Thanks!
If you or anyone is considering this lift PM me.

Wanted to take a minute to give the utmost credit to Paul at Performance Oriented for the fine work he did on the Weber carbs for me. Part of his service is he sets them up and runs them, dialing them in on his test engine, and he claims they are ready to run.

Well this is no joke and in fact they were ready to run and I have not even had to adjust them further yet. I can do some checks, and will soon, but to be honest they are set up so well this engine just fires right up and idles so smooth.

This was one area I wanted to eliminate as a potential unknown on first start up and he did that for me. Paul really stands behind his work too.

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This is on my wish list...

Hey Jim-

Rumor is Paul is retiring and thus NO longer taking on work.

Do you know anything about this?

Oscar

Oscar.
I didn't know the answer so I went to the horses mouth to ask Paul about retiring and more jobs. I was surprised. Here is his reply of a few minutes ago.


Hi Jim,
Well yes & no. I am not taking on more work until all current customer obligations are completed and I have rebuilt my 35 sets of Webers for sale. By this time, I will have reached retirement age of 65 and will enjoy the benefits associated by that. Once all the above has been accomplished I will again take on customer projects as best I can. I expect this effort to extend through the better part of 2019 to achieve.

Cheers,

Paul Abbott
Performance Oriented
1040 Luradel Ave S
Salem, Oregon 97302
530.520.5816
www.PerformanceOriented.com

That was quick.

Thanks for the update Jim. I have only heard good things about Paul of Performance Oriented.

Had a chance to go to the Peterson Museum today and Stop by and see Marty at MSDS working on his project.

If you have not been to the Porsche Effect Display at the Peterson, put it on your list of things to do....


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There are some great cars at the Peterson and I won't ruin it for you with posting more pictures but they have an impressive display including race cars and a 917. Saw this cool poster and have to share it here.


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As I said we, as in my wife and I, got a chance to see Marty's "project" today. I am guilty of not having checked out his thread but will keep an eye on it from now on!!! Cool car

He is a pretty humble guy in my opinion and said he thought he posted so many pictures that people had seen enough well this site is about pictures of his project and I don't think you can post too many, so let Marty know you want to see more.

Had a great time there today and he graciously took time to describe in detail what he and his son are working on. His car is going to be a beast!

PS My picture does not do that engine and trans justice, it is just beautiful in person!


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Marty is going to do some rework to my Right header to solve my exhaust leak. The one flange is out of plane to the other and leaking and we can't explain why. He sold the headers to the PO like 7 years ago it is anybodies guess as to may have occurred during that time.

The upshot here though is Marty is such a stand up guy, and as I mentioned before he offered to fix it, and really does stand behind his work.

Note soot Right Flange

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I had tried a number of things to fix the leak, and had the muffler off and on a number of times, trying to figure out what the hell the problem was. I finally noticed the angles of the flanges looked different from the side Took a 18" X 24" square and stood it on the floor and the left flange looked like this.

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Then the right flange looked like this.
When Marty saw this he said send it up and he would fix it. He said there is no way gaskets and permatex would fix that! He is going to cut off the flange and weld on a new one. Thanks Marty!!!!
driving:
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Sounds like a great day on all fronts.

I did not see that Marty had posted a thread on a new build, and could not find it on a search by his username. Do you happen to have the link Jim?

[quote name='Lucky9146' date='Apr 16 2018, 04:48 PM' post='2599849']
Marty is going to do some rework to my Right header to solve my exhaust leak. The one flange is out of plane to the other and leaking and we can't explain why. He sold the headers to the PO like 7 years ago it is anybodies guess as to may have occurred during that time.

The upshot here though is Marty is such a stand up guy, and as I mentioned before he offered to fix it, and really does stand behind his work.

Note soot Right Flange

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I had tried a number of things to fix the leak, and had the muffler off and on a number of times, trying to figure out what the hell the problem was. I finally noticed the angles of the flanges looked different from the side Took a 18" X 24" square and stood it on the floor and the left flange looked like this.

Had the same issue,but the custom built headers I purchased from the PO were fine ,his supplied 2 in one out had bent flanges and leaked ..a real hassle to sort but ok now.
Wow Marty moved in there to sort it,pleased for you.

Marty's Project is "Porsche 914 - 8 GTT" under the handle MATTYLITE Check it out if you haven't already. Pretty cool build and all Porsche!

