I changed the title of the thread, so it's incognito now.

- Sort of to do with the midengined-ness, my username, and of course the 420 914 thing.

The car was very original, but quite trashed when I bought it. It's a 49 state car, purchased in Colorado judging by the sticker that was on the back opposite the badge, Bob Hagestad Dealerhip. I don't have a picture of that unfortunately... Both bumpers had 1975 UCLA parking permit stickers.

It is an appearance group car, tan square weave, late enough to get 2 real tan basket weave seats. Original adriatic blue paint, no repaints. The snowplow early rear valence. It has the original red heater lever pull which I don't see very much. Everything was there without having been hacked/modified (besides the door panels). Unmodified but fairly trashed.

Click to view attachment
Chassis # 174932

-Meaning the chassis was built the 17th week of the year 1972 (I think it is the 17th week with a Monday the way they count it), the 4th day of that week, Thursday April 27th, 1972. -I thought it was 4/20 but I must concede it was probably a week later, the chassis production.


It is odd, though, the dash doesn't match.
Click to view attachment
1729556 vs 1749532 which is on the Karmann plate and the trunk.

It would be from just 2 days earlier, but then I was thinking, if it was from another car, it could theoretically be from a 73 or a 74 car, too. It seems like it is original, though, as peple always bodge everything and it was fairly unmolested, the wiring, and hardware of the dash.

Click to view attachment



Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

The engine number...

These are the first pics I saw, back in June on craigslist. The guy I got it from had bought it from a police auction on the holiday. and they paint the date of the auction (?) on the window. I bought it now'ed off eBay for $1250. I probably could have got it for $900 if I'de have got to it sooner. There were already bids for it up to $750. I'd driven all the way up to Santa Monica in my bus and back, 60 miles, and despite what anyone might say, I think it was worth it. The guy's shop was at 2420 Lincoln "bought it now"-ed, after having driven 60 miles to see it and back.


Original engine djet "will run when given starting fluid" is what the craigslist ad said.


.. speaker holes in the door panels.



The driver door is nasty-looking. At first I thought someone had hyperextended it reversing into something while it was open, but I think it may have come open rounding a corner, flew open, and got damaged that way. At one point I was thinking just find a door of the same color, and drive her. But of course that was not to be.

The hole right there is the tip of the ice berg


Another iceberg


There was a temporary registration window sticker I found in the car. It's funny it was dated April 19, 200? (the stamped date of the last digit of the year wasn't legible)

I had AAA, but basic gives you only 7 miles of towing. I did not know this. The 53 other miles... 420 dollars it cost to get it back to Laguna.

I sort of wanted to get it running just to see what was up, but it didn't take long after a compression test came up bad that I tore the engine out.

I constructed a platform on top of my atv jack for this.

I didn't have a camera at that time, so I've just got the pics I had my friend take for hose documentation for that part .





Impressively original hoses and even the routing. The spark plug wires even look vintage. The guy said this was registered as operational up to right before he got it in April. The case has never been split. I wish I could get red and green braided metric vacuum hose new.

I've been stalling on updating the blog in hopes of giving the impression that I'm moving right along, when in fact I have been a bit stuck on my hell hole. I'm gonna get the metal to brace it at the doors this weekend, I think, put that together next week, and get the major cutting started probably next weekend.

But for now, here's some madness I performed on my rusty-looking cowl/ fender/ door frame.


Another shot. This side actually looks better than the passenger side.



It's gotten below, to the inner fender well




Some nastiness at the corner of the headlight bucket where the front lid seal goes.. Now just how did they expect water to exit from there?


Water made its own way


I didn't get shots of this before I scraped out all the sealer, but I can tell you it looked pretty decent hidden by the inches of the white stuff all dressed up in paint.


So I contemplated for a few weeks what to do about all that, so many layers all coming together in a rusty mess right there, and both sides to be taken care of. Thought about cutting out just what seemed bad, but the challenge of getting it all back together and the fear of not going deep enough, I opted to remove the entire fender.

drumroll.....



They sure put the sealer on thick, about an inch of it there




A close up. -not done, of course, but better. You can see what's going on at least without all the rusty rusty


Some of the undercoat removed, some more to go. I straghtened the lip with hammer and dolly.


