Rebuiding Inside-out Options

[bkrantz]

Turns out if you flip the grille over, the letters can fall out.

[bkrantz]

New press-fit retainers.

[bkrantz]

Pretty easy to push on the letter studs. The sticky stuff keeps the letters from sliding.

[bkrantz]

New rubber welting material. That goes between the leading edge of the grille and the lid.

[bkrantz]

Salvaged speed nuts.

[bkrantz]

Enough to hold the grille onto the lid.

[bkrantz]

New edge covering pieces.

[bkrantz]

Pressed onto the edges (sides and rear).

[bkrantz]

Engine lid ready for installation. But one more thing...

[bkrantz]

I want to mount my nifty 914 World badge, but the stud spacing is not quite right for the grille mesh. I have to think about this.

[Dion]

Bob your work is fantastic as usual. I don’t know if you going for authenticity on the engine cover or just doing what looks good to you. I found this pic on World showing approximately the “factory” correct spacing.
I know you just put a lot of hours in this but thought you might want to know if you didn’t already.
Cheers!!

Link: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=57029

[wonkipop]

@bkrantz

very interesting read following your rear suspension set up.

remember doing that a couple of years ago.
not sure what springs you are running.
think they can make a difference to things.

og factory settings for the spring perch are suprisingly far up the shock absorber!

not that anyone should necessarily be seeking to do that.
but is an interesting base line and what you find is the car does sit suprisingly high in stock set up. not everyone's cup of tea.

i changed from the original boges to a bilstein set up as part of suspension rebuild.
we had the og rear boges with the perches in original position as reference.
non adjustable back in the day.
pretty sure i have softest springs. still using originals. a 74 1.8. could not find any paint dots but springs were coated in old original undercoat. but it has original front and rear sway bars so think spring set up would have been soft with the sway bars to compensate and to give a comfort tuned ride?

the spring perch on the rear was 180mm up from the bottom!
surprising distance.
once on the ground again dead set match for how it always was.

we worked away from that to level the front and once we had it level we went back to the factory manual and checked against their measurements.

found ourselves right at the limits of the 5 mm up or down they speced.
taking on board ian karr's comments about the original nose up attitude that USA market cars seemed to have been set to, i think the factory went to the upper +5mm of the front dimensions they give to get the nose up setting.
we found going to the -5mm seemed to be level front to back with rear spring perches as per original. ie 90mm - 5mm = 85mm we achieved 85mm on that A-B dimension.

its surprisingly high off the ground at around 190mm to the underside of the sill panel seam. but in fact thats the way it always was on mine, stock standard.

there is one more esoteric dimension hidden away in things. its in the glove box manual.
its the min clearance of car. 130mm. its to the u/s of the low pressure flaps at the front of the engine bay. we checked against that and found we matched that too with all our settings.

those factory dimensions in the manual work very easily and get the car level within their tolerances - but only if you have the reference dimension on the rear shocks for the lower spring perch and i'm guessing only if using the original factory springs.

if you want it lower i guess you work the perch down on the rear springs and keep setting it level. and use the upper value of A-B = 90+5 mm they give you on the front. that should be the way it works because A is fixed (your wheel c/l) but you keep making B smaller as you lower the car.


photos of car in 89 and 21. rear is the same its always been (but with way better shocks) and i have levelled the front. back then it had the nose up USA understeer stance.

a lot of people take their cars lower i realise. but this is what the factory benchline looks like merely for reference.

[bkrantz]

Bob your work is fantastic as usual. I don’t know if you going for authenticity on the engine cover or just doing what looks good to you. I found this pic on World showing approximately the “factory” correct spacing.
I know you just put a lot of hours in this but thought you might want to know if you didn’t already.
Cheers!!

Link: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=57029

Thanks much, Dion. I initially laid the letters out like that, but then decided to make room for badges in both corners. That requires squeezing the letters a bit closer.

