75 914 Laguna Blue Project Options

[Graydingo]

Hello everyone, my name is Duane and I love me a Porsche project. So much so that I've had five air cooled cars (mostly projects mind you) in the last few years. I've pared that down to a mere 2 911s (one massive RSR project and a pretty good little driver 75.) By fate, every single one of them was a 75, or a 77 model year.
I guess I love an underdog and a project! Any-who, here's me latest acquisition...



A 1975 Porsche 914 2.0 in Laguna Blue L50C. What a color!



It all started when I found a 76 2.7 911 motor on craigslist. I inquired and got a snappy text back from a known number. Turns out, it was a friend and the owner of the local Porsche specialty shop. I went over to check out the motor and ended up buying it. A pretty clean 2.7 core, missing a few parts, but had a set of Italian 40 IDTP carbs on it.

While there, I was shown the 914 which the 2.7 was actually destined to go into at one point but then the owner decided to go nuts and planned to put a 3.6 in it.



He had acquired thousands in parts but lost motivation in the project. He had flares, elephant suspension and all kinds of stuff. Sadly (or perhaps fortuitously,) he had sold a lot of the new parts to another 914 enthusiast, so what was left was just the original car.

Already having a big project in my 74 RSR tribute, I passed on the 914 and headed home with my new 2.7. My 75 911 has a similar motor and It's ready to rebuild. I thought I would take the best parts off both motors and make a 2.8 twin plug beast for my 75. Ya never know what condition the crank or heads are in, so I figured it was a good plan to have more parts at the ready for cheap, and then sell everything left over later.

One thing that struck me about the 914 on that first visit, was that the car was extremely dry. Here's the ....ahem... heck hole.



Though the car was taken apart, the previous owner seemed to have all the original parts (though many of them were in his storage facility and not with the car.) Another cool factoid was that the car was actually purchased in a nearby Audi/VW dealership right here in Las Vegas. Vegas in '74 was very, very small, so to have a survivor 914 in the same town that it was 46 years ago is pretty cool in my opinion.



The car was more or less stripped in preparation for a GT conversion. I remarked in my mind about how solid the car was and went home that day thinking it was a good deal but that I'm a snobby 911 guy who doesn't buy anything but 911s :-P The car was definitely marinating in the back of my mind...

Fast forward a few months later and a younger friend was talking to me about project cars, and it got me excited about the 914. On a whim I reached out to see if it was still there and bought it the next day. I think I just really liked it and I fell in love with the color. It feels like a mix between Gulf Blue and Miami Blue. I'm actually painting my RSR Gulf, so I absolutely love all the cool blue colors.

The shop had a bunch of waterpumper parts stored in the back:



PO had the original Fuchs 4 lug wheels, but no tires. the 914 was also on a pretty sweet dolly, but unfortunately that wasn't part of the sale.



I took the wheels to a discount tire and got the cheapest tires I could buy, just so I could make it a roller for the impending flatbed trailer pickup appointment.



I had to scrounge around and find some lugs to mount them. Luckily I had some open 911 lugs as well as some 996 studs to complete the temporary fix.

After getting it back to the shop I thought: "I've got a complete project build going already, wouldn't it be fun to try to build a total survivor driver with original paint, dings, dents, damage and all, but have a bit of a sleeper engine and nice interior. So mostly original, but everything works and is nice in terms of get in, turn the key, take it to the grocery and not worry about parking it. "



Stay tuned for the paint correction...

[Graydingo]

More progress on the 914/6 GT tribute project thingy.

I picked up the completed transaxle from Bill Rader Motorsports. Here's my buddy Jon posing with the completed box. Jon is a talented engineer and my sanity check buddy who helps me simplify and get things done. I tend to over complicate stuff and he is really good at course correcting and finishing things. Thanks Jon!



I also sold both of the donor cars. New owner should be picking up in batches in the next few weeks. A lot of great parts left and the black 74 is a restoration candidate.

I continue to educate myself on how not to off myself while welding by watching informative YT vids. I'm analytical by nature, so I like to have max info before starting something. Sometimes that means it takes a lot longer to leave port.

What i've learned (in a nutshell), don't complete circuits with your face and sweaty hands by pushing up your helmet with the end of the MIG, don't make toxic gas by welding galvanized metals. Don't explode stuff on your workbench like compressed cans of cleaners, and many more. Feel free to add your safety tips here.

Along with the safety vids I watch a lot of "How to weld thin sheet metal" videos. I think best practice seems to spot and cool, spot and cool. Use .30 wire, low settings.

For body panels I'll be doing the TIG eventually, but for most of the front end structure I think it will be MiG.

I picked up the HF Stud welder dent repair tool. Sorry no pics, but I was able to pull out the huge crease that was in the Drivers front fender where the impact folded the front fender a bit.



The slide hammer lock mechanism kinda sucks but it does work and the welder itself is great.

The drivers inner fender had a lot more damage than I initially discovered. The area where the brace attaches was bent inward quite a bit. So I've spent a fair amount of time hammering it back into place.



This whole side needed a lot of massaging and more to go:



Was also excited to use DYKEM spray. I took the paint off the inner fender, ground down the weld where the headlight bucket was and then sprayed the Dykem over the area. A light sanding with a foam sanding block revealed all my high and low spots.


Also found that the early cars had this bumper support bracket.



Unfortunately I sawed through the drivers one before I knew it existed.



It's really hosed and it's pretty complex. If anyone has a donor car I could use this bracket (just cut out around it and I'll remove the spot welds)

Here it is on the passenger side mocked up on my 75. It will go a long way in reinforcing the front bumper. Most backdated bumper cars wont have this extra support.




Next up is removing the passenger side headlight bucket (75 bucket is different than earlier buckets) and cleaning up all the donor parts for initial front end fitment.

I'll be cleeco 'ing (is that a word?) The entire front end together and then trying to get it as square as possible. Then I'll tack weld each bucket, and the nose piece in place. I think at that point I'll install the headlights and bumper to see if everything is good. I dunno I'm new to all of this.

List of to do:

-remove donor bit of drv inner fender for patch holes where old longer brace was.
-remove pas original headlight bucket
-finish metal repair on drv side inner fender
-Modify donor buckets for GT manual release
-buy GT headlight release kit from PMB
-buy better cleeco kit
-clean off edges of buckets and donor braces
-take all new metal pieces to bead blaster
-research and purchase roll on epoxy for all new metal.
-get c25 tank filled for MiG
-Figure out portable welding table.
-MiG some coupons and thin sheet metal scraps (ie practice)