Hi everyone. Thanks for having me on the forum.

I'm a new owner of a 1974 914-S. I purchased the car last night, knowing that it needs some rust repair.

Has anyone tackled the job of the rear inner wheelhouse panels? So just inside the rear wheel arch, where the body starts to curve upwards, the actual corner/curve piece has some rot.

Do these panels (both left and right) exist for sale? Am I better off fabricating the pieces?

Also, is the floor patching better to do from the top or from underneath?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

You're going to need this: Restoration Design. It's all been done before. Start searching the threads here!

And to the new Calgarian,

Thanks for the welcome. I went on that site last night, and they seem to only sell the right side of the wheelhouse, pp330 and pp331. Does the left side exist?

Before you get overwhelmed with stuff, read the threads on this board, any of them having to do with rust, restoration, panel replacement, etc.

Then get your car up in the air and really go over it to identify the extent of the rust you will need to address. You want to completely assess the entire car so you can come up with a manageable plan to make the car solid, safe and road-worthy.

Lots of people here who know these cars inside and out who will be happy to give you advice to help you attain the car you want.

I agree, your best bet is to search the forums. You will find info on door bracing, rotisserie designs, etc. Read, read, read..... it's all there free you just have to go find it.

.... and post some pics.

The left side is not needed nearly as much. The right side is often collateral damage from the hell hole. Are you sure these pieces need to be replaced? If you do need it, one option would be to put WTB in the classifieds. Someone parting out a car can probably help you.

I'll have to do some digging. On other forums I've been a part of, most popular topics are 'stickies' and always at the top. Does such a thing exist here for the common metal repair?

I'll need those pieces for sure. Been thinking about how to fab them all day.

There are "stickies" but you probably want what's in the Restoration and Build threads and/or what's in the Lapuwali Classic Thread Forum. Go to "Forums" up above and then browse through these.

Here's one in particular that's a classic, and relevant to your task, although on the passenger side: Digging into Hell. That'll take some time to read through!

Also look for repair threads by scotty b, rick914-8 and mcmark. Lots of others, its worth the time to search and read.


If we stickied every rust repair thread, it would take up the first 1000 pages. we're talking 914's

try the below for searching this site. someone posted it before and it seems to
work for me.

https://cse.google.com/cse/home?cx=00240834...772:ajvfxschcgc

Welcome fellow Calgarian. There are several of us here and we have an unofficial owners group providing support and parts. Post some photos!!!
Mike

Feeling welcome.

So the deal is done, car is paid for (locally) and just waiting for me to pick it up. Its far more complete than I previously realized. I've been sourcing parts from some of the people here on this forum, and I might not need them (so thank you for your time).

Some things about the car.

Is a 74 with a GA engine.
Key will start the car, but not stop the car. Need to stall it to shut the engine off.
Needs repairs to the inner wheelhouse on both sides. I've only seen the right side panels for sale. Does anyone sell the left sides or am I fabricating one?
Missing the engine lid/vent knob
I looked underneath, and there is only 1 heat exchanger/heater box (driver's side). The other looks either like a header, or that the tin was removed from the heat exchanger. Is this normal? There is an aux. fan in the engine bay (driver's side) behind the seat that looks plumbed into the heat exchanger.

How do I post pics?

What part of town are you in? Several of us up here in the north end.
Mike

South Central Calgary (Deerfoot and Peigan area)

Did you buy the black car that was over by Chinook Mall?

There's a thread for that in the FAQ section:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showforum=16

That's the one.

Take a couple of weeks and do nothing but look at the other posts, particularly those that deal with complete restoration. You'll answer most if not all of your questions and learn a lot.

Cool, a 2.0!



Electrical is bogeyed up somewhere. Power is feeding back through something (very possibly a light?) into the ignition switch circuitry.




If RD doesn't carry it, check with the dealer. There may be one somewhere in the supply line, and there are people out there sitting on NOS body panels as well.

Or get one from a donor car (that side usually isn't too bad) or fab it yourself.




The most common reason is that the threads stripped out of it, or off of the end of the cable. If Mikey isn't producing these, used from our classifieds is the best bet.





It's an easy "fix" for a badly rotted heat exchanger wrapping. Real headers don't stay separate all the way back, so it is pretty certain that yours is just the stock pipes with the wrapping cut off on one side.




Normal. In 70-72, the fan was centrally mounted (more or less) and had two outlets, one running to the heat exchanger on each side. In 73-74, they moved the fan to the left side, changed it to single outlet, and only plumbed it to the left side exchanger. There was a cap that blocked off the right side one. In 75-76, they put a splitter on the outlet of the fan, and ran it to both exchangers again. The engine cooling fan pushes air through the exchangers while the engine is running, so the electric fan is just a booster, primarily for while you're at idle.

--DD

Thank you for all this info. I suspected the aux fan was only plumbed into the driver's side heat exchanger (the one I have). Was the piece that connected the engine cooling shroud to the heat exchanger unique on the 73-74? or was the shroud itself different (blocked off on the passenger side) as there is only 1 heat exchanger?

I'll likely end up just fabbing up the patch panels I need for this car. Stoddard has a left side inner wheelhouse, but it's $1500 USD (so like 1,000,000 CAD). I talked to the nice people at Restoration Design today, and they let me know that it's the uncommon side for repairs, so the part isn't being produced (gotta have a good return on investment)

All 70-74 914s used a pair of S-shaped ducts that connected the bottom of the fan shroud to the heat exchangers. They had J-shaped pipes that went from the S ducts up through the engine tin. Most of them had hoses that went onto the J tubes and went to the fan, except for the 73-74 cars on the passenger's side, which had a cap over the J tube.

--DD

Thanks again for this. I think I partially got resolved my issue with the car not turning off. A question though. If the tach is hooked up with only + and -, and you turn the key, should there be power at the tach signal connector? For some reason, I'm getting 6.5 (or so) volts there, when no wire is hooked up. From my understanding, tach signal gets hooked up to coil -. Won't that cause a direct short? What reading should be on the back of the gauge when powered up, not running, on the signal terminal?

Ok. Back up and running, but not well. Melted 2 sets of points. Is there a link to the best way to set up my timing/dwell?

Where are the bloody pictures of this wreck.

Black with white stripe on the last page.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...c=8&st=4600