This thread is going to document my restoration of my '76 which I picked up about a year ago. This vehicle lived its life in southern California and was in relatively good shape compared to a lot of 914's I have seen for sale. The restoration I am doing is not going to be a full 100% nut and bolt concurs rest, but one to bring the car back so I can enjoy it as a driver. I originally started the work back in September, don't know why I didn't start documenting then, I have learned so much from others who have posted their work on here, so all I can hope is that I return the favor to someone else. The first series of post and photos will be to get everyone caught up to where I am now...below is my wife posing with the new member of the family!

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Around the exterior...this is definitely a 10 footer car...from about 10 feet she looks great. From the photos you can tell that it appears that the rear drivers quarter panel and perhaps the trunk were repainted. I verified this as I found overspray on the rear drivers side trailing arm. It appears it was just a cosmetic fix because I didn't discover any type of collision damage. Again overall the car was in decent shape, interior not bad, just shows 36+ years of aging in the sun. The car didn't run to bad, it lagged a little bit in a few areas of the power band. After further inspection I did notice it was missing the heating duct work and fan from the engine bay...but since I live in Las Vegas, having heat in the car is not really that big of an issue. One thing I liked about the interior was the RACEMARK steering wheel, definitely an upgrade of the factory stock wheel I am not fond of. I didn't like that someone cut holes in the doors to mount speakers, so I definitely will be replacing those. Overall seats were in good condition with no rips, center console leather was decent, carpet was good shape--just old, and the back pad had a big puncture on the drivers side.
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Now for the up close... some surface rust and paint bubbling, perhaps the car received some other paint work in it's previous life
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What appears to be minor surface rust in the trunk areas...

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Battery tray and Hell hole....could be worst, no major rust or structural damage....
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Prepping to look at the underside of the car....
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Rear disc...brake pads had life left in them, just a lot of surface rust everywhere from its life on the coast...
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Oil pan was nasty...definitely had some leaks!
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Doing the first tune up....
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I would drive the car for the next few months and it was a blast. It had a few hiccups here and there, but again this is a 36 (at that time) year old car. In July I took it to Carls's Place here in LV to have them do a once over on the car and overall they said the operational health was pretty good. After driving it a few months the leaks starting showing up and they recommended redoing the push rod tube seals and the seal for the oil temp sensor on the bottom of the car was bad as well. Compression was decent but could be better. Also they recommended replacing the drivers fron tie rod and rear trailing arm bushing.

same year as mine, same colour hopefully not the same problems

Looks like you have a great place to start from - good looking car - long live the rubber bumpers!

.....WELCOME...my fav's 75' 76'

'

We need more pictures of the wife to accurately assess the overall situation!

No where close to what you had to deal with...I fell very lucky I was able to score one in this shape. I am amazed on what I have seen on these forums on the work people do to bring these cars back to life!

Here is the wife polishing up the Fuch's...

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This wheel wasn't too bad...all of them had minor surface rust and corrosion

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A good start on brining it back to life...still have a scratch on this wheel to work on

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Damn! I wish my wife would polish my wheels! You are a lucky man!

Cant wait to see the end result (but probably not as much as you! haha).

Looks great!

Dan

Took A look under the rocker panels...definitely the worst areas of the car...


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Booth Jack post will have to be replace...yes I know this is nothing compared to a lot of cars out there...Thank God for the west coast!

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There is small hole rusted through the floor board underneath the passenger seat...

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Both rockers will have to be repaired...eventually probably will replaced....are the fiberglass one the way to go???

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Nice start.

Engine Out! It was a really simple process. Took me about two hours which was not bad. I printed out the instructions from the Pelican tech forums and the directions were spot on. This is the first time I have embarked on an endeavor as in depth as this. I just hope once its torn down I can get it back together and running again!


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A litte fun steam cleaning the block and tranny!

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My wife does the same thing with my tools. I think its penis envy! LOL

It's been awhile since I posted...

