Yeah I really did this. I was building a cabinet for a customer and had moved the car out of the garage for a couple of days. When I was finished, I put another, unrelated door that was headed for the trash up against the garage door. About 20 minutes later, I hit the button to open the overhead door. Duh, why doesn't it want to go up? Well, press the button again dumbass! The door stopped again , along with a BANG....


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It fell on the car. I thought it would be worse, but being my own worst critic, that set the tone for the rest of the day. Wasn't a good one. Really pissed me off, especially as these were a really nice Hella set.

So there. That's what I did to my car.

Sanded down front hood to metal and welded holes shut for crest.

removed transmission and clutch...hope I can put it all back together..Click to view attachment

Prepared the car and placed in storage to wait for the trip north to Oregon. Felt good to do this because at the end of this rainbow I will be able to get back to work on her and complete it. Have to adjust several items when I changed to the suspension to street use, and then prep/paint it. Should be completed the end of fall 2013, and ready for street/event tours.

An excellent Memorial Day Weekend.

Steve

I'd spent a couple of years looking for a set of Marchal "flat face" euro code H4 headlights. Finally found the second one a couple of weeks ago. On Sunday I installed them to celebrate our 41st anniversary (bought the 914 on 27 May 1972).

If you look real close you can see the cat's face in the center of each light

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The weather was PERFECT, so Terri and I took the car for a drive and put another 100 miles on it--rolled over 236,200 miles while we were out.

We were going to go for another drive this AM--but experienced "technical difficulties." Maybe the gasoline I bought on the way home last night? Oh well, after 41 years it deserves a day off.

Have a Happy Memorial Day!

Drove it 403 fantastic miles, top off the whole ride. Ran perfect.

Who needs sunscreen.

Sun screen? ... That's what I had to build this week end (for Dianne's little veggie garden)

Still experimenting with different designs for the top.

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She's happy, so I've been informed that can go to the shop later this week and work on a car or two.

Cars been running great since the new motor went in, but haven't been able to get the idle right, too low can't adjust up. In my quest for a good idle I've changed MPS three times, finally got one that holds vacuum, thanks Jim, it helped but not the solution. The other day messing with it again I noticed if I disconnected the vacuum line to the advance side of the distributor the idle would go up and be adjustable, with the idle adjustment screw, but the top end was lacking.
Talked to McMark yesterday at his shop and was explaining my findings, he suggested adjusting the throttle plate, probably wasn't seating right to close off the vacuum hole for the advance at idle. Today I adjusted the throttle plate, got it to seal off the hole at idle, IDLES PERFECT NOW
The idle is adjustable, and the car has never run better
Thanks Mark Hope this helps someone else with a crappy idle.

I also got my new Pilot driving lights installed, and the wiring changed so they work without the headlights on.

And installed my new rear targa seal from 914rubber, no more sqeaky roof!!!

Then I took it for a drive, can't wait for WCR!



Jeff

That looks great Tim! So you need 2 LED strips for 3 gauges or one per gauge? I'd like to do red...still need to rig up a water temp gauge in my combo gauge. If no one volunteers when I get that done I'll send you mine. Might be a couple months. Nice work!

I loaded her upon the trailer for a trip to the doctor tomorrow.

That doesn't sound good.

Jeff

Dr Mayeur?

2 Led strips is enough for all 3 gauges. Euro911 has volunteered his gauges, stay tuned I plan to have a complete write up as a tribute to Al Garcia.

BTW, the gauge I bought from ebay will fit inside the stock fuel gauge, and will do a fine job measuring oil temp or water temp, fielder's choice.

I had a grind/ friction from 1st to second, I know that by firewall bushing was good 6 months ago, never Re-inspect it until Friday and motives that it was just hanging.

I decided to step up and install Chris's (tangerine) new redesign bushing.
Great improvement, so good that I had to take a 40 miles drive to the beach.
I also had the pleasure to visit CFR Saturday, nice place. Chris gave is a tour of the place. Great guy!

Kudo's to Chris for making great parts for our money pit.

A mate who is big into datsuns was going to a club dyno day and invited me along
$10 to put the car on the dyno seemed like a good deal to me
Pretty awesome day. The guy built the hub dyno himself and it rivals many pro setups I've seen. His 1.2ltr pushrod engine in his current race car pulled 160kw. Amazing to see
Ended up making 55hp at the wheels which is low but a good place to start
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Scored some new lug nuts at the Parts Heaven swap meet today. Awesome deal for sure. I had my rims refinished by Al Reed last year and now I finally have new lug nuts to match.


Old ones.

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New ones.

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I also had to to buy one of those fancy sockets from Parts Heaven to keep from wrecking the new ones. While I was there I also picked up a new jack post cap as I broke the old one last night while washing the car. I walked over to my wife's Bumblebee and took her's off and said it was great to have a parts car in the garage. She was not very fond of the comment or me taking the part off her car.

I drove my car for the first time in a year!

Finally got a chance to get away and over to the shop for a while. Grabbed the dash gauges from Dianne's car and packed them up ... Tim (timothy_nd28) is going to install some LED strips in them

A kid drove up from San Diego to buy my remaining set of Rivieras

While checking out his Ghia, I noticed he was missing some critical engine tin, so we looked around and found a box of T1 tins that were laying around collecting dust.

He gained some free tins and I gained back about 12 cubic feet of free space in the shop

I refurbished one of the springs and added a Bilstein on one side of the car. I still have to touch up the paint and do the other....
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Drove it to work ...

Michael N - that is a nice looking wheel and I heard about your smokin' lug nut deal.

I saw your six at the swap meet....at least I think it was your car parked on street in front of another white 914.... very nice cars, both of them.

