Been finishing up some small stuff while hunting down the electrical problems.

Re-installed the factory drain funnels. Thanks to Donald AKA "HotShoe" for donating a good one with a hose to the cause:

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Installed new fender to cowl seals from 914rubber - nice seal:

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Installed new engine decklid welting from 914rubber - nice part:

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Banged on the rocker panels:

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Installed the rear valence:

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Picked up a good used relay board from Aircooled Racing this morning...I was glad they had one laying around they were willing to part with. Cleaned it up and installed it. My fuel pump no longer runs constantly when I put the car in reverse with the engine off.

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Spent the day cleaning grounds and checking connections. 90% of my electrical problems came from the tail light wiring - it was affecting a lot of stuff. I had marked each wire the way it came off and installed them the same way. Problem is that they were installed incorrectly when I took them off and marked them. Broke out the Haynes manual and was able to identify where the five wire connections back there should go by using the current flow diagram. All exterior lights are now fully operational:

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Adjusted the brake light switch behind the pedal cluster to get the brake lights working...the tang that actuates the switch had slipped behind the washer:

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Hazards aren't working, but I have a new flasher unit on the way. Other than that and installing window scrapers, the car is good to go. I hope to get it inspected this week!

Installed the rear emblems. Didn't have any speed nuts left so I cut pieces of fuel injection hose, poked them with an awl and used them for the installation:

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Cleaned and reinstalled everything in the front & rear trunks:

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Installed new window scrapers and end caps from 914rubber with new stainless steel screws. Put a dab of grease in the head of the screw to hold the screw in place while installing the inside one:

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Dug my heating system out of storage with the new gaskets I made a while back. This is the last part of reassembly! :

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All I am waiting on now is a new hazard relay. State inspection is scheduled for Tuesday...then I am completely legal! First trip will be to a get a four wheel alignment.

Bob, it looks awesome!

I can't even imagine the satisfaction it must give you to get that thing back together and drive it... I know its inspired me to just dig in and start tackling the things I need to get done.

You done good, now...

Turk

GO BOB !!!!!







let me know if you wanna race

Living in the Northeast, I need heat. I plan to use the teener as my daily driver until the roads get salted. Took me a while to figure out how all the pieces went, but the install went pretty smooth. Heater & defrost work very well, but it seems as I always have at least a little hot air blowing in on me. I may need to make a few adjustments:

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Needed an auxiliary 12V power outlet. Tried the stock cigarette lighter, which still works, but it was to big for modern plug ins. I didn't want to bastardize anything on the dash, so I put it under the passenger side of the dash & installed it with tie straps. Picked up a dual spade connector at the local hardware store and ran the wires:

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Passenger side sun visor was a disaster. Removed old Velcro, cleaned it up, installed new Velcro and re-installed:

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Update:

After approximately four years, thousands of dollars, countless hours, five small welding fires (including my pant leg once), one minor explosion in the garage, multiple burns, nicks & cuts and a trip to the eye surgeon to remove metal from my eye...I am driving the car regularly.



I've put close to 1500 miles on the car since passing inspection (and I was on vacation for a week). Overall, the car is running great!

Aside from two drops of oil on my garage floor coming from the taco plate, it doesn't leak any oil. Ordered parts from Pelican to fix this at the next oil change.

Checked gas mileage on multiple tanks and I am right around 27 MPG.

New ignition switch should be installed this weekend to fix my starter issues.

There are a few other minor things to work out this winter, but I would feel comfortable driving this car nearly anywhere once I get my spare parts road kit in order. I should have another month of driving before the salt hits the roads.

I've been getting compliments nearly everywhere I go with it. It pulls hard in all five gears and is a blast to drive.

Thanks to everyone on 914world who helped out along the way with parts, advice and knowledge.

A special thanks to my local guys, JZ and Bryan who helped me out when I needed an extra set of hands.

914world.com rocks!

Bob,

If the cable pulls just a little on the flapper you'll get heat. That's fine now but not so much in July. If you run out of adjustment with the cable, you can rotate the whole flapper a bit to get that little extra slack to ensure it's closing entirely.

Looks great.

Fantastic stuff!..wish I could go for a drive. Post some pics of the finished article. Nice one Bob!

I was still having starter issues, ordered a new Hi Torque starter from ebay...hadn't come in yet so I ran a remote starter switch into the car. Changed the oil & adjusted the valves. Noticed some carbon in the oil sump. Hoping it's just the oil poured into the cylinders while in storage burning off. Tested the oil temp wiring & sensor and found the sensor to be bad. Bought new tires. After reading past recommendations from the world, I went with 195/65R 15's all around.

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The only logical thing to do after spending four years and thousands of dollars on your car is to take it on a 1380 mile road trip to meet friends from Florida & Connecticut that includes a drive on the tail of the dragon. Packed up the car & hit the road. Hit light snow on my way home.


Drove the blue ridge parkway & went to Clingman's Dome.