My car came with a Momo steering wheel. Posting Pics of my stock steering wheel that I bought here off a member and had leather recovered. It is a 1973 dated wheel so correct later for my '74. Trying to figure out the bits I need to complete the horn with mepstein. Thanks Mark!


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Looks like you have all the right parts except the plastic horn ring that has a wire attached. I’ll look through my stash for a good one.

You'll need one of these too Jim.

Back a page to page 30 Post 596 I was showing my crumbling front sway bar drop link bushings.
I ordered what I was sure to be the correct ones, after being on the phone with what seemed to be a very thorough guy for about an hour, no exaggeration.

I received not the wrong ones but the wrong part entirely from a supplier I had never dealt with, they shall remain nameless and I will not flame them. What they sent was drop links instead of bushings, and not even MY drop link!

When this happened I became concerned because this sway bar is well over 20 years old and I began to think un-obtainable. I have the Weltmeister front sway bar and the picture below shows the 4 "K" bushings I am trying to get.

I did however find them at Paragon in Corpus Christie TX. Turns out the guy has a 914! Great guy!

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I decided to also replace the 2 sway bar bushings Part "S" that actually go in the bushing cups with bar running through the car. Trying to measure the driver side bar to figure out if I had a 19 mm or 22 mm bar, the bushing looked OK.

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When I looked at the passenger side I found this ugly sight.
How I never noticed this before I do not know. It looks like it may never been installed right.

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What I don't understand is what if anything actually holds the sway bar centered to keep this from ever happening again? Obviously the bar is longer by about 1 3/4 inches than the width of the installed bushing cup ends.

I have decided to post another specific topic thread and reach out to anyone else with this particular Weltmeister bar. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=327883

Thanks for looking in any help appreciated!

Below are the key points from the thread I posted that I wanted captured here in my build thread.
"Anybody Have This 22mm Weltmeister Front Sway Bar?, Don't understand what keeps it centered"
I thank you one and all for all the help. This is truly a great thread!
___________________________________________
pete000 Apr 20 2018, 09:28 PM Post #2

I have that same bar but haven't had any issues with it drifting.
___________________________________________
Steve Apr 20 2018, 09:33 PM Post #3

I used to have that Weltmeister bar. The bushing should look the same on both
sides with about an 1/8” sticking out on both sides. You center the bar with the
arms flush to the bushing on both sides. They do have a tendency to move side
to side. Either dump the whole thing and buy a tarret bar or buy some clamps
on the inside from McMaster Carr.
___________________________________________
defianty Apr 20 2018, 11:48 PM Post #6

I have the same bar Jim. Although I've never run with it yet I did purchase
two shaft collars with grubs to alleviate any lateral movement. Plan is to install
them on the inner wheel well next to the sway bar support plates. I also got some
large nylon washers to stop any contact.

I'm sure I got this idea from someone on here so hopefully they'll be along soon.
with pictures.

One problem I did have was finding a 19mm collar. In the end I got 18mm
and had a friend machine them out to size.
_____________________________________________
Luke M Apr 21 2018, 06:59 AM Post #7

I have a brand new welt bar that I haven't installed yet. I do see the kit comes
with 2 hose clamps which would clamp around the bar under the fuel tank. I
would say this is to keep the bar from drifting left to right. I plan on replacing
the clamps for collars when I do install it.
____________________________________________________
jcd914 Apr 21 2018, 10:20 AM Post #9

I have dealt with this in a few ways.

First push the bushing all the way in to the bush cup mounted to the inner fender, they should only stick a short distance.
Then loosen the arms on the bar and work them in as far as they will go.
The arms clamp on the square end of the bar and can move around if loose or
may not have been install pushed on to the bar as far as possible.

Now you will know how much gap you have to deal with.
I have had some where there was very little gap and the bar could only move
back and forth a few mm.

If you have enough gap your bar will move side to side much, there are different
ways to fill the gap.

However you deal with the gap you want to end up with the arms equally spaced
on each side of the car in order to keep the geometry of the swaybar arms, drop
links and A-arms the same.

The hose clamp the some kits come with is functional but I don't like it.
Clamp on collars work much better but you then might have metal rubbing
against metal depending on where you install them.
I have always put them on the outside, between the swaybar arm and the bushing.
It means you don't have to remove the fuel tank if you want to take the bar out
or if a collar worked loose and needs to be tightened.

