1974 914 Rust Repair Project |
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1974 914 Rust Repair Project |
sreyemj |
Feb 7 2020, 04:14 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 87 Joined: 12-January 20 From: SA, TX Member No.: 23,821 Region Association: None |
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) |
FourBlades |
Apr 4 2020, 11:45 AM
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#2
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From Wreck to Rockin Group: Members Posts: 2,056 Joined: 3-December 07 From: Brevard, FL Member No.: 8,414 Region Association: South East States |
You are doing a great job! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif) When you finish it will be all done right and ready for 40 more years on the road. John |
sreyemj |
Apr 4 2020, 05:21 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 87 Joined: 12-January 20 From: SA, TX Member No.: 23,821 Region Association: None |
When you finish it will be all done right and ready for 40 more years on the road. John That's the idea, although I bought this about 2006ish and it had been off the road for quite awhile before that (I think the seller mentioned 8 years). I'm thinking of using ospho, then rustoleum primer on the inside of the longs. Apparently ospho doesn't play well with some epoxy primers and I don't want to take any chances. |
bbrock |
Apr 4 2020, 07:24 PM
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#4
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914 Guru Group: Members Posts: 5,269 Joined: 17-February 17 From: Montana Member No.: 20,845 Region Association: Rocky Mountains |
Apparently ospho doesn't play well with some epoxy primers and I don't want to take any chances. Curious where you read that. PPG actually recommends using an acid rust converter to promote adhesion of their epoxy. Lots of us have used Ospho/phosporic acid as metal prep for epoxy without any issues. After all this work, you don't want to skimp on your one chance to lay down solid protection. There are things you can spray in the longs after they are together, but none will be as good as a good coat or 2 of epoxy. Also, remember that most primers will allow water through to the metal. Epoxy won't. |
sreyemj |
Apr 4 2020, 08:36 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 87 Joined: 12-January 20 From: SA, TX Member No.: 23,821 Region Association: None |
Apparently ospho doesn't play well with some epoxy primers and I don't want to take any chances. Curious where you read that. PPG actually recommends using an acid rust converter to promote adhesion of their epoxy. Lots of us have used Ospho/phosporic acid as metal prep for epoxy without any issues. After all this work, you don't want to skimp on your one chance to lay down solid protection. There are things you can spray in the longs after they are together, but none will be as good as a good coat or 2 of epoxy. Also, remember that most primers will allow water through to the metal. Epoxy won't. The ospho bottle says recommended for use under oil-based primer and to do a trail before using with epoxy or other systems. Based on that, I googled around and found some people who had trouble (but you can find people who have failures with almost any paint/primer product). Did you do anything to the ospho'ed surface before using the epoxy primer (rinsing, sanding, etc)? I can wire wheel it down to bare metal, but there is still going to be a small amount of rust in the pitted metal unless I convert it with ospho before primer. If you wire wheel after ospho you just take off the converted material and potentially expose more unconverted rust. |
bbrock |
Apr 4 2020, 10:12 PM
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#6
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914 Guru Group: Members Posts: 5,269 Joined: 17-February 17 From: Montana Member No.: 20,845 Region Association: Rocky Mountains |
Did you do anything to the ospho'ed surface before using the epoxy primer (rinsing, sanding, etc)? I can wire wheel it down to bare metal, but there is still going to be a small amount of rust in the pitted metal unless I convert it with ospho before primer. If you wire wheel after ospho you just take off the converted material and potentially expose more unconverted rust. Yeah. I let the Ospho sit for several hours or overnight. Then rinse with water to neutralize the acid. That will create a white phosphorous coating that will protect the metal somewhat and you can leave it until ready to paint. The go over it with a red Scotch Brite pad to remove the loose powdery stuff. I learned this from a few people on here who restore cars professionally. I've never had any problems with epoxy or any DTM paint sticking to it. I also do like you are planning and clean as much of he rust out as possible before treating with the Ospho. The Ospho soaks down into the pits rust to convert the rust and doesn't just encapsulate it. It's really good stuff. |
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