A friggin' fiberglass animal.

I end up grinding off 75% of the glass I put on.

PAul

Alright! That looks like a great job!

I need to quit working for a month, and worki-oni-cari..




M

The left side got it first shot of raddle can primer.

More sanding to follow.

I glassed in a few spots to hold the right one on but I still have to deal with the big-ass gap at the front.

First I need to cut back the flare so I can reform the radius to where it meets the panel.

From the back side I taped in a piece of cardboard to hold the shape and act as a form.

Than lay up a bunch of glass. I want to add more than I need so I have enough to sand and shape it. I'll go inside remove the cardboard and sand it clean and lay in more glass mat.

youre insane!!!

AA might be able to build a 914 out of rust flakes.
I think you have them beat.
You can build one out of thin air.

Metal tape works fantastic as a backer for filling large voids like that. When it sets up just peel off the tape and it's even smooth on the back side. It's real easy to form and holds it shape well if you're careful on the first lay up. Looks good!

Any truth to the rumor that Gunar Racing is trying to contract you for fiberglass restoration and fabrication?

Good work, Paul!

I thought I had some experience with glassing from my days working on UAV's in the Marine Corps, but you have some great skill. Seeing all the work and the finished product is inspiring me to get my hands a little dusty.

Keep us up to date on the progress.

MatrixOps

I told Gunnar I only work on 914's. None of that 917, 908, 904, 910 crap for me

Thanks everyone, I 'll keep posting as I progress.
Paul

So when can I bring my car by for a f/g 'makeover' ? Nice work Paul...please keep us posted...and PM me if you are potentially interested in building fenders or doors for my "914R" project

Tonight I took it off the jackstands (I love it when I say that) and rolled it out for a looksee. Needed to see how it all looks with it on the ground. The wheels (or rims for the under 30 guys) were installed with a 1/4" spacer to get them out a little more. As you can see, there's now a lot of tire showing.

A little closer...

and the rough right side.

from the top

PROBLEM!!!

Tire hits the fender when I crank it over to the right.

From the inside.

Nothing a 50 grit sanding disk won't take car of.

I like it a whole lot more with the flares.

Looks meaner...

another angle.

This weekend I'll glass back in the left side inner fender panel. That keeps rocks from hitting me in the face. When you take the door post out, there is a big hole that is left so I had to make a panel to cover it.

For you new guys, this what it looked like right after painting. My "narrow bodywork" look. This was for the top speed runs at Bonnieville.

Ain't it preeeety?

stay tuned,
Paul

I sanded down the inside and added back in some strips of glass mat. After sanded on the outside it was getting a little thin so I added this material to the inside.

more of the same. The resin is sorta red before it sets up.

I had area that I needed to fill where the flare didn't meet the rocker panel. So I had to glass it in.

This is the outside after I removed the tape. I'll have to sand this whole area down to get it to make the transition between the door and the flare. Than I'll have to maintain the seam of the rocker panel to the door/fender. I'm not going to taper the rocker panel ends out to meet the flares. If it was a street car I'd do it. Once you see a car with flared rockers it adds a nice finishing touch and completes the look.

Rockin' Paul! Looks like master grade work.. as you've had much practice.




Miles

Thanks Little Buddy!

Once you learn a few tricks its pretty easy. And besides, if you screw up you're just a sanding disc away from trying again.

Paul

Damm, looks really good. Now I remember why I riveted mine on..... Of course you know a car with flares is slightly slower than one without due to the added frontal area?

It's faster, thanks to the 3rd law of relative pseudodynamics; looks.


M

Wow! You have some skill when it comes to glassing! I don't, well, I can glass, but cannot finish. I can get something down to the 90%, but that is not good enough to paint. I just turned my 914 into a shop last week to finish things up for me. I will post some pics of my GT glass flares. I used a 1/4" lap and bonded from both sides. It worked really great. The strength in the flares is amazing. Plus, it puts them out that much further although you have to feather out a little more with filler to make them look right. Oh well, what a little bondo between friends? ;^)

Here you can see the chop process.

A few screws to pull things tight.....

Thus begins the bonding process. Like I said before, I used glass on the inside and outside, you cannot feel a lip inside the fender, only a small bump. You can run your fingers right over it and the gel makes a smooth surface. It looks very seemless and clean on the inside. By this picture, I have bonded the flares, pulled the screws, sanded the glass, re-glassed and have put on the first layer of that fiberglass filler. That stuff is tuff.

After that I moved to the regular filler and after that, the Ever Coat stuff because it is easy to work with. Here you can see things finally coming together. Oh, yes I did sand the paint off before applying the filler, but my eyes are too small I guess, because I always seem to go beyond what I sand paint off of.

These last couple are from last week just before bringing the 914 into the paint shop. That is as good as I get. It is close, really close, just not good enough though.

And one of the front flares. If I get the 914 back this week, I will post some pics right out of the shop.

-Dan Root (Root's German Werks)

You know what they say about a project- the last 5% takes 50% of your time.

I was the same way with my project, just when I thought I was ready for paint, I spend three more weeks sanding.

Paint does not hide anything.

You did right by doing as much as you can yourself than letting someone else finish it.

Paul

HAH!

You guys should try carving a spruce archtop, 98% of the work is done in 2% of the time... guess what you do for the other 98% of the time..

Yah, and you can't add wood.

Looks great doods!



M

Miles,

Can you carve one of those bears out of a tree stump with a chainsaw?

Now that is REAL art!

Paul

Paul, you should make some dive planes that go from the top if the flare to the lip of the splitter... hides the wheels when they are straight ahead, and gives some downforce before turn in....

Tim,
I was looking at what to do there. But I kinda like the look of the tire showing from the front.

I'll keep kicking it around and come up with something.

Paul

LMFAO

How true that is. The last car I painted (one of my worst paint jobs) was Camp's (Craig laughlin)914-6 he bought from me a few years back. To add insult to injury, it was a black car, so black paint. Eeeew, that didn't turn out pretty at all. I think he said he was going to strip it and re-paint it right away.

Back on page one, Sir Andy asked about the NACA duct that I had in the passenger door. I've decided to remove it and glass over the hole. Have a look.

The problem was the ABS plastic would not bond to the f/g and it would crack at the joint. I also had a bunch on bondo and f/g built up to hold it in place and it just never worked out.

I cut it out in the above pic and in this one I've sanded down the edges so I can in-fill with glass.

I was smart enough to save the original piece I cut out of the door to install the duct. In this shot I have it held in place with tape, paint stir sticks, popcicle sticks, and a cloth pin. I needed to have it held so the front exterior face would be as close as I could get it to the surrounding door surface. Looks like crap, but it worked.

Then I layed on a ample amount of glass.

Looks like a bad case of road rash.

This was all done over the last three nights. Tonight I sanded it down and got through all that bondo down to the glass. The flare is also ready so I'll put on a thin layer of bondo and tie it into the flare and sand.

You can also see in the last shot how I was able to close up the gap at the rocker panel. Next I'll get on the inside and sand it down and clean it all up.