I have had spacers made of plastic bushing material (turcite), basically a pair of
large plastic washers that fit over the bar and go between the arm and the
bushing end or the bushing cup.

I have had wider bushing made up that have a step so the push into the bushing
cup and stop against the outer edge and have a larger surface for the swaybar
arm to rub against.

I have also (in a pinch) taken a PVC pipe fitting that fit over the bar and cut it
into spacers to fit between the sway bar arm and the bushing to fill the gap.
Note: I did not do this on a customers car, not a real professional solution but it
worked.

You just want the bar centered and set up with very little play to move side to
side.

Jim
________________________________________
wysri9 @ Apr 23 2018, 02:30 PM)

I took a good look at mine and although this is only a test build, things seem to snug up nicely. I could detect no play between the bushings. here are some pics:-

Lucky9146 Apr 25 2018, 10:10 PM

Looks great and thanks for the pics. Your picture shows very well the large space from the arm to the cotter pin.
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I have my issue figured out. When the car came to me I thought it was set up as I had been told the car had seen 145 mph clocked at a track with a big 4. I should have checked it and did not.
It appears that the arms either were not tight or had walked outboard toward the cotter pin. I plan to put some type of spacer between the arm and the cotter pin just to ensure it does stay in place. Thanks again
_______________________________________________
jcd914 Apr 25 2018, 04:30 PM Post #16

QUOTE(Lucky9146 @ Apr 25 2018, 09:53 AM)

Finally came to the realization that the drop links on mine are incorrect and way
too short.
This can be seen from the picture sent by wysri9 here. At the time this photo was
posted I was more concerned with the slider arm and all the extra space to the
cotter pin to digest this now obvious fact. It wasn't until I tried to reassemble that
things just did not make sense.
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Spoke with Jason at Paragon Products in Corpus Christie TX and he confirmed it.
The drop link should be 6 7/8" long and mine is only 4 7/8' long.
Explains a lot. The front suspension was so pre-loaded and the A arms actually
hung on the sway bar arms as opposed to the struts. Now I understand why it was
so hard to get it apart. A full 2" too short?
Keep in mind I barely have this thing on the road, still sorting out the bugs and
break the engine in, so very few miles yet to guage anything.


The correct length for your drop link is dependent on the ride height of your car.
Ideally the sway bar arm should be parallel to the ground when the car is settled
on its suspension. So the length of the drop link would be different depending on
your ride height. I have shortened many sets of drop links to match them to the
car they are going on.

I think the Weltmeister drop links are too long to begin with except for car
sitting at full height.

I would wait to change the drop links until you can get the car on the ground and
settled and see where the arm is.

_______________________________________________
Lucky9146 Apr 26 2018, 10:10 PM

jcd914 is correct that the drop link is dependent on the ride height. My car is low.
I set the car on the suspension with the sway bar arms horizontal to the ground and the 4 7/8" drop links that I had fit perfectly!
Personally, I think the Weltmeister instructions suck.
Thank you jcd914 This is a great site!

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Man this is like a bad dream that just wont stop. When is that car going to be finished?
The ghost of Roland lives in that car.

My 2 cent worth - as a place to start, you have the drop links too close to the torsion bar - i.e. will probably be too resistant to car roll = hard ride and significant stress on the wheel well.

I appreciate your input believe me. Here is my struggle. The Weltmeister instructions suggest "a starting position, place the slider clamps so the forward edge of the clamp is about 3" from the forward edge of the arm (away from the bar itself)".
Mine are at 2 3/4" right now.

I kind of thought the same as you, until hooking up the exact same hardware I had, but with new bushings. If the clamp is to come forward much, it looks to me, like it will bind the turnbuckle on the bottom to the corresponding mount.

The directions further say to reduce understeer slide the slider clamps forward away from the sway bar.
To reduce oversteer move the slider clamps back closer to to the rear.

I have very little seat time due to various reasons. Of that tiny seat time I did not notice anything radically peculiar in the steering, but time will tell. The concern you bring up about stress on the wheel well has me concerned. It is my understanding the suspension was set up by a reputable shop in WA. The car just may be too damn low, I don't know. I may need to find someone knowledgeable locally to bless this mess. Thanks!

