Thinking of getting the POR15 kit. I'm planning to boroscope the inside to make sure it looks OK all the way to the back, I'll post that once I do it.

I'd recommend the Caswell Platings kit instead if you haven't already gotten the POR15 kit. I've used it on a few tanks and been very happy.

Would you mind sharing the cost of getting those longs bent? No pressure, just curious.

When I move back to CVG next year we're going to have to meet up at the Hoffbrau Haus to tell war on rust stories. Or at our workshops if we don't have these cars done...

Oh wow, I doubt I'll be done

That is crazy having your own logs bent up, but not a bad idea. You did great work on them.

Wow! A complete longectomy.
The replacement looks great.

$210 for both.

Absolutely- done or not, it looks like we've all got enough stories to get us through a couple rounds.

That's really nice work you're doing. once the longs are welded in and together, you should spray the inside with the Eastwood internal frame coating or something similar.

More dissection... Cut the suspension pylon and motor mount out to see if it could be salvaged though I was pretty sure they were a lost cause. I think I was right, here's the result...

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Hydrogen hydroxide: if it can do this to car parts, imagine what it does to your insides!

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Nobody makes these do they?

Got the mouse nest- no mice left, I guess they figured the old house was no longer structurally sound. Little mouse inspector probably condemned it...

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With that long completely cut out, it is pretty floppy and I no longer have a place in the rear corner to grab it. The two hurdles I'm looking at now are, how to level it and how to know when it's level. First, I need a way to support that loose corner, and ideally something that is adjustable. Had an old broken c-clamp laying around...

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One of the problems with having the whole long out is that there is no motor mount and no suspension mounts- nothing to hold on to and no reference. However, the lower section of the rear firewall has a level flange- it can serve as both a reference and a support.

This clamp adjuster is two pieces: a T welded from stock which slides up between the layers of the lower FW and registers against that horizontal flange, and the clamp with some brackets welded on to affix it to my dolly. I can turn the screw to raise or lower that corner. It all sits inside where the long would be so it will not interfere with my welding.

Now the car is mounted on 4 points again and I can adjust to get those points level. But the two halves are tilted away from each other. I can adjust the door braces to fix that, but I need to know how much.

I made a couple little metal tabs with a hole, and clamped them to the corners of the wheel wells, front and back.

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Now I can see if the bottom edges of the quarter panels line up or not...

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Then I can crank on the door braces to tilt the halves until they line up...

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Looks better:

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Now I'm sure someone is thinking, what about door gaps? I haven't forgotten...

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The door braces have to be adjusted in tandem to get the gaps right and also the alignment. That said, getting this right is probably the thing I am most worried about.

And a little postscript... Took a hint from Jeff Hail's thread and got myself one of these little monkeys. I've seen them for as much as $30 at industrial and car places... Home Dep has them for $8 and change.

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Very nice work. i'm impressed with your forethought and creativity.

Reading this is making me think I need to redo my longitudinal restoration.

Continuing work on fabricating the inner long. Need to cut the aft hole for the heater tube. Made some templates..
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Put the heater tube in position and slid the templates together and taped them.
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Removed the heater tube, leaving the templates in place...
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...put the long in place and taped the templates to the long.
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Trace out the hole and cut.
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Et voila.
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Puzzled over how to match up the inner long to the wheelhouse long, decided on a similar process. What you will not see in this series is me levelling the car across the little ledge in the firewall and constantly measuring the door gaps. I'm checking these at intervals as I go.

Made a template to represent the inner long. It's taped to the body. I've mode some witness marks on it so that I can remove it and then put it back in the same place.
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Put the wheelhouse long in place...
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...and traced the edge on the template.
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Removed the wheelhouse long.

The template is then removed, cut on the traced line, and then replaced using the witness marks.

Then I put the inner long in place over the template.
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Taped the template to the inner long.
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Traced it and cut. Cut outside the line a bit so I have a little room for adjustment.
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Test fitting the heater tube.
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Going to need a little adjustment work to get all this fitting together.
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I just like this picture.
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I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little excited to see all this healthy metal so close to being in the car. A good strong backbone again.
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Loving the work, We all know how frustrating this stuff can be. Your doing a great job. And the attention to detail is phenomenal.

If I could make a suggestion. I would get my pieces aligned, then add a scab plate to the inside over the joints. Jeff shows this in his thread also. larger the plate the better. Just remember to coat it between the plates.

