Tomeric Build Thread, ...new brakes, new cooler and a video! Options

[tomeric914]

Back in February of '08, Cupomeat and Tomeric914 picked up this lovely 916 replica and a boatload of spare parts:

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Clean, one owner, Florida car, runs great, blah, blah, blah... When we picked it up, one carb was seized and the PO was "working on it". "Does the engine turn over?", I ask. "Last I knew it did", he says.

Yea, maybe not:

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Our first clue was when we pulled the oil drain plug and nothing came out. It was about 20 degrees in the garage so the water on the bottom of the engine was frozen. After using a torch to melt the water, the oil came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuK9Z7fpgic

The video above shows a nice ice cube stuck to the float of the one Weber that was still in the car. The PO said the car ran hot so they remove the rain tray to get more air in the engine compartment. The filters didn't have rain hats on and there were 1/4" to 1/2" gaps around the bottoms of the filters. The PO had made up some cheesedick plate for the bottom of the filter on but didn't understand the concept of flatness.

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That was only the beginning of the fun. I've already forgotten about all the other half-assed fixes the PO did. My goal was to get the car on the road by April and on the track by the end of the summer.

The PO had relocated the battery to the trunk which I wasn't crazy about. They also did some hellhole repair that looked to be ok. I finished their repair and but the battery tray back where it should be. At the same time, I rebuilt the 2.0 engine using A LOT of the spare parts we had (heads were one of those spare parts). What amazed me was the amount of parts that were in their original shipping boxes dated from the mid 1980's with 2nd day air! They sat for 20+ years!

Here is the engine in the car around the middle of April all set to go.

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So now it has 96mm KB pistons and AA cylinders (which, BTW suck. AA used to have decent cylinders). It is now a 2056 with 40IDFs and what appears to be an old S&S exhaust setup. I put the lowest profile tires I could find on the crappy set of cookie cutters we had.

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For the next few months I drive it and sort out the various issues, rebuild all the brake calipers, remove the brake line tee that the DAPO put in and get a nice reconditioned brake pressure regulator from PMB. Sign up for my first track event at Watkins Glen and before going there, install an oil cooler.

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Then I found some rust in the long that needed attention. Luckily, not too bad... yet. Cut it out and repair it.

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Then off to the Glen!

[tomeric914]

Oops, I can't forget the garage floor rebuild that happened in the middle of this. I had long suspected that the floor was hollow underneath. I decided to undertake this "small" task with the aid of a masonry contractor. SO I rented a jackhammer, punched a hole in the floor and stuck a light and my digital camera underneath.

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Yes, you are looking at the underside of the garage floor above and the settled gravel fill about 16" below. Gotta love these low budget home builders.

Here we are after pulling out 14 ton of concrete, replacing with flowable fill and pouring in the new concrete. Funny how none of my neighbors stopped by while I was removing the old floor, but they all showed up when the concrete truck was there!

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Next on the list was seating and 5-point harnesses. Since I'm over 6 foot tall and my head hits the roof with a helmet on unless I removed the stock seat bottom cushion, I purchased a pair of Kirkey Intermediates and welded up some frames that would sit as close to the floor as possible. I fabricated the driver's side:

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Then moved on to the passenger side to find that the cross support was rotted along with the floor underneath it.

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So I repaired the floor and rebuilt the cross rail.

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and completed the installation:

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Next was time for a facelift. The car came with hideous looking 916 bumpers (IMHO) that needed to go. Cupomeat brought up stock 914 front and rear bumpers and I got at it. First was removing the front bumper only to discover what little had been holding it on.

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The inner front fender in this location gives very little room to manipulate any tool much less an angle die grinder or MIG gun but somehow I managed it.

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Thanks to the 914World classifieds, I scored a stock fiberglass front bumper to go along with the LE front spoiler we had in the stash.

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We had a stock 914 rear bumper in pretty darn good shape that I painted up gloss black and stuck on the rear. What a difference that made over the 916 look!

So here we are in March of 2010 with a DE around the corner at Limerock. My money was in for the Mepstein GT flare and rocker group buy as well. There was one spot of rust on the passenger fender that bothered me. This was where the dealer had installed an antenna and created a nice pocket for water to sit and rust in. Sometime in the past, the PO removed the antenna and slathered Bondo in its place creating an even bigger problem. I started at it with my pick only to watch it basically disintegrate.

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Yuck...

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Cut out the old...

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Hand form a repair piece out of 14 gauge...

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Weld it in...

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...and finish it off. Not shown is all the steps to remove the underlying surface rust, prep it and painting underneath.

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Off to the track!

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...more later! (This was through end of April 2010)