Same for the fender itself :aktion035:


I thought I'd need a right angle drill to get at the spotwelds in the crevice inside the fender to the pillar, but that piece can come off 2 ways; the other not requiring the angle drill is what I went with. Still, quite the struggle.

I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to go to the 914 swap meet in Riverside.
It was awesome. I met a lot of cool people, saw a lot of really cool 914's, and got a lot of smokin' deals on some parts. B)

2 brand new 1.7 fuel injectors, a free almost perfect early driver door that is somehow strangely tweaked out at the bottom. Hopefully I can figure out how to fix that. Perfect lower dash pad, also free, white headlight surround. New German aluminum windshield surround (minus the bottom piece, but what can you do for...), perfect right side front turn signal lens
2 front turn signal bases along with hardware for the rear deck lid, the little plastic covers for the screws all in the cabin, the little stainless trim the targa top sits on on the rollbar (1 side only, perfect), and also the aluminum piece that holds the rubber in back of the door. A less-blemished rear passenger tail lens, uncracked relay board cover, good fuel pressure regulator and a bunch of very misc parts, 2 used mahle pistons and cylinders.

I've been looking for one of these for years, both parts of the taco plate and the original oil temperature sender.


Some cool rides, it was sort of unreeal to see them actually moving as they drove before me through the parking lot to their places, instead of just sitting on jackstands like mine does.

So first things first, like many-a-914, put her up on jack stands.
I had a bit of a mental dilemma about it initially. I had a dream where the car was up on my dad's lift back in Buffalo. My (now ex) girlfriend was under there with me, like bracing it. She was using this screw jack thing. She's like, "all set!" and I look back to my horror that she's suspended the car from the anti-sway bar (I don't have an anti-sway bar). I'm like, "get out from under there!", but before there was any time to for anything, the car came down right on top of her. Somehow I got He-man strength in this part of the dream and was able to fairly easily lift/ throw the car right off her, but it was too late. Totally fucking traumatizing, I can assure you, holding your crushed (ex) girlfriend's lifeless body in your arms.

This was the day after the leveling stands came in the mail and a day before the flat tops came.


The sticker on the side of those pretty much invalidates the whole premise of a flat top jack stand. What it says is, in rather uncertain terms, not to lift up both ends of a car at the same time. So, if you're lifting one end only, pretty much everything flat on the bottom of the car would be at some angle, only the very corner of the pad would be supporting anything, and the whole stand would seemingly want to fall over I should think. The very reason I got them was with this end in mind, to get the whole thing up. It took me like days of pondering and forum posts and research to get over the dream and do the deed.

It turns out that pretty much any jack stand on the market has this same lame disclosure:
http://www.norcoind.com/norco/downloads/manuals/JackStand_Manual.pdf ://http://www.norcoind.com/norco/downl...and_Manual.pdf ://http://www.norcoind.com/norco/downl...and_Manual.pdf ://http://www.norcoind.com/norco/downl...and_Manual.pdf

Although jack stands are individually rated, they are to be used in a matched pair to support one end of a vehicle only. Stands are not to be used to simultaneously support both ends or one side of a vehicle. :bs:



The flat ones are in front; I had this set previously. Funny that they are color matched to the car.
First here

and then here when I got the jack point

off

Unbelievable how much undercoat was used at the factory on these cars. My bus isn't built like that, thank god! What where they thinking? -probably about sound dampening.

I read that the cars delivered to Porsche for completion as 6's, the sealer was applied a lot less liberally and by hand. I'm planning on using a brush on epoxy seam sealer more like a 6. Forget this gobs of bumpy white rubbery crap. With it being softer than the paint on top of it, there's no wonder there are so many problems.

The slightest penetration, the tiniest breach in the paint shell, sometimes unnoticeable on the surface even, would create a sort of spider of rust radiating out from it underneath. I'm scraping it ALL off, me my heat gun and my big dull screwdriver

I don't have a pic of what the rear trunk originally looked like, a bit of surface rust at the back. Here's a pic of it after the initial scraping (quite conservative compared to stage 2 ) The trunk did not come with this pristine pair of ssi heater boxes, unfortunately, I had to put them in there. :-) I don't seem to have a more relevant picture of pre stage 2 for some reason.

