So I hadn't been terribly active here lately since deciding to jump into the resto fire. I had hoped to have a driver i could restore, what I ended up with (from what I can tell) is a good candidate for saving. So I have been stripping it since September of last year. Took the holidays off and just this week really jumped in heavy.

Quick update, its a 75 L13 (Summer yellow) 1.8L and has had a few paint jobs (terrible ones) over its life.

I found a media blaster here locally (finally) and I have to admit, I LOVE soda blasting. Makes 35 year old metal look like brand new (other than damaged areas). Was considering sand before finding this guy, but he has convinced me. So far he's done the doors, deck lid and hood (threw my 993 track rims in there since they were looking ratty too ).
Next week, his rotisserie is supposed to be available, so we'll load it up, he'll blast it down to metal (may sand blast the floors to get the nasty rust off and see whats left) and he's going to let me have the rotis for 1 month to give me time to replace the pans etc....

Now the questions

Who really has the best price and product when it comes to the replacement metal? I know Auto Atl and Resto Design have them and there seems to be a decent price difference. I know a good many of you have experience with both and since I have none with either, I'd like to rely on what you guys have to say. I'm going to need pans, inner lower firewall, engine tray (holds the engine rubber) under the battery tray, and maybe a couple other small metal bits.

I'll need this stuff pretty quick if I don't want to pay for the rotis after a month, so who can I rely on?

I'll be posting pics soon for a complete diary of the restoration. Hope I can live up to some of the amazing work I've seen here. I plan to do the pans etc myself, but there is rust in tight spots (underside of doors and small area on the rear decklid) that I don't have the talent for. The blaster was a Mercedes body man for many years and I'll defer that intricate work to him.


This is going to get expensive, I can already tell

Oh as a bench mark, he said its going to run between 12-1400 to do the entire car. Sounded high but what are my alternatives .....? It is pretty work though, and I think is the right thing to do

TIA

If $1200-1400 sounds high, get ready....

Oh, and

Looking forward to following along.

great what does that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ mean? Ready for......?

Promise I'll get pics up. i was a nasty rainy day here and I don't need any more rust on newly blasted parts. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice

FWIW we had a tr3 soda blasted at one of the shops I worked at and IIRC it was 1100.00 for JUST the exterior body. No interior, no floors, just a rolling chassis on the ground. 1200.00 isn't bad. Just remeber to run a d.a. with 80-150 grit over it before priming. Soda leaves a film that the paint won't adhere to.

I was told there is a chemical stripper that can be sprayed on and then the car needs to be pressure washed to get the soda residue off. Apparently soda leaves the factory metal intact as apposed to breaking through the "skin" of it. Sand on the other hand penetrates the metal and thats bad. I'm sure the blast man will point me in the right direction.
The price sounded high because I got a price to sand blast at 3-500. Another soda @ $800 and this guy was top dollar. He does pick up and deliver the parts to my hose and is lending the rotisserie so i figure that has value to it
But thanks for the heads up though.

Now I just need new metal (and apparently lots of $$) and I'll be on my way

Scotty,
I'm not in need, but curious....

What's a "d.a."?
Pat

D. A. = dual action sander. Small hand held sander air powerd preferably.

Jack / Jaxdream

I think he means that you're going to spend a lot more than $1200 before you finish this project. But what do I know about that.

Good luck! And post more pics!

Yup.

Nothing will be as cheap as you're thinking. At least in my experience.

Funny, my guy quoted me $12-14K as well. After a while (3 months) I got it back in primer, and a total of $16500 spent there, NOT including the 1K for the flares, the $700 for the fiberglass parts, and the $500 for replacement body panels! I added lots of "wants", so it is my own fault. As it sits now, it need between $5 and 8K for a good paint job!

Just my $0.02!

Good luck! and show it off!

Never mind! the soda and sand blaster chargd me 1000 only!

I'm sure hoping you mean 12-14 HUNDRED and not THOUSAND and $1650, not 16,500!

As for the expense part I figure, 1200 for the blasting, 1000 in new metal, 1000 in body work and prep that I can't do, 2000 +/- for the paint. So 5k in the body/paint with me doing a lot of the metal replacing. I've received prices on interior, which comes to $1000 seats (leather), 600 dash recover (alcantara) 5-750 (misc interior coverings) and a couple hundred for carpet and minor trim bits.

Not doing anything crazy with the motor or suspension, just want a nice stock driver. hope to have 10k or under in it when done.......we'll see how that goes!

So I promised pics and here some are (sorry for the quality, cell pics since my digital "walked off" during my home addition).


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Sorry, I have a ton of pics but this site only lets me load one or two at a time and I know no one wants to go through 30 pages 1 at a time
Should have the rotisserie first of the week and off to the blaster it goes. Will report back once stripped

If the site only lets you load one or two you should resize them to 800px max. See the FAQ forum for how cause I'd love to see more.

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Mark I have a brand new set of floor pans still in the box, got them from Restoration Design and I am looking to sell them, got some other stuff too.

