Spoke's 71 2.056L 914 Progress Thread, Driving it Like I Stole It Options

[Spoke]

Piece for the floor out of 18ga.


And welded in



Welded up the existing floor to the new long piece.

[Spoke]

Engine firewall repair piece under the driver heater tube.



Welded in. Look Ma, no more rust holes in the engine compartment.

[Spoke]

Triangle pieces by Spoke out of 16ga. Cost per piece: about $1 plus 1 beer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)

[rick 918-S]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif)

[Spoke]

Yet another reason why I'm not working on my 914...Biz trip to Paris...Dammit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Spoke]

Finally done with my Audi heater fan, other Audi timing belt, Audi rear wheel bearing, 911 rear wheel bearing, 3 trips to Europe, 1 to Detroit, 1 to San Francisco, and I just finished cutting the grass.

Now some 914 work. Got the triangle plates welded in.

Had a minor safety scare. While under the car butt welding the triangles, I hit a gap and had a big splatter. I felt it come down on my head and my baseball cap protected my head but a piece found its way into my ear and I could hear my ear hair sizzling. I threw helmet and cap off and shook my head to get the weld out. Didn't have much pain but it did scare the crap out of me. I used a pair a ear plugs after that.

Left Triangle


Closed up the tail shift mounting hole with a bolt. Threaded it in, cut it off, and welded shut.


Right plate

[Spoke]

Found some rust on the engine mount. What a shock.

[Spoke]

Finished up the last of the welding in the engine bay. Just did a few tabs for the fuel lines, brake lines, and ebrake cables.

[Spoke]

While poking the inside of the engine mount, I poked through the outside of the mount. A better man would replace the mount. That dude don't live here. Cut out the old stuff and weld in new. The top hole is just between sheets of metal. I closed that one up too.

[Spoke]

The long is gone behind the engine mount. Look Ma, no hole now.

[wayne1234]

I was in the same situations a few months ago on mine, kinda got a flash back (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) .. for a while it seemed like the welding wouldn't ever end, but it did, now all I need to do is finish the interior... I had a sizzle in my ear also, but didnt learn much from it, and it happened at least 2 more times (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) Thats Why I say I have literally put in blood sweat and tears...

[Spoke]

The bolts that secure the swing arm adjustment plates snapped off several years ago so I drilled out the bolts and added a nut on top to secure the swing arm.

Solution is to weld bolts to the existing support. To get more grip length I welded 2 bolts together.



Nuts welded on.

[Spoke]

Finally finished with the engine mount.

This is the last of the welding to be done in the engine compartment. Next comes cleaning off the rest of the undercoating and tar, then wire wheel more of the rusty areas, sand, then paint.

[Spoke]

I welded a similar 16ga plate on the passenger side so decided to weld one on the driver side. Also seam welded the upper and lower firewall. Needed to weld this before prepping the engine bay for paint.

[Spoke]

Finally finished all the welding in the engine compartment.

Seam sealed all the new welding and also some old stuff that I didn't seam seal before when I repaired the trunk floor.

Painted all the surfaces inside the engine compartment.

[Spoke]

More Paint...

[Spoke]

More paint...

[Spoke]

Cleaned and painted the suspension pieces.

Next steps to clean up fuel tank area which will include some rust repair and painting, plumb and wire fuel pump up front, then run fuel lines.

[Spoke]

Finally on 4 wheels again. The jackstands are idle for the moment...


Next jobs are rust repairs in and around the gas tank. There's a rust through hole in the fender that I'm sure will grow once I start digging into it. I will also weld in an angle iron brace to support the Camp914 hood shocks.



The passenger side corner was totally gone so I'll fabricate some new pieces and weld in.

[Spoke]

Welded up the hole in the fender and the weatherstrip channel.

Also welded on a piece of angle iron to strengthen the hood shock (spring) mount. When I put on the hood shock a while back, the original spring mount just bent under the stress of the shock. So I got a piece of angle iron to back it up. I didn't weld it back then as it wasn't necessary.

Welded the gap between the fender and cowl too. This got real weird near the end when I got a lot of spitting and popping. I thought at first that my gas had run out, turned off, or got clogged, but I found that there was lead on top of the fender and that's what was popping and spitting.