Hello all!

So my 914 refresh begins! As my car sits, it’s a ’74 1.8, which is somewhat cosmetically challenged (I know the pictures look good, and the car looks pretty good in person, but I am my father’s son and am anal about how my car looks, nothing short of perfection satisfies me).

My current project list includes(and none of these are in “order”):
-Brad Mayeur long kit
-new rocker covers
-dynamat for the firewall
-scuffing, sanding, fixing dents and repainting panels
-hunting for and fixing rust
-replacing battery tray (and fixing the trunk hinge while the engine is dropped, as well as rust hunting and fixing in the engine bay)
-replacing vinyl on sail panels
-refinish wheels
-clean and refinish wheel wells where necessary
-repaint/clean engine tin
-removing wart markers
-miscellaneous problems/projects that pop up along the way
-roll bar and harness bar (I want to autoX)

Currently, I’m planning on doing something fun with the car and giving it a subtle Gulf Oil theme. I have Gulf logos that are going on my front fenders in between where the door and front wheel arch is. I am also toying with either color matching the Fuchs centers Olympic blue, or painting the centers orange, as well as the bumpers, rocker covers and valances. Any thoughts on the paint, or other suggestions as I tear into the car? I am going to do this in quick bursts, so that I can have a car to drive, in between goals in repairing it. Eventually, the goal for the car is a 6 conversion, so I am going to be taking upgrades for that into account as I move forward as well.

-Alex

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Looks like a fine start. I like the "Gulf" paint scheme. More pic's please.

Tore into the car today, removed the front trunk lid and front bumper. Yikes, found rust on the left front bumper mount, not too terrible though, Its already down to bare metal and I will be patching over the next several days. Any tips on welding prep or wiring I need to disconnect before I weld?

Peeking around under the car yielded no surprises that I can see yet, though my rocker covers are coming off next week for the 914 ltd long kit I'm putting on. If anything is present there, I will eliminate it swiftly and as correctly as possible.

-AlexClick to view attachment Click to view attachment

Also, took off the vinyl on the sail panels, found some rust, which I knew about. Not too bad; planning on taking down to metal and welding in patches.

Also, I neglected to mention in the previous post, I removed the trunk seal and found a few spots in the channel I will be patching as well. Any tips or suggestions for welding those?

I also sanded the car (some severe paint blemishes) and buffed it, seemed to turn out well. I will be wet sanding the body as well just to keep getting it closer to shine. That will probably happen closer to my finish date. I do plan on dropping the engine in the next month or so, so I can fix the small spot of rust I know exists, and explore for more and kill it.

I love the Gulf oil scheme.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how to tastefully do it. I may sketch up some ideas and put marker to them to best figure it out without actually doing it!

Got a bit of work done yesterday. Sort of squared the rust hole next to the mounts. I'm planning on cutting more out between the holes and patching after I get the other patch in. Hit the front quarter with a hammer a bunch to fix the fender profile and hit some dents out. Definitely took a bit of mental strength to tell myself that I was about to hit my car with a hammer, but the profile is correct now. Just have to smooth the small stuff there, and put some filler on once I weld the patch over the wart hole.

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Also, tested placement of the Gulf vinyl, I like it!

-Alex

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I'm over in Portage if you need anything.

Garold, I will be sure to give you a buzz if something comes up; I've got your number. Thank you!

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Take note,of chemical hazards when working on autobody and paint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_solve..._encephalopathy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intoxicative_inhalant

Some of these symptoms should be posted in your workplace and learned.
A fella here in Ontario had his noggin turn to mush,Hamilton area I recall.Long term chronic exposure to skin and lungs,a vegetable at the end,late '40s.
Sad,he was a gifted artist with a spraygun.Back in the '60s,Gunhi,did some nice flame jobs,a specialty of his,not the hohum kind,the Ridler kind.
Anyway the symptoms back then were not recognized for what they were and what dosages caused permanent damage.When his brother told me a portion of his brain had simply decomposed,
I gagged,it was like something out of a Hollywood B-movie.
If you can smell or taste it,you're overexposed,never wash your hands in solvents,period.
If the people around you think you've been poisoned,get thee hence to a physician to give some blood samples.
Simple industrial safety measures can make the job survivable.No need to die for a lousy car's lipstick,the envirobase paints are a move in the right direction.

Gasoline too.

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Heavy Metallic Gulf + Pearl ...
Something along the lines of my intent.Always I see it done in pastels.Shiny and sparkling is good,like a Riesling.

I like the Gulf scheme, but I would paint the bumpers body color and the valances and rockers orange. I would also delete the vinyl and leave the sails body color. Fill the trim holes. Painted sails with the vinyl trim reinstalled looks hokey. Deleting the warts is a big improvement.

Good luck with the resto.

Thank you for the info veekry9, I have done some bodywork, modelmaking and other things with harmful and semi-harmful chemicals, I always try to be as safe as possible!

Kelty, I like the suggestion for the gulf scheme, I will see how that looks. However I will be keeping the vinyl, I don't know what it is about it, but I love it!


Here are a few pics of progress again. I squared the hole next to the bumper mount and wire wheeled it, but forgot to take a pic Will have to do that later.