Ian Stott
Moncton

couple more for giggles. I'm sick......and tired.....no really. I can't imagine going through and reducing them. Head is killing me

Ignore this post I am trying to watch the curling match and be online at the same time, not doing either well!!

Ian Stott

Trying to watch Top Gear and do this too, but of you were talking to me (the pans etc) lets take that discussion off line. I'll need parts very soon so let me know what you have.

No going back now!

Was hoping to have the car blasted by now, but apparently my media guy is backed up. Click to view attachment

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pans are gone. New metal is here and waiting for me to weld it in.

So far this is all I can find for real damage in the longs (was rotten where I cut the hole out). Shined light down each way and looks clean! There's bit more to be cut out, but I want to see it after blasting before I cut any more out. Should be able to get away with a small thick steel patch repair.....no?
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And yesterday the fun began. This was a couple hours worth of work. The blaster got the passenger side of the car done in about an hour. The car seems to be in what he calls "cherry" shape considering its age. It has however seen a few mishaps in iys past. Some idiot thought it better to bondo the entire rear quarter panel in lieu of hammer and dolly'g the dents out. That crap was like concrete coming off.....slowly!Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Was told the brass and lead we found throughout the car is factory original (the brass is directly under the word original and is at the front of the sill as well at the top_.
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The window frame is in great shape too
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He got quite a bit done in just a couple hours, can't wait to see it complete and do a final assessment of it's condition. Sand blasting of the surface rust will commence after the soda is complete.
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Careful with the sand as it can warp body panels.

Yeah, I know. We're just doing very small spot areas to get rid of surface rust, not doing entire panels. I'm confident this guy knows what he's doing.

Well its been over a year and I am disappointed to report that my soda blast guy didn't turn out to quite as I had hoped.

After well over a year, I finally had to force my hand to get my car back......and of course it wasn't done. I had been sweet talked into bringing all my parts and pieces over to him for help with welding the new parts in and prime the entire car once new parts were installed, well that didn't go as planned! Most never even made it out of their boxes!

Two bright spots came out of everything though. I only paid the guy (way back in the beginning) $300 for the car to get blasted, and the car is still on his rotisserie with no time frame to give it back! He did cut out the entire back quarter panel for replacement as well as the front corner light metal, there is just the other rear corner that needs pulling and body repair.

My plan of attack (already started): With various wire wheels on my pneumatic drill, I am grinding off the surface rust that has grown on the car since the car was never sealed after the initial blasting. I'll wash it in Ospho rust inhibitor as I go and a total bath once completely ground down. Then a "super clean" and water bath with scotchbrite scrub pad, drying and then primer. I want to get to this point before hitting the welding/body work to make sure there is no future rust issues.

Luckily the metal is still in great shape, a couple rust issues but all the main areas are in great shape (longs, suspension points, etc).

A couple pics for your enjoyment First two are before grinding, last 3 are after grinding/Ospho

Despite the delays it is very exciting to see these cars in their naked form. I love seeing the bare metal all clean and waiting for newer technology finishes to be applied to protect them for the next 40 plus years. Good luck.

In his defense it's a hard business these days. We deal in discretionary income, and when times are tight guys like us take the first hit. If he is primarily a blaster, he will stick with the blasting as he is known to be one of few. I am known for metal and paint, and not blasting, yet it is still hard to make ends meet. We are a specialty line of business, the first to lose work when times are tight. If he is good, give him a break. the end results will be worth it in the long run

I am having to take n work that I would turned away 3 years ago. Unfortunately my regular customers have suffered. I try my best to keep in touch with them and let them know what is going on. So ar all have been very understanding and supportive. Give him a reasonable break if he has a good rep.

I can appreciate hard times and having to prioritize, but blasting the car is a good days work.....ok maybe two, the car sat for a year + with no protection after the initial blasting. I would have been fine with finishing and giving it back but he strung me along and added insult to injury by telling me to bring all my parts over and that he'd make things right for me and promising me a finish day that came and went long ago. That to me, as a person of a few businesses, is uncalled for. Communication is key and I got none. He's an okay guy personally, that's not what this is about, he just sucks as a businessman. My lesson learned.
I'm just happy I got it back and its not to bad off. It also seems like the grinding of surface rust is a lot easier to remove than all those layers of paint, so again another bright side. I've got about half the car ground down, work on the rest next week and get it washed down soon.

Hi Chris,

How did I miss all this progress?? I hate that you had to deal with all the delay, but it looks like you are all over it now.
I moved to the mountains so I won't get to help, but good luck and keep at it.

-Peter

Oops I wan't paying full attention. I missed that it took a year just to get blasted. That IS uncalled for. The car also should have been etched and sealed immediately after the blasting was done so all that flash rusting would have been prevented. Carry on

No worries It's not that it took a year to get blasted. He jumped on it pretty quick at first and got it about 75% done.......then time stopped. It still isn't quite done but I think I can strip it with grinders and chemical strippers. The Ospho is a wonderful etching chemical and cleanser and I don't think he'll have done much damage other to have wasted my time (and his since he word for basically free). Can't wait to get it done and painted, so looking forward to it...........been saving for an entire year+ for it

Peter, to bad. Keep in touch on the thread, hope the move has treated you well.

