Intro from Montana: '73 2.0L rustoration thread Options

[bbrock]

My name is Brent and I’m new to 914 World but certainly not to 914s. My 1973 2.0L has being lying dormant and neglected for over thirty years now and is long overdue for a resurrection. The path to where I am now has been a long one so forgive me for the long introduction, but some of you might be able to relate.

History

I wasn’t much of a car guy as a kid growing up in NE Kansas. I liked cars, but I didn’t LOVE them. But when I saw my first 914, it spoke to me in a way that no other car had before… or since. My first ride in a teener didn’t come until my senior year in high school when a co-worker took me for a spin in a 914 he had borrowed from his dad’s used import car dealership. The car did not disappoint and I was hooked! I knew I had to have one.

The year was 1981. I was 19 and beginning my second year of college at Kansas State when I took out a small loan to buy my first car. I found a barely road-worthy 1970 1.7L in Missouri for $2,300 and was beaming with pride when I rolled up to the college dorm with my new, but rather shoddy looking, prize. But being as I was 19, and that organ that would eventually become a brain was not yet developed, I managed to shove the nose of my new Porsche under the tail end of a pickup truck at an intersection the very next day. Devastated; I had the car towed to a little one-man body shop at the edge of town. The front left corner was toast. I had enough money left from my loan to buy a partial front clip from AA. I got a call from the body shop the day the clip arrived and was told there was a problem. I went to inspect and saw that AA had sent a wrecked clip. The fender was smashed and the cost to hammer out the panels was 3X the cost of the part. I got in a heated argument over the phone with AA when I was told that sort of condition should be expected with used parts. What a bunch of BS! Surface rust and a few dings is one thing, but this part has been smacked hard enough the turn signal opening was half the width it should have been. Pointing out that their own advertising promised used parts would be collision free got me nowhere. In the end, I had to pay return freight and a restocking fee to get rid of the shitty part. That was the first and ONLY time I’ve done business with AA and I’m still pissed 36 years later. Luckily, a 914 had arrived at a junk yard 60 miles away and I picked up the parts, minus the lid, for a fraction of what AA had charged and hauled it myself.

But my woes of fixing my 914 were far from over. The body shop guy told me he found a trunk lid and that if I prepaid for parts and labor, he could put my car back together, shot with primer, for $400. Like an idiot, I believed him. I took out another small loan and wrote him a check. Every time I stopped by to check out the progress, there was a different excuse. The lid was at another shop getting MIG welded to repair minor rust… things like that. Then the guy just disappeared. I spent a few weeks stopping by almost daily to find an empty shop. Finally, one day a crusty looking old guy was there. “Are you looking for Joe?”, he asked. “Join the club.” Joe had been bilking lots of people out of money and had skipped out of the country. The guy telling me this had recently entered partnership with Joe and had lost thousands of dollars. We would both shortly receive a bankruptcy letter listing us as creditors and leaving us with little recourse to recoup our losses. It was my first hard lesson in trust. The silver lining was that the new guy had another shop and took pity on me and completed the work that was promised at a very reasonable price. I know he lost money on the deal.

My now patchwork-colored teener was back on the road but I wasn’t any smarter at 20 than I was at 19 so my car would again suffer the consequences. It was a cold, snowy, Kansas winter when I was home at my parents for Christmas holiday. I had learned from experience that if I put the 914 to bed in that weather without adding a bottle of drying agent to the gas, she was not going to start. But I wasn’t alone and shop after shop was sold out of HEET. On the fifth stop, I finally found a few bottles and was heading home to my parents when I hit a patch of black ice at low speed on possibly illegal balding tires and wrapped the front neatly around a fire hydrant. Well shit! Here we go again. I was done with body shops and con-men so decided it was time to learn to weld. I found donor parts at the same junk yard as before and set about cutting out the damage and replacing using my brother’s oxy-acetylene torch. Amazingly, I managed to get the car back together in drivable condition. I won’t pretend it was a good repair job, but adequate. I learned a lot about working on 914s because just about every week, something new broke – clutch, torsion bar, struts, and the constant battle with bad wiring in the FI and ignition. I’m sure there is a part on a 914 I haven’t removed and replaced, but I can’t think of what that would be.