Thank you!

I definitely plan to sleeve that joint. Truth is I'm still a ways from welding this all together- that wheelhouse long looks like it was made to attach to whatever is left of the long that was cut out, not extend to the trunk wall. Well, I cut mine out completely so I need to make some tabs to bridge that gap. I'll post photos of that process. Then get that butt joint lined up which will require squeezing the one side so the walls are at right angles and tapering the other to match the height of the section. Then I'll make a sleeve. Finally some primer, and I think I'll be close to welding.

Acquired a mascot:

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Getting behind on my updates. Got the long sleeved before Christmas...
Made it in three pieces from 12g steel (because the long was already fabricated in 12g...) EDIT: sleeve is 14g:
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Checking the fit:
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Clamped in place to tack together:
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All tacked up:
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Welded those seams up solid. Did a little trimming, also sprayed on some weld-thru primer to both pieces before the final weld up.

In situ:
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Matthew, working it 12 ga. is a little I like crazy so keep up the great work.

How did I miss this great thread before now, subscribed!

I am about a month behind you...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=301894

I hope my fabrications look this good.

Subscribed


-Andrew

Well, that got me thinking... Had to go back and measure. The sleeve is 14 gauge, as is the upper long from RD- only the inner long is 12, bent by a local shop.

Building a motor mount.

Making a pattern...
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Cutting out the pieces...
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Hammer time...
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All the bits... These are actually the bits from the light gauge practice piece I made. Can't find a picture of the 14g stuff. Anyway, on to welding...

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Welded together. I used weld through primer where there are flanges here. The bottom piece is just bolted to the main part of the bracket, I need to fit it to the long and to my dolly/jig and some bends may need a little tweaking.
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Nice work there

That...is...awesome!!!!

Man, that is great
Matthew you have similar spots that I uncovered.
Having this thread has helped my anxiety about taking on too big a project.
Are you learning as you go or have you worked in sheetmetal before?

Before I started on this car I would have said, oh yeah I've worked with sheet metal before. What I knew then feels pretty small compared to what I've been learning. So, yes, I am absolutely learning as I go. It's fun for me, and it's why I took on this project.

I often make a piece in a lighter gauge first, just to see how the metal is going to behave when I try to make that shape. I also spend some time on sheet metal forums, where they tend to show more about the actual making of a piece, whereas here most people just show the finished piece and then how it is patched in to the car.

Wow!

Can you recommend a good Sheetmetal forum?

Some cool stuff here:

http://www.allmetalshaping.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20

Not a Forum but this will lead you to things way deeper than you ever wanted

Robert is a true craftsman and is now running a video series of his work also. And it is relevant to work on our cars. Just wish he did not have so many large tools at his disposal. Robert does such a good job.

metalmeet.com is about my speed, there's guys there that know hammer-forming- I don't have any big sheet metal tools, have to make it work with hammers and dollys.

Wow, been a little lax on the 914world lately due to other life events, but this kind of thread really gets me excited!
Fantastic work here and I love that another 914 is getting a much longer life!

I've been so busy with my projects that I haven't been keeping up with any other build/restoration threads. Both of you guys are doing some impressive work. I can feel the passion all way up here in PDX.

mbseto, love the motor mount creation. Did you have the big hole die cut ? Looks like it was made with a dimple die.

MBSETO Man you are awesome. Love your work.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys...



I roughed-sawed the hole, then turned the lip down with a hammer and T-dolly, then ground the edge flat. I was sitting over my dolly with a hammer in one hand and the rubber motor mount piece in the other to get that hole to a good fit. I scrapped one piece trying to get it right...

Need an update, Spring got away from me- work, etc. Got some garage work done, but it just didn't feel like enough and I put off posting. Here's a little catch up...

These dang spring clips... Someone suggested that I cut the ones out of my bad long and just weld them into the new long. Problem being that two of them were completely gone, rusted away entirely- just sad little stumps.

They look like they would be easy to make, but as I'm checking out the one remaining one, I see it is spring tempered. I have a buddy with a forge and talked to him about making these... cave-man garage work.

