GT Build; flares add flare Options

[Bates]

After several years of planning and a few 'false starts', I am back working on my 914.

My name is Bates McLain, I live in Madison, Va, and I have always been a car guy/motorhead or what ever you want to call someone who gets pleasure from making old cars beautiful again.


I purchased an ex race car because I figured it was easier to civilize a racer into a street car than fix a pile of rusted seams and 50 year old parts, either way I knew the car needed to come apart pretty much totally to have the finished car suit my plan.

I owned two 914s previously. First was a 73 1.7 I bought used from the local Porsche/Audi dealer in 1978. I loved the car, incredible fuel mileage, nimble and never a problem with the Alaska Blue Metalic beauty. I was working as a mechanic at a 'foriegn' car repair shop at the time, where i serviced lots of 914s and other cool cars.

I sold that car to a customer about 1980. I missed the car afterwards, somehow the Toyota SR5 pickup didnt actually live up to my expectations or Car and Driver's description, "If BMW made a pickup, this is what it would handle like".

I bought my second 914 in 1983, a 1974 2.0, Delphi Green, appearance group, gasburner wheels....and again, like new. I only owned this one about 6 months before my plans changed due to purchasing business that would allow me to double my income and work 4 days a week!
So another beauty got away, and was back driving a pickup, but I didnt forget how great those little cars were.

In 2013 I found a 73 racecar, with fiberglass flares, already had 5 lug suspension, it was a roller, but it had near zero rust. A near blank canvas to build myself a GT.

Here is one of the first pictures I took of the car after I flat towed it home;

A friend had just purchased a 'Dustless Blasting' system, and his first auto paint removal was my new car. I wanted to see the bare metal of the underside and the known rust trouble spots.
We found some rust, but very little. She would need some repairs and alterations, but now I could now see what was under all the darned black paint the P.O. had sprayed on the interior and both trunks and engine compartment.
Why do people think race cars need to look like a dark cave inside?
No bother all the black cave paint was GONE!!

[Bates]

Once I had the chassis back in the shop with paint removed from the underside, both trunks and the engine bay I began to see some troubles;

The car had been hit pretty hard in the right front, damage was evident done by either attempting to 'pull' the right front corner bodywork back out after a 'shunt' or maybe a bad pull from a ditch (if cars could talk).


Tear in the panel started some careful measurements of the affected corner.
Right front seam was 15mm back and 10mm up from normal.


Have some BONDO!!!



Time to do some exploratory surgery, how much bondo is hiding, whats it gonna take to fix this mess?



The truth revealed;



OH Horrors!!![color=#FF0000]



Time to learn some new skills. I was not planning to do any welding on this car if I remember correctly. Not much anyway.



This is were I left off last year just before leaving to be rally navigator in the '24 Hours of Lemons' first east coast rally.

I helped prep a rally car with my friend Chris Grimm, his Porsche 924S with 4 studded tires, raise the suspension and some other choice mods. Sticker bomb the car at a local brewery, draw a map of the rally with tape on the hood, roof rack with extra spare tire (it is a rally, right), lots of tools and spares.

the Retreat From Moscow Rally;



Starting in Mosow, PA then to Buffalo, NY and Pittsburg, PA.

Next day Pittsburg to Asheville, NC, (did I mention the snow),

3rd day Asheville to the Tail of the Dragon and then on to Memphis, TN for a
waffle tossing contest (really).

Final day; Memphis to Paris , KY then down to Barbour Motorsports Park in
Alabama, for the finish.

(Think about how far we drove!!)

It was a hell of a run, go ahead a Google it, if you want to see some very unusual and creative cars!!!

Oh, the 924S ran flawlessly, Chris drove extremely well, studded tires in the snow is like cheating! It was a great time, but that is another story.