About a year later, my then girlfriend and now wife of 30+ years needed to replace her aging Honda and a nice looking 914 appeared for sale. It was a ’73 1.7L and looked much prettier than mine. We shouldn’t have bought it because it had been wrecked and not put back together right. It had a barely detectable sideways crab as it rolled down the road that a 4-wheel alignment couldn’t fix. But it made a good daily driver and was nice enough that when Elizabeth and I were married, her cousin hid the car for us so my original patchwork 70 got the traditional “Just Married” treatment.





Around that time in 1984, I spied an ad in the college paper for a 914 for $500. Always needing parts, I thought this was my chance to get a big pile of parts at a bargain price. After talking with the owner, I discovered this was a 1973 2.0L. (my dream model and year). It had suffered the dreaded hell hole and the RR suspension console was dangling free. The PO (the car's second owner) couldn’t get a shop to even quote her a price on fixing it, and I was welcome to go have a look. I found the car in a parking lot next to the local import car parts shop. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Not only was it my dream ’73 2.0, but it was metallic silver with 4-spoke Fuchs, center console but not appearance group (black bumpers and no targa vinyl). This is exactly the car I would have ordered at the dealership. I knew that the wheels alone were worth the asking price. From 30 ft., the car looked gorgeous. From 10 feet, it looked really good but you could see it had been repainted, and not well. The interior was complete and clean. The only thing wrong with this car was a rotten battery tray and suspension console. And even that rot was limited and hadn’t spread to other bits of the hell hole. I finagled another small loan and didn’t quibble on the price. THIS would be my car.

Back at the junkyard I found a console from the same donor I had taken the front for my 70 from. I spent a weekend in my parent’s garage welding it in and spent the next several years enjoying the hell out of that car. In the meantime, I rebuilt the engine on the old 70 to donate it to a VW bus and sold the chassis for parts. My wife’s ’73 became my project car and I earned my label as a DAPO botching an outer long replacement by overheating the weld and using poorly placed door bracing. The result was an increase in the sideways crab and a passenger door that didn’t close as cleanly as it should. I continued my assault on the car by stripping it down to respray in black lacquer – a purposeful choice to reveal all of the flaws. It was a lot of work and there were many goofs to be redone, but the end result was actually quite stunning. It didn’t last long though since I didn’t have a garage at the time and black lacquer is no match for the Kansas sun. But it did convince me that I could prep and spray a car with respectable results; better than the job on my 2.0L anyway.

I don’t remember the exact catalyst that caused me to tear it apart, but as much as I loved driving the 2.0L, it didn’t always love me and I was frequently stranded – and this was pre-cell phone days. The problem was almost always some damn thing with the FI. Plus, the car was leaking oil badly and there were rust issues that needed repair. I convinced myself it was time for a complete tear down and rebuild, and I commenced to do just that. I was in my mid-twenties and Reagan was President.

Restoration Begins… and Stops… and Stops Again

I made a rookie mistake and started with the engine. I did a complete teardown and had all the bottom end parts machined and balanced at the local machine shop. Although I am kind of regretting it now, I decided to ditch the D-Jet that caused 95% of my reliability woes and opted for dual 40IDF Webers. Carb conversions were all the rage back then and I had lost patience with the FI. If I were to start this today, I’d probably keep the FI which I still have in storage. But to complement the carbs, I installed a “street grind” cam from Automotion. I’ve tossed my old Automotion catalogs and there are no other specs on the invoice. I only remember that the folks there recommended this grind to get the most from my carbs while staying close to the performance of the FI. The other mod I chose for the engine was a new set of OEM euro spec (8.0:1) Mahle pistons and jugs. I’ve always had this crazy idea that the euro spec cars were how Porsche intended and American spec was a compromise. As part of that rebuild, I stripped and repainted all of the tin with high temp paint and replaced the little hardware. Heads had not yet been touched, and Reagan was still the President.