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Tail of the Dragon was awesome! The plan was to take it easy, but I couldn't. I locked up a rear wheel while braking hard in a corner. I toned it down a notch after that, but still hit it hard. The car performed well, and probably would have done better with a more experienced driver. Saw one cop, parked at a photography area with a food stand. Saw some amazing cars on Saturday too. Took some video & a few pics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZdX51XjSNE

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The trip wasn't perfect, but I got there & back.

- The remote starter switch stopped working at my first stop on the way to North Carolina . Parked on hills the rest of the way there. We stopped to get our bearings on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I wasn't in a place where I could push-start the car, so I left it running. Between driving up mountains & idling for a long time, it stopped running on it's own. We tried push starting it on the parkway but it wouldn't fire & had traffic stopped in both directions at one point pushing it out of tall grass and turning around to get downhill. Let it cool for an hour, then tried again. Car started and ran fine. I will be relocating my fuel pump under the tank this winter. I was sitting in the car when I heard the fuel pump start to whine & lock up. Not having an operational starter compounded the problem.

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- My clutch slipped pretty bad when pulling on to the tail of the dragon the second time and it didn't engage until very late in the pedal release. I was out of adjustment on the cable end, so I put a 3/8 socket under the adjustment nut as a temporary fix. I think there is something wrong.

- When I slithered under the car to check how hot the fuel pump was, I saw a bunch of oil on the heater plumbing. I put 4Qts of oil in before I left home when I changed the oil. Never added any. Dipstick showed full on a completely cold motor before I left Tennessee.

- Odometer stopped working. Fixed before. May add some epoxy to the drive gear this time.

- Every once in a while the car bucks at highway speed.

- I still have a "hunt" at idle. Car rarely stalls, but sounds like it wants to with the stock ECU set to full rich.

Once the car was running it ran really well...great trip overall!

"buck at highway speed": throttle position sensor.

Now pack it up again and head down to the Tropical Ramble in Florida.

Need to iron out a few glitches first.

Backed on to ramps and climbed underneath the car today. I dumped about 3/4 qt of oil on the road trip. I don't think its burning much either. However, the engine got hot enough that the fuel pump vapor-locked in the mountains on the trip. It is worse on the passenger side. I have oil from the top of the firewall pad to the rear valence. I may have more than one leak, but most it is around the oil filter area. Oil cooler seals? Additionally, the seal around the inner CV joint on the transmission is leaking gear oil.

My car regularly had a gas smell in the cabin. After doing some research on 914 world, I bought 5 lbs of activated charcoal pellets from an ebay vendor and replaced the charcoal in the canister. Bought a scale. If anyone else is going through this, you will need 1.708 lbs of activated charcoal for the job (milk jug tare factored in). It was a pretty easy task...gas smell gone:

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Thanks to 914 world, my oil leak appears to be fixed. It was the pressure sensor. Installed a new one from Pelican. Got a break in the weather so I could pull the car out and use some FLAPS degreaser in the driveway to get rid of the oil that leaked out from the old one:

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The upholstery was coming loose on the headrest of my drivers seat. The snag was that the material wasn't long enough to just re-glue it to the foam as it left white fiberglass from the seat exposed. Removed the panel screws on the back and noticed 2 screws in the area. Re-glued the panel with 3M adhesive, then used a pick to poke holes in the covering, ran five runs of string down to the screws and buttoned it back up. Anyone not reading this thread would be none the wiser:

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Miscellaneous car pics:

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Took another shot at the clutch adjustment. After warming the engine up, I am able to burn rubber in 1st gear. I had the clutch adjusted to tight.

Great progress. Keep us posted.

My transmission was leaking at the output shaft seals. Jacked up a side at a time and went to work, using the Haynes Manual as a reference. Even with two electric heaters running in my one car garage it was chilly, but bearable. Needed to drain the transmission fluid, so I reached in the toolbox and used a tool my Dad ground down from hex stock in 1987 so we could check the tranny fluid in my 69 Karmann Ghia...ahh, the nostalgia! One side is done...should be able to finish up tomorrow. Took a measurement with a dial caliper of how far the seal was inset in the flange and came up with .230." Didn't disconnect anything extra to do the job. Contorted my arms and fingers above the heat exchangers to drive the new seals in with a block of wood and re safety wire everything up. Running safety wire with only one set of holes just plain sucks, so I shipped a set of bolts off to my brother who has a drill press to be cross-drilled for the next time:

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Got my new VDO oil temp gauge & sender from Pelican. Drained the oil, removed the taco plate & installed the new sender. Research on 914world showed that the new gauge is slightly smaller in diameter, so I bought the black trim ring as well. I liked the plastic mounting "nut" that came with the kit, so I rolled to Home Depot to find something that would allow it to tighten the gauge in place. I bought some type of PVC union and trimmed a little bit off the inside diameter with a Dremel too. It worked well and I am happy with the install:

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Install looks great Bob, very imaginative.

Wish I could get the motivation to get into the garage, but its been cold and wet here.

