Background
This car was the first car that Brett drove when he was 13 and was given to us in 2014. It had been sitting idle back in Indiana under a family friend's carport for the past 15 years before Brett went back to Indiana and towed it out to Colorado with his father in July 2014.

When we got it, we didn't have a garage to work on it and it sat idle being stored outside for another year until we could afford a house with a garage. Colorado is pretty expensive so after we got a house with a garage, we then needed to save up more money to work on it.

Also I must mention in my ignorance, there were 3 distinct phases of thinking for getting this car fixed which I now find funny and are listed below

Phase 1: I will tow this car out to Colorado and get it the engine running for maybe $2,000 and have a working car.
Phase 2: Holy shit after researching this is impossible and will have to pay somebody to fix it for $15-20k.
Phase 3: I have enough local support and 914world resources and can fix this myself for around $10-15k.

Build-Off Challenge
So Amy and I are going to be tackling different aspects of this car so the posts will be coming from both of us. I will handling the rust/engine work and Amy will be on Interior and Exterior. Also she may help with some of the posting so we will start each post with name.

Brett
Step 1 (Complete) was to remove the engine and assess the frame rust situation. Never having removed an engine from a car, this was an extremely daunting task. The steps listed in Pelican Parts tutorial - 914 Engine Removal Made Easy is by far the most difficult thing I have done to a vehicle thus far. Hell I don't even know the difference between a camshaft and a carburetor much less a CV joint or a clutch cable. But after staring at it for about 2 weeks, I decided to just start unhooking shit and labeling. Made a ton of progress and finally got the engine about 95% unhooked. Had a friend come over to help me out and we actually got it out. WOOHOO!!!

Step 2 (Complete) is to strip out all the interior. I ordered chassis braces and other misc items from Tangerine racing and am still in the process of identifying all the rust areas that need repair.

Welcome to you and Amy. Looks like a nice car to start with. I love that both of you are committed to building it. You should have fun in the process. Just stay organized and work in sections so as not to get overwhelmed. Tackling the rust first is definitely the best approach in my opinion. Once that is done the rest will be smooth sailing.

Just wait till they start posting pictures of that rust! This car is going to be a labour of love, but Brett and Amy have the drive!

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this one!

If the motor pull was intimidating... get some of your CO brothers give you a hand. This is one of the best things about the world site.

and good luck!

Man that's is one accusing look from your dog.

"I would rather they'd gotten a cat."

Nice looking car and seems like pretty solid foundation...good luck!

Ya it wasn't until a competition of sorts came about that amy seemed to show any interest... Go figure. It is cool with her involved as she has a much better design eye than myself and will be tackling all the inside to have a much better product in the end. But I guess downside is that now i'll have to let her drive it...... ha jkjk. Rust will hands down be the main challenge. I got a shit ass welder for another project that I screwed up and already wishing I wouldn't have gone cheap on it. Oh well live and lose.

-Brett

Ya the rust ohh that rust. I feel that it really is a double edge sword. Without 914 rust there wouldn't be soo many good 914 welders..... Also I feel it creates a sense of camaraderie between us 914 owners. Everyone whose owned one has atleast one thing in common..... fixing the RUST....

Probably a more optimistic way of looking at than most have but my 2 cents. Looking forward to learning how to weld!

I've joined the 914 Colorado yahoo group and as I get further along I will be reaching out to everyone and anyone here local for help with rust. On the plus side, Amy works for Breckenridge beer and the fridge is almost always full of the stuff. Hope welders like breck beer is my saving grace.

Will post photos of the rust tonight and any comments or tips is much much MUCH appreciated!

As for the pup, ya she just sits outside and is constantly wishing for a cat or bunny to chase. Right now she's wearing a cone from an accident chasing a bunny across the street. Funny photo forthcoming.

The car looks solid at the moment but after talking with Ross (rnellums) I realize I am going to have to cut the body to get to the frame rust. That is really disheartening to me as I enjoy the current paint scheme. It happens.