Then life intervened. Elizabeth had put her college on hold while I finished mine, and it was while she was finishing her degree that I tore the car apart. Then it was my turn to go back for a graduate degree so the project went on hold. Time was in short supply. Clinton was President by the time I got my grad degree. Now neither time or money were as much of an obstacle, but having adequate shop space for the restoration was. All I had was an open carport that was not up to the task although I was able to turn it briefly into a makeshift plastic spray booth for the last car which we had since given to our nephew (kicking myself now). So, Elizabeth and I set about building a two-story barn with plenty of space for a large woodshop, mechanics shop, and spray booth. When I say build, I mean we picked up hammer and nails and built the thing. I must say; the thing was a work of beauty. All that was left was to install windows and then my restoration project could resume in earnest. And then I got offered a job in Bozeman, Montana which had been a long-time dream for this wildlife biologist. So without so much as ever rolling a car into the new shop, we packed up and headed to the mountains. That was 13 years ago and I’ve gotten a lot of grief for hauling my little project 1,200 miles across the continent. And she has weathered through many Montana blizzards sitting neglected in my driveway; waiting for me to come to my senses.

And Now…

Maybe I am having my mid-life crisis but the itch to get this car back on the road had gotten too strong to ignore. Over the years, I would periodically cruise the Web for 914 news, but would quickly put it aside with the resignation that I’m back where I was with no good space to work on the car. But then I read Darren Collins’ amazing odyssey on this forum. Not only is it inspirational, but it also gave me an epiphany. The bulk of the work in a restoration is in cleaning and refurbishing small parts. I don’t need a big-ass shop for that. In fact, we do have a 2-car garage but half of it is filled to the gills with woodworking tools and the other half has to remain open for the daily driver so we don’t have to scoop and scrape several inches of snow off every morning, and to protect the car at least a little from the horde of deer mice that plague every vehicle parked outdoors in the mountains. But I have a plan. I purchased a set of 10” pneumatic castors at HF and will build a rotisserie on them. That will allow me to roll my chassis over my gravel driveway and in and out of the garage as needed. That will still leave the challenge when it comes time to paint (I don’t have the means to farm out a $10K paint job). But it will get me through strip, patch, and primer. We have planned on building a detached garage since we built our house. Maybe I’ll figure out how to fund it.

Determined to make progress, it was time to take stock of what I have ahead of me. The car had been mostly stripped prior to our move, but many of the parts that had been carefully stored in sheds wound up strewn haphazardly in the trunks and cockpit during and after the move. The old pitted windshield had been removed long ago and donated to the other car. The plexi I had installed to seal out the rain had cracked to shards and only the tarp over the car kept out rain and snow. The old tires turned to dust years ago, leaving the belly of the car only a few inches above the damp earth. Not the treatment I intended to give my car but it is what it is. I was prepared for the worst last week when I began excavating to survey the damage of years of neglect. The car wreaked of weasel piss and I actually found a weasel skull in the front trunk. But that weasel piss probably accounts for the surprisingly low amount of rodent nests found in the car. Considering the abuse, things could be worse.













Thirty years ago, I had all kinds of plans to modernize this car. But history gains importance as we age so now I want to keep it mostly stock. That’s also the easier and cheaper route given that the car is disassembled, but nearly complete. My rule for mods is to do nothing that can’t easily be reversed to original stock. The biggest sacrifice is that I won’t be blanking out the side markers as originally planned even though I really hate them.
Mods planned are:
Engine: These have already been done. Otherwise I might rethink them.

• Euro 8.0:1 compression pistons
• Weber 40IDF carbs
• “Street” cam grind for carbs.
• Dizzy – I have an unused 050 on it now, but will probably replace with an SVDA 034. My carbs already have vacuum ports.

Chassis

• Euro lenses
• Black windshield and targa trim. I already sanded and painted my dinged-up trim when I tore down the car. I like the look so will keep it for now.
• Relocate fuel pump to front and replace fuel lines.
• 2-stage paint on exterior. Still not completely married to this but think it will be easier to do and less maintenance than 1-stage. Open to comments though.
• Modern radio or retro radio with modern BT module.
• Hand throttle lever to operate carb chokes.
  

