Finally, a real NOS 914-6 oil tank also from Stoddards.

Added an early 911 filter console and a nifty 914-6 GT style filler neck.
It's the same one you see advertised on Ebay or Sierra Madre, but I purchased mine from the manufacturer in Europe before they were being sold her in the States.
They also make a more authentic version that has the "blow-off" tap for those with all the real 914-6 GT oil plumbing....I didn't need that.

The hardest thing to find was the factory clamp for the filler neck. I did source one eventually....

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Spent the morning at Rothsport finishing up the rear sway bar mount on a vintage race car. Bar rotates like butter. Gave it a couple coats of paint and met the wife and Super In law for lunch. Then off to Forest Grove ..............

Plan was to strip the paint off both qtr. panel cut patches. Ran into a little hillbilly work on the first one I worked on. Picture doesn't really show the extent of the crease and trench. Looks like they tried to pull it out with a hook without a slide hammer and they failed ..........

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Backside hump shows up a little better on the back.

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Put the dolly in the vice and went to work. Pretty easy work when you can hold the panel in your hand. Gave it a soft touch and out she came. First shot is the area shot with guide coat.

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After getting cleaned up with the 3" DA.

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I'll weld up the holes and blast out the guide coat in the am. That will leave just a slight depression for the paint shop to fill in.

Forgot to shoot pictures of the panels after they were finished up.
Went back to the garnet in the blast cabinet. Not real impressed with walnuts.
I'll add those tomorrow ...................

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This was the damaged one. It will need just a smidgen of mud.

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The other side didn't have any surprises.
The side we were working on tidied real nice after I welded in the holes.

Then on to fitting and measuring before I cut.

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Here's what I'm working on.

#1 needs to be 10 cm. I'll dig out some taillight buckets in the am.

#2 needs to be a flat line. Using a machinists ruler as a guide.

#3 & #4 both need about a 2-3mm gap to the rolled portion of the beaded flange. I have about 20 pairs of small vice grips. I hope it is enough.

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I can loan you a slide rule and protractor....

Looking good there Cary.

Only have time for a Saturday 1/2 day. Need to get home and prep the car and trailer for tomorrows season ending AX.

Grabbed my tote of taillights to use for fitting the fender patches and taillight panel.
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Spent some time fiddling and cutting the fender patches down to within an inch. Then I decided it was time to start putting it back together. We'll start with the taillight panel first, like the factory did it. That way the fender patch will lay on top. I'm only going to tack the flat portion of the seal channel. That will allow me lots of room for movement.
So I coated both corners with weld thru primer.

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Tacked in ..................

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After we're all put together I'll dig some of the weld out and braze finish the corner.

After the taillight panel was tacked in it was time to fit and measure ................

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Grabbed a spare trunk lid off the rack .................

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Then the eyeball work begins ..................

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The sun finally came back out so I drug out the blaster tank. Doug's replacement heat shield needed a little rust removal. Rust was pretty thick. Pretty pitted. But I think with some love with the wire cup brush it will be usable.
Doug are you still thinking about ceramic coating the shield?
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After:
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Then on to cutting the left qtr. panel patch to fit. Measured from the back. When I cut, I left the line. I should have cut right thru the line. Lots of trips back and forth to the belt/disk sander. In the words of Mr. Gamroth. I'm in my Rembrandt mode. If I cut too much I can't glue it back on.
But at the end of the day I'm happy with the fit.

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We do have one spot that will take some more Rembrandt work. The outside flat portion of the fender lip fits perfect. The rolled radius to the flat panel don't quite match.

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Yes to the question if the heat shield will be ceramic coated.
Still the plan....unless condition of the part prevents that.

What's your schedule for Saturday?
Will be out that direction late morning/noon-ish....

I approve of this thread...

(ok a small minus for the -6, just because I'm a lil jealous)

Friday 11/4
Welding in the left qtr. panel patch panel.

Started at the taillight and worked my way down to the fender lip. Added a few more stacked spot welds to the edge of the taillight bucket. Could have been a smidgen hotter.
Then I cleaned her up a bit.

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Slow and steady wins the race ..........
Continuous us of the Fix It butt weld clamps and my 6" machinists straight edge.
Let it cool to the touch after each weld.
Maybe a smidgen hotter and faster still. But I don't want any distortion.

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Used a couple tools to get this done ................

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After working it with grinders and sanders.