[bkrantz]

@bkrantz

very interesting read following your rear suspension set up.

remember doing that a couple of years ago.
not sure what springs you are running.
think they can make a difference to things.

og factory settings for the spring perch are suprisingly far up the shock absorber!

not that anyone should necessarily be seeking to do that.
but is an interesting base line and what you find is the car does sit suprisingly high in stock set up. not everyone's cup of tea.

i changed from the original boges to a bilstein set up as part of suspension rebuild.
we had the og rear boges with the perches in original position as reference.
non adjustable back in the day.
pretty sure i have softest springs. still using originals. a 74 1.8. could not find any paint dots but springs were coated in old original undercoat. but it has original front and rear sway bars so think spring set up would have been soft with the sway bars to compensate and to give a comfort tuned ride?

the spring perch on the rear was 180mm up from the bottom!
surprising distance.
once on the ground again dead set match for how it always was.

we worked away from that to level the front and once we had it level we went back to the factory manual and checked against their measurements.

found ourselves right at the limits of the 5 mm up or down they speced.
taking on board ian karr's comments about the original nose up attitude that USA market cars seemed to have been set to, i think the factory went to the upper +5mm of the front dimensions they give to get the nose up setting.
we found going to the -5mm seemed to be level front to back with rear spring perches as per original. ie 90mm - 5mm = 85mm we achieved 85mm on that A-B dimension.

its surprisingly high off the ground at around 190mm to the underside of the sill panel seam. but in fact thats the way it always was on mine, stock standard.

there is one more esoteric dimension hidden away in things. its in the glove box manual.
its the min clearance of car. 130mm. its to the u/s of the low pressure flaps at the front of the engine bay. we checked against that and found we matched that too with all our settings.

those factory dimensions in the manual work very easily and get the car level within their tolerances - but only if you have the reference dimension on the rear shocks for the lower spring perch and i'm guessing only if using the original factory springs.

if you want it lower i guess you work the perch down on the rear springs and keep setting it level. and use the upper value of A-B = 90+5 mm they give you on the front. that should be the way it works because A is fixed (your wheel c/l) but you keep making B smaller as you lower the car.


photos of car in 89 and 21. rear is the same its always been (but with way better shocks) and i have levelled the front. back then it had the nose up USA understeer stance.

a lot of people take their cars lower i realise. but this is what the factory benchline looks like merely for reference.

Thanks for all the info. Interesting to see how varied people approach ride height.

I have 914 Rubber 100 lb springs and new Bilstein shocks. Right now my preference is lower than stock but not "slammed".

As I understand, one limit with stock suspension is to keep the front A-arms from going beyond horizontal. I think my current setting of 5° should do that.

[wonkipop]

yes, i think my spring rate would be half yours.
original springs.
far as i can work out the range for those was 50lb to 60lb for 1 -3 green dot range.
would not mind betting mine are softest but was hard to know. not much of a difference really in those standard springs and were pretty soft on the 4s.

i think the spring strength make a difference when you set these things up.
sinks down more once you sit the car back down.

nice work you are doing on your car and its always interesting to see how someone goes about setting one up on its suspension. esp with different spring strength set ups.

[bkrantz]

Just a short time to play in the garage today, but enough to install the engine lid and do an initial adjustment. I tried it as far forward as the mounting bracket slots would allow, but the leading edge of the lid rubbed a bit on the firewall. So I shifted it back.

[bkrantz]

Looks OK.

BTW, for now I do not plan to install the rain tray and drains. I have "rain hats" for the air filters.

[bkrantz]

Hi, everyone. I'm back home from teaching my field geology course in central Utah. Great students and great rocks, but just a bit too much wind. Once I get their reports graded I can get back to more 914 work.

[bkrantz]

While I was gone, I received another elastic strap to try for a relay board cover hold down. This is a Voile 20". And it comes in lots of colors.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Z4D67QG?ref=pp...etails&th=1

[bkrantz]

The fit is just right, and it should hold--and look a bit "custom".