Aussie 914 Restoration Options

[dale73914]

Hey Barry,

Looks good, especially those sills. They are impressively clean !!!

Look forward to seeing how this one progresses.

As to where your car came from, mine was imported and converted in about 1999 - 2000 by the owner of a workshop / wrecker called aPorscheapart in Melbourne.
From what I found from my cars previous owner, this person imported quite a few, converted and restoéd them as much as needed and then sold them.
Yours may be one of those too possibly.

I'm in Melbourne (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cheers

Dale

[venturadeb]

little more progress today;

Removed both rear seat mounts as I have secured a pair of sparco rev plus seats.
When I pulled out the rear seat mounts I found a bunch of coins under them - quarters & dimes by the look of them ?? - fair well corroded tho ...
Removed a bunch of small brackets on the floor & cleaned it all up & gave a spray of weld thru primer.

If your car has rear seats, are you sure you have a 914?????
you have a problem! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving-girl.gif)

[barrym]

Thanks Dale - i shall investigate them, although have not been particularly impressed with the conversion so far - the pedal box extension & other parts is somewhat primitive ..

anyway, have some good progress over the last couple of days although 'things' always seem to take longer than you expect them to take.

I've now cleaned all the tar like insulation off the floor pan - floor is in generally good condition all over, little surface rust here & there but nothing that cant just be cleaned up.
I had to cut out a couple of inches of the bottom of the firewall & couple of inches from the back of the floor pan, have been busily making templates & cutting / welding.
right hand side floor pan will be dropped a few inches to accommodate my height with a cage - i'm 6'2" with arms like some kind of simian ... need all the space i can get ! the cross brace will also be moved forwards about 6-8" to give some adjustability to the seat so the wife can drive it if she feels like it.
the seat in my lotus (Exige V6) is fixed position, she can only drive it with a number of pillows stuffed behind her so she sits on the edge of the seat ... not ideal !

There was a small hole in the left hand side floor where the RHD conversion people had cut the handbrake guide out. removed section & welded in a new piece.
Right hand side hell hole looks like its already been fixed before - need to investigate that area more when i get the battery box out - the battery box has been replaced at some point in the past - it needs to go - its WAY too big anyway, i'll be installing a much smaller battery when the time comes.

'hell hole' on the left hand side needs some work - chassis section looks good with only surface rust but inner wheel guard & some of the shelf in the engine bay needed to go. a question; what tool to use to cut out the inner guard - its a very restricted area to get an angle grinder in there ... ??

finished removing all the gunk from the windscreen & removed the rest of the air vents from the gas tank area. removed the shock absorbers from the fenders.
pedal box is removed & a fair number of small holes have been welded & cleaned up from the floor & pedal box area. seam sealed where i needed to.

recently arrived stuff;
a box of steel arrived from maddogmotorsports - thanks, v quick shipping.
it contains the full strengthening kit for chassis.
new fuse box & harness - went with a 'universal' 22 circuit harness - i can work electrical stuff no probs - not phased with this at all.
Picked up a couple of Sparco rev plus seats for a song - but i struggle to fit into them. i'm about a 33" waist and they are TIGHT ... considering splitting the base to make them an inch or two wider ... hmmm more work ...

arriving soon should be;
tail lights, indicators, Headlights, engine bay cover, window cranks, boot floor, targa roof, floor mount pedal box (dual brake circuit 0.75" M/C)

need to order;
new brake lines - what flares do i need & what fittments to 'soft' lines
steering wheel adapter & wheel
gas tank (when i have finished the front mount radiator)
roll cage ...
the list expands ...

[barrym]

some of the firewall replaced ...

and picked up a bag of bicarb of soda in the daily driver to test out surface rust removal in hard to reach areas ...
i say daily driver - but it sees some track work too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[barrym]

a few big days of work this week ...

where do I begin !?

