So today, I got started tearing down my 1974 2.0L. Started at the rear and got through almost all the interior except dash and center console area. Overall, the car looks good from a rust perspective, but I KNOW that there is rust in the hell hole and the area under the hell hole (where the original fuel pump mount location was) is pretty much gone as I can stick my hand in there. I'll get pics of that after I drop the motor some upcoming weekend.

So what's my build gonna be? I'm fairly well locked in on what I want to do. I have considered /6's (and even come close to acquiring a 3.0L), but I think in the end I am going to go with a built up 2270 motor. One of the main reasons I am going that route is that I want to be able to use 1st gear. Sound strange? Sure, even though 1st is not much of anything even on a stock 2.0L, I just love the dogleg shifting from 1st to 2nd. From reading others posts here, if I go a /6 I pretty much end up with starting in 2nd all the time.

So here's the build (with some decision points still):
Note: This is a very high level list

Staying with Narrow Body, removing the warts and antenna hole
2270 /4 with some form of FI provided by megasquirt, external oil cooler, maybe ITB's.
901 side-shift with anything that can be done to improve gearing and longevity
5-lug upgrade (suspension components and the whole bits) with Fuchs.
Interior will be mostly stock, but looking to go the Getty Dash route.
Sticking with original Alaska Blue Metallic (L96B)

Here's my progress today:

Rear bumper off:

Trunk shots:

Trunk corners:

Passenger Door:

Drivers Door:

Sail Panels:

Interior Floor pans and Firewall:

Interior and Floor Pans continued:

Sail Panel drains:

Door Jams:

Nice Ron, this will be fun to watch. Will you put the tub on a rotisserie or leave it on the ground?

Thanks Jeff. I'm going to strip her down as far as I can get her and then send her out for body work. Same for the motor. There are some things that are just beyond my skill, and of course, my available time to actually work on the car. As far as i am concerned though, everything is coming off of the car.

Besides the continuing deconstruction of the car, I want to get a good look inside those longs with a camera (scope). I had the rockers off a little over a year ago, and there was some mild surface rust (very, very mild). Most worried about the passenger long of course given the hell hole and the completely rusted out panel below the hell hole where the fuel pump was originally mounted. I suspect some rust has worked it's way down inside there given the mild surface rust at the jackpoint. Pics of my longs from January 2014 are here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=227937&hl=

Love this color!

Looking forward to seeing your build happen. Hope to do the same on mine some day.

-Shawn

This 74 looks like its in great shape! Looking forward to seeing progress

Cheers

Nemi

That chassis is in terrific condition. I love the color - one of my favorites. I like that you are doing this whole car correctly by taking at all the way down and addressing any rust. Once you do that you will likely never have to worry about rust again. Look forward to seeing this car progress. Please take and post a lot of progress pictures. At some point, if you ever decide to sell the car, it is that attention to detail and the photos that will make the difference in obtaining top dollar.

Day 2 of progress. Front of the floor pans looks good and took some shots of the rockers again which look good. However, the front hood channels and the front have some rust.

The car definitely had/has some water leakage issues up front, but looking at the hood channels, it's not a surprise.

Interior front floor pans:

Pedal cluster close-up and shot inside the tunnel at the rear:

Note: Inside the center tunnel looks just dirty as I took my finger and swiped away some dirt in the middle of the pic.

Driver's rocker:

Passenger rocker:

Note: You'll see some black paint. Last time I had the rockers off in January 2014, I lightly sanded the best I could (by hand) and then slapped a little black rustoleum on it.

More passenger jack point area and Gas tank area:

Head light channel areas (rusty):

Front trunk and channel area:

More front trunk:

More front trunk:

Last pics for the day of front bumper area:

Love the color too! Following this thread for sure. You plan sounds great

Some things to note:

1. When I took the rocker panels off, a fair amount of dirt had got caught up in there again. And I just took them off 18 months ago AND the car has been sitting since October 2014. I need to find a way to completely enclose the rocker panels on both ends. I also plan to do a "jack point" delete.

2. The front of the car looks rough and it looks like the PO had put some POR-15 on areas rusting in the front (you can see in the pics). I'm not quite sure, but the pics make me think that the car has at one time in it's life been in a small front-end fender bender, but the rest of the chassis seems very straight. Perhaps it was a simple parking lot style accident. Definitely not something at speed. I'll know more when the car goes in for sandblasting and/or a real expert gets a look at it.

That triad exhaust is not original or stock, it really hurts the value...you should sell it to me..

You might get your wish. I'm considering a Boxster muffler. Saw some cool pics of install here on 914World last week I think. But you'll have to wait at least 1 year...

Appreciate some insight since you are new into to the disassemly and is fresh. I too have a 914 2.0 but into 6 conversion. Got this as a"some assembly required deal" and so I did not take apart. On your floor board pictures you show all the wiing laying on the floor. Since I received mine without seat the wires were just laying there. Could you povide any info you have on the wires in your pictures? Thanks for any help. Jim

Nice! That color looks familiar.

So I haven't had much time to work on my 1974 tear down lately. I have been able to get a little work done lately including getting the headlights out (except the motors), getting all the heater blower motor stuff out in the cowl, and getting started on the dash.

Cowl and dash started.

Was able to get a few more hours in on my car this afternoon. Finally got all of the cowl area cleared out (except for the harness. Got the headlights and motors out. Got the front hood, rear trunk lid and engine lid out. Took some shots of the hell hole.

Are these "bumps/indentations" in the fenders supposed to be there behind where the headlight motors sit?

More pics.

More pics.

More pics.

Now the rust shots:

First up is the battery tray and engine firewall where the pad used to be. I'll NEVER have a soundpad here again. Fortunately, the rust here appears to only surface. Battery tray looks like it had some work done by PO.

The hell hole. The engine shelf on passenger side will need replace. Some work on the wall next to engine shelf/battery tray will need some patching. Looking down into the hell hole though doesn't look rusty. The suspension consoles look good also. I'll know more one day when the motor comes out.

Note: I reached in there and yanked on the rusty metal with my hand and pulled it up....there you see the rubber mount with screw poking out for where the fuel pump used to be located.

I always thought this was a great car, glad it is getting the attention it deserves!
Best of luck on this.

Wow, that is a beautiful car.
What are the plans on the trunk and front panel?
Are you going to have it dipped or stripped?

Not going to dip it...just stripped.

Front panel behind the bumper will need some work. Rear trunk is all good. Hell hole needs some work from what i can see but not bad.

Lots of Eastwood rust encapsulator is on the list for that "while I'm in there" stuff.... :-)

Admins: Can I get my build thread here highlighted in BLUE like the other build threads?

Bump:

Admins: Can I get my build thread here highlighted in BLUE like the other build threads?

you are not the only one not highlighted..... there are a bunch of us in the same boat. I have asked Steve to get mine changed as well but without any success.

Thank you Admins!!

An update on my project: The biggest update I have is that there is no update. That darn thing called a "job" that gives you this thing called "money" so that those little rugrats called "kids" can do "stuff" that costs you the aforementioned "money" gets in the way.

I am hoping to find some time this holiday weekend to get back at it. I'm still at the stage of getting the dash out of the car. I'm hoping for a fruitful weekend.

Well, looks like I won't be making the due date for the rebuild challenge. (I kind of knew a few months ago anyways). Had to move the teener over to its side of the garage. Sadly, it has a few boxes and other items stacked on it also. Those will be gone soon enough.

I'll be back working on this some more in the fall.