My Official 914 Restoration, The Black Beast is coming to life!!!! Options

[EdArango]

OK.....You guys must think I'm nutz by now!!

Over the last couple of weeks my son and I have decided to keep the car and begin re-doing it. As most of us I would love to have a 6 cyl. but cash and time is preventing me from moving forward with that idea.

What I think I'll do is clean this car us as much as I can, get the rust issues taken care of (see pics)....(I don't know the the PO was thinking, there is expansion foam in all the openings in the car, such as hell hole & pass. longs)..... upgrade the engine to 2056, leave it as a 4 lug but upgrade the suspension, add a front sway-bar, change out the A-arm bearings with the Elephant stuff and I think I'll be good to go for a while.

What do you guys think????????

ED

[strawman]

Hi Ed --

I'm in the latter end of a full body/chassis rustoration.

I would recommend carefully checking for rust and replace only what is necessary. From the pics you've provided, I don't believe you'll need to replace EVERYTHING in terms of inner/outer longs, firewall, suspension console, etc. as suggested by another poster -- just those items that show wear, tear and damage. And I would definitely scrape out that reisty foam added by the DAPO -- it will retain moisture and accelerate rust.

As you get deeper into the rustoration (if you so choose), you'll probably want to remove the factory foam in the upper-inner back corners of the rear quarters and under the upper-inner quarters just under the sail panels. It is a beeyotch to remove and you'll likely find at least surface rust under there, but it will forestall further rust damage if you remove the rust and repair the damage correctly.

I've also scraped out all of the seam sealant from my chassis, but I guess I'm just anal retentive and/or love punishment. I've replaced the factory seam sealant with 3M stuff, after removing what rust was underneath.

Geoff