Workplan

1. Stabilize engine – It has been stored in an unheated shed. Checked on it last week and was horrified to find the pistons stuck. Luckily a half hour soak of the pistons with PB blaster and some light taps with a softwood drift freed them up. Cylinders had a little rust crust at the bottom where the rings were sitting. I pulled the worst looking cylinder. Rings look fine. A few seconds with a hone and the bore was shiny like new again. Will do the same with the remaining cylinders and will refresh the assembly lube on cam lobes and lifters. I have a 3-arm engine yoke from VW Alley arriving Wednesday and will move the engine into my heated garage where I can keep a better eye on it. Once inside, I’ll clean it off and brush the case with tectyl, spray Stabil engine fog on the piston tops and cylinder bores, and bag it. I’ll turn the crank once a month to make sure it doesn’t seize again. Open to suggestions on how to protect it until it is ready to go back in the car. I’ll probably go ahead and get the heads rebuilt sooner rather than later so I can get the engine completely assembled and not have a bunch of loose parts laying around.
2. Build a rotisserie and start on rustoration. Here’s what I know I need to do:
   1. Replace front trunk tub.
   2. Repair rear trunk lid.
   3. Repair both door sills.
   4. Repair lower sail panels.
   5. Repair or replace RH engine tray in hell hole.
   6. Replace RH outer long. Won’t know about inner until outer is cut off.
   7. Misc body sheet metal patches, mostly lower edges.
3. Inventory and clean parts. I’ll develop a plan of attack after I have a better idea what I’m dealing with. But this will keep me busy for a while.

Thanks for reading.

[bbrock]

Picking Boogers

I've been busy but unfortunately, this is probably the most boring part of the project for you all, but gratifying for me because the chassis is finally starting to look in life like it has looked in my mind for a long time. I've been meticulously going over all chassis front to rear cleaning all the boogers and turds off: making sure every plug weld is completely filled and ground flat, tuning the flanges so they are straight and even, all butt welds are light tight and ground flat, and generally getting the metal as close to perfection as my limited skills will allow. It's looking really good but sadly, phone pics don't do it justice and it won't be acceptable until I've applied a little filler to smooth welding shrink lines that seem to pop out like huge zits in photos. Here's just a few pics but I'll keep them to a minimum so it doesn't get to tedious.

[bbrock]

I discovered some piss perforations providing unwanted ventilation to the foot well.



I decided to gamble with just trying to zap the holes shut. Well that didn't work.



Just the slightest tap of the welding trigger on low left me chasing holes around. This will need a patch, but it was getting late in the day and I need to be fresh for it.

Details Matter

Instead, I finished the day yesterday on a little detail that has been bugging me.The RD door jambs don't have the same detail connecting them to the rear quarter as the originals. Here's how they look.



Sorry I've forgotten who's thread I stole this from, but I latched on to this pic as a reference.



I'm not sure what's different with the RD piece, but I couldn't replicate that detail exactly. Instead, I tried to capture the essence with my own interpretation.



I'm not sure why I was getting contamination in that weld, but I'll be able to fill those pits. Not only does this look nicer, but I'm sure it is essential to restore the proper aerodynamics to the car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[bbrock]

Another Detail

This evening I went to the shop with the intention of patching that footwell, but decided I wasn't in the right mood so went for something easier and more fun. You may recall that I had to fabricate and patch the driver's end of the cabin cross member. It originally looked like this. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)



When I soaked the original e-brake switch in rust remover, it disintegrated, leaving me with no pattern for replicating the mounting hole until I got a new switch. Among some parts I bought from @raynekat 's end of project bargains was a collection of door switches and pieces. I bought them hoping there might be a single pole switch in the batch. There was! Now I could lay out to finally finish the cross member repair.



After a bit of drilling and filing, I had what I was after.



It even works (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)

[Yasha7fold]

Awesome man. I’m in Billings. What part of Montana are you in?

[bbrock]

Awesome man. I’m in Billings. What part of Montana are you in?