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Stopped by the shop today to see Cary and the FIL (father in law).
Making steady progress.
The rear end is sprouting straight rust free metal for a change.
Previous rear ender had left a lot of crumpled metal and misalignments.
The opening for the tail light had been compromised (now fixed) such that the light wouldn't fit into the opening easily... the tail lights themselves had been cracked and broken, etc.
Looking good courtesy of the A-team.

And that new (2nd hand) monster parts washer is killer.
Wish I had the room and the need for that kind of machinery.

Stopped by Rothsport. Jeff was there.
He said your MFI gears are fine.

Took two days off and there's 5 new cars .......
Carl was there doing a corner balance / alignment on
that bitchn black on black turbo. I'll shoot a couple shots on
Monday am.

You're living the good life now Man....

Yes, I have to say life is good ...................

1. The honor of being part of you 914-6 project. 2. The honor of working at Rothsport. I'm back working on what we call 89 Red Safari. I'm hoping after there's a press release so I can mention who's car it will be. It will be driven by two very prominent members of the USA Porsche community.

Even though Saturday was a short day I did get a couple hours in on Doug's car.

Job #1. Get the stand offs removed from the exhaust heat shield. That way Doug can get it sent off/out for ceramic coating.
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Now with the stand offs are out of the way I'll give it a good rub down with the cup brush. Then another shot with the outside blaster.

Job #2. I cut down the right patch panel in preparation for welding in. Gap is still a little too wide. It was what I thought too tight. But at the end of the fitting. Not so.
The problem I'm running into is trying to keep the light bucket at a 100.50 mm opening and the perfect fit/look at the fender well. Curved surface, yada, yada ,yada.
Next time, rather than free handing it I'll use 3-4 of my cheaper butt weld clamps and stick them to the upper/primary surface with magnets to use as a guide. Might work.

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I do use a brass backer it absorb the heat. Which helps with the wider opening issue.
You can see it behind the metal inside the gap. I stitch very slowly. Finger touch and straight edge EVERY weld.
http://www.eastwood.com/magnetic-hole-plug...-gas-welde.html

I do have a couple of these too.
http://www.eastwood.com/magnetic-plug-weld...horizontal.html

That's all for this week. I'll be back next Thursday.

I'm back. During the past week Doug had a conversation with a media blasting company here is Forest Grove. So I took a couple minutes for a quick tour and chat with the owner. I like what I saw. Definitely a car guy.

He had a 240Z that he had just finished. The fenders and hood were stripped with what he called fine grit. That sheet metal is considerably thicker than ours. Then he showed me the roof that was stripped with glass, like what we'd use on the 914.

There was a VW bug getting ready for stripping.

Thursday 11/10

Hit the ground running. Time to finish up the slow and tedious process of welding on he right patch panel.

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Stitch by stitch. Cool down to 80 degrees with air hose after each stitch.

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Very carefully cut off the proud of the weld bead with a 90 degree cut off wheel.
Then carefully and delicately grind it flush.

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After grinding, check your work with a couple guide coats.

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Next on to checking the fit and alignment of the rear taillights. Make no assumptions. The metal in these cars in very, lets say flexible.

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I did shoot the picture after I finished welding in the corner. The work was done prior to the welding.

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Decided against just brazing the corner. The car hangs from the taillight panel when its on the rotisserie. Most of the load is on the trunk. But just to be safe.
Kind of slowed down my grinding when I found all the brazing going out the end.

Got to the shop an hour earlier than Mike's planned arrival time so I went to work on the left qtr. to taillight panel corner weld in.

Not quite all finished and tidied up, but back together. Only shot I took.
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After welding I checked the taillight alignment again ................. don't want any future surprises.

Then I spent a couple hours with Mike (Warpig) sorting thru his engine cleanup pile. After that we headed to lunch. After returning from lunch I began to work on fitting the trunk panel. I start tweaking the rear flange to get the fit I want for a great weld in.

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After I feel that I have the trunk pan in the correct place I begin the work of creating the removal exhaust shield. Panel just fitted, not welded. This time I'll do the work with the trunk pan on the work bench. Which is much easier to work with. But nothing to measure too. Which creates its own issues.

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I should have crawled under Mark's car in the other room for measurements.
My first swing at it it was too close to the tranny mounts. Its going to be moved a 1/2 closer to the taillight panel. This afternoon we're going run out for a couple more hours of work and I'll go under the other car to compare notes.