-They're hard not to look at aren't they?

This took me awhile






The thick-ass tar on the floor of the interior may have taken longer even. I got a few blisters getting that shite out. Here's before:


and after




That's the weapon of choice right there, Made in Taiwan. It is full-tang though. It got so intense, the scrapin' scrapin' scrapin' that the tang started to slide in the handle, pushing the impact plate out the back of it periodically. -Still the weapon of choice though, the tip has been through so much scraping


it'll take of undercoat without (barely) damaging the paint beneath.



Some paint thinner will make it look pristine under there. I can't wait to take off the exhaust heat shield.

Next step, brace the doors....

I've got one of these bad boys done so far. It's been quite a chore, as the arms are quite an assemblage.
It took me a few days of pondering before I figured out how I was even gonna do it.

I had some extra 3/4 inch black pipe around, some 3/4 inch fine threaded rod, and some 3/4 inch course threaded bolts and nuts from other projects so 3/4 inch is what I decided on. I ordered the goodies from McMaster-Carr, left handed threaded rod, right and left-handed 3/4 inch tube nuts, as well as 3/4 inch blank rod ends.



This bit of metal I got from Industrial Metal Supply which is an insanely awesome place that is right by my work.



6 inch by 1 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch wall, it's about all my band saw can handle. I got this saw off craigslist for $100. I'm building the shop as I build the car.









I had dreamed of getting such a welder as this for years. It's an air- cooled Miller Tig with high frequency start, pulse, dig, fully digital. Synchrowave 200.



A bit of fitting up, I turned the 3/4 inch bolt (now a stud) to 5/8 inch at 1 end, put a bit of a groove around the hole it sits in with the 3/4 inch drill in order to hold the weld/ increase penetration/ minimize grinding to achieve a flat mounting. I used the door hinges as a template.





This is my 1932 South Bend Lathe, that was a project for a bit, bringing it back.



I was going to use flat heads all around to solve the clearance issues, but These 5/8 inch flat heads through the 1/4 inch wall clevis parts wasn't going to work even if I did have a countersink big enough. I opted, instead, to modify the bolts and make my own low profile socket head cap screws.



I had to do the 8mm ones for the mounts also, just at the edges, since the mounting plates are on the small side, and, well, I've only got a 1/2 inch countersink at the moment. I made the ones on the left out of the ones on the right. I went with stainless.



And there it is


The tensioner


And the tensioner assembly



Here's the whole of it



Just 3 more to go, and then we can really start cutting!

Ok, so I'm caught up to the blog over at 914club, and I'll go forward only right here on this thread. I've got the Passenger rear fender off; I'll post pics of that next. :-)

Cool! Looking forward to more!

That actually looks like a pretty good tub!

From the title I thought you were restoring a 914 for Tommy Chong.

Very nice work! You have done this before?

I love Adriatic Blue as well. Best 914 color.

This first picture is of the car I restored. The girl is my wife's friend from Germany.

Picture Thread of Adriatic Blue Cars

John

HaHa, I had the same thought. or maybe just some tie-die paint scheme.

Far out man.

There were a lot of instances in acquiring the car and going through it that the number ... made itself known. The spray paint on the window was the date it was processed at the police auction, still on when I got it 2 months later.

There was actually quite a bit of shake, stems and whatnot all around the center console up in front of the seats under the carpet there. Also, found a 'Police Line Do Not Cross' bit of plastic around under the seat. The driver door window smashed maybe in some drug bust chase?

The engine number is 41908.
I remember and wish I would have taken a pic of the bolts at the side of the dashboard holding it in. They said '4 20' on them. It was jumping out at me everywhere.
It's all quite 'lined up' and pointing in that direction.

Thanks, it is my first time doing real metal working kind of bodywork and first 914. I've painted some cars before, but just bondo, sanding, mig welded panels and door skins. This will be my first time working on this since 1996 and I'm hoping to do a waay more professional job this time, hopefully no need for any bondo at all.

I love the L50E. People ask me what color I'm going to paint it. Adriatic Blue! ..of course.

The car, in the link, the color looks great. It is surprising how few there seem to be in adriatic blue.

