General process for restoration 914 Options

[Stuckon914]

I just started restoring my mostly rusty 914/4, 73. I’m looking for parts and a donor car but want to start. Plan is complete tear down and then repair, replace and reassemble. Likely years beginning to end. I took all weather stripping off, carpet and seats out to clean and inspect but need advice in organizing.

For the more experienced what works? Do you start in one area, take everything off, clean, record, label and store away based on section of car? All left door bits go in ‘left door’ tote with each part labeled.
Do you track parts working condition or is that more assembly section.

I’ve worked on cars before but never to this level of tear down.
I’ve searched and got more lost.

[Uniquecoaches]

Like everybody else has said, take a lot of pictures as you take it apart. Zippie baggies are your friend, as are plastic totes. I even designate a shelf area and that area is tagged with the vin# and description of the vehicle. Going on my 16th year of restorations and I still do this to every single car.

[Stuckon914]

Like everybody else has said, take a lot of pictures as you take it apart. Zippie baggies are your friend, as are plastic totes. I even designate a shelf area and that area is tagged with the vin# and description of the vehicle. Going on my 16th year of restorations and I still do this to every single car.

Beautiful car and nice setup.for the small parts you take off that are plastic or rubber do you treat them with anything for storage?
My garage loft area will be over 100 in the summer and single digits in the winter.

[bbrock]

Like everybody else has said, take a lot of pictures as you take it apart. Zippie baggies are your friend, as are plastic totes. I even designate a shelf area and that area is tagged with the vin# and description of the vehicle. Going on my 16th year of restorations and I still do this to every single car.

Beautiful car and nice setup.for the small parts you take off that are plastic or rubber do you treat them with anything for storage?
My garage loft area will be over 100 in the summer and single digits in the winter.

That's a prime example of the kind of thing I worked on int he evenings. Most important is to store those dry and away from sunlight. Cool is better but the sunlight is most important. Then you can pull them out in batches and clean them up. After they were nice and clean, I treated all rubber and plastic with 30 protectant.

For me, an important part of the process is finding the right balance of tasks to keep things interesting and fun. Cleaning up a huge batch of parts at the beginning of the project would have been pure drudgery for me. Doing it in small batches was much more gratifying and provided really nice breaks from the heavy metal work. The cutting, welding, grinding, and fabricating is challenging and fun but can seem never ending on a big project. It's nice to have little interludes mixed in where you refurbish a nasty instrument cluster to like new condition. In fact, after I refurbished my gauges, I put the instrument cluster in our family room as a show piece for inspiration.

The point being that these big projects are as much mental as they are physical.

[Superhawk996]

It's nice to have little interludes mixed in . . . .

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

In fact, after I refurbished my gauges, I put the instrument cluster in our family room as a show piece for inspiration.

@bbrock

And to think I thought I was the only dork that did this. My wife banishes it to the man cave though!

[Stuckon914]

[quote name='Superhawk996' date='Jan 19 2020, 05:01 PM' post='2778969']
[quote name='bbrock' date='Jan 19 2020, 01:04 PM' post='2778904']


It's nice to have little interludes mixed in . . . .

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)


[quote name='bbrock' date='Jan 19 2020, 01:04 PM' post='2778904']
In fact, after I refurbished my gauges, I put the instrument cluster in our family room as a show piece for inspiration.

[/quote]

@bbrock

And to think I thought I was the only dork that did this. My wife banishes it to the man cave though!
[/quote]

That’s got a wife upstairs vibe all over it. I like the pictures