Great comments and thanks for posting everyone. Feedback is going to be important for us.

-Brett

Yea, my first thought in looking at those pictures was "That dog does not look happy!"

Good luck guys, I hope the rust isn't to bad .. I hate rust with a passion !!!! Think the dog does to

That dog is killing me!!!!! Looks a little evil!!!

Are you drinking a Coors????

Good luck, the rust is everyones biggest concern as it can get out of hand quickly. Good luck with the build.

I love build threads, no I' am not an addict.









Yes yes yes I am.....

Goodluck! love that paint on the car!

I'm experimenting with fixing without cutting up much of the body. It seems difficult and will require some creative solutions, but I'm hoping it's possible.

Rust Update.

While im waiting for chassis braces to arrive, here are some photos of the rust that that I have to tackle. My plan of attack is to cut along the red lines with a grinder, but my friend mentioned that it may be beneficial to cut rounded. I have no welding experience so any feedback would be welcomed.

My plan parts list is as follows:
Rear floor pan
Right Rocker Panel
inner longitude member passenger side

Is there anything else I am missing?

-Brett

Once you start removing paint, floor tar and undercoat, you will find a lot more rust. I guarantee it.

Ya I imagine that is going to be the case and just waiting on the chassis braces before starting any cutting.

After you cut out all of the rust, make sure you treat the inside of the longitudinals. I am not sure what Scotty and Rick use inside them, but, I would find out and use that. They have a lot of experience with it.

Howdy folks,

So have kind of been in somewhat of a holding pattern on the rust repair until the chassis braces arrived. While I waited I started working on the brakes and had planned on replacing the pads; however, upon removal, the old pads are about the same size as the new ones and I figured I would just leave em on.

Questions:
1.) The rotors appear in decent shape and the car has only 73k miles so I'm wondering do I need to replace the rotors or just get them turned? Right now leaning towards getting them turned but with putting a Subaru engine in it, would it be wise to upgrade the brakes anyhow?

2.) Im planning on painting the calipers but wanted to get any advice beforehand. I am not sure on the color yet but wanted to get em looking good again. Any tips are appreciated.

3.) I'm planning on purchasing a wiring kit from Jeff's 914, but not sure which one to go with since I'm doing a Subaru conversion. Any ideas? Also, Amy's seat heaters arrived last week so any wiring harness I get must accommodate seat heaters for both seats.

Next topic of business: I am going to be getting married next weekend to the lady whose working on the interior of the 914. So I/we haven't been posting as much as we'd like and wont be doing anything for next few weeks until we return from our honeymoon on the 9th. After we get back though it will be balls to the wall on the rust and Amy is going to start on the reupholstering and interior.


Thanks Everyone!
-Brett

1) You can turn the rotors but you can also buy them.
2) PMB
3) I have no idea about Subie's but its been done before.... others will chime in.

Keep it up!

Actually just took the rear ones into O'Reilly next to my house and they said they were in good shape and just needed turned. 15/each wasn't too bad but saw they are on amazon for 60 brand new. Oh well.

For PMB I saw the caliper kits and rebuild kits but was thinking of just giving them a little tlc and see how they work once I get it moving.

-Brett

did your e-brake function before dismantling? most that I have had didn't and the rear brakes didn't fuction. there are very good how toos on here to recondition rear calipers. I drove my dd for two years until it was suggested that i rebuild the rears, made a huge difference in braking.

For someone that has never pulled an engine that looks like a pretty insane amount of rust repair to undertake. Bravo for trying to save the car, but man, I have scrapped multiple chassis for having rust issues that don't come near this.


For some reason though i really dig the paint scheme and interior color of this car. Best of luck with it.

Yes the e-brake worked before dismantling and I think I got it off okay. Setting the thickness may be difficult but will cross those bridges when I get to them. Spent a lot of time yesterday scraping gunk off of the rear control arm and spring/shock (**not sure on the terminology). Right now planning on painting the control arm and also the spring with some chassis paint that I ordered.

