Got some more done on the teener last week. Welded in the 1/8" thick vertical inner long support that ties the engine bar mount to the inner long. It was tight welding the rosettes at the engine mount. My first attempt was an epic failure as the welds didn't hold. I re-drilled for bigger rosettes:

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Fabricated an inlay to match the factory lip in the area of the reinforcement. I should have made it about 1/8" longer vertically...but I should have plenty to weld to:

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Fabricated the final piece to close in the inside of the long, rustproofed and seam sealed a few areas:

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Go Bob Go!

only 7 months left to finish it.

914 gatherings are awesome for two reasons. First, I get a chance to catch up with 914world.com members. Secondly, I get additional motivation to actually want to drive a teener to such an event. Been firing on all cylinders after Matt's event.

I have decided to go a different direction and only use part of the Brad Mayeur longitudinal reinforcement kit. This is not a knock on Brad's product in any way, shape or form. His solution is both well-engineered and well made. It would be nearly impossible for me to replicate the double wall design of the original long. I took a look around the shop and realized that I had a surplus of RD clam shell. With the 1/8" thick reinforcements already welded into the long, I decided to use ribbed sections of clamshell to complete the remainder of the outer flat section:

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Welded in the aft piece of clam shell, indexed to matched the passenger side. Flattened out a piece of copper tubing I had laying around to use as a heat shield for the heater hose that runs through the long:

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Aligning the jack post was a lot of work. I mock fitted the rocker panel cover and held a ruler behind it to see where I needed to be horizontally. Vertically, I measured down from the fender lip. For depth in the clam shell, i measured out from the rocker cover:

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Would you quit screwing around and finish this thing already!













































Keep up the great work!

A key concern with using the ribbed clam shell in this section is the strength of the jackpost area. Both sides of the post itself were welded to the clam shell. I had previously bought a standard jackpost support, so I cut it down to use on the inside. I will be using the Brad Mayeur support on the outside. The post was capped on the backside to prevent crud from getting in there:

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Took advantage of the nice weather and shot weld thru primer on the post supports and "clam shell jack post" outside. I added drain holes to both the inner and outer support plates:

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There is a section aft of the flat part of the long that was completely rusted away. I started screwing around with templates to make the piece by hand, then looked at the surplus clamshell again. The overall fit is nearly a match, it just needs to be bent. I made some relief cuts so it would bend and went to work. Still have some more to do on this, but I think it will be a solid solution:

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The current state of affairs in my garage:

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Sweet work Bob! I am envious of your metal shaping skills. Keep up the good work and she'll be back on the road soon enough!

Welding is a skill; it is also an art. I'd like to learn it, the abilities shown on this forum are nothing short of amazing.


Looks like you're getting close Bob, keep pushing.

Incredible stuff as always Bob...you should write a book!

Ollie.

So you're gonna drive it up to my open house on 09/15/12, right Bob?

I bet he would for one of those nifty bar b que spatulas.

Thanks for the encouragement gents.

This project is daunting. So many times I roll out to the shop with the best of intentions but end up doing something unnecessary like sorting bolts instead of actually working on the car.

Not gonna make this one. I am confident I will be attending more events when the car is on the road. Hope all who attend have a great time.

Will the food network be on the big screen?

Bob, great work as always!
Roll man roll!

Hershey 2015!!

Seam sealed and applied "rustproofing" to areas that will be enclosed when the jack support plates are welded on:

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Finished up the final piece of outer long fabricated from surplus clam shell. Going this route saved me a lot of time:

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My calculations were a bit off on one of the pieces for the drivers side long. Needed to add a filler piece:

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Welded the outer jackpost support on and sprayed piece with primer:

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Need to fabricate a rather large panel to fix the drivers side rear firewall. The plan is to make this with one piece and weld it in. The reinforced area for the engine deck lid cable was still pretty solid, so I opted to cut it out of the old panel and re-use it. I had to add a little weld to it to fill some holes. Measured from the outer edge of the panel so I know where to install it in the new panel. Traced the old panel on new metal to get the rough shape:

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i've just spent the morning reading through this thread.
You really should be very proud of the work you have done in saving this car. Bloody fantastic.
No it wont be concours , but it will be one hell of a good strong resto, and something you'll be driving for years by the looks of it.
Well done,

Cheers

Dale

Seam sealed the clam shell jack post section & prepped for welding:

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Did one final alignment check on both pieces. I needed to shave a little off in two places for the best fit. Ran a long level accross the bottom ridges of the existing clam shell to check how true this new section was vertically. It was within 1/16" with everything else lining up well, I decided to roll with it:

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Welded the final two lower long pieces in place. Took my time and cooled with compressed air regularly. I tried to remove as little of the fender as possible, so there was some tight welding at the top seam behind the fender. The door opens and closes well and the gaps look pretty good :

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Thanks Dale. The plan is to take the time required to do it right once, then enjoy the car for a good long time.

This is an awesome thread for the fabrication, welding, and thorough documentation shown alone... but even better knowing it's all going towards the restoration of a 914! Keep up the good work, I am impressed!