While I'm working on the trunk Super In Law has been creating the two new inside trunk/fender corners. Lots of trial and error. One would think I could have got them from the donor part. But the spot weld cutting and delayering didn't leave too much.
And we're fitting it to the work we did prior to deciding to replace the sheet metal.

So time for some welding ...............

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Welding was a little bumpy with all the left over factory brazing to work around.

Prior to the inside corner weld in I did get the bottom portion of the taillight panel and qtr. panel welded together and tidied up. But I forgot to shoot a couple pictures.

Working on a nice amber fan shroud for the 2.7 RS MFI engine.
These are made by Damon Series 900.

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Getting the fan "dialed in" a bit more....
Newly plated strap with new foil decal (which is NOS and has the wrong displacement on it...who knew?....and inconsequential in the end).
The displacement on the foil decal for the 1973 engine is a 2.2 which is obviously wrong; should be 2.4-ish.

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Can see the displacement error better on this pic...

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New struts arrived from Elephant Racing.
My 2nd hand Bilstein units had worn out spindles so were no good.
Ended up ordering RSR struts that had the raised spindle, but put HD Bilstein dampers in them so they aren't too stiff for the street.

Also came with their adjustable bump steer kit & brake line supports (necessary due to the coil over capability of the struts, which I won't be utilizing).

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New rubber bushings (from Elephant Racing) and factory bearings for the rear.

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New Lemforder ball joints and Elephant Racing rubber bushings for the front A-arms as well.

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Ran back to Forest Grove after church .......................

Here's the shot of the weld in of the right taillight panel to qtr. panel I forgot yesterday. Funny thing. I started today with doing the left side. But once again forgot to shoot a picture of it.

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I let Super In Law take the welder to build up the matching left side inner fender corner. So I went back to re engineering the removable exhaust shield. I crawled under Mark's project car. The standoffs are right up to the taillight panel. I'm going to move Doug's forward about a 1/4" forward.
I'm thinking we should hold off on getting the exhaust shield ceramic coated until we install the engine at Rothsport. The mounting holes might need to be changed to accommodate the 911 exhaust. Thoughts ?

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Here's a shot of the shield attached to the trunk panel. It's attached with self tapping screws. Test fit was a beautiful thing.

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Plan is to run back out to Forest Grove on Tuesday night to weld in the inner corner and trunk panel.

Then it was time to fiddle with Super In Laws corner piece.

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Decided a little moonlighting was in order to get the taillight/trunk all finished up.
I was hoping to get it wrapped up. Almost, but not quite.

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Finished up the back of the right corner.

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Then on to the left corner. Started with the vertical portion of the taillight hole. Then the horizontal. Then out to the front and the last three rosettes on the face of the taillight panel. Forgot to shoot a picture, Ill get it on Thursday. Then on to the holes punched on the backside tying all three layers together. Then last but not least the down butt weld tying it back into the inner fender. It looks a little bumpy in the left area. That left over brazing from the factory or the attempted previous repair.

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After that was finished I moved on to finishing up the removal exhaust shield. In the background Super In Law was working on installing the new parts washer motor.
I'll finish up this post after my day job ........... LOL

After welding the shield stand offs to the bottom of the trunk panel I rounded the corners to make them a little more user friendly.

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Then gave the trunk panel another test fit only to find its a smidgen too tight in the new back left corner. So I didn't get it finished up last night.
So it will get a little nip and tuck in the am.

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Got off to a late start, but finally got back to welding in the trunk.
First issue was doing the little cut and tuck on each corner. It didn't take too much.
Then on to aligning the trunk panel to the taillight panel. I'm primarily using the factory spot weld dimples as the guide. Used a combination of Vise Grips and self taping screws to hold it in place. I have a 5th 18" Vise Grip ( R model) that I use to clamp right next to the rosette that I'm welding.

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To get the nice flat fit I'm only welding the taillight panel portion between the braces.
Slow process. Hammer it tight. Clamp down the Vise Grip. Hammer it flat again. Then weld. Then start the process again on the other end.

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Then on to the other side, the rosettes on the transmission mount support. I used self taping screws in every third hole to tighten it down. Once again I only welded in the center section ..

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I started stitch welding in the tranny mount to trunk panel butt weld seam. It's going to be a little touchy. Nice solid new metal with the trunk panel. Old thinner metal in the tranny mount.

