I wasn't in the mood to spray primer yesterday, but I must admit that finally seeing these areas a single color was motivating. Primer - inner long:

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This project has become bigger than my one car garage can handle...teener parts now have a strong foothold in my shed as well:

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Shed - continued:

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FWIW the panel fit issues you have encounterd are 100% normal. The aftermarket pieces just do not line up perfectly and will always need some reshaping to fit the car. Thanks for posting pics of those spots so everyone can see what they are in for. Keep up the good work

Got a decent amount done last weekend. Installed a section of the Restoration Design upper wheelhouse panel. I didnt need a whole lot of it, but I did need the indented section. Indexing this piece was a challenge. All I had to go off was matching up the curve on the indented section of the piece I cut out to the new panel and a bevel gauge to get the proper pitch of the rise. I opted to weld a bolt on to the piece so I could hold it in place and tweak it slightly while getting it tacked into place. The panel seemed to shrink along the bottom edge while tacking it in place, so I had to bend the back of it out and trim it down for a flush fit. I ended up with a non-weldable gap where the lower wheelhouse meets the original metal, so I had to cut up a small filler plate for this area.

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I was also able to get the rear chunk of floorpan (previously made) welded into the passenger side floor. After trimming it up a bit, it fit quite well!

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Finished up the repair of the front hood cable attachment point. One coat ospho, two coats Rust Bullet, seam sealer and two coats of brushed on acrylic enamel.
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Thanks Scotty B. Yep, while I am happy with the overall quality of the replacement panels, it seems that things need to be tweaked from time to time to get the best fit.

Wow Bob, your almost done, Looks great!!

Wow, keep up the good work!

It's nice to watch someone else work.



You're doing a great job. Keep it up.

Problems with both the Mazda and motorcycle have cut into my 914 time over the last few weeks, but I was able to get some more done.

Drilled holes in new metal patch on drivers side, installed new allen bolts and re-ran front hood cable.

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Took a wire wheel to the inner wheelhouse section to prep for primer...discovered a lot of surface rust in ths area that will require treatment before primer.

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After reading other build threads on here, I have been pretty vigilant about keeping an eye on the door gaps and taking my time welding to keep the heat down. I have made a couple of small tweaks along the way, but the gaps have held well. Checking gaps after welding in the upper wheelhouse section, there was a more noticeable difference. After some adjustments to the turnbuckle, I was able to able to get it within .030" of the drivers side and still have the door close OK. The door now requires more effort to close it and will need some final tweaking.

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Ended up with a bit of a mess where the floorpan meets the firewall on the passenger side & will have to make pieces to fill the areas. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have bought this section(s) welded them in and been done by now.

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Needed to fabricate the verticals of both the inner and outer firewall. I was able to get a close measurement by measuring the rise of the old piece and adding the width of the metal cutting wheel. Something warped in the floor, leaving too narrow of a gap on the outside. Had to drive a solid wedge between the original firewall and new floorpan to pry these apart for the correct spacing and weld a chunk in to hold it in place. The wood splitting mall was crude but effective.

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Outer firewall patch:


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For the front firewall patch, I opted to make a template to simplify things:

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Both pieces finished:

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Bob you are making great progress keep it up

Welded in the lower inner vertical firewall piece:

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I had a large rusted section above the long on the firewall that had to be farbricated and replaced. Went with a posterboard template to get the shape accurate:

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Finally, a solid inner floorpan on the passenger side! I decided to prep this 1/4 of the pan for finish...one coat of rust converter applied:

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Nice work

Looking good Bob, I better see this car at Hershey if I drive up for the 3rd year in a row.

Seeing two stellar teeners at Matt's cookout as hurricane Irene approached made me realize it was time to get back to work.

18 GA patch pieces were made to close up the hole in the outer firewall:
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Finished the rear passenger side floor pan on the inside. Two coats ospho (on rusty areas) followed by two coats rust bullet (again, only on rusty or pitted areas) two coats rust encapsulator and new seam sealer. It was nice to look at a small section of the car and say "this is done."
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The jigsaw puzzle that is the rear floor pan on the passenger side continues to get pieced together. It became very complicated trying to make this part all in one shot, so I decided to go with a section at a time and weld it all together:

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Experienced some cracking after applying the initial primer on the upper wheelhouse. I suspect it is from over-doing it on the rust converter, as I have run into this before using the product. From now on, I will only apply one coat. Wire brushed affected areas and re-sprayed primer:

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My welding skills have improved significantly, but it still seems like I spend a ton of time grinding...