Just down the road half way between Livingston and Bozeman (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Dion]

Look at all that clean metal!! Wow.
Nice Brent. Let the next chapter begin.
I’m storing key pics from your repairs.
Great reference. Carry on....... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bbrock]

Look at all that clean metal!! Wow.
Nice Brent. Let the next chapter begin.
I’m storing key pics from your repairs.
Great reference. Carry on....... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Thanks Dion. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) If there is ever a spot you'd like a picture of, let me know. I have a crapload of pics that I don't post. I think I'm at overkill as it is.

I forgot to mention the most important part of my latest work. I rewelded any areas of seams on the floor pan and longs that didn't get full penetration due to the failing diode problems. i wanted to make darn sure those members got complete metal fusion. For example, you can see panel edges in a few spots in the left pic. Those have been welded through and ground down.



The only sucky thing is that it means I burned through some of the epoxy primer inside my longs, but I'll be spraying inside with Eastwood Internal Frame Coating followed by 3M cavity wax soon, so they should be well protected.

[TravisNeff]

I had to grind and reweld my floor seam as well. You just can't get things clean enough.

[76-914]

If you don't get hung up on the paint work, I'm thinking you and that teener will be at the next WCR. You will never get nominated for the "Slackers Thread" at this pace. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bbrock]

Not much happening with work right now (I'll never get used to the feast or famine life of a self-employed consultant), but that means more time to work on the car. Yesterday I started on the foot well patch and I just finished it. I think this was the hardest patch of the whole project only because I thought I was done with these @#$% things. Access was a bit tricky but not the worst. I didn't document the process - same as the dozens of other patches. It came out decent enough. I wound up with a nasty oil can from putting too much heat in the panel stubbornly trying to zap those holes shut before resigning myself to make another patch. A few passes with the trusty magic shrinking disk had that panel straight and TOIT again!



Backside isn't too bad either. Photo doesn't do just to how narrow that crevice at the bottom is. If it wasn't going to be buried under spray-on seam sealer, I'd get in there with a carbide burr and clean it up more.



It did extract its pound of flesh though. Floor pan looks like a crime scene.



I couldn't work in that cramped space without the cable ties on the tunnel digging into my arm. No biggie.



I've said I'd completed my last patch before, so I won't jinx it - just quietly hoping. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[bbrock]

Moved on to the engine bay today. Plenty of boogers to clean up in there.



Still a work in progress so no "after" shots yet.

The day I finished blasting was cool and rainy so the engine bay flash rusted right away. Thought this was interesting; can you pick out the RD Galvanneal panels?



I got a package from Belmetric today which let me take care of that yellow tag on the battery tray. Nice to have that done.



I wasn't going to grind the plug welds under that battery tray, but now that I see this photo, I've changed my mind. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)

[mepstein]

I use some old foam pads, the kind that interlock with different colors, saved from when my kids were young and used them as an indoor playground. Throw one or two in the car when you have to sit or lay down on the floor. Cardboard works but the foam is actually comfy.

[euro911]

... I couldn't work in that cramped space without the cable ties on the tunnel digging into my arm. No biggie.



...

'Tis a mere flesh wound ... it'll buff out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

Hell, simply looking at my arms long enough seems to rip the skin open these days (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[bbrock]

... I couldn't work in that cramped space without the cable ties on the tunnel digging into my arm. No biggie.


...

'Tis a mere flesh wound ... it'll buff out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

Hell, simply looking at my arms long enough seems to rip the skin open these days (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Yep. It'll buff out alright. A smart person would use padding or put some tape on the sharp edge like Mark said. Honestly, I didn't notice it was poking me until I saw the lovely painting on the floor pan. Then I ignored it and went back to work. If I'm not bleeding from something at the end of the day, I wonder what's wrong.

[bbrock]

Had an hour to kill before a conference call this morning which was just enough time to sneak out to the shop and mostly knock off an item on the task list (a great luxury of working from home). When I welded up the outer longs from RD, there were nuts welded in the bottom for the rocker covers on the passenger side, but I neglected to check the driver's side and nope, holes but no nuts. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) It would have been easy to weld those nuts in BEFORE the panel went on, but we're beyond that now. The solution was these weld-on nutserts:



I was a little bummed to see the threaded portion sunk kind of deep in the tube. It would work, but would require a longer bolt than OEM spec and that's the kind of thing that would drive me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif) So instead of sinking them all the way, I mounted them so the threaded portion starts just to the inner side of the hole.