At first I liked the color of it all faded more than the actual darker color. Now I just hope that the new paint will be the right hue more than the tint.


Just like mine except the badge. no badge.




It seems to me that adriatic blue has gotten lighter over the years, though.

I think people match new paint to the faded?

For the interior, redone tan interiors always seem to be lighter, the later color and less camel. It is imperative that the interior be camel and not the later tan.

It is good in many areas; in others not so good.
The just-after-I-got it off pic got turned into an 'h' before? so I've put that up, one even rustier-looking than was on the blog.

Here's some of the worst of the carnage in the multi-tiered hell hole.



Going into the inner suspension console ear; it took me a bit to muster the will for it.
That's the current state of things right there.

It's weird the car must have spent awhile sitting level or other than the usual slanted toward passenger side as it's the inner passenger long that's messed up. I am contemplating/ leaning toward removing, sandblasting the outer suspension support, probably I can reuse it. The jack point seems really decent. I'm thinking of something less invasive there.
The inner though, I'm thinking it might be easier to cut out part of the firewall to get to the inner inner long, than to get the jackoint, and bothe layers of the outer long out to get at this business:



Besides these areas, up by the fresh air vent in the door wells ... There are areas that look remarkably good. Tunnel vision inspires me to want to get it to the point of wet sanding it. For now, my tetanus shot is current.

Aha! That's more like a real 914 ...


We've all been there.

keep on going and for gods sake repaint those stands so they dont get permanenlty attached to that little car!
good luck and if you need someone to help you make a mess just let me know
Dave

hey whered you get those stands btw..thanks

I haven't! My car is 100% rust free ...of course that means there has to be at least a good 30% of rust hiding somewhere I can't see it

Correction:

A lot of us have been there. The rest will be there at some point in the future ...

Kind of reminds me of motorcycle riding: only two types of riders: "those that have been down and those that are going down".

914's:
"914's that have had rust repaired and those that need rust repaired"

Holy $hit... you've got the gift. that's for sure. I have a feeling this is going to be a very cool build thread.

Please put that concrete block on the floor oriented the way it would be installed in wall with a 2x8 on top of it, or better yet get rid of it all together. Any imperfection in that block, and/or the orientation of it as pictured, and down comes car...

Keep up the good work, it is gonna be fun to watch the progress

Jim

Replace the CMU Block!!!! It would be a shame for the car to let itself down on it's own .

Looking forward to watching this one restored.

I like the color matching. I tried to get 2 more of the blue ones originally - I'd got them at autozone for the bus. I went to 3 different ones but they either didn't have the big size or they had only the lever kind. After the pin-through style, I don't feel safe as much with the other kind now.

I couldn't find pin through style anywhere, so I decided to buy the best jack stands I could. Research on the internet pointed toward flat top jack stands, a company in europe, I forget, but they'd stopped making them or at least that you could buy here and the Esco brand ones are supposed to be the equivalent replacement. I got the from Pelican Parts which offers them cheaper than almost anywhere else.

I've said this same thing to a guy an the bus furum at the samba, and I agree that having superfluous jack stands are not so good an idea. -I wouldn't ever think of supporting the car back there btw; those are there in prep for what's next.

The car is held up thusly:


and then I've got trailer levelers to hold up the trunk only. I wouldn't trust these to hold the car up even though they say they are rated for it. Actually the back end I can probably lift up in it's entirety with my bare hands, it is that light.

The cinder blocks with the trailer levellers are to keep the trunk from sagging when I take off the rear fender(s). -I don't have a jig; I think it'as mostly only going to be able to go together 1 way.


Anyway, I had them snugged up back there, then after I removed the fender the trunk ended up lifting up actually instead of drooping down. I've tensioned them up to that for now, as I've got more of the long to take out.

Anyway, thanks for the concern, I think it should be alright as long as the main stands are good.

This pic is from the original eBay photos

A bit of probing with my big screw driver and some preliminary cutting and I made it look extremely scary


I contemplated all sorts of ways to handle this mess and, probably contrary to what anyone else would have done, decided to take off the whole fender, sail panel included.

