So I bought this Red 74 with a friend to be a car we part out. Well after taking a good look at it I can't bring myself to part it. Yes it has rust issues, but overall the bones are very good.

As you can see jack post are gone and the passenger side door jam has good size hole behind the latch plate, but only in that area. I haven't dug into the hell hole yet, but the battery tray and support is pretty solid.

So the plan is a stock look restoration with very few "upgrades". Only changes from stock would be a more modern radio and GASP........ AC

So here are the pictures.................

More pics....

Floor pans....

Last pic of floor...

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Hell hole distance shot

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It's always amazing seeing the difference in perspective. I have a red car much like yours. Mine has less rust than yours. I am cutting mine up for scrap due to the rust. I'm in California, 914 heaven. There are just to many cars out here to justify saving a car like mine or yours. Someone coined the term... "East coast gem, West coast junk".

here's the worst on my car...

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For now, I would dump the lift and trade it for a rotesserie

You know, the floors look pretty nice. The longs are scary but I think you can save her.

I guess it would be junk out West. If the floors were gone or trunks I would agree with you 100%. It may very well be junk as I haven't really dug into the hell hole yet I will know more this weekend.




Nope, I still have this one in the other stall

Very nice!

Anything can be saved given enough time and love. I wish you the best!

So what should I have called mine...

Looks like fun Garold. Lots of luck with the project. I have only one thing to add...Watch the door gaps!

Yep I know. I'm not a welder and because of that I have talked with Brad Mayeur and will have Michael install one of Brad's long kits when I am ready. I'm going to work on the battery tray area & maybe floors this weekend to make sure the rust issues isn't more than I expect.

Stay tuned.................

Its a good feeling when you bring one back to life.

John

Didn't you have a flared one too?

Yep

A template.

Truly a labor of love Roman, to have replaced as many panels as you have!

Cool! You need a bigger garage!

More pics of hell hole & floor pan. While the hell hole has surface rust it is very solid. I spent a good 20 min going over it with a pick and only knocked off some surface flakes.

The battery tray support is good and the tray itself is ok, but it will be replaced. The firewall looks great. I took some time cleaning some of the passenger side floor pan and it is very solid.

I'm taking the car down to Brad Mayeur's shop to have his longitude kits installed.

So here are some pictures

Also found out the rear shocks are Bilsteins. Then there was the issue of why the car was so hard to roll. It felt like a brake was dragging. Well I found this when I took off the passenger side rear wheel.......

Oh Cool Garold. That car has the special and rare 2 part brake system!

Hey Garold, looks like a project that will keep you busy for a while

Not to hijack, can you give some info on the lift you are using?

Tony you can find more info HERE

Say hello to the donor, I like to call him Rusty Its a 74 2.0. Plans are to keep this as a driver while I work on the Red 74 and AX the heck out of my 70.

It's a sickness I tell ya. Once I am to the point on the red one to start putting back together, the silver 74 will find its way in to the garage to get It has serious rust issues.

Lil red has been at Brad Mayeur's shop (914 LTD) for a little while now waiting its turn. I had Brad fix the longs, battery tray and door jamb. To save me some $$ I will clean up the welds and add the seam sealer where needed.

I will get Lil red home in the next few weeks and continue with the removal of surface rust.

I know everyone like pics so here are few of the repairs.

Battery Tray

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Passenger side door jamb

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I had Brad use his long kits for the long repairs. I like these because they go up into the rear suspension pickups. Here is a few pics of the driver side.

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Thats all for now. More updates to come.

Been a while so here is an update. Brad brought Lil red back to me when he came for our recent 914 BBQ, Thanks Brad

I put it back on the lift today and continued with disassembling the car. Got the fogs & horns off when I noticed a lose paint where the bumper bones was. Yep..... rust hole Argh! Wish I would have seen this BEFORE i took it down to Brad. O'well one more thing on list to fix.

The bumper mount is fine, but the hole(s) go into the headlight bucket and to the left of the mount. What do you think, just cut out the bad metal and patch or does the mount need to come out?

So while I was thinking what I should do about the rust I got out my new DA sander and tried it out the drivers front fender. I know I need to focus on one area, but well I couldn't help myself.

Looking Good

This project should keep you busy for a while, but with Brad's kit on it, you can be sure the car will be strong.

I don't think folks on the left coast and in the Southwest know how lucky they are to not have the tinworm in their backyard. Keep up the good work, it is nice to bring one back from the brink.

I spent more time this past weekend "Playing" as my wife puts it.

Removed the paint on the drivers front fender, cleaned it up and hit with some primer.

I did find a small rust hole on the bottom edge of the front fender.

Also spent some time on the drivers side floor pans. They look great!!!! yahoo!!!

So heres the deal. While doing this work I came to the conclusion that this car needs to be fully restored. I was just going to do a some what quick rust repair. paint and drive type of resto, but now that I am in to it well...........

I talked it over with the wife and she said go for it, gotta love her So it will get the full monty. I have given myself 3 yrs, I know I know, but I do have a honeydo list that has to get done also. Plus there is this small issue of money. Anyway, its going to be fun.

It is looking good. What's the plan for the resto, CW or resto-mod?

Send it to the media blaster and save yourself a lot of time and effort. It will come back needing a quick primer coat to keep it from rusting, but will expose all the areas thinned by rust. Then pull out the money to buy parts from restoration dedign.

Yep that is the plan. I did the fender just to see how long it would take me to do it by hand. I need to get the car to a bare shell then off to the blaster.

It will be a resto-mod. Pretty much as from the factory with minilite rims, AC, and a cup holder.

So work and life has slowed me down a bit, but little red will be going back to Brad mayeurs shop for the rest of the rust repair next week.

While not much progress has been done on little Red I did find a much better 74 donor car. Nice thing its was only 15 miles from home.

It had been hit in the right rear & front and repaired some time ago. It runs strong and drives out well despite the bend right A arm. As you can see the body repair wasn't the best, but the real reason why I picked this one up is the interior is a 9 in my book. So hear is the new donor.

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Nice score! For some reason I have an affinity for '74s with brown interiors.

So, uh, whatcha got planned for those Mahles?

For now I am going to hold on to the Mahles. Once I see how they look on little Red once it is painted then maybe they will be for sale.

Yesterday Mike Burkhart came over (Thanks Mike!) and we spent a good part of the day taking my donor car apart. Still have more remove, but we made a good dent in removing parts.

Thanks again Mike for all your help.

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Been a while since a update. I spent some time removing more from the donor car. Mike came over yesterday and we pulled the engine & trans and removed more parts

Here's Mike and the Donor:

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Congrats its a 2 liter

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Wife snook out in the garage and took a picture of some strange fat guy removing the master cylinder from my donor car.

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Been a while since I last updated this thread, but I have been slowly working on the car. Today was a big step for me. I finished removing the suspension today and I got the car up on the rotisserie.

I'm in over my head, but I'm having fun.

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That's a damn nice rotisserie!

Hey Garold,
Came acros your thread. Cool lift you got to raise it up high enough to mount on the rotiesere, sp?. I have been working on a rotiesere for my daughter's car, almost complete, been trying to figure how to lift high enough to be able to mount.

Dave

Why yes it is. Found it in at some guys house under his 914.



Yes, the lift got my car more than high enough to mount it on the rotisserie. I was able to do it safely all by myself.

Quick update - do to work load and other "life" things I have sold off this project car and the rotisserie. But all is not lost I still have my 70 that the piss out of and picked up a 73. Stay tuned for the 73 story in another thread......