Below are some pics of the tear down back in March...looking back now, I wish I would have done a little more preparation before I sent it, out such as remove undercoating, pulling out the dash etc...but at the time I had anticipated that I would be getting an new assignment and would be moving in fall and would have to rush and get the car back together. Turns out I will be here in Vegas at least another two years...

Tear down started...

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floor boards are really clean...

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My teardown elves...

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Almost there...

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Off to my body man!

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Looking forward to seeing the progress on this one.

So I have a lot of catching up to do, as my schedule has been really busy between work and going to school, I really haven't had to the time to document things as extensively as I wanted. Also my time line to get the car re-assembled has increased greatly. I got word last month that I am going to Aviano Italy for my next assignment and I have to be there by the end of November. That gives me roughly 7 months to get things in order, but definitely would like to get things together a lot sooner so I could enjoy the car for a little bit before I put it in storage for the next four years.

Here is where I left off. car is back from paint...again not a total nut and bolt restoration, but a nice 'refurbishment'....


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The front valance wasn't removed as I specified (should have done it myself) and therefore was shot body color. It was pretty beat up anyways and I will more than likely order a new one

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Lookin Good!!!

I love the 75-76s, which makes me a minority, but they did improve a bunch of things along the way.

Wait a minute. Your going to Italy for four years w/o the teener??? You must plan on buying a Porsche once there, huh? Some very fine roads for the drivers there.

I really don't want to leave it. I am researching the SOFA agreement for US GI's over there, because there is a provision stating we can only have 3 vehicles...but I don't know if that is the whole time we are there or only 3 at one time. The military is shipping my Explorer which is the wifey's ride and then I am going to bring my M3 as my DD. Once I get there I and get settled, I'd like to send for the 914 and bring her there as well...but I would also like to pick a Euro 911 or something of that sorts since I am out there. I have to figure out how to work that in. I agree, I can't imagine nothing better but driving my 914 through the roads of the Italian coutryside!

Rear end disassembly commenced next: removed both trailing arms, disassembled hubs, removed wheel bearings, removed sway bar and brackets, disassembled CV joints, removed brake lines, entire back end was disassembled...

Once everything was apart, I removed all the old undercoating, rustproofed and shot with new underbody coating. As I am doing this, I realize yes I probably should of done this before I sent the car off to paint, but originally this project just started off as an engine re-seal and then one thing lead to another...those who do choose to read this, I have realized I have a made a lot of rookie mistakes, but hey its a learning process!

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New undercoating applied...I also choose to do the lower engine bay as trying to keep this area clean in the future probably will be futile

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Rear Brake Rebuild:

After watching Eric Shea's video on YouTube, I went ahead and took the plunge and bought a 914 rear brake rebuild kit from PMB Performance. Their kits are top notch and as well as their customer service. They helped me out as I also ended up needing new pistons and the internal mechanisms inside of them, as mine were too far gone.

With the brake kit I also bought new hard lines for the rear from PMB. They were pre-bent and the price was right that I couldn't pass them up and put the old nasty old lines back on.


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I can't believe I was riding around with a caliper looking like this

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So I had to burn some excess leave from work and the timing was perfect to get some real progress done on the teener!


Got the rear end all put back together (minus the castle nut..which is on now) and mounted the freshly rebuilt calipers from PMB

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Installed the sail vinyl...thanks 914Rubber!

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Scored a nice set of 75-76 heat exchangers from Mrfourteener. I had planned on backdating to earlier style but he hooked me up with a great deal on these and a exhaust. Also included was all the plumbing and a blower, which was all missing from my car when I got her.

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..and then the big task, getting the motor full reassembled with all of the tins, new alternator, all new fuel lines and vacuum hoses. I will have to pull the injector back out really quick as I have a service kit from Mr Injector coming in this week with new strainers and caps. But if all goes as planned, it should be off the stand by next weekend and reunited with the tranny.

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Got some newly plated hardware from Bruce Stone...this stuff really looks good, i am probably going to order a few more items...