Many spotwelds drilled, I took my time with it, taking breaks between the sections of drilling, and then the prying/ pulling. All told it probably took me 7 hours to get it off.



exposing the crustiness


This is back by the tail light. It looks like the factory used expanding foam between the pieces there.


And then there's like weatherstrip foam between the sail panel and the inner rollbar, still attached to that lip.


I'm going to have to get real good at the metal working pretty quick to handle all this.


Here's the inside of the fender itself, still attached to the door well.


More 'deep end' metal working to be done there. I'm lloking at getting a shot dolly and some planishing and ball peen hammers. I've read the Martin "key to Metal Bumping" book and I've got a set of dolllies and hammers. I was trying to get an anvil but the guy flaked out on me.

The guy down the street was telling me I need to dip the car to get where I want to be, but I have some issues with dipping it, not the least f which is price, and so taking the car apart to this level seems to me the way to go. I can do the work, inspect/ get at everything for treatment. I'm looking for a portable sand blaster pot that is NOT from harbor freight. That and construction of a drop cloth-constructed paint booth look like some of the bigger hurdles right now.

Here's the fender

Nice work!! Looks like you have quite the array of tools and can actually get this kind of rust repair done!

uhm, a "420" engine and another post isee recently about a "cracked" crank, maybe we need narcotics annonammus?

Moving slowly along, some more work on the door braces



Getting better with the torch. I do wish I had the smaller torch, a 9 I guess.

I got off the front suspension; really easy surprisingly... except the brake fluid that got everywhere.


And the wiring Harness, what a challenge that was to overcome, getting that out! That's a gauge cluster in about 10 plastic grocery bags, wrapped in masking tape.


The struggle to envision the completion of the hell hole repair is ... also coming along.




An unconventional approach undoubtedly. I want to take the floor pan off but I have to wait until the long and fender are together before that happens, and it still seems like a challenge to support it even then.

For now the plan is to take out the entire inner long, heater tube with it. I'm mustering my strength, waiting for more jack stands to arrive before I dive in.

Replacement panel sculpture


and my suspension ear wrinkle fix




Inside

I' think I will smooth the welds in there a bit , as it is a drain passage there. Access could be better but do-able.

Jackstands... and a sand blaster. ...need sand blaster .....

Nice welding!

I wish my skills were that good.

I want to keep the thread updated.
I went on vacation, up to the bay for about a week over Christmas.
Contemplating removal of the passenger inner long in its entirety without removal of the outer the whole time...

I'd got these additional jack stands for the inner long removal. It seems to me that you can only really have 4 jack stands actually holding up a car safely, unless additioanl ones are the leveling type. I found the black ones online. I trust them over the little aluminum ones to be sure.


The task at hand, it took me 2 days after work drilling out spot welds, the upper


and lower, many many spot welds




I took my time with it. It's single layer just in front of the lower p seatbelt mount bolt forward to where the front door frame swoops up. Tricky to separate the layers there. I thought of nicknaming the car The Blue Onion... for some reason.

More, grinding at the mig welds that hold it to the front firewall/ rear of the passenger wheel well - complicated by the heater tube at the front being in the way of 1 particularly ( had to do some cuttin' on account of that)


You can see where I tried to weld up some damage to the inner inner long there with all that rust. I guess just practice or wishful thinking that was...





now that's a hell hole


Can't wait to start putting it back together.

you werent kidding about going deep!! keep up the work and pics . its inspiring

I have to say good job! Keep up the . Ill be watching this one.

Wow!

Looks like another 914 will be saved from the rust monster!

Ya, balls deep. Yikes.

Balls deep, indeed.



Thanks for the comments, guys.

I almost got the impression I'd gone past the line of it being scary. The surface rust in the outer long isn't flattering. I sanded a bit of it, quite a lot of red powder, but I think I can save it. I put some rust dissolver phosphoric acid gel on it.



I welded up the places where I drilled too far and smoothed em out. I had to do some pretty good metal adding as it did get kinda brutal.

I need to get media, I'm thinking glass bead so as not to make it any thinner... I have acquired this.


I can't wait

I got a gun to shoot, I think I'm going to shoot both the primer and the paint with it. My friend said I should get like a $40 gun to shoot primer with and use the good gun only for paint. It's a Sharpe Razor HVLP gravity feed, 1.5mm air nozzle so it's set up to do both. ..

