Rusty bucket into Solo toy, Some highlights of my budget autocross build from rust to rocket Options

[Han Solo]

I had a nice day cleaning and putting some parts back on the car. It was a good change of pace from metal work. The steering rack was one last parts I pulled off the car so it's appropriate that it should go back on first. From the grease around the inspection plate it's apparent it had been leaking so I opened that up and filled it with gear oil. Sealed that up and cleaned it well. The boots responded well to a good treatment of Armor All. Now putting that rack back on without a helper was a challenge. I used a couple of bungie cords to hold it in place while I attached the steering column links. I stripped the key switch-turn signal assembly off the column before re-installing. That makes the column a little wibbly-wobbly at the steering wheel. I'll need to find a bushing to tighten that up. Then I started disassembling the front suspension. The tie-rod ends are shot and will have to be replaced. I got those off and then took off the rotor-hubs. The bearings on those looked good but the rotors are heavily worn. That's okay, I've got new rotors and bearings from Just Porsche Parts. Then I pulled the caps on the strut tubes and guess what... blue KYB shocks but they're both shot. I was able to free up the adjuster screws on the torsion bars and got those off. Those bushings will need to be replaced. The last thing I did was get the ball joints out of the control arms. I had to consult a book to see what was going on there with the threaded ball joint. They where really corroded but after a lot of PB blaster and a big pipe wrench - I was able to get that large nut off the ball joint. So I'm looking at all new bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints and shocks. Ouch!

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[Han Solo]

Last few evenings have been cleaning and painting front suspension parts. I did the front axle first. Then the brake rotor shields. At this moment I've got one strut stripped and another waiting. I see now how to lower the front. Grind that off the weld holds the spindle in place, slide that joker up and then weld 'er back! This would be a great time to do that but I think I'll wait. I want to get everything back together with the fresh bushings, shocks, etc. and test drive. Perhaps in the future lowering will be along with installing camber plates. Those are not in the budget at this time but sooner or later I'll have to get them!

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[Han Solo]

Saturday I needed to take advantage of what time I had to work on the car. I decided to paint the strut tubes. strip the control arms and test fit the fiberglass fender flares. So you'll notice by the photos I'm kinda bouncing from one thing to another. It worked out well though. The struts were already half painted so I masked up the last one and got that done. Note that I painted the tubes school bus yellow so everyone will know there's Konis inside (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) As those were drying I got the torch out and started cooking up the control arm bushings. Before that, I scribed some marks on the bushing collars so I can get them back on exactly as they came off. As a diversion, I also got out the fender flares and started mocking up how I would mount them. Once I had them mounted with painters tape, I went around them with a maker. I took them off, followed the trace line with 2" painters tape and then traced that. That's my over-lap and cut mark. Meanwhile, the control arms are soaking in the parts washer. I got them out, rinsed and let them dry in the sun. Back to the fenders, I have enough time to cut the right rear wheel arch off. Man, is that going to make cleaning all that under-coating and seam sealer easier! There was also a nasty, rusty dent that mostly got cut out. I didn't get to the right front as I'll need to move my lift or have the car on wheels. I did get the control arms cleaned and painted by dark. In between trips to the garbage dump, hardware store, etc.

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[Han Solo]

I HATE the seam sealer used on these cars! Last night, after painting the bushing collars, I dove into that right rear wheel house to dig out the undercoating and seam sealer. It was easier with the wheel arc cut out but not much. The guys that have done this know what a brutal job it is. If you can get to it with vibrating scraper, it really helps. But the stuff in the tight corners really s**ks! Second photo shows just how thick they laid it in. Then, as I'm working my way to the rear of the car - Foam! I've read that they used foam in these cars but this is the first I've found. You can see the spot it occupied in the third photo at the very top and most rearward corner. About 8" long and wedged into that long opening. Apparently it did it's job as all that was nice clean metal. It had a hard shell and I literally had to dig it out one small piece at a time with a long flat head screw driver. The last portions would only come out with one of those long flexible pincer type extractors used for lost screws and such. Then I worked back to the front and into the space behind the striker plate. My car has some paint bubbles above the door handle recess (typical) and I found out why. That's another tight area that they filled with seam sealer. Of course it starts to crack after time, water, dirt and salt gets thrown in there from the rear wheels - and then there's rust! While digging that crap out, I poked through and that will have to be a patch. The same will be true on the left side I'm sure. Two hours of that was all I could handle last night. I estimate 6 - 8 hours to strip, treat and paint each of these rear wheel houses. A word of warning for all you teeners though - unless your car never saw rain and road grim - this is probably happening to it. The good news is 80 - 90 percent of the seams come clean with shinny metal. It's the corners and areas where it's cracked that get the rust. Rant over!

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[Han Solo]

Last night was one of those...

