I figure that even with a $0 budget for the foreseeable future I can trudge on using the supplies I have on hand (luckily I have a full tank of weld gas). So today I found a couple hours to weld in the e-brake guide, the little thing over the cable guides, the sail panel patch and even fill in the trim holes. I also discovered that in the weeks out of the garage, the monsoon season played its game and gave me some minor surface rust on the bare surfaces... even in AZ these cars try to rust! So I did a little sanding on random metal around the car.

Next weekend we will most likely be trying out another greyhound (depending on how the other dog is feeling), so I may have another couple weeks out of the garage, though I plan to find some time to hit the bare areas with some more sandpaper and ospho, and maybe some rattlecan primer to stop this flash rust.

I guess I'm not out of the game yet considering I have metal, welding supplies, filler, seam sealer, sandpaper, blast media, stripper, etc, and even the gallon of epoxy primer... Should hold me over until tax returns anyways.

I'm back in the fold! I finished my Army time and am now a civilian about to begin working as a high school social studies teacher in Northern Kentucky. I towed the teener 1800 miles from Arizona and into its new garage, but have to get the house and garage sorted out before work can resume. I'm looking at selling my trailer and VW bus so as to feed the car account and get the show on the road without all of the budget restraints... So if anyone near Cincinnati is looking for a 2014 16' Big Tex car hauler with electric brakes and 5 brand new tires for $1500; or a 1970 VW bus that runs and drives but needs a lot of cosmetic and electric work for $2500, let me know.

Welcome to the area. Good to have another teener close by. You will have to get to the Cincy VW/Porsche/Audi Family Reunion this Sept.

Welcome back! I'm up on the east side of Cinci, let me know when you get settled in.

It only took 6 years to get the house sorted and garage set up! It’s been a struggle with my aging father’s health problems, fixing his dilapidating house, a bajillion side projects, and trying to figure out the idiotic world of education. But in the last couple of months, after deciding to leave my job for another, I’ve been motivated to reorganize the garage and work on the car again. I finished the last welds and have been getting the filler done (worst part of that being stripping the protective rattle can primer I put there 6 years ago and ensuring no fresh rust), and sealing up all the enclosed areas with the Eastwood sealer stuff. I have purchased the epoxy primer, primer, and paint and have every intention of painting this thing (doors, hoods, etc will be done later) by the end of the month. I still need to remove a garage window to build a frame mount for a window AC for climate control and create my ventilation system though. The plan is to paint the bottom side on the rotisserie before building a dolly to paint the top half. I am very close to the point of slowly putting it back together!

Anything I should install on the bottom side while still on the rotisserie? Brake lines and master cylinder? Suspension? Do I put it back on the rotisserie after painting for installation or is it easy enough on a tallish dolly?

Here’s a peek at my new garage, I’ll take new photos of the car soon.

Maybe apply whatever you are going to put on the bottom of the car and if you are going to paint it, paint that bottom. Make it a roller, install brakes lines, wiring harness, etc. while it is on the rotisserie. Shoot the interior, trunks and under the targa bar at the same time. Lots easier when you can spin the chassis.

That sounds like a good idea. I think I will paint everything I can on the rotisserie, paint and reinstall the suspension and brake lines before going to the dolly. I can paint the ends with the hoods and doors.

As to recent work. Finished the body filler on the floor and got the first application on the old hell hole area. Finally got the last of the super grease off the area around the transmission mounts and removed the front suspension after finally getting around to making the tool for the upper lock washer from a piece of old sheet metal.

Next up is finishing the filler on the hell hole and firewall and the disgusting process of stripping the underside of bad undercoating and paint prep.

Divided the car into zones for painting. First up are the front inner fenders, longs/under the sills and floor. Stripping has been a major job! Using the Eastwood Dekote, various scrapers, wire wheels and brushes over 3 days and am almost there. This car had several different rubberized undercoatings, some other weird coatings and of course seam sealer. I was hoping to leave most of the seam sealer, but there were too many areas that peeled too easy, meaning some rust developing underneath. Nothing too bad, just some dusty surface stuff, but it still adds time and effort. Also purchased a new DeVilbiss HVLP gun for motivation. I am determined to have this car fully epoxy primed by the end of the month, but it’s looking more and more daunting.

This stripping process is exhausting and tedious. I have a mini blaster I planned to use for the tough, little areas, but after watching it make quick work of some nasty stuff, I’m debating dropping the cash on a full size blaster unit. It may make a mess of the garage, but it will need a major cleaning before painting anyways. So the new questions are: stick with the slow process, the less slow mini-blaster, or upgrade? Soda or standard media?

Great to see you back! What an adventure you've been on the past few years. The 914 is coming along. Keep doing what your doing. i found just having a sit down and scanning the car and taking it all in led me to decisions of what order to tackle different tasks. Common sense approaches. I think you are doing fantastic. Look forward to more updates.

Cheers

The first adventure in epoxy primer was a nightmare. First go tried to clump and run at the same time. I cleaned the gun, restirred and remixed the primer and tried again. Better, but I could not get the gun calibrated to my liking and the inability to shoot at odd angles resulted in some runs. I’m going back today with my old siphon feed primer gun. I don’t know if I just need more experience with the HVLP DeVillbiss or what, but if the siphon works better, I will be trying to return the fancy new ones. Im not saying I’m an expert by any means, or even that I’m good in the least, but my dad taught me to spray at the age of 8 with a Binks 7 and I’ve never had as many problems and issues as I did yesterday. It would be quite funny if I end up painting this thing with the 50 year old Binks since the old man acquired it in the same year my teener was built. He used it first to paint big transformer boxes for work and then on a constant rotation of old Volkswagens and a couple Triumphs that came through our garage for the next 30 years.

I’m sure you’ve done your research, but the new guns require very different pressures than the old siphon feeds.

Took another look and found it’s not as bad as I thought. Definitely wouldn’t fly if not on the underside and epoxy. We’ll see how this second round goes and worry about the runs when it’s high build primer and sanding time. Some may stay our little secret…

I think it was user error on the new HVLP gun, but maybe I’m just old school. Used the Campbell-Hausfeld siphon primer gun and got it dialed-in in a minute, sprayed the whole thing and cleaned up in less time than it took to calibrate my fan yesterday.

Wednesday (the greyhound) was extremely interested in the noises coming from the garage.