Finally able to get my project moving again! Friday I drove down to CT and picked up my rotissere from Chris Foley - he built this thing in three days! Couldn't resist putting it together yesterday and putting the car onto it by myself last night. Yeah, just me and two seriously big floor jacks and 2x10s to pick up the rear under the engine mounting bar. Well here it is. Chris, you are the man.

My 12 year old son Nick is a full time Porsche apprentice mechanic, He loves the Boxster and the 914. He says the 914 will be his when he learns to drive.

The rotissere is incredibly strong and the best part is I can move the car around by myself - but it helps to have Nick handy to steer the other end.

Here's a side view of the 914. The next stop is to have the car media blasted and then shot into primer.

Well, here's your truly with his rides. Damn, where's the photoshop software when you need it?

Very Nice!!!

Worth every penny. I've been leaning over my car for 25 years now. Much better than a lift.

Paul

(and my wife likes the color of your house.)

If you can find an acid dipper in your area I highly recommend it. Much better results from the acid. Plus you're not cleaning out media for years to come.

Looks like an awesome rotisserie, nice job Chris and congrats William.

It won't be done by then!

Looks great. I'm thinking about having one of those made for my GT project while the 6 is there in the shop. Troy could probably weld one up might fast.

So, what are you going to do with that thing when you're done? Can I borrow/ buy it after your car is finished?

Dave: After my car is finished, the rotissere will be available to all local 914 owners. I know my friend Eric wants to use it and I would be very happy to see it used by many others. That way I get my money's worth.

Whoo Hoo! Thanks boss!

William,
Congrats on the rotisserie! You're right, that was quick. My car will hopefully be off mine in 6 mo-1 yr so it will also be available.
Ed

So much for needing 3 strong men to help you. Way to go William.
When I lifted the silver car in my pics onto the rotisserie for testing I used a chain attached to the forward seat mounting brackets on the floor. The I-beam in my garage has a trolley with a chainfall, but an engine hoist would have done the trick too.

It looks too tall to fit back in the garage right side up, did you rotate it upside down to push it into the garage? Or does it actually clear the roof?

Cool William.

How high does the garage ceiling need to be to do a full rotation?

Appearances are deceiving. The car actually cleared the stardard garage door, complete with electric garage door opener, with the car upright. Clearance was probably one inch, but it made it. I have a relatively low roof on that side of the garage because there is a bedroom built over that side and a steel I-beam runs thru the garage for structural support of the upstairs. This afternoon I will measure and give you details. Haven't actually rotated it yet because I wanted to have two guys handy to deal with the weight of rotating the car. Will post pictures and measure for those who are interested.

I believe the center of the pivot is less than 44" off the ground.
The most exteme point away from center is the corner of the targa sail panel, which is close to 36" away. I also figured that a flared car might be on there someday. A 2 1/2" flare should clear the crossbar.
Therefore the highest point when rotating is about 6'8".

Well here it is sideways. Not to bad to rotate by yourself, just take it nice and slow. When sideways, the highpoint is about 6'3" as I measured it. About 1 or 2 inches too high to roll it in and out the garage door. Sure gives you access to everything.

I worked around a little with a wire brush just inspecting for any rusted areas. Not too much to find. Makes work on the underside a snap.

Last one for the day. Got to go take a couple of the kids to "River Rave" for the Offspring. Oh My God! Why Me?

Final Question for the Group: When I stripe all this undercoating stuff off and repaint the car, should I reapply undercoating? This will most definitely be a driver, and I sure ain't afraid of rain. This will not be a concours queen. I also will take the car off the road for the winter. So, is there a real need for the undercoating?

seems like good paint should do the trick, huh?

After you have the underside down to bare metal, I would prime it with a zinc rich primer, then paint it body color. For areas that will see rock impact etc, you could use that clear "anti-chip" paint.

Undercoating is evil...when it starts to fail, it holds water so why put it back on?

After doing a resto such as your doing, youll know all the spots that need to be kept clean, and will probably maintain the car better than its ever been..

forget the undercoating

With the road debris we have in this area, my plan was to paint the entire underside of my car with a POR15 kit.

Dave I hear ya....

the por15 stuff is the shizzle... but

there are self healing zinc base coats out there, top coat it with a compatible color, and the semi-flexible "stone-guard" coatings to protect the obvious areas...