Obviously the diameter of the anti-roll bar is key. My comments are based on the pics. I would start more like 5” from the bar and then adjust as necessary.
Although the advice above on which way to move them to reduce under over steer is counter intuitive, I know it is correct based on my track experience.

Perhaps I should have taken you up on one of your three offers to buy it back when I had the chance .

Just measured from the center of the bar to the center of the sliding clamp is 4 1/2 inches, so I am close. Thanks!

Drove it for about an hour yesterday and it is running great! Hadn't driven it much yet because of the exhaust leak, which is now fixed, and trying to understand why so much smoke on start up.

I initially thought there may have been too much oil in the system and researched dip stick lengths among other things in an effort to prove there was or wasn't. Have a PMS tank with what appears to be a OEM oil filler neck bringing into question whether the oil level was correct. Oil level is fine. I had been concerned about the smoke on start up, but as many told me, "just drive it" and they were right, the JE rings were just a little stubborn breaking in. All OK now.

The suspension seems fine and even as low as the car sits, there is suspension travel. Did not detect any steering issues with the sway bar set up the way I got the car, but now with new bushings. Drop links are the correct length as reported earlier but now proven with road test. Great day yesterday!

Today debut at the local PCASD Cars and Coffee. The 914 received a lot of attention and positive comments this morning. My wife accompanied me and we had a great time. One of the best turn outs for C&C here locally.


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Are you running a puke bottle? Dumb me I overfilled the oil tank which was causing excess oil into the intake. I had horrible smoke on startup, until I removed the oil breather from the intake and put it into a puke bottle. Otherwise some smoke on startup is normal. Maybe post a video of it.

Check on the puke bottle. Nothing to the carbs related to the oil system. Pretty sure now it was just the rings breaking in slower than anticipated.
Hope to do another driving video soon. Thanks for weighing in Steve.

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One thing I always wanted, but never thought I would find, was a set of real Scheel seats to finish out my 6 GT conversion.
I was super excited I had found a set of vintage Scheel seats in early March. They arrived extremely well packed with great care.

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I knew from the pictures I’d seen before I bought them that they needed a little work so first thing I wanted to do was get them to my upholstery guy so that he could hopefully make repairs with some closely matched vinyl to a few problem areas.

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I drove them almost immediately to the upholstery shop and that is where I got a rude awakening. Within minutes I learned the vinyl had been recovered. He informed me that the vinyl on the seats was not really a period correct vinyl and showed me the difference. I had thought these were original seats. Oh boy here we go.

My upholsterer and I talked about recovering with a correct vinyl because he could not replace the damaged sections only. We thought we could keep what looked to be the original corduroy, so we planned a recover. The seats really did not seem to look the same though, somehow the shapes were a little different we noticed. When the seats sit side by side there were many differences, even in the corduroy sections. The head rests angles did not match either, with one being straight up vertical, while the other was tilted back. I was thinking the head rest was bent and would be something I could bend back.

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One seat bottom was not the same as the other as far as the cushion and attachment. Hard to describe this but one was fastened down well, and the other just lifted right up unattached.
Next was he would strip them down and a few days later I would pick up the frames to get them blasted.

When I returned to the shop there was more bad news from the tear down. It wasn’t that the head rest was bent, it was that the actual frames were different, physically shaped different, even made slightly different, and one a tad shorter. One frame was now going to need to be modified to look like the other.

Then I learned even the corduroy had been re done as well. Plastic rosettes that finish off the head rests insertion to the seats were missing and broken. All the webbing was in fact original but was so tired it could not be re-used. One head rest foam was much denser than the other as well.

When I got home I began to really understand the differences in the seat frames.

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First I had to figure out which seat configuration I had was correct, so did a lot of research and determined that the slightly tilted head rest was correct as opposed to straight up head rest version.

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I then began cutting one seat apart with a saws-all. Measurements revealed the straight up seat was narrower at the top and the shape for the back was thinner from a template I made.


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The seat shapes really were different in several places. Backs slightly different and now the head rests are the same angle!


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I cleaned up the rust and hit them with Por15 silver.

Far cry from where I thought I would be, just bolting them in, not too long after receiving and repairing them.

