Body/Paint Shop Reccos & Estimates, SoCal, CA & Out-of-State Options

[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Rust Free Upper & Lower Firewall & Engine Shelf as needed - continued -







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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Rust Free Upper & Lower Firewall & Engine Shelf as needed - Cockpit Side -



Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Hell Hole Area with some rust at top of rear Long in Engine Bay -





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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Hell Hole & R Susp. Console Area with some rust spots (may seek better rust free part or NOS/Repro Parts as needed) -







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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Front End: Trunk Lid, Face Panel, L & R Fenders, Trunk Floor & Inner Braces, Inner Wheel Well, LF Headlight Box & Assy., etc. - as/if needed - L & R Headlights & boxes are good & rust-free, & F trunk lid is perfect fit & rust free (it's sitting hi because I've removed the latch mechs.) - however there is some rust at the LF bumper attachment area & up behind & under the LF headlight which appears to ahve been repaired with a new-ish headlight box at some point back whenever -




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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Front End: Trunk Lid, Face Panel, L & R Fenders, Trunk Floor & Inner Braces, Inner Wheel Well, LF Headlight Box & Assy., etc. - as/if needed - continued -




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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Front End: Trunk Lid, Face Panel, L & R Fenders, Trunk Floor & Inner Braces, Inner Wheel Well, LF Headlight Box & Assy., etc. - as/if needed - continued -




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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Front End: Trunk Lid, Face Panel, L & R Fenders, Trunk Floor & Inner Braces, Inner Wheel Well, LF Headlight Box & Assy., etc. - as/if needed - continued -




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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - L & R Sail/Fender/Upper-Door-Jamb Areas - as/if needed - continued - I plucked up some loose paint here to check if it was rust, but I think it was just racetrack wear &/or a MAACO paint job to red on this 914 (original was L96B Silver) -




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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - L & R Sail/Fender/Upper-Door-Jamb Areas - as/if needed - continued -





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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - L & R Sail/Fender/Upper-Door-Jamb Areas - as/if needed - continued - L side has about 1/16" of bondo there where I scraped it up & much thicker below on the fender face where it had been pushed in & repaired previously (the pix of the inside of that fender in the engine bay above also show the lower side bent in) -




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[Tom_T]

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Parts Donor Shell (Red & Black) `74 914-2.0 - Bad L & R Longs - they're pretty rusty up inside them as well -





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[Tom_T]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_bump.gif)

I'll add pix of the underpan at the passenger side steering rack strut/brace at the red/black donor shell to but cut out & used to repair mine for the bodywork guys reference, when I get to work on them again (hopefully this weekend). I checked through all of my old pix files, but cannot find where I put those suckers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Thanx for the input & advice so far folks! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Tom T
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[dr914@autoatlanta.com]

I have the perfect man to do the job, currently has at least 20 914s in his shop. Kirk Schueman Automotivation 770 877 5743

http://autobodymd.net/showcase/index.php

[Tom_T]

I have the perfect man to do the job, currently has at least 20 914s in his shop. Kirk Schueman Automotivation 770 877 5743

http://autobodymd.net/showcase/index.php

Thanx George! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

... I wonder if his complimentary pick-up & delivery includes to/from CA !!?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[strawman]

Are you sure the donor is not a better candidate? Besides the longs rust damage and driver side damage, there appears to be less overall rust damage (not to mention front/rear damage)...

[proto31]

Seriously, can you add some more F*cking photos, we need more, please, more photos... I was going to look through and add some advice until I figured that I would have to invest my entire evening sifting through all these photos... Good luck.

[Tom_T]

Are you sure the donor is not a better candidate? Besides the longs rust damage and driver side damage, there appears to be less overall rust damage (not to mention front/rear damage)...

I considered that initially as just transplanting my freshly overhauled drive-train into a dead-engine or roller 914, but decided against it because another mitigating factor towards doing my original 73 914 2.0 is that it is a matching numbers VIN & GA Engine 2L car.

The donor shell was "abandoned" as an active VARA racer when it ran off the track & folded the rear suspension under & caused some console/arm mounts tweaking, & it has that & prior left side damage to all of the lower 1/4 & 3/4 side panels & door skin (mucho bondo!), & the longs on both sides are bad inside too, plus it has some previously repaired rust areas up behind the LF headlight box which appears to be new-ish & at the LF face panel & RR lower face panel. It almost appears to have been exposed to wet weather on the L side with various rust problems along there. So they're probably about equal overall.

Basically it was a good shell for me, because it had most of the panels which I needed in good condition - but that was before I found the door bottoms on mine were rusted - but at least the pass. door on the shell is clean, & I'll run down a better rust-free drivers door & R trunk lid (unless my racer buddies get a FG rear lid & give me the red car's original clean rear lid ;-).