I got a tip on a great deal for turbo tie rod ends, ball joints and control arm bushings last week. That package arrived and during this week I got the bushings installed. Yesterday evening I got the strut assemblies mounted without shock inserts (getting Konis at a later date). The package had the odd bolt that mates with the ball joint but I couldn't get the bolt to insert completely (the head was flush when I took everything apart). On the right side I took an impact wrench to the nut trying to suck that all the way in and of course the bolt twisted off That was an hour drilling that out. Thankfully one of the original bolts was still in good shape so I reused that. Then I'm back in that right rear wheel house trying to dig out more seam sealer. Even with the wheel arch cut out my arm is all the way in there trying to reach forward. I've gotten as much out as I physically can so I decide to patch the exterior where holes have opened up over the door handle recess. While I'm cleaning with the wire brush more holes open up in the recess (sometimes you just can't get a break). I got the original problem patched but the recessed area will have to wait until this thing is off the lift. That's my current goal. Get this joker on wheels so I can finish the exterior. And I can't get the rear suspension on until I treat the wheel houses. Unless I have more set backs, I should have the right rear treated this weekend.

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[Han Solo]

Last Saturday was all about yard work and I busted it out good. So Sunday I was in good shape to finish up the right rear fender. I stripped all the exterior paint and that really confirmed what I've suspected - this car has been over-sprayed at some point. I'm finding a thin layer body filler on some areas. Beneath that is a red primer (probably enamel) which makes it difficult to figure out where the paint ends and the rust begins. Perhaps even that nasty dent on the rear was body filled and that came off due to poor prep. Whatever! Anyway the bottom of the sail and door handle recess had rust through that had to be cut out and patched. I took detailed photos of the sail cut-out so everyone can see what's in there. The wheel house extends up into the sail about 2". There's a seam on the backside running horizontal that has loose foam pressed between it and the exterior metal. You can see the vent duct that comes up and terminates in the passenger compartment. Between that duct and the door casing there's seam sealer that's very tough to dig out. Above the horizontal seam (which you can't see) there's loose foam (like Dave stated). I suspect they put that in there to keep that sail from acting as a sound resonator. All those areas will absorb moisture and rust. It took me a couple hours to patch those areas for a total of three. I got all those welds ground off. Then treated and painted the wheel house and exterior. I've got one more fender to do and I'll be glad. I might take a diversion and mount the right rear suspension. Followers might remember that's the side that I replaced the suspension console on and I REALLY want to confirm that everything lines up. I'd also just like to see ONE wheel on this car!

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[Han Solo]

I guess it was last Thursday that I had some time in the morning to devote to the project. The right rear wheel house was ready for suspension so I installed the control arm (purchased rebuilt and strengthened) and Bilstien shock with autocross spring. Thank goodness all the dimensions on the RD suspension console I installed appear to be correct. I did find some play in the hub (with fresh bearings) but I believe that's because the CV axle is not installed. So I'm thinking, "why not remove the axles from the original hubs and see if they have the same play?". The problem is, I dropped the control arm, shock and axle all in one piece. So I found getting the axle nut loose with out have weight on a wheel and e brake on, is going to be REALLY difficult. I started another thread and got some good suggestions. I moved on to cleaning up the transmission which actually took three applications of de-greaser and some scraping with a putty knife.
Then Saturday I'm back at it. I'm in the left rear wheel house with a heat gun, scraper and elbow grease digging out under-coating and seam sealer. This side was actually a bit better than the right because I was able to get my right arm deep into the cavity. But first I cut out the wheel arch. You'll see in the 3rd photo several different lines as I had to adjust my original marks to get the left flare in the same position as the the right. Also, the left flare was about 2" wider than the right and that had me scratching my head for awhile. The 4th photo shows the rear of the left wheel well after digging out. I found a new tool for rooting out the seam sealer (and foam insert) in those tight spots - a Dremel tool with a reamer tip. Much quicker on that stupid foam. The 5th photo shows the front of the wheel hose (behind the boor jamb) with all the undercoating. And the last photo shows the same area cleaned up. You can see the same rust areas up under the sail and door handle recess. There's rust bubbles on the exterior between the sail and the door handle recess so I'll be patching that soon. Perhaps I'll have a few hours this week in the evening to finish this fender up.
Also, some bad and some good news on the transmission. I was able to get the fill plug our but the drain plug is REALLY tight and the 17mm hex is starting to wallow out. But there was gear oil up to the fill hole (no leaks!) so I just grabbed the tranny, flipped it on the side and drained the oil. That actually looked pretty good with no solids or metal so I'm really hopeful the internals are good.