Once I get the rears back on and see how they work will probably decide to rebuilt or not to rebuild. On the plus side rotors came back and looked fantastic (picture forthcoming)!

-Brett

Trust me I feel the same way, I stared at the stupid how-to guide for pulling the engine for literally 2 weeks, overwhelmed, but once I started getting into it, it wasn't so bad. This has been such a great learning experience for me thus far.

As for the paint, hoping to save the paint scheme but we'll see how difficult it is to match once I cut out part of the body to tackle the rust. Luckily I have a lot of great resources helping me get this baby back on the road. Thanks for the feedback!

-Brett

Unless you plan to AX the stock brakes are fine. I haven't seen Jeffs914's harness' but I can tell you that you can make your own harness (if you have a donor harness from the Subaru donor car) for pennies then tie into the existing 914 harness.

Even in an AX the brakes should be fine. My understanding is that stock brakes have plenty of stopping power, but since they aren't vented and are fairly small they'll over heat and fade faster than the upgrades. An autocross is short enough that heat fade may not be a problem.



For the harness, He's got someone in the know who can pare down an ez30 harness in about and hour . I even have a few spare ECUs...

Ha I didn't even know what AX meant. I wont be doing much autocross racing and if it becomes a problem I can always choose to upgrade later.

Appreciate the help everyone, Ross just let me know if I need to get anything.

-Brett

hello 914 crew! This post is going to be more brief than i would like because i am currently in colombia on a honeymoon and internet here is a bit scant. I havent made any progress since my last post because i got married in fort lauderdale and immediately left to go to Colombia.

For the progress on the car in the past month, i got the majority of the interior out and had a few problems getting the back interior piece out. The emergency brake handle was pretty rusted and it broke. Getting the engine out was also pretty difficult for me but ended up getting it. If i had it do it again i would probably have purchased larger jack stands. Being a cheap ass i opted to get the cheap harbor frieght small ones and it was somewhat of a hassle. I did get the rear rotors and calipers off prior to leaving and plan on painting them when i get back. I took the rotors in to get turned at Oreillys auto parts for $15/each and they came back looking brand new. Sweet! That was really the only service that i used thus far. Amy was pretty overwhelmed with wedding junk so she didnt make any progress any of the interior but its understandable.

Unrelated to the porsche the wedding was a blast. We did a destination wedding on a boat in florida and it was tons of fun. 100 guests for a destonation wedding was a little much but everything turned out really well. These are the only real photos that i have available at this point so sorry for not posting an official Porsche photo.

The keyboard here is also pretty funky making this post a little difficult but oh well. Im actually at a small little hotel on an island off the coast of colombia. The place has a monkey that has taken a strong liking to me for some odd reason. Maybe because i am about as hairy as him. Everytime my brother or anyone tries to take him off me he gets really mad and tries to bite them. Ha. This is my first time in Colombia and it is much much safer than i was expecting. everyone says its extremely dangerous and its just not true. Everyone here is just really friendly.

Once again really sorry for this type of post but thanks for understanding.

I have been trying to save the photo for a while and just figured it out. Alright thanks for understanding such a crappy porsche post.

Brett and Amy

Ha and adding photos of the misses from phone. Was impossible on the computer here.

Slacker... Congratulations on the nupitals, sounds like a great memory.

BTW, it's unfortunate that you closed with "Brett and Amy" and then posted that pic underneath. People could get the wrong idea.

Ya I think the monkey likes me more than she does.

Congrats!!! Enjoy your Honeymoon!