I ground them off and think that should work.



I said almost completed the task because there is supposed to be a third nut on each side on the inner wheel well section. The RD panel isn't drilled or fitted with a nut (maybe because there is too much variance in how that piece gets fitted to the car) and subsequently, none on the driver's side where I fabricated a patch using the RD piece as a template. So I will have to mount the rocker covers to locate those holes tomorrow to drill and fit with inserts.



At least it was a little progress for the day.

[bbrock]

FUCH!!!

I was making great progress today and was on track to finish the metal work by the end of the day when I heard air compressor kick on and then quickly off again. The motor was hot as hell so I pulled the cover off to inspect. Found the start of a mouse nest over part of the intake but it didn't seem like it should have blocked air flow that much. Let the motor cool down and started up again. In about 20 seconds, it shut off again. Shit! Tore it completely apart, hoping to find more of that nest inside the motor to explain the problem.



No luck. Things looked pretty clean inside. No sign of scorched wires and bearing still spun freely. The only things I found were some carbon buildup on a pair of relay contacts that I assume are part of the thermal protection circuit, and the main blower on the compressor was loose but still spinning. I cleaned the contacts and put the damn thing back together, still not sure what the problem is. By this time, I'd lost half a day of work and it was too dark to mount the compressor back on the tank. I'll do that in the morning and hope for the best.



Not sure what the plan will be if it's still not working. Just when I thought I might actually beat winter and get some paint on the car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hissyfit.gif)

[tygaboy]

As if just the work on the car wasn't enough... I know you know this but, once you're car is "done", it's these sorts of things that add a richness to the story of the build.
That and bad dioeds, etc...!
Chin up, my friend. You're getting it done!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[bbrock]

Well, I put the compressor back together this morning and fired it up. It made 122 psi so we'll see how it goes. It bothers me that I never found anything definitive wrong. One possibility is our shitty power supply out here in the sticks. Our power flickered off while I had the motor open and torn up. I suppose it's possible we weren't getting full voltage on both phases which could explain a hot running motor. Keeping fingers crossed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[bbrock]

Compressor has been running well the last 3 days. Still a mystery why it was overheating on Saturday. Continued with tidying up, including replacing a few of the metal tab cable hold downs. This little bastard is the one that finally made me lose my shit but I got it in (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bootyshake.gif)



Why Do Something the Hard Way When There's an Even More Difficult Option?

Today I was down to the last yellow tag.



Started by making a cutout template.



Got everything marked out and ready to cut but couldn't find a good reference photo of the opening so put out an S.O.S. on the World. @bretth came to my rescue with a good shot of his car which confirmed my suspiscion. There is supposed to be a flange bend surrounding the fuel pump opening. That changed thing a bit. I set my compass to 7mm (a common flange width on the car) and scribed lines inside the final opening dimensions. These would be my cut lines.



Now I was ready to cut.



To be continued...

[bbrock]

After the cuts were made, I hammered over the 7mm flanges using a steel bar clamped to the back to form a bending brake. The photo shows a wood brake because the metal bar wouldn't fit in this bottom area. It worked just as well.



After finishing these with hammer and dolly and a little file work, the looked like factory work, and these little flanges really help add stiffness back to that panel. After cutting the opening, the panel drummed really loud when thumped. After bending the flanges, it sounded very solid.

Last step was to weld in some small tabs in the corners and grind everything smooth. Now here's the frustrating part. The finished product actually looks pretty amazing, but every picture I take of these bare metal areas wind up looking like a bag of buttholes. You'll just have to trust me it looks better in life. Can't wait to have primer on so photos don't all look like ass.





And one with the cover on.



Now the only welding left is to reinstall the frunk braces. I'm waiting until closer to primer for that as I want to spray under the headlight buckets and backsides of the reinforcements with epoxy before they go on. Everything else has been gone over, ground, straightened, massaged, and sometimes cussed. Time to step back and admire her in total before she goes out to the tent for an acid bath. She's solid, clean, and dead sexy!