Hey guys. I'm new to the world of 914's, and I've been initiated into them with a car that has significant rust in floorpans (and probably in longs). Based on your experience, what is it going to cost me to have a knowledgeable 914 guy repair/replace the metal in these areas? I hate to just chalk it up to a "newbie" mistake and scrap the project. There are fewer of these things left every year, and if it's possible to save it, at a reasonable cost, I might be willing to spring for the repairs. Based on your experience, what kind of cost am I looking at if I strip it all the way to the metal, and then have a pro repair/replace the rusty areas in the floor and longs?

Thanks in advance, I'm sure there must be a few people on here who have faced this same tough decision and were able to get some good estimates.

Post some pictures. Make sure you include the area under the battery. Depending on your skills or bank account it is possible, but it may cost you more than buying another car.

My newbie mistake is pictured below. It was a 2 liter with fuchs so I didn't lose money after I parted it out. I then bought a fairly rust free example and shipped it up from AZ. I paid about 3k with shipping included. We can't give you a good estimate without pics.

this guys newbie mistake broke in half on my lift

It's all assembled currently, so difficult to get pics right now, but I'll work on that. However, had it up on the lift last night to inspect and noticed that there was significant corrosion near back of floorpans. The battery tray itself is definitely rusted out, and there is some corrosion way down underneath the battery that I could see once I had it up on the lift as well.

So, assuming the worst, has anybody footed the bill for this kind of repair/replacement? I guess what I'm trying to do initially is figure out a range of what I might be looking at cost wise (assuming the worst). Is it $2K? $4K? obviously the more the cost the less practical it is to move forward with repair.

Personally, I'm not skilled at all for this particular kind of repair, and have no welding knowledge to speak of. I've priced out metal costs at Auto Atlanta for replacement panels, but I have no idea what it would cost to actually have the repair done.

I have a lead on a roller from Craig at Camp914 that has a fairly rust free 1970 body. I'm considering picking that up and then taking parts and components of this other 1970 as an alternative to repairing the rust.

Like I said, though, I hate to completely scrap it if there is any chance it could be fixed at a reasonable cost to keep one more 914 on the road. I'll try to get some pics sometime in this next week or so as I'll be in doing a clutch replacement.

It is impossible to tell how bad these cars are until you are well into the repair. there are spots that consist of multiple panels lap welded together that cannot be seen until metal is cut away. I have done hell hole repairs from 1500.00 u[ to one that ended up at almost 6000.00. The hell hole rust gets very intensive to repair, and quite often leads into the inner and outer passenger longitudinal, and the rear floor pan.

This is my fear. I was lured in by the the fact that everything on the car works, it runs, it looks great, yada, yada, yada...

I saw it as a good running "project". Now that I've taken the plunge, I fear the rust repair will cost more than I paid for the car to begin with. That's why I'm seriously considering finding a roller with a sound body and then using the combined parts to create a finished project. Not to mention, by taking apart another one, I should get intimately familiar with the 914s by the end of the project.

$2-4K? I wish. My rough rule of thumb says the metal is 5-10% of the cost of the repair. Labor is the killer. The rust that you can see is like 25% of the total. Rust hides under seam sealer, floor tar and paint. But there are many here way more knowledgable than me so pull out the interior, take off the rocker covers and take lots of pics.

Other places for rust - passenger suspension console, engine firewall, under the pedal assembly, above front hood hinge at windshield cowl, behind f&r bumpers, sail panels, driver hell hole, back corner of rear quarter panel, ect.

It's easy to make $2k parting these cars. Especially if you have alloy wheels. I just took one apart. You do learn alot! Good luck. mark

It does have alloys, and I'm pretty sure there is at least $2K worth of usable stuff on this one if I wanted to buy a roller and use all the parts from this one to build on a more sound frame. Interior is good, engine and tranny are good, lights and motors are good, so a lot of usable stuff. Just a more expensive "parts" car then I had originally wanted to spend. A tough lesson to learn, but I know I'll gain a ton of experience, and I'll certainly never make this particular mistake again.

If you can get a reasonable, and truly rust free roller, then that is smart money. You are correct that it will be educational and fun to swap. You can repair the roller easier before transfer, too.

It is really hard to find rust in the non obvious places on a built up car. How many sellers will let you remove the backpad, rockers and bumpers, dig around with a screwdriver under the seam sealer and scrape tar off the floor? ...and then there's under the windshield, engine mounts, suspension console, trunk channels and all the rust that bubles out from the foam filled areas.

God these cars suck

LOL, why did I get started with this crazy addiction?

No Telling without Pics, could be $3000-6,000

If Craig has a Rust free car buy it and use you existing car as a parts car

Lets see some pictures. What you consider significant may not be as bad as you think. There are a few shells around that can be had, but there are also parts that can be used to fix these cars. The real killer is the rust under the battery (or hell hole). I have a local shop that has become fimiliar with these cars and can replace floor pans easily. The longs are another story, but can still be done.

I'll be working on the clutch next week, it should arrive on Monday. While I'm in there messing around, I'll see what I can take off, put it on the lift, and then take some pictures. Would like to get some opinions from you guys who have been at this for awhile. Like I said, there are fewer and fewer of these things each year, so I hate to see another one discarded if there is any hope of fixing the rust problems at a reasonable cost. An experienced shop who specializes in 914 rust issues could probably fix it cheaper than any of the local guys around here where I live in Central Oregon.

As soon as I have pics, I will definitely post them.

There are less and less but... You are on the West Coast. There are way too many nice cars here to bother restoring that much rust. East coast guys like rusty cars and British guys like basket cases. Get the roller from Camp 914!

I see more and more rust that is concealed under tar paper, dyna mat and padding
#1 hiding spot: floor tar. nicely shaped and painted over but floor rust although ugly, is minor single layer repair work.
I see 914s with sculpted bondo.
like Scotty said, that hell hole gets deep and complicated quickly

Your story sounds a lot like mine.

I wanted a racecar, so I found a local 914 running with the stock FI.
It had a LOT of nice parts, fiberglass hoods, SS HEs, nearly perfect interior, etc.

I paid $1000 for it and drove it home.

Once I got it on stands.... the longs were toast and the previous owner did a horrible job repairing them with ZERO consideration for halting the rust.
I can CRUSH the rear suspension consoles with my hand!

So it was not even considered for a race car.

I then found another car, race ready, with a trailer, from Arizona (nearly rust free) FOR $3000.
He delivered it to Denver for $3600.

It is sitting in my garage right now on 4 jackstands getting ready for next race season while the parts car is in the driveway under a tarp.

I had some hellhole repair to do, one broken suspension mount, and today I am replacing a small strip of floorpan under the drivers seat.

However, I was a welder for over 10 years, so that is a bonus when restoring one of these.

Dont give up!
But I also suggest getting a roller and moving the parts over.

Also dont get too worked up about scrapping one.
One of the club members in my area used to have parties where he would recruit help and sawzall a couple apart, salvaging any panels that were worth it, and hauling the rest to the scrap dealer....

Stu

I don't know how much you're wanting to tackle, but I've got a pretty clean roller that looks pretty good in all of the hard to tackle areas. It does need some work, but it's nothing compared to replacing the suspension console or entire long.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=148843

Pull the battey and tray, pull the sound deadning mat off the firewall, and remove the passenger rocker pannel. Poke at the metal with a screwdriver and scrape off any seam sealer you can find. You can allways recoat it later, but dig in. and take some pics.

Ands by the way if Craigs car is as good as it sounds, it will be pretty straight forward to swap out, just need some paint and of course ....... rubber.