Took the rocker covers off, was fearing the worst, or at least a bit of rot, but nothing to my sight or in reach of my awl poking for rust. The splotchy matter what appears to be a rubber sealant, I stabbed through and hit solid metal every time, so I think its pretty good. Though there is a patch on the right side long about 3" long and 1" wide that I have to remove and weld correctly.

I will be using Eastwoods Internal frame coating in the longs (as well as some of Eastwoods other fine products on the car), just as a precautionary measure. I know a bit of very small particulate rust has come out of the drain holes, so I want to nip that in the bud now.

I ground/hammered/pryed out the rust on both sail panels and wire wheeled them. The right side hole has solid metal behind, Im thinking because of how it is, I can just pop in a few beads into the spot, fill it, and grind it flush. The right side however, I am going to cut out and patch with a small piece. Suggestions on sheetmetal gauge?

Also, are there any precautions or procedures I should do to the car before welding on her? I know disconnect the battery, but should I do anything else?

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Got the better rocker covers and long kit in yesterday. Wow, thats all I can say, excellent work from 914ltd on this kit, very impressive.

So I masked the trunk seal channel (some rust in the channel) and prepped and sprayed Eastwoods rust converter on it. Going to probably leave it the grey color for a while until I get both fenders to the point of paint, so I can touch up the little areas that need to have blue put on them.

I got to use my favorite hammer and popped out a few other dents on the passenger side

Hopefully going to put the car on jacks tomorrow or Thursday for prepwork for welding.




-AlexClick to view attachment Click to view attachment

I have seen on other threads that rust along the bottom of the sail panels is caused by foam installed by the factory in that area. I am no expert on rust or 914s but you may want to determine if the rust is deeper than you expect. Have seen several pictures of the sail panels removed and rust being more extensive than expected.

This is photoshopped and from another thread, but I always thought this color scheme looked good.

I like that photoshop of the car, but after some thought, I think I'm going to go something like this for the car, still going to put the Gulf vinyl on it though.
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Over the last couple days, I got a bit more work done, I removed the jack pyramids and tubes, ground some other stuff down, wire wheeled the left front fender again, and did the same to the right side marker area. In prep for installing the 914ltd kit, I cut windows into my door sills as several other users suggested in another thread(though nowhere near as pretty looking!), and I plan on modifying the long kit as well, buy drilling a few more mounting holes for the welds, also as suggested in another thread. I was able to get the car up onto jackstands this morning, and will be doing a bit more prep work tonight and tomorrow in prep for the long kit install.

Is there anything I should disconnect on the car (electronic wise) prior to welding on it? I plan on taking lots of pictures of the process so be on the look out for updates over the next couple days.

Thanks guys,

Alex
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Hello all! This last week has been a bit crazy for me, so I got varied amounts of work done. The day I was going to weld, we had a generator put in at home so the power was off for about 5 hours, which gave me time to refinish my fuchs, they look pretty good I think.

I did a bit more prepwork on the longs that day as well, and this morning, I was able to set aside some time to attach the 914ltd long kit. It only took about an hour and a half to weld the pieces on, but it was the prepwork that ate all the time on it. I alternated between sides while welding, as to not warp the car any, I do have some welding to finish, the bottoms of the longs where the joint is needs to be finished, so that is what I will be doing next. I have to say, installing this kit was so easy, Brad really knocked it out of the park creating something so simple, but effective for someone with limited welding skills(its been a while since I've welded)



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Nice work Wheels look good too.

Im back! Work has been crazy and I took a few trips, so its time to get the gears going again.

The last week has seen more spurts of activity, painting bumpers, wetsanding body panels, priming, painting, and patching rust spots I had cut out prior. I am hoping to have it done by Saturday, the first Chicago Region Concours is the 28th and I am gonna do my best to be finished for that (though Im not making a concours car, I love going to them)

A few teasers of progress....

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Are those adapters or, did you swap out the hubs?

Looks beautiful!!

The hubs are drilled. The previous owner did it; which is partly why I bought this car. I wanted 5 lug for Fuchs, and this already had both!

Sooo I had the bumpers and rockers painted orange, absolutely hated it, so theyre in the process of getting painted black (the bumpers are getting the split GT look like I was going to do in the first place ) I will post pics later

big question. I had the car up and finished some welding the other day. As Im leaving my friends house, I notice that my drivers side driving light isnt on. I turn the lights on and off several times, and to no avail, the light doesnt turn on, but the passenger side one ends up not coming on as well. I then realize as Im driving down a pitch black country highway at 9:30pm, my taillights arent on either. I pull over, the driving lights arent on, and the tail lights arent, but my headlights, fogs and license plate lights are working, the break lights work, and my turn signals work, what is going on with my lights??


Thoughts? The car is pretty useless to me if I cant drive it at dusk, because I get out of work around 8pm.

So... I was a complete idiot and the reason the lights werent working was I plugged the ground into the wrong spot on the drivers side turn signal

So as I said in my previous post, I changed the colors on the car a bit. Let me know what you guys think. Im in the middle of redoing the exterior paint, the p/o or one prior to him really had touch up paint jacked up bad, and several badly filled dings, so I fixed it and painted the majority of the car with paint from Automotive touch up, which matches very well.


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Another "older" pic (from a few days ago, and several just happened ones. I thought the forecast said rain later tonight, not this afternoon/evening, oh well. Im just listening to it rust from inside right now....


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