"elluva a hole. Still welding after all these years..., latest -did the factory run out of jacking doughnuts? Options

[flyer86d]

Wow! Nice work.

Charlie

[brant]

Great job!!

[worn]

Great job!!

Thanks folks! The piece of foam is from the very tip of the rear fender, just above the lights. I used a piece of cable and a piece of brake line to make a mini wire brush. In an electric drill you can spin it in either direction, winding or unwinding the cable. Crude, but gets into tight spots. I also discovered that the rubber sealer fears fire. A quick run with the torch and it softens. But it sure will make you dirty in a hurry! More to come.

[Dion]

Wow, way to go Warren. That was a task. Well done.

[worn]

Kept hitting my head while backing out of the engine bay. My solution.


I finished up the rear with a couple patches where metal was in layers surrounded by failed sealant. My favorite was this one, which spans two pressings - the rear fender overlaps the piece that covers the rear of the trunk.


The two pieces were made separately and plug welded together before welding to the car. I flattened some of the left overs from the trunk floor piece and then reshaped. The seam is crooked, but I am not going to fix it.

[worn]

Another hole found. I had to buy the B-pillar pressings twice because I originally thought the rust didn't go all of the way to the top and fixed only the bottom. Had to carefully try to remove the plug welds, which is harder than drilling out spot welds.
This shows the new excavation with earlier fix still present.

[worn]

You can buy the B-pillar, but not the piece of the upper inner wheel housing. This goes from the engine bay all of the way through into the cabin. Again I hadn't bought my galvaneal sheet, so I flattened out a piece of trunk scrap.


You can buy the tube that lets air move in and out of the cabin, but by the time I was done I had carved most of it away. The piece that holds the tube also holds the door latch plate.


You can buy the piece that holds the door latch along with the nut plate. But, you can't buy the little box that houses the nut plate. I have seen some cars where the factory just used a strapp across the middle of the nut plate. This is a '76 and the box and nut plate were liberally covered in sealer...thus the need for repair (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
I used silver bearing brazing rod to attach the tube, but epoxy wold probably be just as good.

[worn]

Into the big hole.






Not shown is the welding the patch inside where it meets that inner fender piece.

[worn]

Why should the driver's side be any different?

[worn]

The sail rusted where failed sealer met overlapping metal and rain and road spray. Same on both sides. Patched.

[worn]

Got most of the grime out of the front wheel wells, along with the sealer. The rubber sealer fears fire and a propane torch helps. With suitable caution.
At the bow I will be replacing the trunk floor to get rid of the former AC hack. And under the turn signals rust again. Not sure, but this may be the last of the wwelding. Or not.
Left outside.

inside

Right side.

[worn]

I still have some welding to do up in the bow, but summer is here and so is humid air. I have to protect bare metal. I have two questions.
1
I love PPG DP40. I will be putting it on and then working with some small amount of body filler. Then another layer of epoxy. There are places where rust lurks untouchable. Between layers of metal, or in isolated pits. I don’t want to make the good metal into thin foil just to sand out a couple of pits. But, what to do? I have three products that use acids to turn the ferric iron to black ferrous form. This is more stable.
I can use them and cover with epoxy. Or, I can just trap the rust away from water and o two with the primer. For those who use epoxy primer, what is your practice?

Number the two.
I was thinking of covering the wheel wells and underside with Raptor bed liner. Ever notice how antagonistic the names for truck products are? Seems like a good idea, but I saw someone post saying that this is used to hide sins of the DAPO, me in this case. Big deal? Anything better?

Thanks!

[76-914]

I still have some welding to do up in the bow, but summer is here and so is humid air. I have to protect bare metal. I have two questions.
1
I love PPG DP40. I will be putting it on and then working with some small amount of body filler. Then another layer of epoxy. There are places where rust lurks untouchable. Between layers of metal, or in isolated pits. I don’t want to make the good metal into thin foil just to sand out a couple of pits. But, what to do? I have three products that use acids to turn the ferric iron to black ferrous form. This is more stable.
I can use them and cover with epoxy. Or, I can just trap the rust away from water and o two with the primer. For those who use epoxy primer, what is your practice?

Number the two.
I was thinking of covering the wheel wells and underside with Raptor bed liner. Ever notice how antagonistic the names for truck products are? Seems like a good idea, but I saw someone post saying that this is used to hide sins of the DAPO, me in this case. Big deal? Anything better?

Thanks!