Tying the firewall, floorpan, and inner long together has been a challenge. Two small patch panels were fabricated and welded in where the outer firewall curves rearward to meet the inner long. Final piece welded into the floorpan where it meets the long. Took the wire wheel to the whole area to prep for a light Ospho treatment in one area and I hope to get this area primed tomorrow:

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Tomas donated a used set of plastic MC lines to the cause as my originals were accidently strafed by a wire wheel. While the Ospho was drying, I installed them, taking any means possible not to disturb the new master cylinder. Thanks Tomas! Started cleaning up my rusty muffler bracket as well:

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Great progress!

You are getting there.

It will be worth it.

John

Shot two coats of primer on the rebuilt pass side firewall/floor pan. It was a lot of patchwork, but I am pleased with how it all worked out.

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Cleaned, treated and painted the exhaust bracket.

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Very nice work; you should be proud.

Looking good Bob whats the current status?

The outer suspension console and engine mount were completely shot on my car, so I bought a relatively rust free chunk of longitudinal from a member of 914world and started disassembly. What a PITA drilling out all of the spot welds and grinding down the outer welds, then beating the pieces apart with a large hammer and screwdriver. My "original" inner suspension console must have been replaced at some point, because it was in better condition than the one I bought as part of the used longitudinal. All three pieces were treated with POR-15 on the inside while the weldable areas were shot with weld thru primer. I continually ran a piece of safety wire through the drain hole of the inner console while treating with POR to make sure the drain remained open.

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I decided to start with the inner console. It was a real bitch trying to measure exactly 28 1/4 inches from the hole in the center of the firewall to the front of the suspension ear hole with a tape measure while holding everything in place. Plus, this needs to be spot on for proper alignment. I decided to cut a piece of steel brake line to exactly 28.25" to simplify the task.

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The inner console had a little bit of "rock" to it on the new long that seemed to be coming from the indent behind the bracket. Had to beat this area with a hammer for proper fit:

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Still nervous about having the measurements EXACTLY right before tack welding this thing in place...I decided to call it a night.
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Great Job!

Keep it up!

Got the inner suspension console tack welded in place today.

Figured out the slight rock I had in the piece was from two previous rosette welds on the new longitudinal not ground completely flush.

I spent quite a bit of time bending, hammering and adjusting the areas to be welded on this piece, to make sure it fit as good as possible. There is a slight gap at the top of suspension console that will be addressed with a big hammer and block of wood after the rest of it is tacked on.

Took one more measurement, from both the front and rear firewall, dead on both ways.

I started with the leading edge, because of the alignment mark. I was amazed to see how much the whole console moved forward from two tack welds! Re-checked the measurements and they were off. Had to grind off the spot welds with a dremmel tool and start over again.

The trailing edge needed some side pressure before tacking it on, so I broke out the special tools.

Needed to put a little pressure on the bottom of the console before tacking the bottom on.

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Before finishing all the welding on this piece, I double checked all measurements. Firewall hole to front of inner console hole was still dead on and side to side came in at 33.5".

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As another sanity check, I leveled the car and took a measurement from the garage floor to the bottom of the ear and checked it against the original drivers side...both were right at 14.25".

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There was a slight gap (less than 1/8") at the top of this piece where it forms around the top of the long...reformed with a big hammer while tack welded in place.

Top edge before adjustment:

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I decided to seam weld this piece on. I am re-using a replacement piece in very good shape installed by the PO. There wasn't enough meat on the some of the edges to drill holes for rosettes. I had to re-use the previous monster rosette holes on the top. I took my time and cooled the area with compressed air after every few welds. The roughest part was welding the bottom area near the seam where the inner and outer long meet upside down.

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Well done my man

Beautiful work! Thanks for posting all of your photos. Excellent!

Indexing the right engine bar mount took some time. I had saved the original chunk of long I removed the mount from, so I re-aligned the holes and took a measurement from the edge of the inner suspension console to the edge of the mount and came up with 1 3/8". The suspension console that I welded in was aftermarket and did not have as much meat on the edges as the factory piece. I measured off the start of the bend of the installed console and marked a line on the long to match the factory edge. Up & down was verified at 3 5/16" (taken from the original long) with a combination square from the top of the mount to the top of the edge of the suspension console.

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Used a big C clamp & jack to hold it in position for welding and verified all measurements one more time:

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Re-filled the factory rosettes and seam welded a few 1" or so sections on both sides.