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wondering just how much scope creep to expect here. Looks like a nice build!

We know the rear floor boards in the cabin and the lower windshield surround needs work plus some little stuff.
When Cary gets the entire chassis sandblasted and up on the rotisserie here in the coming weeks, we'll have a better idea what needs to be further addressed metal-wise.

Started the day with finishing the butt weld on the humped portions of the tranny support. Then moved on to the trunk reinforcement plate. Weld Thru Primer. Then used about 40 self tapping screws to hold it down tight. Doug had offered to buy a new one and I turned it down. I should have taken him up on it. The problem with reusing the old one is the your welding right into the spot weld cutter hole. Which is thinned down and I blew right thru about a half dozen of them. On top of that the holes are too big, which creates a huge rosette.

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Now that the center section is welded in nice and tight I set about welding in the sides.
I try to replicate the way the part was originally installed. Spot welds on the sides and tack welds in the back corner. Then only lightly grind down the welds because they get smothered in seam sealer.

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Then the final step. Weld back on the upper corner braces.

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After our initial set back after finding the wrinkled qtr. panels. The back end is finally getting wrapped up.

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Gave the new metal a light coating of SE primer to protect it.

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End of a great day .................. Tomorrow onto cutting the oil tank holes.

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The downside with our cars is the pretty parts are hidden compared to a 911. Nice job though putting together the pieces.

So true.
But I'll know it looks the way I want it.
Also if this engine comes out and goes into a 911/912, it will be good to go.

Sorry I'm a little late. Had to do a little malware work on this PC.

On to to cutting the holes for the oil tank in the left fender/engine compartment.
Here's a little write up from Wayne at Pelican.

The installation of the oil tank requires you to drill seven holes in the side of your engine compartment. Fortunately, all 914s have indentations in their sheet metal where the holes are to be drilled. If you look on the side of the wall inside your 914, they are located just above and below your relay box. You probably never noticed them before - I know I never did. The holes that must be drilled require a set of hole saws:

4" to 4.5" for the oil filter
2" for the breather hoses
2.5" for the filler neck
1.5" for the 2 hole return line holes.

A shot from the 914 PET.

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I already had the hole template that Doug had drawn up in my possession. Then Doug brought out the oil tank itself.
So I was ready for battle.

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But we didn't have any hole saws that large. So off to ACE I went. The problem is, I bought the first couple hole saws too small. I should have pulled the Pelican info up onto the 55" computer monitor. So I might need to do some artwork with the carbide burr cutter.
But I'm hoping if one uses a very soft and slow touch I should be able to enlarge the holes with the correct hole saw. I just returned from Lowes with the correct ones.

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Don't drill that oil filter opening 4-4.5" !!!! Be careful with that Axe Eugene.
That's too big; Wayne is wrong on that one.
I measured the big rubber gasket that goes in there and it's more like 3.8-3.9".

I bought a 4". That's what everyone stocks. I just ordered a 3 7/8 from Amazon.

Do you have #8, #9, #10, #11, #45 and #46 in your possession ?
I'd like to get my hands on them before I cut the oi filter console hole.

I need to clean out quite a bit of seam sealer and undercoat inside the fender to get the tank positioned first.

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A shot of the foam seals for the filler neck and breather hose.

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I've got all of those. I'll bring them to you right after Thanksgiving.

The foam seals look good...maybe not quite so tall/thick?

Package showed up from Amazon.
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We have a couple rear trunks (rotten back lips) we can cut a couple test holes into to test the seal fit.

Looked at re-sawing the oil tank holes with the new hole saws. Not.
Traced the correct size with the new saws. Then cut them out with the carbide burr cutter on a die grinder.

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Then I went thru the Restoration Design parts box to remind myself of all the bits that still need to be dealt with.

Then it was time to dig into the donor car and cut out the left seat belt retractor pocket.
Second time around took about half as long. Still tough to get at the third layer.

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Tomorrow will be the delicate cut out of the tight spot welds.

Decided to start the day with fiddling with the 6 motor mount. I needed to shave the URO mount just a bit to get it to fit. Depending on the finish on the motor/body mounts it will need a bit more. But for now it fits together nicely.

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Then on to removing the excess from the left seat belt pocket. Kind of tedious.
Primary objective is to get the unneeded material off without damaging the primary part.
No new pictures, same process as the other side.

Now both side are ready to go. No particular reason on the size difference, freehand.