Well my son decided he wanted to work on "his Porsche" tonight (he's 4 years old btw) after dinner. So to appease I took him out to try out the aircraft stripper I just bought this afternoon.

OMG that stuff is amazing! I did just the inner driver's wheel well to practice and in moments the paint was bubbling up. A buddy warned me about getting it on my skin etc......he was right, it hurts! Burns like a weld slag, even through leather welding gloves......crazy stuff. Love it though, should have the car ready for body work in no time at this rate.

Your wife will kill you if your boy gets hurt with aircraft stripper. just the fumes alone are enough hazard. Wish I was in the area still to help you, but as you can see I moved along also. Good luck with project.

Man everyone is bailing out on me!

Yeah she would kill me! He wasn't out there long, but I didn't want to squelch his enthusiasm for "his Porsche". As my second child and only boy, I need to foster any tendencies towards P-cars and guy stuff in general. Of course my 12 year old got
pissed thinking he was getting a Porsche and she wasn't Suppose maybe I should foster her enthusiasm too?

I'm excited about the prospects of being able to start welding and getting the body ready for paint soon. I need to keep telling myself I can do this so I don't loose interest. Its not helping that everyone is moving away on me !

Where are your door braces???


Before you start welding anything back together, you need to add (adjustable) braces and make sure everything is within factory specs.

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

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

There aren't any Andy. I know what you are going to say, and I will before I start welding big stuff like pans etc back in. I just verified the "f" measurement (rollbar to windshield) and its dead nuts on. The longs are truly in such good shape that car hasn't flexed a bit in the year + its been on that rotisserie. I'll go through and verify everything when I get into it heavy, promise

Thanks for those dimension pages BTW, just what I was wondering about where to find.

So with as busy I've been lately with work, I got tired of looking at my unfinished car (blasting was never finished by the first guy). I started to chemical strip the remainer of the car but was getting frustrated with the time it was taking and the fact that the rest of the car was flash rusting as time went on. My Ospho wash worked well but there was a fair amount of prep time in being able to do that.

I met a guy a while back who runs a powder coating shop but had not had a blasting capability.............until recently!

I brought the car (still on the first blasters rotisserie!) to the second guy. Last week he blasted the entire car again for me with aluminum oxide and then powder coated the car. Enclosed are the pics. Can not express how my somewhat OCD self is excited. Now I can work on little bits at a time without having to worry about rusting somewhere else and paint remnants here and there (that was driving me crazy, I couldn't see the forest through the trees!). I can grind the coating back down to do welding etc and just have to prime back small parts instead of an entire car!

good luck man, that powdercoat is gonna be a bitch to sand all the way off....

First completely powdercoated 914 ???? Exterme rustproofing!!!

I like it !!!

Jack

Have any of you guys ever scraped powdercoat out of threads of bolt holes!!! That was the one thing I hated when a customer would bring in a powder coated swing arm with bolt holes chock full of powdercoat. And not to be a shit but I worry more about the areas that you can't easily powdercoat. like the intersections of multiple panels coming together to be spot welded that you see all of the place. and the longs internally. Did you cut a bit of the longs somewhere and seal the inside?

So far, I think I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty, that these guys did an outstanding job. I have only found one easily seen spot where they missed with both the media blast and coating (a suspension point), but it was a clean rust free area still covered with a hint of paint so I'm not concerned. They took the time to cover bolts and holes, the vin tag and the vin stamped into the fender, etc...
The longs I can't comment on other than to say that there is a little coating that can be seen inside and plan to run an Ospho wash down them before all is done which will carbonize any rust in there.

Someone commented about how difficult it will be to sand off. First, I have no intentions of sanding off the coating other than for welding and body work. I did sand some off today with a pneumatic drill sanding disk (forget the grit) and it came off like a champ, not easily mind you (it was on there good), but I got to bare metal with no issues.

The coating made it into those multi point locations you mentioned.....its everywhere!

Secondly, show me a primer job that covers as good as a good powder coating, and as uniformly thick....

I'm pleased and for $1000 to blast and coat, can't go wrong IMO

I'd powder coat the car's final color if I knew there would be no body filler, but I doubt that will be the case.

Woo Hooo

Progress!

I can't believe $1000! That seems pretty good to me. I wish I could bring them mine. I am trying to get my shop built so I can't spare the $$.

Can you paint over the powder coating?

Yeah I thought it was a great deal, since the first idiot wanted $1200 just to blast! I ended up having $300 in the first guy and I'll have $1050 in this guy once the two decklids and healight buckets come back, so $1350 in all. Now if I could just find someone to do the body work that cheap and well done, I'd be in business!!

The second guy is a 914 fan, has one in the back of the shop tucked away awaiting resto and two more parts cars, so I think I got a combo good deal.....he's a fan of the cars and hadn't done one before so it was an experience for both of us.

And yes, paint over powder coating. It gets prep'd like any other primer coat from what he tells me.