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impressive!!!

Looking good Bob dont make me break out the whip. You know its right around the corner. Your work is looking really good. Glad you are remeasuring everything before welding

Thanks Andy. No need to break out the whip as the car will be at Hershey.

I have decided to make the car reliable and roadworthy by tackling all of the big stuff that I need to. Everything else will become a "weekend project" after I start driving it.

Fitted the engine shelf yesterday & today. This piece caused me a lot of frustration, largely because the front and rear firewall sections that hold the engine seal channel were not there to index from.

I got nervous that the engine mount was welded in too high, so I leveled the car and took measurements from the floor to the bottom of the mount. Driver and passenger side both came in at exactly 12". Additionally, I double checked all other measurements on the engine mount. Everything was good.

The shelf itself needed to be flattened a bit in the front where it meets the inner long. I also had to adjust the top edge of the engine mount in the front where I had welded a repair in.

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I will need to fabricate both front & rear firewall metal to tie them into the engine shelf. Waiting until these pieces are made until I start welding anything. Filled holes in the rear firewall left from removal of the old sheet metal.

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Oh, death knell for projects; a deadline...

Nice work, keep the pix coming

Fabricated and installed the section of rear firewall that holds the rear engine bay seal. I leveled the car and measured from the floor to the lower edge of the engine shelf on the drivers side (19 5/16") so I could determine proper height of the passenger side engine shelf:

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Made a template out of poster board for the replacement piece. I was able to use the mirror image of the drivers side to get the proper curve:

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I measured the thickness of the original metal - it was about 19GA. I opted to use 18GA metal for the repair panel. Finished product:

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Very nice work, keep the pics coming.

Got some more done today. Started treating rust on the front firewall engine shelf. Part of it is missing and some areas have a little rust - thru, so I fabricated a doubler that will be welded on the bottom. It will serve two purposes...beef up the remaining factory shelf and serve as a backer/support for the piece I need to fabricate to tie in the passenger side engine shelf. I had to make relief cuts every 3/4" so I could match the factory bend:

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There were a couple of small holes under the gas tank on the passenger side that needed to be patched. This will not be a show car, just a fun, reliable daily driver. I cleaned the area, fabricated a doubler for the bottom, rosette welded it on and sealed the edges with JB-Weld:

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Started fitting the outside suspension ear before I ran out of steam.

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Awsome work, Keep away

we are on the same journey!!

Thanks Andy...do you have a build thread going? I am surprised that you have these rust issues on the left coast!

Bob

With the nice weather, I had to finish some painting on the house...but I was able to get a little more done.

Welded the engine bay seal channel on the rear firewall. This product was not available pre-bent from Restoration Design, so I had to make relief cuts to get the proper bend:

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Treated the rear driver side engine shelf with ospho:

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Brushed two top coats of acrylic enamel on the patch panel, passenger side under the gas tank:

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Thanks Andy...do you have a build thread going? I am surprised that you have these rust issues on the left coast!

Bob
[/quote]


Really, Its all that work your putting in on your car, no time to watch 914 World

let the sharing of rust begin


http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=101062

Welded the doubler plate that I fabricated for the front firewall engine bay:

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Applied two coats of rust bullet to the drivers side rear firewall:

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I needed to trim the lower edge of the outer suspension about 1/8" on the bottom for proper fit:

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With the inner suspension console and engine bar mount in, it was time to tackle the outer suspension console. PM'ed Scotty B about the best way to index this piece. He said the best way was to take measurements before cutting out the old long. I hadn't done this, but I still had the chunk of old long in the garage so I was able to make a template. I really hated drilling holes in my brand new long, but I had to temporarily attach it with sheet metal screws to mock-fit the suspension:

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As a double-check for the template, I measured from the drivers side jack post to the front edge of the suspension console and came up with exactly 12.5". This number matched on the passenger side. Additionally, I ran a straight edge accross the bottom of the inner suspension console to make sure things made sense:

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With everything in place, I decided to mock fit the suspension before starting any welding. It was a relief to see things line up properly!

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SO you'll be driving it to Hershey in a few months right ??

Got some quality shop time in today. Fabricated the connection piece that will tie the engine bay sheet metal together up front. Made a template and hammered out the piece I needed. I had to cut back about an inch of the engine bay seal channel on the replacement piece. A dremmel tool with a cut off wheel did a fine job:

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Hit the passenger area under the tank with ospho, two coats of rust encapsulator and new seam sealer:

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