little left of the original spare wheel well area.

I need to conclude as to the the qauntity of the hours required to do this car (or to not do it!) The only unanswered question is the front pan section?

Excuse my ignorance if my question has some sort of really simple answer! Australia never got the 914 and I only now of a very few cars here. This is certainly the first one in my shop

Look forward to your reply

Jason

[MikeSpraggi]

Hi Guys,

New to this forum and am really impressed with the enthusiasm of its members.

I recently purchased a 71 914 and imported it to Australia (From The U.S.A). I have a lot of experience with 356's and 911's ( I restore them for a living ) I own many early Porsches but this is my first 914.

The car requires some basic restoration but I am uncertain that I will be able to dedicate the time to get it done . I have more than a few Porsche projects and need to decide to sell it as or keep it and restore it.

It requires some rust repairs to the sills and floors which parts seem readily available from U.S vendors

The front floor pan/ suspension mount area has had some previous rust repairs that are not up to standard. It is something I will need to rectify. I have not been able to find suppliers for this repair section. I understand the relationship with the 911 suspension set up but the floor is totally different.

How are you guys doing these repairs? Normally I will fabricate items like this for a non available part, but due to the fact it has had a previous repair there is little left of the original spare wheel well area.

I need to conclude as to the the qauntity of the hours required to do this car (or to not do it!) The only unanswered question is the front pan section?

Excuse my ignorance if my question has some sort of really simple answer! Australia never got the 914 and I only now of a very few cars here. This is certainly the first one in my shop

Look forward to your reply

Jason

Jason, can post a photo(s) of the area so we can see what we're dealing with. Oh yea, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png) . Good to have you here from downunder!

[maf914]

Jason, I am sure that a few photos would spur some responses.

I wonder if your car previously had air conditioning installed? That was a dealer installed option and resulted in holes being cut in the front trunk floor for the AC condenser coil. These AC installations were often poorly executed with sloppy cutting in the front trunk and engine compartment. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Oh, and welcome to the world. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

very few of these front 914 suspension pan sections rust. You can buy the 911 replacement pan and cut the front transverse link threehole mounting area out of it and use to easily fix it though. Most have the typical problem with the big hole in the middle of the pan when they (mistakedly) remove the dealer installed air conditioning. In that case we simply cut and fit the floor metal and use the 356 toe loop and weld to the bottom to replicate the original factory toe loop

Hi Guys,

New to this forum and am really impressed with the enthusiasm of its members.

I recently purchased a 71 914 and imported it to Australia (From The U.S.A). I have a lot of experience with 356's and 911's ( I restore them for a living ) I own many early Porsches but this is my first 914.

The car requires some basic restoration but I am uncertain that I will be able to dedicate the time to get it done . I have more than a few Porsche projects and need to decide to sell it as or keep it and restore it.

It requires some rust repairs to the sills and floors which parts seem readily available from U.S vendors

The front floor pan/ suspension mount area has had some previous rust repairs that are not up to standard. It is something I will need to rectify. I have not been able to find suppliers for this repair section. I understand the relationship with the 911 suspension set up but the floor is totally different.

How are you guys doing these repairs? Normally I will fabricate items like this for a non available part, but due to the fact it has had a previous repair there is little left of the original spare wheel well area.

I need to conclude as to the the qauntity of the hours required to do this car (or to not do it!) The only unanswered question is the front pan section?

Excuse my ignorance if my question has some sort of really simple answer! Australia never got the 914 and I only now of a very few cars here. This is certainly the first one in my shop

Look forward to your reply

Jason

[brp986s]

It seem to recall a poll that Restoration Design had on the World here a few months back. They were considering a variety of panels to reproduce, of which the front pan was one. I tried search but couldn't find it. There seemed to be alot of interest in the front pan. I need one too. Group buy?

[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

The tooling is WAY too expensive for the few that could be sold and the price that they would have to be sold for. Mike is a good business man and not about to lose his shirt on a whim. I often dream of all of the parts that the 914 market needs and how great it would be if they were available and then wake up realizing that it will never happen until the cars climb in value to over 100,000 and become as wildly popular as the speedster. If so we will have the ability to manufacture all kinds of items since there are still at least 60,000 914s out there.

It seem to recall a poll that Restoration Design had on the World here a few months back. They were considering a variety of panels to reproduce, of which the front pan was one. I tried search but couldn't find it. There seemed to be alot of interest in the front pan. I need one too. Group buy?

[peteyd]

We are still planning on making the front trunk pan, but it is not on the current to do list. We have many dies that we are planning on making, for the 356's, 911/912's and the 914.

We have got the CAD data for it, but it will still be at least 6 months before I start working on that die.

Pete

[rick 918-S]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[mepstein]

"out there" is a pretty vague term, how many do you estimate are currently running?

The tooling is WAY too expensive for the few that could be sold and the price that they would have to be sold for. Mike is a good business man and not about to lose his shirt on a whim. I often dream of all of the parts that the 914 market needs and how great it would be if they were available and then wake up realizing that it will never happen until the cars climb in value to over 100,000 and become as wildly popular as the speedster. If so we will have the ability to manufacture all kinds of items since there are still at least 60,000 914s out there.

It seem to recall a poll that Restoration Design had on the World here a few months back. They were considering a variety of panels to reproduce, of which the front pan was one. I tried search but couldn't find it. There seemed to be alot of interest in the front pan. I need one too. Group buy?

[914werke]

....until then post #46

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)