I finished fixing the inner / lower firewall with some welded in steel plate.
braced the front upper door mount to the seatbelt mount
cut out the lateral floor support - while it looked in generally good condition on the outside there was a cornflake box of rust flakes inside it. cut it out as i'm moving it forwards to give some adjustability to the drivers seat. made up a couple of bars to replace the cross mount from 1.2mm SHS - will stitch weld them together. i also am going to drop the floor a couple of inches as i wont fit into the car with a helmet & roll cage ... upon looking at the floor a little closer, at the back, i decided to cut the floor out completely and make up a new floor. the rear of the right hand side floor was pretty poor condition due to the RHD conversion handbrake cable. bent up a new floor from 1.5mm steel - its about in place in the pic, but not yet welded in. there will be two flat bars welded the length of the floor to provide additional support to the seat mounts. the front of the floor drops down 20mm and ramps down to 50mm at the back, with the seats reclined i should get about the right amount of height.
bought a pair of cobra seats that fit perfectly (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[barrym]

couple of nice large boxes arrived for me over the last couple of days .. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Roof, engine lid, boot floor, window cranks, rear light buckets & lens, floor mount pedal box, headlights, front indicator buckets & lens

still need to order some brake lines & fuel lines tho ...

but I have sourced what I think is a complete kit for the Subaru gearbox conversion ...

Subarugears (Australia based as well) make a mid mount conversion kit - http://www.subarugears.com/index_files/Products.html
they do a bunch of other stuff too that may interest Porsche owners ..

Anyway, the 914 CV joint is about 90mm diameter, this conversion kit requires 100mm joints, but the VW kombi van is apparently a direct slip onto the 914 driveshaft and is a 100mm CV.
this makes a complete mid mount conversion to 2wd & 914 kit around $1100 aussie $ - well, plus the gear shift mechanism ...

pretty good value I think ...

can anyone comment on using kombi CV joints ?

[barrym]

been a few weeks since updates - have been away with work, but have also made some progress.

fabricated new harness mounting points for install in the centre section - upon advice from another 914 member the standard points are a little too far forwards with the harness buckle ending up on the seat rather than between seat & mount point. anyway, this allows me to use the standard mount point for the standard seatbelt as well, if I choose to use it.

mostly finished making the new floor & welded it in place. with the seat in place I now fit comfortably in the car, with enough room for roll cage & helmet/hans and can still see over the steering wheel. the new floor is approx. 40mm lower at the back and 15mm lower at the front. I've yet to complete the welding in of replacement cross floor beams.

a bunch of stuff has arrived from the US and will keep me busy for some time.

next on the list to do is remove shelf in engine bay & fix up the rear inner guards - then replace the boot floor.

[barrym]

been a few weeks since the last update - but have been busily beavering away on small stuff - but non the less, stuff that needs to be done ...

in no particular order ...

the PO welded the dashboard to the scuttle - you can see in the pics the weld marks - I have no idea why they would have done this, the 4 bolts across the top were in place & holding it down ... v odd ... must have been done when it was converted to RHD.
painful place to be able to get to as well, ended up getting a chisel & making a bit of a mess of the scuttle ... its out though now & have repaired the scuttle & pained it with epoxy rustkill in matt black. looks much better now :

had a weekend away with the lotus guys at a track about 650 kms from home ! great weekend with 65 other lotus' - a huge achievement for Australia given the lotus is not an overly popular car here ...

cleaned up the windscreen surround - removed all the black goop holding the screen in place, cleaned, sanded & gave it a couple of coats of primer to keep it in good condition. the bottom of the screen was good condition with only very minor pitting.

started installing the bracing kits & have the left hand side installed - went in easily enough - have the rest of it to do now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

there was a lot of surface rust under the middle section, where the various pipes run, that was impossible to get at to clean up - so I cut the top off it, spent about 2 hours with a a few wire wheels & painted in matt black epoxy rustkill - looks good now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) will make up a few straps to weld in place to box the tunnel in place & will cover with a new sheet of steel & will bolt it in place with rivnuts to allow later access

also got the bottom of the firewall welded in on the right hand side- whats the best way to re-coat the inner part of the firewall - the void ?

cleaned & painted the various parts of the steering column - installed a new VW ignition switch & sourced a new ignition barrel - my car didn't come with a key - so managed to get a working barrel & key from a '73 and will send door locks & boot lock off to get serviced & re-key'd.
as a note of interest, and possibly common knowledge, but the '75 onwards ignition barrel cannot be re-keyed - however, the early barrel fits in the late steering column with no modifications.

picked up a wrx gearbox for cheap from ebay ($430 AUD) - have ordered a locking spline and made up a cover for the rear of the box from 5mm aluminium plate.

still not decided on the best option for driveshafts - not in a big rush to make the decision as am prob 8 months of needing to install a drivetrain ...

should be able to get a day or two of work in over the xmas period - would be great to get it to the point of being able to install a roll cage !