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Cleaned and refurbished all of my lighting housings...have new lenses and gaskets for the front and side markers. Haven't sprung for the rears lenses yet (...so pricey for new ones)

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Ripped the pedal assembly out as I am prepping to POR-15 the floorboards...it was pretty nasty down there, but from what I have seen from others on this site, I guess it wasn't all that bad, but definielty needed to be dealt with.
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...and the retired pedal assembly. I have a refurbished one on my bench which needs to be assembled.

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I have another week off at the end of this month, so the goal is to the engine fired before we hit June!

Looking great. Nice work and attention to detail!

Neat that your wife helps as well!

Thanks! She was out today working on getting the trim ready. I think she is actually excited now to get this thing finished so we can ship it with us to Italy when we leave later this year!

Great project and stick-to-it-ive-ness!!! These builds are a labor of love and you guys obviously love this car. I hope you enjoy many miles of motoring pleasure.

It has been awhile since I last posted status as I have been moving at a frantic pace to get the car completed before I leave the country...

Here is where I left off:

Engine is finally off the stand and getting to be reunited with the transmission after two years!

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Engine insertion about to begin...

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My second set of hands was delayed so I started the process myself and I was surprised I was able to get it installed in about an hour. The biggest issues I ran into was that the new fuel rails I used extended out further than the width of the engine bay. I had to get creative with the way I lowered the car down onto the engine so i didn't crush or pinch the rails.

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The powerplant is in!

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Started hooking uptake electrics to test and I was getting some sparking at the battery post. I isolated it to line for alternator or the alternator itself. The original wire harness for the alternator was pretty brittle from the age, but I traced the whole line and i didn't see and areas which it may have a cut in it and was shorting out on the chassis or on something else. The next step would be to test the alternator which means I would have to remove it though to check it. With the engine in, I thought this was going to be a PIA. After doing some research and finding a nice article on the Pelican sites, I saw it was not an impossible tasks.

Once I had pulled the alternator, and took off the backing plate, I notice one of the terminals had pushed through the protective boot and was shorting out on the backing plate. The alternator I had put in there was a replacement and luckily was still under warranty, I was just unsure if NAPA would replace it. Luckily when I went back to the store I bought it from, their tester was done so they just ordered me a new one. I also decided to buy a new alternator harness from Jeff Bowlsey just to potentially eliminate and other potential problems.


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New harness from Jeff Bowlsey...Definitely a work of art. Great guy and awesome customer service. I emailed him on a Sunday and he got right back to me and I had a harness at my house by Wednesday!

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Old harness next to new harness

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New harness attached to alternator. I made sure the connecting post were ground down enough to not make contact with the backing plate this time...

Re-installed alternator (took about an hour)...problem solved!

Got a little inspiration along the way during my build...on one of my weekend trips to LA for the Pomona Swap meet, I got the opportunity to stop by and visit Magnus Walker and take a peek at his collection. Also got a sneek peak of his wheel line before they were released!

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His '78 SCHR

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Good old car number #277

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Cheers!

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He signed an Urban Outlaw poster for me and added some words of encouragement for my build.

Well, did you start it yet?

Yep it is up and running! Had to get some assistance from a few friends but she is on the road! I need to get my thread up to date!

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/building-a-gr...la-1-ferrari-2/

Helper elves need wheels too.

Now that the back end was complete, it was time to tackle the front end suspension...

This is what I started with

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New powder coated control arms. I bought these two years ago when I started my resto. What i didn't do is realize that I bought a set that didn't have the tabs for the front sway bar. So again i and to jump on the net and order a U-Tab kiys from Pelican to complete the install. Also installed a new set of polygraphite bushings, and turbo tie rods.

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front struts refurbished and powder coated with new KYB struts installed

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front wells with a fresh undercoating

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rebuilt from brakes, kit courtesy of the guys up at PMB

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Final assembly, with brakes calipers mounted, new Zimmerman rotors and new brake lines...the Works!



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