I am working on restoring a 1973 914 and converting it to a GT clone with the flares and chassis stiffening. Here is a picture of where I am on it.

Jeff B

I removed the tar sound insulation on the floor panels per a suggestion I saw from Scotty and I am glad I followed his advice. I did find some rust but fortunately it was fairly minor with only one 1/8 hole that I welded up last night.

Jeff B

I can see rust inside the center tunnel but it is still solid. What would be the best way to approach addressing this rust so that it doesn’t get any worse? Here are some pictures of the rust that I have in the center tunnel.

Jeff B

I think Eastwood, probably among others, offers a rust converter that has a wand or hose to get into areas like the central tunnel. Maybe there was a thread here about it as this is where I read just about everything. (more caffiene needed...)

Nice start! Are you going to keep it Tangerine? This will be a fun build thread to watch

Dan

I am going to keep it the same color but it is actually Phoenix Red L32K. It sure looks orange to me too.

I don't know if its best, but I sprayed Ospho up down my tunnel. I had already cut an access hole to fix the clutch tube and that helped me get better distribution. Honestly, I'm not sure what else you can do?

That is a very solid looking car.

Looks like you are off to a good start.

I would just get the inside of the tunnel damp with ospho or better yet, metal ready (which contains zinc). You are supposed to rinse ospho or metal ready off after it is done reacting, which is hard to do inside the tunnel. Getting a lot of moisture in there would be a bad idea.

I sprayed metal ready followed a few days later by eastwood rust encapsulator into areas I did not open up. Not perfect solution but it has to help.

John

I used the Eastwood Rust Converter followed by the Rust Encapsulator and it produced a very smooth finish. I used it in the floor pans as well. Not cheap, but I think it works well.

http://www.eastwood.com/rust-solutions.html

need more pictures...looks very good for now. I hope to see more updates and pictures soon

Thanks for the help and encouragement.

The car is very solid other than a few minor spots. Here are some pictures of the front trunk seal repair around the headlight. I had to grind out the rusty front channel.
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Then I made a new piece of channel and fit it.
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Then I welded it in and finished it.
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You can spray the insides of some of the cavities with a tool like this:

http://professionalautomotivetools.com/hus...washer-sprayer/

You just hook it to pressure, drop the hose in the "paint", and spray away.

It can be used to apply paints/coatings as well, just wear clothes you never want to wear in public again if you restrict the flow with the nozzle too much ;-)


Stu

Made some more progress on the front swaybar improvements. Here is the cutting open and fitting part:
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Then welded it back together:
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Then the fitting of the outside reinforcement pieces:
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After welding and some grinding:
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Then I worked on the rear of the car and did the dog ear supports.
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One of the next things I need to do is check some dimensions on my GT flares. Is there anyone anywhere near the Canton, Ohio area that has steel GT flares on their car?

Jeff B

I am finishing up the rear camber adjustment links.

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I also bought another 914 a week ago to get parts off of but it is already pretty well stripped.

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It is a 1973 with the 1.8 L motor. I plan to cut the parts off that I need and then part out the rest of what is left of it.

Jeff B

I thought that since I am converting a 1973 I would document how I reinforced the area where I cut out the 4 cylinder motor mounts for anyone interested. I ended up making custom reinforcement plates for this area.

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Then I tacked them and heated them up to form them around the rear suspension console.

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I also had to put in a new engine tray piece that I got from Restoration Design.

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Next I have to weld the battery support bracket and the battery tray back in.

Jeff B

very interesting project- good luck!

Looking good... I'd say the Eastwood Internal Frame Coating w/Spray Nozzle would be the trick setup for your tunnel.

That looks very similar to what I did on my car when I removed the mounts

Looks nice. Actually a much cleaner job than I did as I had to get the car ready for the AX season

Excellent work. I really like your approach and the quality of work done on the chassis. I'll be following your thread.

I would add a plate over the ears if your not already planning to.

This is a project I would buy if you consider selling at any point.

Regards,

Michael

I have been travelling a lot for work over the past year but I have gotten some work accomplished that I thought might be worth documenting.

I have been working on the front of the car where the oil cooler will be going. I have studied all of the photos on Armando Serrano’s web site for many hours. This site is an amazing resource for GT info.

I cut open the front trunk area to get access to add the reinforcement bars and marked the area that needed to be opened up.

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Then I custom fit the first reinforcement bar in.

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Next I fit the filler panel and the second reinforcement bar in. Then I welded the filler panel in place.

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Next I fit the filler panel and the second reinforcement bar in. Then I welded the filler panel in place.

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Next I have to fabricate the oil cooler shroud which I am not looking forward to doing. I may move to the back of the car to do some more work there.

Jeff B

Nice!

I would like to find a good condition right rear fender section to replace the section that is outlined in the picture below. I already have the top section that I got from Restoration Design some time ago. I need to replace this area due to poor repair that was done sometime in the past.

Does anyone have the section of fender that is outlined in the picture that is in good condition?

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Jeff B

Let me check one of my shitboxes.I probably have one you can have gratis, but you have to pay shipping from Canada( west coast )

If you find a good one just let me know what the shipping will be. Thanks!

Jeff B

Great thread and even better work! I too have a 1973 that will be getting the GT replica treatment ....... I will be following this thread

Well I am actually going backwards on this project now. I found that the inner right panel (marked with an X in the picture) was pretty rusted from the battery so I am replacing it now.

My question for others who have performed this repair is should I splice in the panel even with the bottom of the sail support (shown with an arrow in the picture) or should I go above that where the spot welds are?

