Today was a chilling day, both figuratively and literally. You see, I dropped off my 1970 914-6 for some long overdue structural repairs in Northern Minnesota. It was both freakishly cold and a milestone in my 914 ownership.

A little backstory....

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Since I was was a kid cars have been a part of my life, particularly 914s. In the early 1980's my father, who was in his early 30's, was diagnosed with cancer and endured months of experimental treatment at the U of M. Miraculously he overcame the odds and entered remission. Upon paying back his medical bills he celebrated by purchase a 1970 914-6.

This particular car brings back many fond memories from my childhood. I remember riding in between my parents in the front seat, urging my dad to go faster. I remember riding in the car as we drove up to Brainerd International Raceway to watch the IMSA Camel GT series run. I remember my school age friends looking at the speedometer in awe, simply blown away that it went up to 180mph. As a kid I affectionately referred to the car as "Speedy."

Long story short, the car fell into my possession many years later following my father's passing and would become a reminder of the great times I spent with him. The car spent the majority of the last 20-years languishing in our garage. It was brought back to life mechanically, but had a number of battle wounds that accumulated both by me as a lackadaisical kid and from corrosion on the non-galvanized body. Knowing that a car does not do wel sitting, I enthusiastically drove it whenever I could. In fact the last couple years I had it on the road I probably average 3k miles per year, which is a lot for a sports car in Minnesota where it snows 6 months out of the year...more on this later.

Deep down I knew that the car suffered from corrosion and I finally faced it head on when I removed the rocker covers just over a year ago. I soon discovered that the car suffered in the usual rust areas. So much that I was no longer comfortable driving it. The passenger side needed an inner and outer long. The drivers side needed an outer panel. I found that the rear half of the floorpan required replacement. Surprisingly, the hell hole was in pretty decent shape.

Despite having some little welding experience under my belt I knew the repairs weren't in my wheelhouse. After consulting the 914world brain trust I quickly learned that that the solution to my problems was just a couple hour drive away. Rick, aka Rick918S, has torn apart a number of 914s and after some back and forth he agreed to tackle the project.

Before hauling the car up north, I pulled the engine and interior. Upon pulling the engine I learned that the car no longer has it's original motor, rather is has one from a 68s. For the record the engine is stamped with 901/02 and serial number 4080519. Makes sense since the car seemed to have more zip than 110hp brings. Once stripped of the engine I loaded it up on my trailer in anticipation of the pilgrimage north.

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So, this morning at the crack of dawn I hopped in my truck and made the 2.5 hour trip to Duluth, MN, with the car. Normally a trip to Duluth isn't a big deal, however the weather made it a bit more exciting. Earlier this week we got dumped on by snow. In the Minneapolis metro we got about 8-inches. Duluth got closer to 18-inches. If the snow along wasn't enough, the temperature brought things to a new level. When I left my house in Minneapolis the temperature read -7 degrees. As I got closer to Duluth the thermometer dropped to -19F. Soon thereafter it dropped to -26.

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Part of me thought the car would break down and I would become a human popsicle. With inconsistently plowed roads part of me also thought I would careen off the road, but with a stroke of luck I made it to Duluth in one piece.

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Rick and I unloaded the car quickly in an effort to escape the cold and rolled the car into his shop.

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At present the car sits in good company next to a 1960s Mercedes roadster. Whereas the 914 normally hibernates during winters, this year it will partake in a makeover program. The aforementioned structural elements will get repaired. Concurrently I will be putting the engine on a stand to adjust the valves and replacing gaskets and seals as needed. I'll open the transmission to make sure everything looks good. I plan to replace the sail panel vinyl, carpet, shocks and rechrome the rear bumper. Inevitably, the slop will get more slippery. The goal is to have a stong structural and mechanical foundation come spring. Once complete, I'll drive the car for a few years before tackling the superficial cosmetic blemishes.

Stay tuned for a photo diary of the progress.

Whats that white stuff? '

Rick is a master, you won't be disappointed.

Nice story. Nice photo too

You're car is in good hands now

+1 .... That picture looks like it should be in some hard cover glossy page porsche book

It's in Good hands with Rick!

Beautiful car!

So great the 914 stays in the family. Keep us posted on the progress.

thats a great story and thats one incredible car, your dad would be proud that your doing this!

Please keep us in the loop how it goes.

-26 Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This is a great story. But not just a story. Once again our little cars are about more than shiny paint and gas and oil. Ben's car comes with a legacy and a connection to family. I am going to enjoy being involved with the start of a new chapter and future for the car and a continuation of the fond memories this car evokes.

Ben has be gracious enough to allow me to use his car in a video idea I have had for awhile. Many of you have asked about how to go about repairing the chassis of your 914. Or "What the heck did I do ?!?! My door won't shut and my top won't align!"

