My son doesn't have the time, money, shop or interest to continue his 914 project so he gave it to me.



He bought this 71 914 about 5 years ago. It has a 2.0 out of a 73.

When he brought it home the valves would not hold adjustment. We found the cooling tin full of leaves and the trap doors for the cooling wired shut! I'm sure the little to no cooling is what caused the heads to crack and the stems to streach.

We rebuilt the engine. if I remember correctly he spent about $1000 on the heads alone. I think it has 96 mm big bore if remember right. Anyway the motor runs great now. The transmission has a whine in high gear so I will have to go through it.

An assessment shows good amount rust in the usual spot. Gee I wonder why the door gap is screwed up?



Oh this might be why...





I am going to salvage this car but it will take a rear half floor pan, passenger side inner and outer long, as well as hell hole area completely rebuilt. I other words most of what is in this picture.



The good thing is my welding skills are quite good and I have a well equipped shop.

My main concern is making sure the car is properly aligned when I go to weld it all back together. I did a search and found one person who actually used a frame jig. Anyone have a good suggestion as to a home made method of checking this?

Thanks for the great deal of information here!

Measure well with a tape measure. There are points on the body that are consistently located that you can measure to & from. Some of the holes are consistent and all of the cut-out tabs on the pinchwelds. Measure the door frames and the interior diagonally as well as measuring sides of the squares, diagonals will tell you more.

This might help:

http://www.914world.com/specs/bodydims.php

http://www.914world.com/specs/underdims.php


Andy

PS:

Thanks Steve, Andy

Those dimensions will help a bunch

I will start buy dropping the engine/trans. and stripping the interior. Then I can weld in some cross bracing before I remove the old bad sheet metal.

So, what did you do to piss your son off bad enough that he felt the need to inflict this horrible punishment on you?


Good luck with the project and welcome to our hell.


Donald

Nice to know you are going to save it. Definately helps having the skills to do it yourself. To many 914's in this condition get parted. I understand it as it is expensive to pay someone else to fix it. Welcome to the insanity

I think we should have a T-Shirt made that says

Can we get the VIN registered on this Guy?

Buy four new jack stands...and possibly four furniture dollies.
Once you get going, it will be nice to be able to move the project around when you need to.

If you remove the rear suspension as well as the engine it takes alot of the load off the rear of the car, plus you will probably need to do the inner suspension console in the rear while you are there.

Leave the doors on the car and dont adjust them.
Put a long rod with a turn buckle inline going from the upper seat belt bolt and then welded to the lower inside of the front door pillar, right next to the speaker/heating tube.

Crank the turn buckle on both sides till you get the correct gaps back and looking good.
You will be lengthening the bar and pushing the top of the door gap open.
Then measure at the top of windshield to targa bar...SirAndy posted links to what I am talking about.

Do this with no motor and no rear suspension and sitting level on jack stands.
I use a 2*4 flat running side to side under the rear lower firewall and not touching the outer longs.
Put the jack stands under that board so all the weight of the rear is on the 2*4 and jack stands and nothing is touching the inner long...then you wont have to move them while you fix that area.

Rich

are you carbed or d-jet? if d-jet make sure you'r rich enough for the new 2056 cc needs with the must do mod.'s.

mike

Thanks for the input Mike. It has the D jet injection. My plan is to keep it.

Can you point me to the modification that you are talking about? This is makes sense but I didn't know that it could be altered.

With the right cam choice, dJet can still be used provided all components are in good working order and you make an adjustment to the MPS. Bleyseng is a member here and he makes the gross adjustment if you send it to him (sorry Geoff if you are no longer doing that). It involves a screw adjustment on the MPS that can be done with an O2 and CO sniffer.

I used a jig on the front of my car. It requires a straight car to make it. Check out the link in my signature if you want to see it. You can fab up a jig for the rear. If it has a series of adjustments you can make your car the same as the dimensions in the link Andy provided.

Good luck and

A "free" 914...wah ha ha ha haaaaa!


as for maintaining body alignment, what Rich said. Good luck Bill, we're here for ya.

Tom

definately work the m.p.s. settings to match your needs. the d-jet runs off preset requirements and doesn't adjust like a modern mass air flow f.i. there are alot of new built motors with melted pistons becouse this was ignored. PLUS make sure you have the proper/matching c.p.u. and m.p.s. for your year/motor. it's not uncommon over the years to have mismatched components. like rob said at least sniff out the exhaust and confirm your not too lean. vw ... err, porshe like it fat anyway

It can be done and it sounds like you have the skills.

Once you finish it your son will want it back!

Yup... And probably for free...