That is another story, still figuring it out.


The meat and potatoes of this post was to be about my metal-working conquest. I finally started actually fixing something, instead of just taking things off. Doing the hard stuff first,



Oops I drilled through. I was supposed to be fixing like issues on the side of my firewall today, but I'm actually ill, sort of congested in my head (on one side only?)



Another story is about how I have 3 driver doors and none of them will work for me. The original one, the skin is f'd. I got another one at a junk yard. Have I told this story? It ended up being a late door because I didn't know what to look for. I decided against using it for the various reasons, and I got another door. This kind guy, I think his name was Brett gave me (as well as the lower pdash pad previously mentioned) a perfect driver early door. Now the problem is that the bottom is out by an inch and a half when the top is about right, this at the back. I'm leaning toward removing the skin from the tweaked early door and putting it on my original door frame, though I haven't committed to that.

I've already removed the original door skin, but I'm saving it for part of the hellhole, so I've cut up the late door, too. Sorry if this peeves anyone. I was a bit leery of putting some crap metal home depot alloy steel in there, so ...


Use of dirt to form a paper template


A little foreshadowing


I figured out on the 2nd attempt at this that chemical stripper will leave you with more metal than removing the paint with a wire wheel.


Alas, it got a lot uglier before I abandoned it. I ended up grinding down that lump on the column part and going right through. It was too 'thin and thick' everywhere, and I decided to o it again. Took me all day and it's still not done.

The template for mk II involved masking tape, and I did the joint of the 2 pieces a bit better.

A bit more to do. I'm waiting for my girlfriend (no longer ex - I got her back, the one from the dream ) to send me her drummel tool to more precisely take the welds in the nook down. Hopefully there will be no need for mkIII.

Other happenings, sort of unrelated, I was standing there looking at her (the 914) thinking, I'm gonna have to get the cross support under the passenger seat welded to the inner long (that I've taken out) before I take out the floor pan, when from the sky 2 feet in front of me drops this


right on to the support with a sort of thud/ chink. I probably should have whacked it, because while I was busy taking this great picture of the adhesive residue on my floorpan (note blurry black widow?) He crawled into my tunnel (hopefully) never to be seen again?

What did you use to cut around the windshield frame? Cut off wheel, sawzaw, or airsaw?

Thanks,

Mark

I had to do a "kiss cut" on a lot of it, as not to go through both layers. The cutoff wheel on the mini pneumatic die grinder is what I used, a .040" width disc. It doesn't have a lot of balls, and and it seems ridiculous how long my compressor has to run to use it, but it is unmatched so far at the delicate stuff, cutting and grinding-wise. They are 3" discs but they work best once they're down to about 1 1/2".

Turns out my "illness" congestion, whatever I thought it was is actually a piece of metal in my eye. I'm trying to find a doctor who will help me take it out. I've been to 2 so far this morning. Hopefully I can get this resolved.

Thanks! Great looking cuts.

Sorry to hear about the eye.

Your eye doctor wont do it?

They have to drill to get the rust out. BTDT.

Your eye is going to HURT LIKE HELL after...

I'm gonna have to make a firmer point to use goggles and not just glasses when I'm grinding. I made a point of it last time this happened But yes a firmer point this time.

The 3rd place was a charm, except I learned after that they don't take my medical, which means they're going to cut into my 914 fund, dammit

The guy had an impressive microscope he focused on your eye while your head/ chin rested up against it. He got it in like 3 seconds with a pair of tweezers. I'd tried it with my tweezers, too earlier, but I guess you need the microscope. It still hurts, though. Maybe just time to heel, we will see.

Did they drill any of the eye? My eye doctor is a family friend of mine and he picked it out in a second as well, BUT he also drilled some of the eye away as he said if he didnt it would rust and infect. Your issue could have been different than mine though.


I wear glasses and I always wear the goggles made to go over glasses now. They are very easy to see through and dont fog up as much.
http://www.harborfreight.com/splash-resist...ggle-97140.html

That and some ear muffs... Anytime im grinding anything.

I had read about the rust circle that will form in your eye if the shard is in there longer than 45 minutes when I was researching how to get it out myself. I would do a lot to stay out of the hands of doctors.