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Forgot to shoot a shot of the marked out cut. I'll get it on the other side.
But the cut out was pretty uneventful, just slow and careful. The only real issue was the top corner where the short engine cover piece and the firewall come together. It had 3-4 pieces come together and it was brazed. Where on the 72 it had 3 spot welds.
The only scary part was lightly cutting across the brace. It's a feel thing.

The shots below is the only modification I'll need to make to the bracing. The later piece is flatter to accommodate the backing plate I assume.

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Here's where I ended the day and week. Along with a Beavers win at the Civil War game.

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I won't weld it in until after it comes back from the media blaster. Lots of nasty stuff on the engine side of the firewall.
For those wondering my plan of attack when it comes to welding. It will be lap welded on the firewall surfaces. With both a seam and 1/4" rosettes. I'll then mask off the inertia reel seat and spray the area with seam sealer to make the seams go away.

Recently purchased a 2nd hand Leistritz muffler.
Decided to put a more sturdy coating on it than the existing paint that was pealing off in many places.

Lestritz is the muffler of choice for early 911's and 914-6's.
Their build quality and sound are 2nd to none.
They are tough to find as new ones have not been manufactured since the 1980's and the prices of early 911's has gone stratospheric.

Paint remover, scotch pad and wire brushing got me to this stage...bare metal.
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Truly an authentic Lestritz.
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Back from the coaters with a titanium colored ceramic applied.
Just thousands of an inch thick, but basically good for the life of the car.
Won't discolor with heat.
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Found a nice stainless steel muffler tip on Ebay for a great price.
One more thing that won't easily rust on this car.
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The ceramic coating is so thin that all the lettering on the muffler still easily shows.
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Busy week at Rothsport. Getting the first 3 Mexican 1000 rally cars ready for media blasting.
Now its time to get Doug's car ready for media blasting. That starts with taking my project car off the rotisserie and setting it on the frame bench.
This is the first car to go onto the bench fixtures since building them for Mark's project car. Dropped right into the long pinch weld stand ups.

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Both the rotisserie and frame bench slide by the low rise lift with moving Mark's for sale car.

So with getting Doug's car ready for the rotisserie we'll need another set of door braces.
One set is in Mark's project car.
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My project car has the Jeff Hail door alignment style set in it.
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So we stopped by Ace after lunch. I decided as long as were doing all the measuring and cutting we'll make two sets. Price tag $121.

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Three 10' pieces of 1/2" black pipe. Cut into 38" long pieces.

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Pile of hardware. Might have saved some if I'd looked for L & R eye bolts instead of turnbuckles.

Super In Law is all set up to come out and play by himself while I'm at Rothsport next week. He was dressed and ready to go at 8am this morning.
Note : He isn't out there all by himself. Mike, one of the horse trainers is in the next building (barn). He and Super In Law are tight.

While Super In law was in the other room cutting metal I went about cutting out the other upper firewall corner. Don't need any more detail pictures. I changed my attack in round two. I cut it out like a piece of crust-less toast. Cut out the center. Then worked around the outside drilling out the spot welds.

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Just as I was finishing these up Doug stopped by with the oil filter console and hardware bits for the oil tank so I have more hands on info before I cut out the big hole.

He also brought out the tail lights and lenses so I can tweak the taillight panel for the perfect taillight alignment, before paint. Nip & Tuck.
Left, I need to sand/grind a bit inside the fender bucket. Need to tighten the top of the corner portion about 2mm.
Right, need to tweak the bucket mounts just a smidgen. Not quite vertical.

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Like the other parts Doug has refurbished they are a thing of beauty.
They already have Spoke's LED taillights installed. I love mine.
We also discussed adding an LED brake light bar into/onto the targa bar for safety.

Cary, your one talented individual. Based on some of your projects, on some cars, your practically replacing 50% of the sheet metal. It reminds me of a 356 in Pano where they replaced 95% of the car. If I had the deep pockets and needed one worked on, you will be in the running.

You have a knack for explaining things with an economy of words.

Thanks for the compliment.
I love these little cars and wish I could save them all ....................

Ready to put the car on the rotisserie tomorrow if the rain slows down. Mike's car will need to roll outside for a bit while we use the lift to mount the car on the rotisserie.

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While Super In Law was finishing up the door braces I blasted the 32 valve covers Mark had dropped off a while ago. I cleaned the gasket seat on the inside and the prepared the outside for paint.