BTW - All y'all - on my 914, the door rust problems are due to shrunken seals & scrapers, the cowl joints & F trunk seals' channels' rust due to shrunken cowl "Tee" seals, firewall rust due to the warped rain tray & water retaining firewall pad (as in the pic posted above - most all of which are easy maintenance & upkeep items for replacement on your own 914s! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Word of warning - keep up on those seals & maintenance items so your own 914 doesn't turn to dust! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tom_T]

Seriously, can you add some more F*cking photos, we need more, please, more photos... I was going to look through and add some advice until I figured that I would have to invest my entire evening sifting through all these photos... Good luck.

Be f*ing kind slick! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

The bunch of pix are there so a shop can look through & give me a prelim estimate on this, & are comparable to the number of what has been asked of me &/or taken by others to do such an estimate.

... besides, for advice you don't need to look at all the pix, & the main "advice" which I asked for here, was reccos to good body shops for this job.

You're right here in OC - down in Costa Mesa - so who do you know of to do this type of work on a 914 locally?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

That's the type of "advice" which I most need now.

Thanx for the Good Luck though!
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[KELTY360]

I think it's laughable that you would expect a line item estimate from a professional shop based on the poorly focused presentation you've produced. Why would someone spend the hours necessary for a pig in a poke chance at getting a know it all customer who would undoubtedly be an overbearing pain in the ass.

I'm currently in the process of having a professional shop strip, repair and paint my '74 2.0. They came highly recommended by members of the 914 community in the NW and I'm very pleased with their skills, organization and communication. Based on the attitude and expectations you've demonstrated in this thread, there is no way I would give you their name. I want to stay in their good graces for future work and I'm pretty sure they'd hold the referral against me.

I wish you well getting your car rebuilt but I think you need a reality check. JMO

[Tom_T]

I think it's laughable that you would expect a line item estimate from a professional shop based on the poorly focused presentation you've produced. Why would someone spend the hours necessary for a pig in a poke chance at getting a know it all customer who would undoubtedly be an overbearing pain in the ass.

I'm currently in the process of having a professional shop strip, repair and paint my '74 2.0. They came highly recommended by members of the 914 community in the NW and I'm very pleased with their skills, organization and communication. Based on the attitude and expectations you've demonstrated in this thread, there is no way I would give you their name. I want to stay in their good graces for future work and I'm pretty sure they'd hold the referral against me.

I wish you well getting your car rebuilt but I think you need a reality check. JMO

Marc,

I'm sorry that you feel that way, but others so far have been kind & comfortable enough to offer shop reccos to me - both on here & by PM/email. Some of your points are well taken, but could've been made in another way, such as: "Gee Tom, you need clearer pix for them to be of use to anybody.", etc.

To clarify - I do have excellent hi-rez pics which I've taken of everything, but they're too big to post on this site with a 500KB limit, cuz the lowest rez the other takes is 1 MB & I don't know of a good way to get them online to be reviewed by a shop. Most of these were taken with my cell phone camera to fit on here without a lot of cropping, with a few cropped from bigger hi-rez shots.

In my very first post I did say to email or PM me for more info & pix, for any shop or other person who was interested. I will recheck my first post to make sure that is clear.

However, the only "attitude" in my post is frankly in reaction to past comments from some members on this board who prefer to get on my posts asking questions/advice, & start running me down about why I'd want to fix my 914 at all. That's not what I wanted here & tried to be clear about it, and yet ..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

As for requesting a detailed estimate, I just don't need a shop throwing out a lump sum with no mutual understanding of what is included & what is not, so we both know what is being estimated, & when add-on items come up what's beyond that first estimate. That is very reasonable.

I know that this post's request will not result in a final nor hard estimate, and stated as much initially. Rather, it is a first step for me to find some qualified shops/pros & the range of their costs, in order to determine if it makes sense to go out of my local area or out-of-state. Again, I will make sure to clarify that on my first post.

At a later point the detailed estimate would need to be finalized with the selected shop/pro, up to the point of what is found after media blasting, digging into the project, additional items added by choice later, etc.

And btw - I'm happy to talk to the folks first too, to figure out what makes sense & not, then come to a reasonably detailed prelim estimate without their spending an inordinate amount of time.

Pig in a poke chance? - I don't think so, cuz I'm serious about getting it done, but don't know how or where yet, & cannot determine if it makes sense cost-wise to go out of the area here without comparing apples to apples.

IMHO, when both parties know what's on the table & agree to it, & have something in writing to which to refer as things progress, then it makes things go easier for everybody to refer back to what was included & not. In this case, it keeps clear what is in this prelim. estimate, so that there is no question if something was included from it - going into the final estimate, etc. BTW - I have no problem with additional stuff when it isn't included initially, but don't like later add-ons then havee someone say it wasn't included before when it was!

Know it all, overbearing pain in the ass? JYHO

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