I was telling Lawrence (larmo63) who has some nice Scheel seats about what I found on mine after buying them and he said that back in the day a lot of seats were sold individually, and a lot of times only the driver was a Scheel leaving the passenger stock.

If that were the case here, then likely someone took two seats and had them recovered to look like they were a pair, many years ago. Both frames were Scheel all right, but possibly many years apart or they just didn’t pay too much attention to having them look exactly the same.

A good lesson in buying by picture. As a friend of mine once said: “the camera doesn’t catch what the eye can”. Had I seen these seats in person I likely would not have bought them. All I saw was what looked to be original looking seats. I got caught up in the excitement.

Drove the frames and material up to the upholsterer last Monday. I know they will look great when he’s done.


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Bummer. Judging by your words, you have a remarkable cheerful attitude which will propel you out of this disappointment

Good on you to correct the issues with these seats.
In the end, you'll have a pair of "matching" seats that will look wonderful in your car.
Lots of times it's 2 steps forward, 1 step back in these builds.
Keep your head down and keep moving ahead.
It will be killer in the end.

Now they will look perfect.

Sorry about your latest seat challenge Jim but you've proven that you can fix practicality anything. March on my friend...can't wait to meet up soon.

Awaiting your next driving video!!!



Oscar

Bummer about the seats Jim, they could have been made years apart hence the difference,can you still get the needle corduroy for the inners ? .
Re: the oil level I had a similar issue but in reverse..PMS filler and stock tank,appears they don't match,I calculated I would need around 12 litres to reach halfway on the dipstick which is too much for my engine (no front cooler) so adjusted the filler neck to bring it closer to the tank ,did an oil change and added 9.5 litres and marked the dipstick ,finally I know where I am.
Car looks great and seems to be getting attention .

Sorry to see what you had to go through with your seats. In doing a build it seems we all have to just keep our eye on the windshield and out of the rear view mirror. Stay as positive as possible. Those seats are going to look absolutely amazing once finished and every time you sit in them you will love them.

I got as close as I could find on the corduroy after a month and a half of searching.

I pursued many avenues trying to find “correct” corduroy which at one point was starting to look unobtainable.

Called, searched, , drove, and after numerous phone calls and samples gathered from around the country, even communicating with a place in Germany. I received the material I chose from these shown here.


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This is what I thought was closest from SMS to what was believed to be "original". It is a nice heavier weight fabric. I did not like the foam backed one from Autos International and it was THE most expensive. My upholstery guy could have gotten that one too but he knows it is not as correct as what I found. The AASE one was close too with the ribbing as well, but you can see it also came from Germany and was lighter weight but out of stock. SMS has terrible yelp ratings but I did well with them even shipping sooner than they promised. I would recommend them.

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Thanks Keith
Make no mistake, I am not happy about it, just trying stay positive, make the best of it and move forward. Kind of a bitter pill to swallow. As I tried to lay out, it seemed rather simple to fix initially, but then just kept getting deeper as we went along.

Thanks for weighing in!
Yes, on the positive side I was able to cut and shape them myself to look identical, so I am thankful for that.

Thanks Mark!
The upholstery shop, Escondido Custom Upholstery, is fairly close to me, like 15 minutes away, and the owner, Oscar does amazing work! I believe, based on everything I have seen of his, they will in deed be perfect! He has just started and they should be hopefully done next week.

Too funny! "fix practically anything"
I have been fortunate in that regard but Jeeze do I have to fix everything?

I hope to make it to San Clemente in the not too distant future. Next few weekends are tied up but I'm at least thinking about it now for real now.
Also hope to get a few San Diego 914'ers to make it to one of the monthly PCASD Cars & Coffee too!

My driving Video buddy is hard to nail down, but I'm working on it for sure.
Looked like the Route 66 was a great time for all. Nice trailer!

Michael,
Thanks, but compared to your car this is just child's play.
I do appreciate you checking though and I see more great progress has been made on your car lately too!

.........here's to the guy who sold you a "bill of goods"

Man, you are a STUD!

Your level of detail keeps me constantly envious. Can't wait to plant my butt in those new seats for my test drive.

I can only imagine the pain when you realised the seats weren't as good as you'd hoped. Despite the additional costs, these seats are going to be perfect once completed and you'll have pride in knowing you had a hand in making them so. Nice one Jim.

Great seats too, I'd love them in my car!

Karma