First time posting to this forum and a 914 newbie.

I removed my rocker panel to check out the rust situation and thought I would see what y'all thought.

What parts do I need to buy, what to simply patch.

There is only a couple of small holes under the completely destroyed battery tray.

I did jack up the car once with the factory jack in the square hole and it held, but after looking at the rust I won't do that again.

I also threw in a photo of the cool flat spot on my exhaust caused by the PO not re-tightening the tranny nuts. We were hauling it home on a dolly and it dropped! - sparks a' plenty!

http://www.wholewheat.com/914/rust/

Any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

You have got some pretty bad rust, but it looks line my '73 was worse. How bad is the frame rail and suspension console underneath the battery tray? My suspension console had rusted from the inside out, resulting in a big ol crack.

It is repairable, but likely not cost effective unless you do it yourself. Replacement body parts can be obtained from Restoration Designs, and Brad Mayeur (veldiadv@midwest.net) makes a kit to reinforce the longs. Alot of people criticize it for being too heavy, but it is well thought out and worked well on my car. You can also fabricate alot of repair pieces yourself that do not have hard to duplicate shapes.

I am also in Louisville, and feel free to email me if you would like to check out what rustoration I did to mine.

Wow. That looks scary.

I think it can all be repaired but I would want to be sure the car was on a rotisserie or jig of some sort to be sure the chassis is aligned for re-assembly. Too much flex and the doors may not work or the wheels may not track right.

I believe restoration design carries the panels you will need.

I spent a lot of money having the rust repaired on my 914. What looked like a very small amont inthe "hell hole" under the battery eneded up being a cancer. Everytime the shop thought they had found all the rust areas they would dive in deeper and find more. My car was finally media blasted down to bare metal and even areas that had looked OK when they were hidden by paint, sound pad material, or vinyl were not OK.

I say this because my rust did not look anywhere near as bad as what you are showing and for what I ended up spending on rust repair, panel replacement, metal fab, and labor I could have bought a really nice 914.

My best advice is unless you can do all of the work yourself and do it correctly, consider finding a better car to start with.

Welcome!

Looks pretty typical for a midwest car....

Mine is not much better. Have you pulled the carpet out and check the inner longs (especially where the seat belts attach), and lower firewall?

There's been some really good pictorials of rust repairs posted recently, Michelko's "diggin' into hell" thread comes to mind (take it easy Brad, deja vu ? )