Spent a few hours grinding down the welds on the jack post area. Had to go back and touch a few areas up, but overall, I am pleased with how it turned out:

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Made a poster board template for the final patch needed to close up the drivers side long. There is about a 3" section at the back that is missing the vertical lip to rosette weld. I opted to leave that section flat and rostette weld it to the top of the old long to button it up. Whenever possible, I use leftover steel from Restoration Design panels because they are galvanealed:

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Gave the long a final cleaning with the shop vac before spraying a liberal coating of rust encapsulator into the long using the extension nozzle:

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Spent the evening welding/grinding the final patch piece of the drivers side long:

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Fired up a template and banged out the final piece of the inner firewall that joins the firewall and floor pan:

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Welded in the lower inner firewall patch on the drivers side. The angle of my bend was slightly off, so I tack welded the vertical section, then used a hammer and drift to beat down the piece that meets the floor:

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Man, this is almost like watching Chip Foose

I like your work and admire your fortitude

Finished up the firewall patch. I decided to make this a one piece repair for simplicity and had to bend it to match the existing factory firewall. Installed the engine bay release attach point and the tab that holds the brake line:

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Naturally, the edge of the front firewall shelf had some rust damage, but most of it was isolated to the forward portion. Rather than re-make this entire piece, I cut out the bad areas and welded in new 18GA metal. Brushed a coat of ospho on the surface rust:

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The final section to fabricate is the wheelhouse above the long. I had to cut into the indented circular area behind the blower motor to get rid of all the rust. Went to work making the main piece...I will add a small connection piece after this one is welded in:

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Thanks wingnut...it's a sickness.

As many of us have experienced during a restoration, my engine ended up out much longer than expected. The engine will be sitting in my shed for another winter & I had never done any type of preservation to make sure it stays free and will fire up without a lot of hassle when the car is finally done. Poured oil in the cylinders and rotated the engine, stuffed rags in the exhaust ports and duct-taped the throttle body. Swapped out the CHT sensor as well, in hopes that the engine will be "plug & play" when the time comes. Under advice from the world, I used a dab of superglue to hold the CHT washer on during installation. Used an inspection camera to view the inside of the tin to make sure there were no mouse nests in there...all looked good:

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While I had "easy" access to the inner drivers side rear fender, I hit it with Ospho to halt the surface rust:

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While checking out what I need for what is hopefully my last Restoration Design order, I took a close look at my drivers side door sill. I only needed about 5" at the rear. I had a pretty clean section from the passenger side so I cut out what I needed. The factory piece dips down at the rear (about 1/2") to allow the door jamb to rest on top of it. To re-create this, I cut off an extra 3/4" chunk of the donor jamb and welded it to the bottom:

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Way to go Bob. We'll see the car at Hershey 2013 for sure.

Got some light work done on the car the last few days. Brushed two coats of color on part of the underside of the engine decklid (previously ospho'd) where there was some surface rust:

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Took a close look at my supply of used sill triangles and found two of them with only minor surface rust. Drilled the welds out of the old passenger side clam shell from the inside. Cleaned and treated with Ospho:

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Applied rust encapsulator to the inner portion of the drivers side rear fender before welding in the final wheelhouse piece:

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Removed seam sealer from portions of the rear trunk. I was pleased to see surface rust only. Hit rusty areas with a wire wheel and applied ospho. Did the same on the lip under the rear trunk lid:

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Applied weld-thru primer to the top of the clam shell where the sill will sit:

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Took a look at the drivers side jacking donut...I need to do a little more grinding on some of the floor and long welds for proper fit, but didn't want to stir up a bunch of dust with paint & opsho drying in the shop:

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Used a mixed assortment of three grommets from the local ACE hardware held together with permatex to make a new sheet metal plug for the CHT:

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Prepped the jacking donut for installation. I had to trim a little off the piece where it meets the pan and add a little bend:

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Needed to replace some more engine bay seal channel...removed the bad stuff and sprayed weld-thru primer:

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Received what I hope will be my final order from Restoration Design for this project. I only needed a small piece of the door jamb...but I knew it would take me a long time to make it by hand so I just bought one along with some engine bay seal channel:

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Seam sealed trunk and brushed on two coats of color to the repaired areas:

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Welded the inner wheelhouse patch in. Using the Dremmel tool to add the holes after installation was a bad idea - I tore through a lot of Dremmel supplies. I only had half a hole to index from, so I got a pic of the layout from a 914world member. Temporarily installed the firewall patch with duct tape to mark the hole. I had to add a small curved piece of metal to match the circle in the remaining wheelhouse. Holding it in place with welding gloves was the biggest challenge:

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Very nice work...

Needed to zip up the seam on the inner wheelhouse forward of the firewall:

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Re-attached a section where the firewall meets the door jamb where I previously drilled out the spot welds:

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Welded in the firewall patch. I started with the rosettes where the panel meets the door jamb, then tack welded the panel on the back to hold it in place. Seam welded from the passenger compartment, then touched up the engine compartment side:

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The repaired section of the front engine bay shelf and the fabricated drivers side engine bay shelf had to be fitted at the same time. It took a lot of forming and some trimming to get everything to line up right. Needed to add about 1/4" to the tab where the side and front piece meet:

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This year for sure riiiiiiiiiiiiiight?!?!?

Great work as usual...I don't know how the hell you made that shelf piece with the indent...amazing!

Keep up the momentum...I just finished mine and it was well worth all the effort, energy and money!

Looks great Bob !


At least tow it to Hershey next year so we can see it

Welded the last section of the drivers side door sill on. Used a 12" rule to make sure everything was true:

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Started fitting the lower chunk of the door jam. Hated to cut such a small piece out of the replacement from Restoration Design, but had to do it to as the rest of the jam looked good. I used the old piece for a rough measurement of where to cut, then trimmed to fit:

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Nice work Bob ............. Lookn good.

Got burned for some ca$h last year thinking "for sure." But it looks more likely for Hershey 2013.

Thanks Ollie. Lots of work invested in that part. Will see how it all works out soon!