[crsedge]

Hi Barry,
Great work! And Viper Green- great colour!!
I enquired some time back re undertaking a WRX conversion with gearbox into a 914 with Subarugears, but I ended up going a different direction (with a different car).
I am now back on the hunt for a 914 in Australia (Melbourne) but will probably stay naturally aspirated.
Cheers
Craig

[barrym]

thx (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

although I recently found out it is not viper green but I think is a custom colour known as 'lime metallic green'
either way, it'll get painted as close a match as I can get.

in other news, I did get some time on it over the xmas break, but only to start re-assembling it. I've accepted a job that is in a different State so have to pack everything up & have it moved to Queensland - this will mean a slight delay on the project while it goes into storage & I look for a new house with lots of garage space (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

in the mean time i'm building a list of things I still need to procure and can keep that process underway

[barrym]

Finally I can get started on this again- had to move house twice and states once and finally have a garage & all my stuff back to start work again.
Things have not stalled tho as I have been collecting parts - including a wrx as a donor car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[veekry9]

Loti
The plural of Lotus. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Confronted the conundrum in the '70s,"How many models of Loti did Emerson Fittipaldi drive in F1?".

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Wakefield+...#33;6m1!1e1

The track looks real fast,I gotta ask how your time was,assuming the photo was the grid.
Anyone wreck?(The fun part of racing).

[Cairo94507]

Nice progress and work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ar15.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[barrym]

Veekry9 : that pic was at Winton (around 8-10 hours drive from wakefield) did ok, I think, was a while ago now I think I was 3rd in class ...
that pic was a mock up grid for the photo op. the actual grid was a LOT smaller & very friendly 'gentlemans rules' racing.

I had the A arms & cross member sandblasted & powder coated & picked them up last week - really pleased with the outcome, they look factory new now - super happy with them ... however, the 914 torsion bars I ordered from autoatlanta had 30 splines on them ... I need 29 splines :/ - hopefully I can work out how to return them without incurring int'l shipping rates ...

[veekry9]

This restore is a major task.
A cornucopia of ideas are here.
Canadians talk about drives like that the same way.
Atikokan to Toronto is about 18hrs in summer,if the hwy isn't washed out.
I was sure I had the right track,still very nice,and fast. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[maf914]

Loti
The plural of Lotus. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Confronted the conundrum in the '70s,"How many models of Loti did Emerson Fittipaldi drive in F1?".

Emmo drove the 49C, 56B, 72C, 72D, and 72E. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Andyrew]

Great looking work!


I must note I have never seen repair in this area before.. (Left of the steering column)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-18008-1414360935.jpg)
Very interesting!

[veekry9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNrnDlda5p8
Thanks for the touraround,a chance to see Wangaratta.
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Winton+Rac...2cec97918341ff2
Both of these tracks are fast,high velocity on the grandstand straights.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@-36.3797799,146...3312!8i6656

http://www.elephantracing.com/suspension/t...torsionbars.htm
A nice product,which I am happy to endorse.


Pratt and Whitney power,4 wheel drive for off road tracks.

Further,as a sidestep
[urlhttp://www.f1-grandprix.com/?p=35728[/url]
https://www.formula1.com/content/fom-websit...Fittipaldi.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Grand_Prix

[barrym]

Great looking work!


I must note I have never seen repair in this area before.. (Left of the steering column)
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-18008-1414360935.jpg)
Very interesting!

It's for the right hand drive conversion (done before I bought it) so the pedals fit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Andyrew]

I see the rusted marks from the hammer for the steering column shaft!

Cool!