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CHT on R, oil pressure on L

Time to address my auxiliary heat fan in the engine bay. Wires were simply electrical taped together in my haste to get the car on the road. I could not find a better solution to the factory plug, but one of the connectors was broken. Used a dremel tool to remove the rest of the old connector and soldered a new one to the remainder of the old one. "Bench" tested the fan and found it to work...I may have a problem in the wiring or switch:

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I've been getting some small projects done on the car. Started the car to test the new VDO oil temp sender...couldn't get the needle to move. It didn't even twitch when I turned the ignition on. Went back and checked the wiring. I had to swap two wires in the connection at the back of the gauge. Ran a ground to the light using a dual spade connector. Took it out for a drive between snowstorms - it is working well now:

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Addressed some carpet coming loose in the front trunk:

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Replaced the 3/8 drive socket on the clutch cable adjustment with a section of copper tubing & a recessed washer so it would stay centered in the tube:

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The front & rear holes on the passenger side rocker panel cover had pulled through the fiberglass. The covers are otherwise in good shape. Pulled off the rocker cover and went to work. I enlarged the holes a little to make sure the fiberglass patch would fill it properly. Cut small strips of cloth for both sides. Applied semi-gloss Rustoleum with a brush to the repaired area. The finish had a little more gloss than the rest of the cover, so I went over the painted area with some fine steel wool to get a closer color match:

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Installed a new set of inner door seals from 914rubber - well made and easy to install (first picture is the old one):

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The snowstorm on Tuesday gave me a great shop day. Tackled a project I have been dreading. There was some rust starting in the area under the passenger side headlight bucket. Man, it's tight working in there! Went to work with an assortment of dremel wire brush attachments, screwdrivers & small hand wire brushes to clean the area. Brushed on two coats of Rust Bullet, new seam sealer and a topcoat:

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It doesn't take long for the garage to get cluttered when working on a few car projects at the same time:

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Love these projects, gives me lots of stuff to check on mine...

great work as always....

On my way home from Zach's Saturday, I realized I still had a few 914 projects of my own to tackle before Spring.

I wanted some decent tunes in the car, but didn't want anything to flashy. I bought a Blaupunkt head unit and some 6 1/2" Polk Audio speakers from Crutchfield.

Ordered the speaker pods and dash vinyl from Appearance & Performance.

Pulled out the factory stereo that received exactly one AM station - no FM. Removed the old foam tape. I fabricated a mounting plate out of 20 GA sheet metal. I was able to trace the factory backing plate to get the precise layout of the glove box key cutout. Temporarily installed the plate with masking tape so I could trace the cutout from behind the dash.

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I had to file the corners of the factory opening alittle bit to get the sleeve to fit. Ran up to Ace for some wire. I was able to match the color coding on most of them. I wanted some support at the back of the head unit, so I took some measurements. Fabricated an adjustable bracket from 1/8" steel to support the rear of stereo. Attached a piece of thick mastic electrical tape do dampen any vibrations.

Ran the wiring and tied it into the fuse block with dual spade connectors. Cut the vinyl for the dash plate and installed it with heavy duty double sided tape.

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Screwed the speaker box on and used the supplied template held on with masking tape to figure out where to drill & cut. Ran a straight edge along the sill to take measurements for the speaker mounting holes so both sides would match.

Installed the face plate with double sided foam tape. I left the vinyl a little long in one area to cover a spot where the old vinyl has shrunk slightly.

I am running without speaker grills. The supplied grills just didn't look right.

Everything came together nicely and it sounds good. The system won't be vibrating any spot welds loose, but I think it will do the job for me.

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Bob, that looks like a nice install. The 20g plate was a nice touch. The speaker boxes look to be something custom-made for round speakers. Did you make or buy, or perhaps I missed an earlier posting?

Thanks, it took longer than expected as most projects go.

The speaker boxes are fiberglass & hold 6 1/2" speakers. A very nice product. I bought them a member vendor here:

http://www.914ap.com/

Looks great, but I'd suggest getting some grills installed on the new Polks.

If you wanted great sound to listen to, you should drop a 3.2L in that engine bay.

Joe would be proud

Ummmm, when are you available to come down and get my car on the road? Didn't you finish w/ Zach's car last weekend? ;>)

No way! Spring is right around the corner...9 months of driving in my future.

Correct answer.
Zach

Are you sure? This stereo only needs one battery and uses the stock alternator. Joe's stereo system is off the hook!

Drove the car to the casino last night for a poker tournament. This audio setup works well for me, even at highway speeds.

We didn't quite get there with Zach's car, but the engine is in.

I didn't get nearly as much done over the winter as I expected, but was able to tackle a few more projects.

Took the advice of a world member and installed the grills on the speakers. I don't like the look as much, but decided some protection would be good:

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Pilot drilled the holes with a 1/8 drill for the repaired rocker panels. As soon as the larger drill hit one of the holes, it ripped the fiberglass out. I went through it again making sure the area around the hole was completely saturated with resin:

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