Steve's 73 1.7 Restoration Thread Options

[Steve_R]

Hi, I would like to introduce myself and share my project. I’m Steve, I live in San Diego and I picked up this 1973 1.7 914 about a year ago. It was in great shape with no rust and had been sitting in a garage for the past 13 years. My plan is to restore it to its original condition. At this point I think the car is about 50% done.
The car had door guards riveted to the sides and I had them welded up. One of the first things I did when I got the car was to build a dolly to be able to work on the suspension and make it easy to move it around the garage. It’s made from 4 X 4s and plywood and it took about 4 hours to build. If you don’t have a wood saw Home Depot will cut the 4 X 4s and plywood to the correct length. There are lag screws on top of the vertical posts that stick up ½” that fit into the 4 jack points cups under the car. This keeps the car from falling off. Also, I removed the engine before I put the car on it. To get it up there I used some cement blocks, 4 jack stands and 2 scissor jacks.
Over the past year I’ve learned a lot from reading your posts and now I would like to give back some of the knowledge I’ve learned.

[saigon71]

Impressive work...very clean and meticulous! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Steve_R]

The front bumper had a rust hole that needed some patching. I cut out the section and welded in a piece. I made a crude form out of wood to form a slight curve in the piece before I welded it in place. I also welded up the bumper guard holes. After a lot of grinding and filing it turned out really good.

Also, the front valance needed a lot of work. I built a frame out of 2x4s to support it while i did the body work. I used wood screws to hold it to the support.

After a long search, I found the perfect semi gloss paint. It's called 2K urethane underhood black from Eastwood. I think it matches the original semi gloss black perfectly.

[ndfrigi]

The front bumper had a rust hole that needed some patching. I cut out the section and welded in a piece. I made a crude form out of wood to form a slight curve in the piece before I welded it in place. I also welded up the bumper guard holes. After a lot of grinding and filing it turned out really good.

Also, the front valance needed a lot of work. I built a frame out of 2x4s to support it while i did the body work. I used wood screws to hold it to the support.

After a long search, I found the perfect semi gloss paint. It's called 2K urethane underhood black from Eastwood. I think it matches the original semi gloss black perfectly.

wait!!!! Is that front bumper that was repaired is the same bumper that was installed in the car? Metal bumper to chrome bumper?