I'm going to start with evaluation and documentation. A step many never think of and move on from there.

Ben's car will be the first part of the video. I will also include the chassis repair on the 6 Ethan agreed to sell me. This will be a full on chassis repair with the Celette.

So because of the video I will have a slow start with photos of Ben's car but by the end of December and on into the beginning of the new year Ben and I should have some nice photo documentation. My goal is to have the chassis sewn up by the third week in January.

I just love the story and the fact that Ben has entrusted with his family heirloom. He are the right choice having a professional tackle these issues so that once it is fixed he will never have to address those problems again. I have always believed that when building anything, even a car, you need a rock-solid foundation to begin with or you are just throwing money away.

I am really looking forward to seeing the progress this car makes.

I am very thankful that Rick decided to take on this project and look forward to watching the progress unfold. It is a great car and I look forward to it being structurally sound enough to put back on the road for many more years to come. I now have a two year old, Benjie, and look forward to spending time with him in the car.

Since the car has been in the family for about 30 years we have a lot of the service history. More impressive though is the stack of repair and purchase orders from the previous two owners.

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After looking through big stack of documents I can piece together the cars history, beginning in Louisville where it was sold new and then in the early 80's when it traveled north to Minnesota.

Ownership History:

1970: Purchased by a Mr. Mike Losey at Don Corlett Porsche/Audi
1982: Carousel Porsche/Audi in Minneapolis aquires the car
1982: Carousel sells the car to Kevin Kirby of Sioux Falls, SD
1984: The car returns to Carousel and my father purchases it shortly thereafter

I find the Carousel connection pretty neat. My dad initiated a relationship with this dealer upon buying the 914 and maintained a strong relationship with them for his years thereafter. It was through this connection that I got my first real job working there. Any high schoolers dream, they hired me on at the ripe age of 15 as a lot runner. I worked there through high school, college and a couple years out of college concurrently moving from lot runner to service advisor to sales associate. Bottom line, much like Carousel was an important part of the 914s life, it was also a big part of my life.

So, back to the service history... In the file I must have 15 odd repair orders from the cars first 15 years.

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It's certainly fun looking back at was done and the incredibly low price charged to do some of the work. Digging through the documents I can see that the car had persistent carb problems. They were rebuilt a number of times and ultimately replaced. There was an engine fire that likely stemmed from fuel issues.

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It's also interesting to look back and see problems that still persist. Here are just a few. There is a repair order for a rattle in the passenger door panel. That rattle is still there today. A new dash was added at one point, which explains why the dash looks so nice. The odometer was replaced at 53k miles in 1982. This explains why the current odometer reads in the 18k mile range.

All in all, the comprehensive packet of records really helps to reconstruct the car's history.

This thread will start the documentation of the cars future.

That's cool, having all the service records.

I purchased a '66 912 from a gal that owned the car from new. Her dad bought it for her when she started college. She finished her education and became a successful lawyer. When she became established, she bought a new 911SC, but kept the 912 for several years afterward.

I acquired it in 1988 and it came with a 3/4" thick envelope of service receipts. When I got home, I went though the receipts and found that some parts, like the heads and the carbs, were replaced 10k miles ago. I'm also happy to say, that it is the most rust free early 901 series body car I've ever owned (and still have it)

Looking forward to seeing the repair progress and completion of your car ...

Very nice story. I look forward to the video and hearing about the rest of the restoration.

Always loved that color, it just looks right on a 914 ...

Nice car!
Great story!
Hope my son takes custody and care of mine, when I am "not".
Paul
Love the wheels on the car, with that color of paint, nice touch, and different.

for hopefully more pics of this -6 ...

I always thought cookie cutters would look good on teeners, and meant to hang on to the ones from my first P-car (early '85 944).

Great story, thanks for sharing it and looking forward to more!

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. Since a couple people requested more pictures I must oblige.

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I did a little forensics tonight. Ben's car is really pretty good as 914's go. Here are a couple photos of the issues at hand.

The car had a strange battery shelf installed at one time This isn't the first one of these we have seen. As funky as it looks it is actually really good that they did this many years ago as they cleaned up and painted the hell hole area. I need to replace the engine shelf, stand and tray. I may have to weld in a small patch on the top of the rail but again we have all seen way worse than this.

Oh, and the trunk hinge is welded in the wrong place. The lid is high. So that needs to be corrected.
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Here is the worst of it. Typical right side jack post rust and rear floor pan on the passenger side. I'll know more when the tar is off the floor but I think this will stay on the passenger side floor only. Driver side needs a jack post and maybe some rail repair. We shall see.

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Are those 15x7 Cookie Cutters?

Thanks,

I believe they are 15 x 6 in the front and 15 x 7 in the back. I'd have to double check.

I, too, am looking forward to following this thread!

Rick's got mad skills, yo! You will be amazed at the quality of work he can put out.