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[Han Solo]

Almost done with the left rear fender. I stripped all the paint last night and had two patches. That same bad area over the door handle recess. That corrosion has actually crept into the passenger compartment near that rear vent. I just treated the metal from the inside to stop it. I noted that the Metal Prep does a good job of dissolving the seam sealer. Anyway, I'll get over to the body shop supply store for another can of POR 15 and get this fender covered in the next few days.

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[Han Solo]

Huge progress today. I got the front wheels on the car! Mid week I finished painting the left rear fender and had a visit from another 914 enthusiast. He picked up the front windshield and left a couple red Koni front shocks. I think they need rebuild but I put them in the struts today so I could get the front bearings and hubs done (I've got new Konis planned but waiting on $$$). Those will be easy to swop later. After I got the bearings in the hubs I discovered that I mounted the brake disk shields backwards. That's odd that they would bend away from the disk instead of over it. That doesn't seem like it would shield very good so I just took them off. Anyway, I got the hubs on, slid on the 20mm spacers and mounted the 10" race wheels. Big fatties! Those have some tired Hoosier road race tires but even with the pinched tires, there's clearance on the struts. I'll use those tires for testing and tuning, then switch to autocross tires when the car is dialed in. Then I moved to the left rear and mounted the suspension. Earlier I had gotten the CV axles off the original suspension by using a 3' piece of angle iron. I drilled two holes to match lugs and bolted it to the hub. That gave me a fulcrum to break loose the axle nuts with a cheater bar. So with the CV axles loose, I'm thinking I need to re-build those. Oddly, when I was buying some motor oil this morning at the auto parts store, I take a long shot and ask the clerk if he can get the CV axle boots - he can! Unfortunately I forgot to ask about the gaskets. So I spent the rest of the afternoon taking the axles apart and those are soaking in the parts cleaner tonight.

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[Han Solo]

A very busy Sunday. I started off with an oil change on the F250. Then I diagnosed a problem with the trailer lights (fuse). Then I was in the process of cleaning the CV axles when the wife messages that she's got a flat on her Boxster at work! Of course I dropped everything to take care of that but after swopping cars and plugging the tire - I'm back to the 914. As mentioned in yesterday's post - I got one axle put back together and it's in the right rear hub. Three wheels on the beast! I also found some time to strip paint off the underside of the rear trunk cross member and I started along the rear trunk exterior. Next treat and paint season I'll do both areas and then the car should be ready to set down. That is, baring any difficulties with the left CV axle.

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[Han Solo]

I finally got around to finishing the rear. It took a little longer because I also painted POR 15 on the underside of the rear trunk cross member and the rear pan. Fabricating and welding in the tail light covers was quite easy and fun. No rusty metal to tip-toe around. I'll have to do some doctoring up with body filler to get everything nice and smooth. I decided to just put the rear trunk button back in just to fill that hole. The trunk lid will be secured with Druz locks.

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[Qarl]

Wow. Awesome revival!

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[Han Solo]

This week has been all about the doors. I took both of them off. Stripped the interior light switches. Then started stripping the exterior paint off the passenger door. And then there was body filler. The most I've encountered on this car yet but no more than 1/4" deep. And the bottom of that door was pretty rusty. When those bottom drain holes clog and then window scrapers fail, bad things happen. I decided that trying to strip the door molding and patch the rust was more trouble than worth on a race car. Someday this car may have fiberglass doors anyway. First I cut long strips of sheet metal and covered the window opening. Then I treated and painted the exterior with POR 15. On the inside the rust was minimal so I pulled the door opener hardware, cleaned and over-sprayed with grey primer. I cheated and did the same on the door jamb also. Any paint I use on this car will be off the shelf and easy to touch up. I got the drivers side door stripped last night and welded the window opening up. That's when my trusty grinder bit the dust. Oh well, it's served me well and I think I got at least 10 years out of it. This weekend I should have the doors finished and I think I'll get the front wheel arches cut out and paint that small segment on the passenger side. I probably should go ahead and get the A pillars and window cowl also.

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[Han Solo]

Exterior done! Well, stripped and painted with POR 15 that is. I got the front wheel arches cut out, stripped the window cowl and top sail. Then I got all those areas covered with POR 15. So the only original paint left on this car is on the walls of the trunks, under the sail and the trunk lids. I think I'll leave those for later and move on to getting the engine together. There'll be some down time as I wait on parts (REALLY need a good set of 44 Webers) so I might get those last areas painted then. At this point I'm pleased with my progress.

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[Han Solo]

This took less than an hour. Removed the heater control boxes. Stripped the heat exchanger tins. Cleaned up the headers with wire brush and marine clean. Painted with high heat flat black. As rusty as the heater control boxes were - they still function!