I guess any quality paint system will work... maintaining it is key

Wise man speaketh words of truth.

William, thanks for the info.

Looks like I'll be in the need of a rotisserie starting summerish 2005 and for at least a few months if all goes to plan. If you or anyone has one to rent for that time frame, I'm interested. Gots ta start saving my pennies.

Well I damn better be finished with my car by 2005. The rotissere will be available for all NE guys to use with my blessings.

Talk to Doug Leggins before you do the whole underside in POR-15. I believe he had some problems with a test area.

That looks great William. Just looking at the rotissere makes my back feel better. Great job Chris.
L. McC

Thanks for the comment Sean. I plan on media blasting down to bear metal. This is a relatively rust free car and Chris already has repaired the rusted areas around the hell holes, both sides. Media is baking soda. With bear metal the same shop will prime with a Dupont self-etching primer (Dupont 615S Variprime). Then its off to paint. Will paint entire body new color (thinking Adriatic Blue) and no need to POR that I can see. Just keep it clean and avoid all winter conditions. Well, we'll see how that goes.

William,

This is the first time I've seen someone paint his house yellow to match his car!

The rorisserie looks good. We all need one sooner or later. Thanks for the project updates and photos.

Mike

Guys you just can't imagine how much the rotissere improves working conditions. This long weekend, my 914 buddy - Eric (parts guru at IRA Porsche who bears full responsibility for my 914 addiction) came over to help with a few last details to prepare the car for media blasting. With the car on its side, we removed the shift bar, heater control cables and then addressed removing the stainless steel fuel lines Chris Foley had fabricated and installed into the car. Removing the lines from the large grommet in the front firewall was basically impossible with the car in the normal orientation. But with the car on its side, I could pull the lines out from inside the car while Eric forced them down from the top of the car. It worked and in a few minutes they were out. Worth every penny. When I am finished the rotissere is in the public domain for all 914 owners to use for their projects.

Well, while the guys out west were having a great time with track time, autocross and wall to wall 914s, there was very little to do here in Massachusetts except continue to prep for paint work. Next step was to degrease the area over the engine and transmission. Came out very nice.

I also spent some time cleaning up the firewall and gave some attention to removing as much of the undercoating from the car as possible. Check out the following pictures.

I wanted to remove as much undercoating as possible to make sure there was good solid metal underneath. So far no bad areas.

Here's the other side.

The suspension ears were especially heavily coated with undercrap!

The undercrap was also about one-half inch thick at the rear panel.

I intend to strip every spot of this undercoating. Especially inside the fenders and up into the sail panel areas.

Well, here's the general idea of what I'm working towards. By the way, anyone have any goods tricks for removing the torsion bar springs for the engine lid and springs for the front trunk. About all there is left to take off before the media strip. So, what do you think?

William,
I am impressed with your diligence at removing the undercoating! Good job!
Now where is that little metal piece located that you want replaced?

Will post some pictures later this evening. Spot where located and close up of the broken tab. Thanks Chris.

That beats the crap out of dropping welds on your bald spot...

Two questions: How the hell did you get the body up on the saw horses? Second question - how will you get if off?

Come on, this is a gag, right???? You don't seriously get under this car with saw horses held together with nails.

I'm not the safety nazi, but, keep a cell phone handy in case you can still call 911 after it falls.

Kinda reminds me of the picture posted of the fella working on his car in Mexico, the car was tilted up on its side and held up with a 2x8. Man, those are damn strong saw horses!

Don't be a bunch of sissy boys...

My neighbor and I picked it up and set it on there.

Yes it sat there until I picked it up and took it down, and put wheels on it.

Geez...

My Webpage

You and your neighbor must be real he men. With my car as it sits on the rotissiere, four strong guys had all they could handle to try to pick it up. I'm sure the chassis must weigh at least 1,000 lbs. I used two massive floor jacks and 2x10s to lift the car onto the rotissiere, this involve a lift of approximately 8 inches. So, you need to tell the sissy boys how to "pump you up." As Arnold used to say.

Alright, you got me.

I took me and 4 other men. But no kidding we did actually pick it up even after I welded in all the steel and fenders and roll cage and had my wife pull the saw horses out and put jack stands under it.

See my link to my website....

My Webpage