I mentioned it to him, and I think that's why he gave me a mini dropper bottle of antibiotic drops, 1 drop 4 times a day for 3 days.

I'm sure I'll be fine. I would break bones and not go to a doctor. Like a finger, they just splint it up and bill you $600-1500. I've been thinking about doing my own dentistry. It can't be much different than working on a 914, right?

Regular glasses will not protect you while grinding. I made that mistake years ago and went through the whole metal splinter in eye, get splinter cut out with scalpel at ER after waiting eight hours, then infection and rust ring cut out by eye surgeon a week later.

It's pretty hard to ignore serious eye pain when it hurts with your eyes open, hurts with your eyes closed.

Don't wanna do that again...

John

It's getting a bit cramped in here. I took some pics of my parts progress, but it veers in theme toward illustrating just how much room the parts off a car can take up.

Here's admission of my affliction, the disease that I have read about here. It started with my bus, so I've had it or a while. Actually just the sheet metal bits are 914 related in this one.


A nice bin of goodies that I've acquired and gone through. I don't think that's a real 914 mirror? I got it from a guy at the vw classic for $3 so probably not. I finally came up with license plate lights though.


I'm not too keen on what is the only thing going for turn signal boots? They were supposed to be genuine, and for the price, they should be, but no number on them, no porsche sticker packaging, shiny finish, minutely different shape. They look to be made in China, though George assures me they are factory original, seems it's better than nothing. I hope they'll last.

Does anyone have info on inner fender guard inserts? I'd seen them talked about in a thread somewhere. It would be nice to see how they fit, maybe make some.

Gotta show all of it to really drive the point home. Some stuff I've gone through here. My library has been displaced to occupy just 1 shelf. That is a genuine front targa top seal there.


There's some room at least, the top shelf getting more full, as the parts get detailed from the bottom shelves.


As soon as my eye is all better, I'll be cleaning my tin up. I have this plan to reproduce my "610"'s with a stencil. I'm planning on getting it powder coated, satin black, but I've got to concentrate funds on getting the body shipshape first. Man that's some crud.


That pile is adjoined to this pile


Which merges gracefully with this assemblage

It's a shame about that bumper top. I was thinking about welding in new metal. Of course it would screw them chrome all up. People say how expensive it is to get chrome done. I thought about color matched bumpers. Then the pain/ expense of chrome removal. I did photoshop mockups. I remember seeing a thread with a color-matched adriatic blue car owned by an retired vw plant worker. I think it had sail vinyl though? - I couldn't find it. I really like what the sail vinyl adds to the car, or what it takes away, rather. I thought about painting the rollbar satin black and the same on fiberglass bumperpads, but there's something about joining the roof with the sail vinyl that I want to keep, the texture, and then the bumper pads, it feels like the sound of the car, the resonance of the wind on the front would be affected by that? I will look more, but if the new stainless insert bumper pads don't trap moisture like the original, I will go that way, despite cost. If they do retain moisture, I would rather do fiberglass painted flat black. Anyone know?

About chrome bumpers, I decided that it will only look the way I want it to with chrome bumpers,

Currently, I'm building up the places where the drill went too far. Waiting on (funds for) blast media. Need to get my heeadlight buckets stripped of seam sealer. Researching primer options; I need a weldable primer that's part of a whole system. Recommendations?

And one of the whole. A reminder that it is the driver side headlight cover that I need, not the passenger. I'd been looking for that thermostat, I was going to put it in my bus, but ended up with a type 1 version, lower temp. It's great that it is good.

I'm practicing my plug/ rosette welding. in anticipation of actually putting her back together.

Miller has sone new Saftey glasses that use neoprene around the eyes ? I have had forign object drilled from my eyes not much fun but it's
Not painful.. I use Wiley x tactical safety goggle
For Doing cylinder heads.. 90 percent of the time I get
Material in my eyes when I am not working and driving home

Hey Nathan. You are correct, it is easy. Get a mirror and some pneumatics from HF. Look in the mirror, remember the image is backward and upside down, then drill away. No problemo. You might try getting drunk first.

Michael Z McBride, DDS

PS Very good creative work on your 914.