Well, yet another item to add to the list of parts that have disappeared themselves since I took the car apart 4 years ago. The first casualty was my set of freshly rebuild 914-6 calipers, I've learned to deal with it, and it's not as big a deal as I was going to do the 911 e-brake conversion anyway, but I'd rather have the $1800 in my pocket than jack squat.

Fan shroud also disappeared, although I think that was stolen by a guy doing some paintwork and $50 got me a nice green one (although I'd have preferred black or red).

Now, I've got the engine back together ready to stick it in and, OOPS, $500 worth of original engine sheet metal nowhere to be found.

So now I've got some options, none of them particularly cheap, and none very promising for getting me to Hershey without some $$$ overnight shipping.

I did some searching and found 1 post relating to sheet metal where Bradholio said it's not a huge deal to run without it. In the VW world, running without the tin is a big no-no. I'm prepared to accept that no sheetmetal will work ok on a -6, but how much leeway is there? My engine probably runs a little hotter than stock (10.3:1, 3.3L short stroke) and all I've got to run are heat exchangers (unless they've disappeared in the last 10 mins). Granted I've got a big oil cooler, and the HE's aren't going to be hooked up so should stay pretty cool, but I'm a little wary of running tinless without a little more specific BTDT experience.

Anyone have some thoughts, should I go for it and hope my tin shows up someday, or just bite the bullet and get PP to FedEx me something?

Thanks,

Adam

I run my car (914 w/3.2) without the tin, havent had any issues..btw the car is a track only car

Whoa, that sucks. Looks like someone has found a souce for unobtainium. Someone doing a conversion locally?

The fan would likely recycle a lot of hot air from below without the tin. If you already run warm, it would not be a good idea.

It really does suck. I don't think anyone's stolen the stuff. My brother was storing some of his M3 race car and 914/4 stuff in the bay where I was keeping the disassembled /6 parts, and moved to Texas while I was in Japan. I guess he was in a pissy mood and threw a whole bunch of stuff out, I'm guessing my calipers must have gotten included in the big purge. I try not to think about it, it makes me kind of ill.

The engine tin though I have no idea, it should have been in the way back with the engine and other parts and untouched. I just got off the phone with the guy who helped me rebuild the engine, and he knows what -6 metal is and said he'd have locked it in a vault if he'd seen it (I trust him, and also am pretty sure I just took the bare longblock to him). I also got off the phone with Pelican and I guess the sheet metal is special order so no chance of getting it for Hershey. I might try Otto's, but I have a feeling even used stuff will be more expensive that the pelican's new price.

I think you're right though, metal-less will work for a racer that'll have an unlimited supply of fresh cool air, but not so for a car that's going to see the occasional stoplight.

ok, back to moping around the house and staying away from sharp objects.

I've got some , not pretty, took off of track car, pm me

Maybe Dave will chime in on this one but is the Pelican price accurate and do they have it in stock. It was gone for a couple of weeks. I wouldnt be surprised if the price went up now.

Try Rich Johnson for the sheet metal. He is listed in the parts section.

a914guy@aol.com
Rich Johnson
1923 Prescott Road
Allen, Texas 75002
(972) 398-9146

I called Rich, the sheetmetal is supposed to be dropshipped today and will hopefully be in my greedy little hands tomorrow. If my original tin does show up I can always sell the RJ stuff. BTW, Otto's wants $1000 for used original /6 tin.

fuck Otto! what a rip off! I paid $450 for my stuff from Patrick. Who cares if it's new or repro on any non-concourse car?

Now that I've put in Carrerra chain tensioners on my stock 2L, I need to notch the front sheet metal, but.... maybe not... Are the fiberglass replicas any good?

Jack

AIR (or was it getty?) makes a /6 sheetmetal replica out of carbon fiber. might be a cheaper option ...

Andy

Whoa guys...Ottos can get, and uses, the same repro stuff as everyone else too. Some people "insist" on OE parts but for things like sheet metal it seems pretty silly to me. The tin on my car came from GPR and was IN STOCK at a great price.

I think the main issue with a race car running w/o tin is not cooling so much as "junk" flying up and around in the engine compartment. WIth all the dust, sand, and tumbleweed crap we have on our local tracks here I figure you would have a big mess on your hands the moment you went even slightly off-line, let alone actually off track!

I don't want my carbs sucking on a bunch of dust and sand!

Whoa guys...Ottos can get, and uses, the same repro stuff as everyone else too. Some people "insist" on OE parts but for things like sheet metal it seems pretty silly to me. The tin on my car came from GPR and was IN STOCK at a great price.

Yeah, but especially if you're dealing with an original six, the "repro" stuff is an insult. Whereas the factory sheetmetal is thicker and embossed for strength, is stamped out and includes weld-in nuts, the aftermaket stuff I've seen is fabricated out of relatively thin sheet metal, in some areas spot-welded together. You get to weld in the nuts if you're so inclined, and for the $400 or so that you pay for the flimsy stuff, they don't even paint or primer it for you, so you get to remove rust too.

I'm sorry, but in this case, I'd rather find the real stuff or fabricate it myself. I find the price tag for inferior quality *crap* hard to swallow.

the stuff I got from Patrick was painted and had the weld-in nuts. It took a couple trips for them to send the right pieces, but once there it was nice!