Replaced the front bearings and discovered that it cured my "transmission whine" -i am a newbie afterall -then bled the brakes and, other than finding some mismatched nipples on the calipers (i like my nipples to be consistent on both sides) it worked like a charm -now to figure out how to replace my clutch...

Installed Mikey's eyebrow thingies and the nine round bumper doohickies. They went in like butter...
Tripped over crap in my garage so big cleaning coming...
Moved the wiper assembly from the parts car to the tub and found the rubber isolator was busted in half. Ordered one from McMaster.

I was parked on the street near Jeff's white 74. Great time at the show for sure. Next project s to pick up and put my back pad back in the car. I dropped it off at Enrique's uphostery in Milpitas at Montague Expy and 680.

So the new seat made the old torn up back pad look bad so it motivated me to find the back pad kit I purchased in 2010 and take it to an upholstery shop to get it installed properly. I picked up the back pad today and now the new upholstery makes the old tattered carpet look horrible. I guess I will be looking for a nice carpet kit soon.

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That's purdy!!!!

Don't make it too nice you won't want to drive it.

Jeff

Pulled the wiring harness 1/2 way out to send to Jeff Bowlsby. Took the coin from selling cut-off flares to Brant (thanks Brant) and bought rubber seals from Mark (thanks Mark) now have new rubber all around $$$

Patched hell hole

Temp fixtured battery box

Let better living thru chemistry begin..

installed refurbished rear trailing arm...
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Shot her belly:

Well, today I drove it with the biggest smile on my face that I've had for awhile. It's really the culmination of several weeks of some TLC. I've had a clunk in the rear suspension that's been bugging me, and after it warms up I've had very low idle speeds with hunting. I finally pulled it off the road to force myself to get some stuff settled.

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Fiberglass bumpertops from 914Rubber - installed, in addition to changing for a straighter 72 front bumper.

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Also polished up the wheels with rubbing compound - first TLC in the 10 years that I've had this car.

Used some RTV to glue the sections of the front trunk seal back together and put it back in place.

The big thing was that a camping trip last weekend allowed me to sit with print-outs of Brad Anders' FI pages as well as some threads from here about stabilizing your idle. To my surprise, I concluded that my low idle was likely due to my TPS not actually being properly adjusted combined with running it too rich. When I got home I readjusted the TPS, then adjusted the ECU to lean out the fuel. To my delight, I now have a 914 that idles smoothly at 950 rpm after warm-up and generally just drives better as well.

So I'm driving it every day as usual, but since it runs good and looks better, I've got a bigger smile than I've had in a long time.

Tucked her into her new garage, we just closed escrow on the new house, which included an extra 3 car detached garage, oh and there's a barn too... Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

An 'extra' 3 car garage sounds mighty appealing.

And another Barn Find in the making?


Jeremy and I gathered up all the spare parts (carpets, door panels, bumpers, rocker panels, etc.) for the '72 and either installed them or stuffed them in the trunks, so it's all ready to go when the new owner comes to pick it up.

I pulled the 'BB' out of the shop and let it high idle for a while ... only long enough to throw a little charge back into the battery

Maybe I'll get a chance to take it for a spin somewhere next weekend

Seam sealed & caulked everything I could hehe:








wonder if I'll ever finish it, you guys who are up and driving really
don't know how good you have it

I moved it out of the garage, so that I could get to some extra parts that I have been storing for my son's type 3. No time to go , so back in the garage.

Shot her belly part 2:

Very nice on the paint, I wish I was there...

I just pulled the front suspension.....
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finished the interior. I think everything is done except for the radio antenna and the fog light wireing. Also Started the engine for the first time! last time it ran is 1984. Runs super rich though. gotta investigate that.

Changed my newer hood emblem to a old orange bar emblem from our classified section that matches the age of my car and quality of its paint. I have to be crazy to want this older patina on my car.

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I like that old patina. I also have a hood emblem that is nicely aged. And, yes, it matches the rest of the car's condition

One of these days the rust, body, and paintwork will be done and the emblem will be history. Til then, I try to keep it roadworthy.

Today, I changed the oil, topped up gear oil, tightened up exhaust nuts at the heads, and swapped out the old sport muffler for OEM style. Much quieter. I never realized just how noisy the ENGINE is
Put in new spark plugs and adjusted points and timing. Running great!

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I took Betsy driving for about 7-8 hours out in the hot sun with the top off. She performed beautifully.

Took mine out today for an hour long trip over back road mountains from Napa to Sonoma and back. Great run!

My wife drove my 914 for the first time... ever. We've been married over 21 years. Had a (running) 914 the first couple years and have had my current 914 for about three years. She has never before driven one
She never wanted to because they have generally been categorized as a "project". After tinkering with the LE today, I got it running really well so I asked if she'd like to take the 914 for a drive.
After a quick 2-3 mile loop, she is ready for another drive where there are no cars and she can go faster
Her comment: "This handles way better than my car".
As a passenger, she gets car sick on curvy roads. Maybe as a driver she will be OK and learn how much fun the 914 is.
Hmm, maybe I will have to find a 914 for her.
With all the parts I have stashed, all I would need is a roller.

My emblems after 40 years lost their paint and luster. Masked up and painted them with paint I got from Pelican Parts. I used this paint earlier on my steering wheel horn button. Also painted Targa latches. Matches perfectly.

Did not remove emblems. Just slide some thin paint paper behind the emblems and mask up.

them Honda trail 50`s and 70`s are sure pricey now! and that one looks clean,and a big shop is nice to work in ,but ya just end up with a bigger mess to clean

My mother turns 68 today, I took her out to dinner

She enjoyed the ride and dinner of course.

Changed the Bass, Treble, Subwoofer settings on the stereo.... More Cow Bell.......

Nice Paul ...