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I am trying to get back to work on this project and need some advice. The only rust issue on this car is the upper section of the firewall due to the pad holding moisture. A club member hooked me up with a good upper firewall section a while back.

Can anyone give me some tips on installing the upper section of the firewall? It looks like it will be rather difficult so any ideas or experience would be appreciated.

Jeff B

Just spotted your thread. Post some photos of what your trying to do and I'll try to check in later.

lookin good.
if you do not reinforce teh entire inner suspension pick up console it will rip at teh cross brace and or the 2 underside ribs

This is a picture of the upper section of the firewall that has the rust on it, especially in both lower corner sections.

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This is the piece that I am going to use to replace the bad section which has just been blasted to clean it up.

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I am hoping that someone has replaced this panel before and can give me some advice on how to do it.

Jeff B

Do you really need to replace the entire Firewall? I'm making repairs to the Firewall on my car right now and just patching up the rusty sections.. Yours doesn't look that bad from the photo at least.

I personally would use a cup brush on an angle grinder and see just how bad it is before diving in and replacing the entire thing - I think that would be a big and possibly unnecessary job...

Just my 2 cents...

If you do decide to cut out the old one, I would definitely brace the opening...

Loving this project. If love to watch it get kick started again.

I would soda blast the existing piece and see where you really are. I tend to agree with Ollie here.

We've replaced sections in the past. If it comes to that, it looks like you have good metal. I would simply lay out where you would like to cut and weld. That upper section you're talking about is fairly straight forward with the exception of the double walled bits and frankly... I don't see any issue that would make me cut there.

Again, if you "need" to, just cut and patch the areas of concern.

Also... In reference to post#26. I'd just patch the areas needed.

I am finally getting back to my project. My son and son-in-law are going to help me as well so it will be a family effort going forward.

I am getting ready to install a used sail panel/lower fender section. It is in good shape except for some internal rust from the internal foam weather stripping. There are only a few minor holes that extent to the outside of the panel.

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I need suggestions on repairing this before I install it. Should I weld or braze the minor pin holes shut and then use a fiberglass body filler to fill the rest of the imperfections?

Jeff B

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As you can see from the photo the mounting ear for my rear trunk was just screwed into the body. Both sides are screwed on but I would assume that they should be welded onto the body.

I don’t believe that that they are currently located correctly either. Does anyone know if there is a measurement for aligning these mounting ears?

Jeff B

These are actually to lock in the rear tow and not camber

If you eliminate enough rear flex with the right bushings and swing arms you can run zero rear toe. These bars help with flex but mostly help lock in your settings and prevent setting slip from side loading

I don't know where you can get dimensions for location of the hinge bracket.
Maybe someone here knows a source.
What I've done is mount the hinges in the middle of their adjustment slots, put the lid on and adjust to proper fit starting at the latch/ receiver, then tack weld.
Obviously with no torsion bars.
Then operate the lid to verify that it is located well / that it is adjustable to uniform gaps and height.

I was hoping to avoid reassembling the trunk and engine bay lid but that may be my only choice if these dimensions aren’t documented.

I did manage to get the hinges drilled for lightness but truthfully mostly just for the cool look!

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Jeff B

That's how I'm going to do mine. The PO had made a proper mess of the hinge mounts on mine so I had to cut them out and patch in new metal behind. Now I'll put the lid in place to find the right mount location.

I'm going to use gas struts on mine like those available from Camp914…eventually.

Fortunately the PO just screwed them in so moving them won’t be too difficult. One of them may be located alright but I am positive the other one is incorrect since it binds when moving it up and down.

Since there doesn’t appear to be documented locations I will proceed with putting the trunk and engine bay lid back on as suggested to get the locations verified.

Jeff B

I was able to finally get the inner wheelhouse welded in and the door latch reinstalled. That was a lot harder than I anticipated. It finally warmed up enough yesterday to epoxy prime that area so I can finally reinstall the outer fender section.

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Jeff B

Nice neat looking job, but I'd get those door openings braced if I were you.

NICE WORK !

I have many of the same issues...enjoying the photo's.

Vysoc

I am making some more progress and will hopefully be taking the 914 to get media blasted in the near future. My son said he could transport it to the blaster but not when it was so high on the rotisserie.

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I built a wooden frame under it to support it while I redid the rotisserie ends to allow it to be lowered.

Do I get extra points for the highest homemade jack stand?

Anyway after some significant cutting and welding to the rotisserie I ended up with the modifications below.

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Now I am able to lower my 914 to transport it and then raise it back up to media blast the bottom of the car. As most everything we do this modification took me longer than anticipated but now I can get back to finishing the metal work up.

Jeff B

Oh man, that's cool!

I finished up the clutch tube repair and closed up the hole.

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Then I added an additional support just to make sure it doesn’t flex.

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Last night I finished welding the trunk support plate in. We are finally having some nice weather that makes getting this work done a lot nicer.

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Jeff B

The sooner you get it blasted the better. It just makes it easier to see where rust has done its damage. Have it lightly painted with a decent coat of quality primer. You can grind it off where you need to weld and it will prevent the growth of surface rust

I made some more progress this week. I finally got the front tow hook fabricated and welded the nuts in place.

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Then I welded it to the lower front valence that I had reinforced previously.

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Test fit the modified tow hook in place and everything fit perfectly.

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The next item to work on is the battery tray assembly. I think I will keep it in the stock location but modify it so that I can bolt it in instead of welding it in. That should make painting the area easier and allow me to remove it if necessary. I saw it was done this way on the 914-6 GT website. Any thoughts on this idea are welcomed.

Jeff B