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[Han Solo]

After a real treat Memorial Day weekend, I'm back working on the rusty ant nest. We went to the SCCA Spring Nationals and won AS in the Cayman S. Weather had a lot to do with the win but I'll take what I can get.
So this weekend I've been putting exterior parts on the long block. About two weeks ago I got delivery on a boat load of great parts from Just Porsche Parts. Part of that shipment were REALLY nice powder-coated engine tins. Those saved a lot of trouble cleaning and patching the original tins. I did use the original fan shroud and that needed cleaning and painting. I also cleaned up and painted the engine mount bar.
Oddly, the hardest thing this weekend was getting the block mounted on the engine stand. I used my Bobcat with forks and lifted the block. Of course the lift cylinders leak down and it was a real challenge to get the bolts lined up before the forks were too low. Later, I found that the mount was binding the flywheel so I had to add spacers for clearance. I used a come-along and ratchet strap for that dance. Everything went on pretty well as I was following Jake Raby's type 4 video. Engine oil filter mount, oil cooler, engine mount brackets, etc. I'm pretty sure I got the distributor indexed correctly as Brothers Machine Shop left the engine set at TDC. After the tins, I got the intake manifolds installed and spark plug wires on.
Next will be getting the engine off the stand and putting the transmission on. I've got the new clutch and throw out bearing ready to go. I also dropped off the starter and alternator for re-build last Friday at ASE. The guys at that shop always do a great job and I'll post before and after photos when I pick those back up.

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[Han Solo]

I did pick up the alternator, starter and voltage regulator. The guys at ASE said that the parts to rebuild the alternator and starter were more expensive than just buying new assemblies. So that's what I got! They put the OEM rear cap on the alternator and the regulator accepts the three conductor connector off the alternator. All I have to do is connect the red wire with large terminal to the starter (and be sure the regulator is grounded). All those parts cost less than $350.

Original...

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Replacement...

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I hope to have those parts and the transmission on by the end of this weekend.

[Han Solo]

Sunday night and it's been a fairly productive weekend. Saturday I installed the alternator. That took longer than I expected because I couldn't get the pulley to align as it should. I tried adding the extra sheet metal pieces on the front but that didn't stiffen the alternator up. The belt tension kept pulling the alternator crooked. Then finally I realized I was missing the lower bracket. So I pulled the alternator back off and got that in - quite the difference! This morning I installed the clutch on the flywheel and changed the throw-out bearing. Then I got the Bobcat to get the engine stand off, put the engine and transmission on a rolling case. The transmission stabbed nicely but I'm missing the long bolt for the top of the starter. Then I blocked everything up and attached the engine mount bar. That gave me enough room to put on the headers. I used a couple of ratchet straps to secure everything snugly to the case. That will be my test jig. All that's lacking are the carbs, fuel system, wiring and gauges.

This afternoon I decided to try and get the seats in. I'm using the originals until I confirm structural integrity of the chassis. I'm bolting the original seat bracket to the floor pan but not installing the tilt bracket. That required adding some material to the seat bracket for two front bolts per seat. I welded a thin plate, drilled a hole and that gave me four bolts per seat. I'll need to re-do that as it's not strong enough. I'm also going to use cap screws for ease of installation and removal.

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[Han Solo]

Tonight I went back in and re-did my seat mounts. I had the right idea - just the wrong hardware. I pulled the mounts out and ground off the thin metal plates. Then I cut 7/8" of 1/4" bar stock and fit that in between the edges of the seat mount. I cranked the flux core mig welder up to 4 and had some fun. It was really nice to stay on the puddle and work a bead. No worries about burning through that metal! With those thicker plates in, ground down and primed, I put the mounts back in, and marked the plates from under through the holes that I'd already drilled in the floor pan. Then I took the mounts to the drill press and drilled those out. The new hardware was 6 mm x 20 mm hex head caps screws, flat washers and larger fender washers for under the pans. It's a really tight fit getting those screws in between the sides of the mounts but the hex head enables you to get at it through the square holes in the track. Everything lined up pretty good and it's a good solid mount. I had to drill 8 holes in those new pans but if and when I put some proper race seats in - I can fill or patch those if not used. These seats will get me by for testing and tuning.

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[Han Solo]

There won't be much to report on this weekend. Much of today was spent on yard work. I did get the original console instrument panel out of storage and started looking at mounting it back in the car. Why not use the original console? I did remove the clock from the panel. I was also wondering about oil pressure. The OEM instruments only had a low oil pressure warning light. So will that sender work with a proper gauge? I'm also reusing the original seat belts for testing and tuning. I got the female ends installed but the retractors weren't working so well. I decided to open one up and what a nice surprise - exploding clock spring! I fought with those for about an hour but got the exploded one back together and both lubricated, working well. That's going to be it for the weekend. We've got regional autocross tomorrow in a co-owned ASP Boxster. It's mid-engine heaven here!