Good afternoon all,

I've got my father's 914, a 2.0 from 1975. Even though it's never seen a winter, I have a pretty good hell hole going. It's to the point where if you lift the passenger side from the jack point, the door gap begins to widen.

Interstingly, the jack point seems good.

Anyway, is there anyone in the Detroit area you can recommend to fix this? I'm not looking for perfection - assume I've got a wife that hates the car and would be verry upset if I sank some big money into this (I know, a relative term - let's say more than $3,000.00.)

I'll try to post a pic of the hole.

Thanks for the input!

Jon G.

keep in mind that the hell hole is probably not the only thing the car needs.

if spending the money will cause problems at home, you may want to just keep it in the garage, out of the elements for the time being.

wife's happiness comes first.

brad in indiana - http://www.914ltd.com/

jim

I'm lucky here, I know the fully history of the car (It's been in the family since new). Everything works. Even the clock. The car runs and stops just fine (one exception - I need an oil cooler, the seals went bad, it's either plugged or gunked up inside or outisde in the shroud area. But until I stop the car becuase of the oil issue or overheating, it runs like a champ.

that is an urgent maintenance item - over heating. there could already be some costly repairs needed due to this.

brad - or other - could probably handle that while engine is out for hell hole repair.

might want to talk to the wife to see how you will split your possessions when she finds out you spent $5k vs $2-3k and leaves you.

get us a pic of under the battery tray and of the long under the rear end of the rocker cover.

I also recommend Brad. I trailered my car down from Metro Detroit and he replaced the rear floor pan, inner fire wall, outer fire wall and battery tray. Where in Michigan are you?

David

I'm in the Bloomfield Hills area. Here's a pic that shows what it looks like from underneath. From the top, under the batter tray, and all the way to the fire wall, there is no rust. I don't have pics of that.

Here's another pic

And some more pics. This one looks pretty good.

Last pic for now...

Sorry but based on those, you are looking at rear floors, and likely lower rear firewall as well at a minimum.

Before you dive in, you really need to access the rest of the chassis before you make $ decisions. You are well beyond the 3k point from what I can see to do it correctly.

I agree and don't go under that car.

pls give us pics of the entire car when you have some time.

though it is looking more and more like you need a rust free roller to move your parts over to.

then you'll find you need suspension and brake parts.

Here are a few more of the area in and around the HH.

PS: this is the hell hole we speak of.. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-914...fore-after.html

See pics in link

I would like to introduce you to Restoration DEsign

http://www.restoration-design.com/mm5/merc...tegory_Code=914

It's funny, parts are easier to get now than ever. I can remember in the early 1980's ordering the little plastic piece that holds the visor the one on the far left passenger side, from the dealer. after a few weeks, the wrong part arrived. A few weeks later, the right part came in, the wrong color. A few weeks later, they sent us the first piece again.

The problem now is no one even knows what a 914 is!

Here's a few more pics. It's dusty, but imagine it clean.

Brad's in East Peoria, IL.

Have you probed around the rust area to see if the undercoating is holding more rusted area.

I'm in the Clarkston area and recently finished the metal repair .

Mine didn't look quite as bad to start, then with removing undercoat/sound deadeners it got much worse.

If you needs hand evaluating, there are several of us in the Detroit area that can help
I've got a feeling the more we look/dig the more we will find

How are the door gaps and jack spurs?

The hole is as big as it is becuase I was banging around with a screwdriver. I think that the rustrproofing is probably keeping about another 1/2 to 1 inch of metal together around the hole.

The door gap on the driver's side is solid, by memory, I'd say about 5-6 mm. You can jack up the car on that side, it seems to stay the same.

There is no rust anywhere to speak of on the car, other than in the area depicted.

On the passenger side, the gap by the door edge is about 3 mm if memory serves, and grows when the car is jacked by the jack point.

I'd love to have someone come over and give a second opinion. I've had an acquantaince who is a 914 man stop by, he seems to think it's worth preserving, but we are looking for someone who can do the work for a reasonable price.

I'm pretty mechanical, but I'm more of a motorcycle guy. I've never welded before, but I went to good ol' harbor freight with a coupon and got a mig welder set up. I'll need to make room in the garage to drop the engine, and move things around if I try this myself, but I'd like to see if I can get it done outside the home first.

It's to the point where if you lift the passenger side from the jack point, the door gap begins to widen.

When it widens, can you open and close the door?

Most ( I said most) 914s can be saved just depends on how much $$ you are willing spend to do it. Some of the Michigan guys need to come over and need to give the car a good once over. As for metal work you can't go wrong with Brad Mayeur at 914LTD 309-694-1797 if you can't find a good shop closer to you.

I can open and close the door when it widens.

I say do it yourself. A nice 10 year project but the money doesn't fly out the door as fast. Notice I did t say it was cheaper

I wish I had my Dad's old sports car, that alone seems like a good reason to keep it.
He had a white TR3, long gone.