Made the pieces out of basic cold-rolled, there's the one remaining clip from what's left of the original long:
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Here's the clips, cut and shaped but not yet tempered. If you squeeze them a little, they just stay bent, they are not springy at all.
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Into the forge they go. Heated to cherry, quenched in old motor oil:
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The annealing process, per an old book I have, says burn off the oil, then dip in oil again and burn it off again, then do that one more time and you have a spring temper.
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Worked like a charm, you can snap them and they vibrate like a tuning fork. Test fit everything with the tube, the long, and the elbows on either end. Hit them with a little weld-through primer and tacked them on.

The new long is tacked in place. I keep measuring the door gaps over and over, I feel like a nervous mom. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than a little excited about this, it feels like a pretty big step forward. The next couple pieces from RD to close it up will go quick I think. Then we'll flip it around and do the other side. Less to do over there, but then it will have good bones again.

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Sweet, They look great,
Im about* to rivet mine on one side, maybe I will just tack them like that.

*"about" in 914 time means 2weeks—6 Months

I was not sure how this build was going to go in the very begining.
Now I know for sure. Great workmanship.

Thank you for the encouragement. Being a part of the community really inspires my to up my game and try to maintain a quality of work...

OK, so need some brackets to hold the heater pipes in place. Made a pattern and clipped them out:
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And here they are folded up:
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You know I got that extra-thick long welded in and then I was reading a thread about seat-belt bosses. Luckily it's not too late!! Ordered it from 914Rubber... It needs a fairly large hole in some 12g sheet to mount that thing; drill bit needs a 1/2" chuck. Can't use my hand drill, can't fit the 914 on the drill press. Called my vintage-tool-enthusiast buddy, he loaned me this wrist-breaker:
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Another thread I was reading was talking about how much additional strength comes from the jack post. I was planning on leaving that off, and since my longs are well reinforced I thought it still might be OK. But in the end, I figured I'll take more strength wherever I can get it and since I still have the stock jack, might as well rebuild the jack posts.

Made a pattern from the old one, snipped out the metal:
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Hammer time:
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Got some square tube from the local metal supplier, kit needed some adjustment when all was said and done:
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You don't see it here but I used the valance to position this guy:
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Needed to make some adjustments to the hole in the middle, ultimately a tiny bit of patch metal has to go in. I'll adjust the pattern before doing the other side. Some tapping with the hammer to get the flanges to conform to the long, then drilled for the rosette welds and primed- switched to the copper based weld-through, it does seem to weld easier:
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Man you do pretty work!

These pics should have gone in with the last post, playing a little catch up here...
This is the heater tube in place:
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And the outer section of the long ready to go in:
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Nice work you're doing there.

Thank you, I am having a ball doing it. But my desire to be able to drive it is getting stronger and stronger...

Still doing a little retro posting... The wheelhouse had a rusty section above the long. Cut it out and fabricated a patch. Lots of tippy-taps with the hammer to get the edges matched up.
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Here it is tacked in:
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I should have detailed this part a little better, fitting the wheelhouse long at the back end. I cut out a layer of the "third" fire wall to get the long all the way up against the rear-most layer.
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Made some tabs to connect the aft end of the long, then put the original piece back in place. There was a lot of head scratching here, a little bit of grinding off the welds and re-adjusting. Wasn't thinking much about taking pictures, but looking back on it, the thoughts in my head were a lot more complicated than what actually ended up happening.
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Took out a little of the door frame to get those rosettes in there. Wasn't really sure until this point whether I could get the long replaced without cutting the fender. Glad I took Rick's advice.
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Need to replace the bottom of the door post. The PO just slapped a plate on there. I looked through several threads for this, everyone has a different name for it: door post, torque box, hinge post base... Whatever it is, cut a pattern:
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Here's another little piece that was cut away to access the rosettes at the front of the long:
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Bent the hinge post base to shape and trimmed to fit:
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Blew some holes trying to mate the original metal to the new metal. Didn't really want to post this pic but sometimes your purpose is to serve as a warning to others I guess.
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Pondered over that for a bit and decided that putting in a single piece with a little overhead welding is better than two tiny patches.
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And finally the sill is tacked in place. This gets me up to today and I was surprised at how good it felt just to get the sill back on. You may notice the door braces are gone from this side. After getting the long completely welded in place, but before starting on the door port and sill, I took them up and brought the door up from the basement and held it in place. It looked about like I had hoped, no gross errors anyway. I know the car will settle once it is back on its feet, hopefully the gaps stay good.
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I'm really impressed with your work. Keep 'em coming!

Nice work rebuilding that post bottom from scratch. Can't quite tell, but did you leave drainage holes at the bottom?