1974 914 Rust Repair Project Options

[sreyemj]

This will be an attempt to document a long and sordid history of my 1974 1.8L 914. It's been with me a long time, and suffered many ills both before and during my ownership.

My initial interest in Porsches came after reading "Porsches For The Road" as a young child, I still have the book!
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1581114089.1.jpg)

I really wanted a 911 or 912, but even project cars were beyond my budget of about 2k. I thought I had it made when our elderly neighbor parked a neglected yellow 1984 911 Targa under a tarp in the alley between our houses. He didn't want to sell it, but I used to keep the tarp tied down in the hopes I could one day purchase it. Unfortunately, we never made a deal and when he died several years later the car disappeared.

After that, I started shopping for 914s, and this 1974 914 car popped up for $800 on craigslist. It was garaged, had awful brown paint, and the passenger door closed nicely. The seller mentioned he wasn't the original owner and that he parked it when the motor became "tired" in the mid 1990s. A deal was made, and I brought it home in a torrential downpour. I was about 15 years old at this point.

First restoration efforts (2007ish):
My first attempt at getting the 914 back on the road included painting it a red I picked out of the Sherwin-Williams catalog instead of the original Marathon Blue Metallic (unfortunately!).

Upon further investigation, there were some pin holes in the bottom of the passenger long as well as some small holes under the battery tray. The door closed fine and it didn't look like the really ugly pictures I had seen, so I figured it was at least structurally sound.

I remember pouring a rust converter into the small holes under the battery, then welding a plate over the top. There were some holes in the rear trunk, so I cut that metal out and welded sheet metal in. The bottom of the passenger long looked fine, so I left that as is. 15 year old me was not a talented welder.

While removing the paint, I discovered the car had been in an accident, and that the driver's front fender/headlight cavity were not-so-artfully grafted on from another car. I also found accident damage on the passenger rear quarter panel and rear trunk. The seller did not admit to any accidents, so I assume these are from a previous owner.

After painting, I never really put it back together and the car sat for about a decade. During this time I was off at college, then the military, and then more school. My younger brother wanted to use it as a getaway car at his wedding, and almost completely reassembled it with a 1.7L engine I had purchased from a guy doing a V8 swap. I sold the original 1.8L during one of several moves over the years…

I drove the car exactly once with the 1.7L engine, I remember it ran poorly with high idle and leaked a fair amount of oil.

Getting started, one of the only early pictures of the car:
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1587745562.1.jpg)

Car after painting (side skirts never made it on):
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1581113671.1.jpg)






Second attempt (2020ish):
It had been almost 15 years since I bought the car. I had moved many times for school, military, more school, and then more military. The car mostly lived at my dad’s house during this time, but I now had a small garage I could park it in. I brought it home and got to work.

It quickly became obvious (thanks to browsing 914world!) that the rust problems were not minor, and would require significant work to repair before anything else. I decided to move front to back. The bottom of the car was coated with a thick bed-liner type coating that I removed from the bottom of the floor pans and much of the front trunk. You can see some of the original paint in the wheel well where the coating was removed with a putty knife.

As it sits today:
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1581113672.2.jpg)


Passenger long, looks fairly solid from the outside. The hole is where I used a cheap endoscope to look at the inside (lots of rust).
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1581114160.1.jpg)


The 1.7L motor. Not sure why it's blue, definitely needs some help.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1581114090.3.jpg)

[sreyemj]

Car is on a rotisserie now, planning to cut into the long tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll start by reinforcing the inner long from the inside of the car because I'm worried the car will distort if I cut the outer long with the inner long weakened as much as it is. The other option would be settling it on the jack points and then cutting into it. Anyone have any insight on this?

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1585805809.1.jpg)


I also took a crack at repairing the nasty front trunk seal channel with some steel and a harbor freight bending brake:
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1585805810.2.jpg)


Better:
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1585805810.3.jpg)

[sreyemj]

I used the rotisserie to lower the car on to the four jack points and then checked with a laser level to ensure everything was level (see laser near bottom of long in the picture). Door gaps were not far off, and adjusted nicely with the door braces.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1585861475.1.jpg)

[Costa05]

I used the rotisserie to lower the car on to the four jack points and then checked with a laser level to ensure everything was level (see laser near bottom of long in the picture). Door gaps were not far off, and adjusted nicely with the door braces.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i.imgur.com-23821-1585861475.1.jpg)

You are brave. Be careful if you lean up against your car with any weight in your hands!! Yikes.