Get back to your honeymoon job. The rust can wait.

congrats enjoy

Saw the update about sawzal blades on the contest thread and I have thoughts. I do a lot of sawzal work and the only blade I use is the Milwaukee torch. They hold up really well. Look at my build thread all that was done with 3 blades. Part of your problem might be the Dewalt, They have notoriously sloppy blade holders. It shouldn't have any slop. The jig saw will provide more precision but will require a lot of patience. Given the nature of jig saws it will dull the blade quickly in the one little portion. If you don't have one you need to get a 4 1/2 angle grinder. Harbor freight has cut/grind/flap wheel combos that are a good intero pack.

Good luck with the project.

Steve

Brett, congrats on the marriage. Hope shes as much into cars as you appear to be - or should I say - going to be. Don't be discouraged by all the work, even if you're unfamiliar with it. If you continue to approach it as a learning experience, you'll come out the other side of the experience wanting to do more.

PS:I had a similar experience in Columbia years back in that it turned out to be a wonderful trip and the people were terrific. Not at all like the state department painted it.

Enjoy!

Tick Tock....

Alright alright, so if you have read the front description the Porsche has been on hold, but not forgotten. We found out that Amy is pregnant basically when we landed from our honeymoon so lets just hope he comes out Colombian, brings some wrenches, and knows a thing or two about fixing cars. Jokes aside we are both very excited and have been spending the past couple months prepping for the baby. Planned doctors due date is 9/1 but im saying he due date 9/14 for the purpose of this thread.

Last, a friend I met at work said that I need to name the car and I started talking about it with amy and yes we both agree a name is necessary. Amy came up with Freude Fhart, which means Joy Ride in German. I like it! Any comments or thoughts here are appreciated as we have never named a car.

Alight onto the 914. Amy has started on the seats and she will explain below.

This is Amy,
I started to remove the seat covers by removing the old staples.

I was able to keep the bottom cushion and seat forms in tact, thankfully. I decided to wait until we got the new seat covers we ordered online before I completely removed the old covers.

Hopefully, I will be able to re-trace my steps and put the new ones on with ease! We are doing a buckskin and black theme on the new ones. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, I plan to remove the back pad covering and get started on that with a new kit that we bought. The back pad will be black and should match the seats really nicely.

This is Brett
I have gotten around to removing more cancerous rust and also have finished scraping off all of the rubber that was stuck to the bottom floor pans and i was pleasantly surprised with the quality of metal underneath.


I did find a few bad more rust spots that i wasn't really expecting next to the ebrake handle so now i will have to remove that as well.


There is some rust near the front and im not exactly positive how to address it. I can cut it out pretty easily but i dont think id be able to reweld a panel in very well so we will see.


Good news is that i have been practicing my welding and have gotten proficient enough to weld up two bikes.


Alright i will spend some more time replying to those who comment because i will begin throwing out lots of questions on this forum.

Questions:
Alright need some help here, what parts do i purchase for this 1 and 2?
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Alright thanks everyone for checking out my post.

-Brett & Amy

Ya i have had two blades that got stuck in that blade holder on that sawzall. A friend brought over some cutting wheels that attached to my grinder and my god that is the way to go. Thanks for the tip. Soo soo much easier. I feel like an idiot when i switch to something that works a million times better but oh well, all part of the process i suppose.

Thanks Steve for the info.
-Brett

So soo true. I get frustrated all the time but yes I really need treat this as a learning experience. Ya colombia was awesome.. food was great and cheap, everyone was really nice, and weather was pleasant.

She is getting more into it but certainly a learning experience for her too. The first semester of the pregnancy, was pretty slow going as one would expect, but were both back at full energy now.

-Brett

#1 is the Inner Wheelhouse Restoration Design part #PP331
#2 is the Rear Floor Jack Point RD part #PP342

Thank you Dirty Cossack for the help. Parts are on order!

Luckily my friends here in Denver realized how much money was being diverted away from the Porsche and offered to step in and donate about $2k of baby stuff.
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Yes it doesn't look like $2k but have you guys seen the price of some of this shit. I can get like 2 whole seat kits from 914 Rubber for the price of half of a car seat. Or one stroller for the same cost as and Inner Wheelhouse from RD. Easy choice in my book but others may disagree.

