Need Crumple Zone Repair Advice, Repairing LH inner wheel well crumple zone Options

[mate914]

I too like the old barn.
Back to car. I do see the crease. Your work looks good. I'm still not sure it would have ever affected alignment. a lot of adjustments in the rear for alignment. You can remove the shock very easy and nothing will fall. You will need that space for tooling.
Most 50 year old 914's are twisted so to speak.
Matt

Love the foundation do you wrench in a cave?

Not far from it! Basement of an old barn.

[930cabman]

Great looking progress, I am in a similar boat with the drivers rear corner previously impacted. Form what I can tell many of the body dimensions are MIA from the factory sketches. Hopefully I will be available to dive back into my project soon, life, ...... and more life

thanks for posting and keep your momentum going

[didenpx]

I pulled the strut to straighten out the interior of the shock tower. There was still evidence of creasing and I used the pneumatic expanding jaws to push it back into what I think is the right shape. After that I cleaned up the area and sprayed it with Rust Destroyer (silver) to protect everything.

I also noticed when I was pulling the rear strut that it was so close to the outer side of the shock tower that the spring was very nearly touching the structure. At first I thought I was dealing with additional/worse crash damage than expected but after comparing the LH and RH struts there was a raised area on the spring perch that was oriented opposite on the LH to the RH side (though the KYB labels were both facing the rear). When I reassembled it I rotated it 180 degrees so that the spring perch profile mirrored the orientation on the RH side and it now is nicely centered in the tower. Hopefully the PO just had it backwards ????

I also took the opportunity to wire wheel as much of the trailing arm as possible and shot it with Eastwood extreme chassis black to preserve it. If/when I ever need to pull the engine I'll probably detail and rebuild everything back here and have things powder coated. My goal now is just to get it sorted and on the road.

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[didenpx]

And here's what the inside of the wheel well looks like now; next it's on to straightening the remainder of the creasing and crumpling in the inner wheel well and pulling the top of that wheel arch back into shape.

[didenpx]

Closing this thread out. I fitted the LH quarter in place and even without any fettling things are lining up near the taillights and the gaps to the driver side door gaps are looking well within tolerances. On to the next challenges!

[930cabman]

Great looking work, I wish I had your time/energy. My similar project is a few months out, if I am lucky. thanks again for posting

[sixaddict]

Amazing work……..can’t even imagine doing something like this…. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[930cabman]

Amazing work……..can’t even imagine doing something like this…. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Got to be crazy

[Superhawk996]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[didenpx]

Just to be transparent: the quarter is just loosely in place (note the single vice grip). I still need to weld in the door jamb and splice on the sail panel. But thanks very much!