Replacing rusty jack points, So this is what it means to own a 914... Options

[Lilchopshop]

Pulled my rocker covers today to inspect for rot. Unfortunately I found significant rust on both jack points and the driver’s side long has a good size rust hole. I’m going to cut and patch the bad spots in the longs, but I’m trying to avoid a complete resto right now and I don’t want to get into exterior bodywork. The rear fenders are in pretty good shape but they seem to block access to the top flange of the jack point plate. Does anyone know if the jack points can be replaced correctly without cutting out a lower portion of the rear fender?

[Lilchopshop]

Thanks to all for the responses and opinions (never seems to be a shortage of those on this site (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ). Honestly, I fully expected to find some hidden rust on the car when I bought it and I don't regret purchasing the car at all. Actually, the more I take it apart, the happier I am with it. It has the specs I was looking for, is totally accident free, decently-solid hell hole, numbers-matching and in excellent shape overall (especially for living it's whole life in upstate NY, where you can practically count the number of nice driving days out of the year on one hand and the ratio of road salt to snow is about 1:1). Truth be told, this is the second 914 that I've owned. I bought my first ('72 1.7), back in 1999 for $1300 and it was a rusty mess, but I drove it anyway and loved every minute of it. Foolishly, I sold the car to make room in my then tiny, one-car garage, for my other restoration project at the time, my wife's '72 VW bug. Now that car was REALLY rusty.

My only real frustration about discovering this rust is that it messes with my plans for actually getting to drive the car. Since finding the car, my plan has been to get it to a driveable state quickly and then drive it for a year or two while I planned for a longer-term, nut-and-bolt restoration in the future. But thanks to this discovery (and to all you 914-worlders for getting in my head and messing with my conscience (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ), I feel compelled to re-evaluate the plan and possibly embark on a more thorough restoration first.

So, in spirit of this re-evaluation, I dug a little deeper into the car last night. Interior stripped, doors off and lots more close inspection of the areas adjacent to the rusty discovery. I will get the borescope out soon to look inside the longs, but initial inspections seem to show that the rust is fairly well contained to the jack points and the immediate portions of the longs that they attach to. Here are a few more pictures. Oh, and notice the two big holes in the firewall? Those were the mount points for the shoulder straps from a cheesy 5-point harness that the PO installed. I don't think that there is a weaker point on the car to attach those to! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)