Last, i saw a real garage for the first time in my life. Sad to say but it has taken 31 years to appreciate a well laid out and finely tuned man workshop. I wont go into specifics on this one, but suffice to say my dad was more into the outdoors than in, so I hadn't spent much time in a garage until I was blessed with a 914.
Thanks to user "grantjd" who motivated me to spend some time on my workshop to make it more comfortable while I'm out there. So, put up insulation on Sunday and started in on drywall tonight. Really looking good and am excited to get this cave finally in order.
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Alright not much progress has been made on the Porsche but figured i would give a shop update.

-Brett

Nope shop space is more important than the car. A great environment helps you build a great car. It does not need to be fancy, not being cold or hot goes a long way. Having good lighting goes a really long way. Just be aware you are on a slippery slope when you start looking at the comfort of your environment.

Most off enjoy your garage / shop. It can be a place to bond with friends, solve a domestic problem, or as simple as building a bike with your kids, and painting it the way they want.

$2K….This is just the beginning Brett, :-)
Overall the basic cost of raising a child in the UK from birth to the age of 21 has increased by 63 per cent since 2003, when the survey was first carried out, to £229,251 ($326,000) at present. It has risen by just under £2,000 ($2850) in the last year alone, almost twice the current rate of inflation.
That said I wouldn’t change it for the world. Kids are the most important things in life. You and Amy are at the start of a most wonderful journey. Make the most of them while they’re young, you’ll be surprised how quickly time passes.
Congratulations to you both.

Tonight RNellums swung by and helped me identify some next steps. I took a break from cleaning and fixing up the garage to remove the rear right trailing arm and also got the original back pad off. Fortunately everything looked pretty decent on the trailing arm and the back metal, except by the e-brake. But that was to be expected.
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Back at the garage this week and hoping to make a workbench like this one.
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My plan is to use reclaimed 2x4's from the previous owners workbench. You cant see too much of it but it is in the left corner.
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The previous homeowner was one hell of a woodworker so i would have expected a little more, but maybe he took the other workbench with him.

Alright off to bed,
-Brett

Just a quick Garagin' update with mainly photos.

Amy and I spent the last week/weekend in the garage kickin names and takin ass. I've been off the sauce since 3/1 and while boring, its been productive as ever. We got the south wall done and built some shelves that make storing shit a hell of a lot easier and convenient. Workbench isnt quite finished yet but in progress.
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Moved to the North wall and got 64sf done with another ~64sf remaining. Once done (should be this weekend), organizing is priority 1 and then back at the 914!
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Yep that's my pregnant beauty with the gun in her hand. After a comment on her workmanship, I took 4 shots to the back but I was able to walk it off with relatively little bleeding. Boy am I glad I went with the 1/4" staples and not the 1/2"!
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Alright enjoy some photos and wish me continued motivation! If any of you are wondering Clausthaler has been the most enjoyable NA beer I have sampled of the past 14 days.

Happy Saint Pats and will someone enjoy a Guinness for me! In Honor of Ol' Saint Pats, here is Amy and I at Cliffs of Mohr 2 years ago.
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We were told when we visited there that every year many people fall from those cliffs while posing, playing and who knows what else.
Glad you survived.
Great progress on your car, your garage and your marriage.
Keep up the good work.
Happy St. Pattys Day !
Rory

I installed the bracket that will host the jack to lift the car above the square of the stand so that i can cut and weld away panels. Here are some photos.
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Having kids changes your perspective on life more than any other thing. Hope you all have good times together whether it is car related time or not. Cool to see you back in the garage, looking forward to seeing you replace that long! :-)

Welding is Completed!!!!

Rear Left sideClick to view attachment
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Right side battery trayClick to view attachment
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right rear fenderClick to view attachment
Bottom rear panClick to view attachmentR