Hey Warren, 1st good work my man; 2nd, If your not in a hurry to spray those wheel wells I have a gallon of bed liner I can give you at the RRC but you'd need to source a pint of activator. I traded a flux core unit to a friend a few years back for 2 gallons of bed liner and one pint of activator. It's just been sitting around so LMK if you want it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[worn]

I still have some welding to do up in the bow, but summer is here and so is humid air. I have to protect bare metal. I have two questions.
1
I love PPG DP40. I will be putting it on and then working with some small amount of body filler. Then another layer of epoxy. There are places where rust lurks untouchable. Between layers of metal, or in isolated pits. I don’t want to make the good metal into thin foil just to sand out a couple of pits. But, what to do? I have three products that use acids to turn the ferric iron to black ferrous form. This is more stable.
I can use them and cover with epoxy. Or, I can just trap the rust away from water and o two with the primer. For those who use epoxy primer, what is your practice?

Number the two.
I was thinking of covering the wheel wells and underside with Raptor bed liner. Ever notice how antagonistic the names for truck products are? Seems like a good idea, but I saw someone post saying that this is used to hide sins of the DAPO, me in this case. Big deal? Anything better?

Thanks!

Hey Warren, 1st good work my man; 2nd, If your not in a hurry to spray those wheel wells I have a gallon of bed liner I can give you at the RRC but you'd need to source a pint of activator. I traded a flux core unit to a friend a few years back for 2 gallons of bed liner and one pint of activator. It's just been sitting around so LMK if you want it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Thank you!
A gallon? What color? I have to consider if I may. I am almost at the point where after two years of very slow cleaning and patching the project might actually move along. But I have to pull the plug on it for awhile to get ready for the trip.
Any advice beyond that?

[76-914]

I still have some welding to do up in the bow, but summer is here and so is humid air. I have to protect bare metal. I have two questions.
1
I love PPG DP40. I will be putting it on and then working with some small amount of body filler. Then another layer of epoxy. There are places where rust lurks untouchable. Between layers of metal, or in isolated pits. I don’t want to make the good metal into thin foil just to sand out a couple of pits. But, what to do? I have three products that use acids to turn the ferric iron to black ferrous form. This is more stable.
I can use them and cover with epoxy. Or, I can just trap the rust away from water and o two with the primer. For those who use epoxy primer, what is your practice?

Number the two.
I was thinking of covering the wheel wells and underside with Raptor bed liner. Ever notice how antagonistic the names for truck products are? Seems like a good idea, but I saw someone post saying that this is used to hide sins of the DAPO, me in this case. Big deal? Anything better?

Thanks!

Hey Warren, 1st good work my man; 2nd, If your not in a hurry to spray those wheel wells I have a gallon of bed liner I can give you at the RRC but you'd need to source a pint of activator. I traded a flux core unit to a friend a few years back for 2 gallons of bed liner and one pint of activator. It's just been sitting around so LMK if you want it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Thank you!
A gallon? What color? I have to consider if I may. I am almost at the point where after two years of very slow cleaning and patching the project might actually move along. But I have to pull the plug on it for awhile to get ready for the trip.
Any advice beyond that?

It's black Warren. I used a gallon when I converted to water cooled. Shot it everywhere water might get if I developed a leak. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[worn]

Throughout this project I have found two tools really helpful
The first is a tube with a clutch cable piece sticking out. It looks like this and


gets into places like this


I use the piece of copper pipe as a bearing to guide and push the brush along. The number of holes like this is amazing. That is to say there are a lot of them.

Another tool I am fast wearing out is this from Milwaukee. I am not touting the brand but they are the only ones selling something like this. Far more torque than my (cheap) air grinders. I have a dozen air die grinders so that I can choose a bit or sanding disc quickly by just grabbing a different die grinder. The battery powered tools are a bit too pricey for that but Roloc type discs help. You need a lot of batteries if you want to keep at it steady, and the chip will tell you no when the tool heats up.

[worn]

A curious thing about the car is the absence of front jack points. Same on both sides of the floor. Absolutely no sign that the floor was ever molested other than the frunk floor for AC. No signs of welding on either side with bare metal showing inside or out.


This is one of the last 914s ever built. Did the factory just run short of doughnuts that day?

[worn]

Here is another shot...ad nauseum I suppose. It shows what you do when the wires wear down. Just use a cutter to remove some of the tube.


And here is yet another place to use one. As you can see I have moved ahead into the bow.

[worn]

Waited to replace the frunk floor so I could crawl through the hole to clean and sand as needed. Time to finish that part with a new trunk floor patch that RD sells for replacing the AC modified floor.


Still have to finish patching the holes at the very front. I hope that I am on the last spool of wire and the last tank of Ar/CO2.

[SirAndy]

A curious thing about the car is the absence of front jack points. Same on both sides of the floor. Absolutely no sign that the floor was ever molested other than the frunk floor for AC. No signs of welding on either side with bare metal showing inside or out.

This is one of the last 914s ever built. Did the factory just run short of doughnuts that day?

General consensus is that those donuts aren't jack points but were used to hold the chassis in place on the conveyor belts at the factory.

If you look at the backside of that area, there is no support what-so-ever to handle the full weight of the car. You will see the floor pan buckled up there on a *lot* of 914s.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)