Konrad

Slow start fellas. I'm trying to get the Mercedes off the Celette and get it to Michigan to be e-coated. I'll have some progress to post soon. I'm not going to post here but I have to build a trailer to haul it. I'll post in my welding thread.

Hi Rick: What does it typically cost to e-coat a car? Is that a process where the entire car is submerged like you see on factory build shows? Thanks for the info.
Michael

I'll start a thread on it when it happens but it looks like $ 3k Cooked at 800 deg, de-rusted, submerged in a big tank and zapped.

Great pics of the -6 ......

Love this color and the car. Good luck with the restoration. I'll be following too.

Please post pictures of the process if you can and I would like to know the shop where it gets e-coated. Just thinking….

In an effort to keep this thread on track I sent you a pm.

Rick has been plugging away on the car and just sent me some photos. As is normal, there is a bit more rust than originally anticipated, but nothing Rick can't handle. I'll let Rick chime in with commentary.


Braced and ready for some rust removal...

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Some unexpected rust in the pedal area. Most appears to be on the surface though and can be patched using a pan section on hand

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Passenger door sill and part of the door jam will need to get replaced.

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Driver's rear floorpan needs some love as does the passenger side

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So, with some unexpected repairs required I placed another order with the folks at Restoration design. To prove how small the 914 community is, I noted that the parts should ship to Rick in Duluth. The guy at RD, I forget his name, said "Oh these are going to Rick with the V8 914....you own the blue 914-6 he's working on...."

I'm excited to make a trip up north to check on progress soon.

Great bunch of guys up there in the Great White North! I called R.D. and left Mike a voicemail and then sent an email with a question about their online catalog. I thought that's odd they didn't call back... Then it dawned on me. It was Sunday Duh.

Ya I found a little more rust. I called R.D. to see if they had a short rail section as there is no need to get nuts and cut out the entire rail. I will just do a short patch at the jack point and it will be fine. I'm actually really happy with the floor condition. After the removal of the tar boards there was very little more rust than was showing. There is an odd rust hole at the front of the right foot well with no real reason for it. Very easy fix though. I have a cali front floor section that will fit it right up. I removed the home made battery tray and broken hinge.

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There should be some real progress by the end of the week.

***subscribed***

Is it done yet Rick?

Can't wait to see the progress!!! Waiting for an update~

Love the colour (that's colour...not color, for the illiterate)!

Love the wheels!

Amazing how much rust can lurk behind such a pretty little car.

Good luck with the resto....can't wait to see it done!

I'm building a jack so I can get it up on my new wheel stands. The real progress will start then. Here's a photo my son took the other day. Progress soon I promise.

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Hey Rick, I had very similar rust in the same spot on mine. I assumed it was because of the foam block that sat in the passenger footwell, soaking up water, but the /6s had the removable "dogbone" footrest, correct?

Beautiful car - can't wait to see the work and the eventual video!

Can't believe those wheels are not on more 914s'
They are perfect, echoing the angular/boxy lines beautifully.

The rust removal continues. Rick is working away to get all the bad metal out in prep for new pieces.

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While Rick has been working on the body, I've been tearing the engine apart. I will be replacing the valve cover gaskets, replacing the oil cooler seals, thermostat seals and chain housing gaskets.

When I went to adjust the valves earlier this week I found that a previous mechanic put the distributor in 180 degrees off and then adjusted the wire locations to compensate. I don't know why he didn't just flip the distributor, but I've learned this happens more than you might expect.

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Nice work Ben. I'm just closing up the hell hole tonight. I have the inner reinforcement all rebuilt. The bottom of the rail is finished. Here's the bottom of the rail and the inside shot showing the reinforcement and ribs repaired. This is all double walled. I used the spot welder on the flange like the factory.

Incredible work, Rick!

Top of the rail closed in. There is an inner panel under the outer skin of the hell hole that had to go in first.

All the usual rust spots and another cool thread to watch. If Ricks Saucer wasn't on jackstands I could have used his skills on my project, great work

Looks great, Rick! What kind of primer did you use on the inside of the long in the pics above: epoxy or self etching?

It's Radnor Galvanizing weld through primer. I get it from the Air Gas store where I get my tanks filled.

Blew up the compressor tonight! Drats! I have to order a new pump tomorrow.

I did get a bunch of stuff done since last night though.

Transferred the carpet holding buttons from the rusty strip of floor pan.

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Punched the holes in the floor brace.

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Welded the brace to the floor pan with my spot welder. Test fit the floor.

I'm leaving the outer clam shell off until I have the floor pan welded in. That way I can use my pinch spotter on the longitudinal like the factory. I cut in the floor plug hole. Most don't bother but this is a factory 6 and I want the work to look as close as I can to the factory.

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Thank god the Mercedes is gone , you're rippin now...