Hey er'body, Im MichiganMat from San Jose and Im building a 914.

Backstory:
This summer I had the pleasure of picking up a '75 914 chassis here in San Jose for a mere $300.
It came with with virtually nothing:
no driveline, no interior, no pedals, etc. Stripped, but solid, with minimal overhead and cost.
I've been building 911s for many years now and had an extra set of wheels and 911 front struts in my shed, so I thought hey, lets do this.
My brother and I are just finishing up putting an STi motor into our '67 912 too, so with that project wrapping up Im ready to jump into another.


The Plan:
Well, I got the car for cheap, and I've already got a perfectly good '75 911S to daily/rally/etc with, so the plan is to build a stripped down 914 racer for AX and track fun.
The car will be getting:
- Tangerine Racing rollcage, tied to 8pts, with nascar door-bars
- Rennspeed fiberglass body (fenders f&r, hood, trunk, and both bumpers)
- Mad Dog chassis reinforcement kit and hell-hole repair
- Resto-Design floorpans, seat areas dropped by 2", with custom tunnel
- Tilton pedals
- 5 lug conversion
- 16x7 Fuchs all the way around with 2nd option of 15x7ATE's with canti slicks
- /likely/ wrx drivetrain, but Im exploring my options...


Where sits today:
I picked up the car in May and I've since then I've put it on a home-built rotisserie, cut the pans, tunnel, trunk, headlight buckets, and front fenders out of it, and fixed the hell-hole area.
The pans were totally rotted, the battery tray was nonexistent, the fenders on all 4 corners had damage. Pretty easy to make the decision to start fresh, haha.
Today, most of the chassis kit is installed but I can't finish it until the roll-cage is put in. Tangerine is almost done with the cage so it'll be another week or so until I see it.
In the meantime, the plan is to clean up the wheel-wells, fix the rust in the longs, put in the trunk cross-sections, and primer the reinforcements.
Then I'll get to work on the tunnel, mod'ing the pans, installing the fiberglass, etc.


Anyways, hello, nice to meet you guys, and Im looking forward to the challenge!

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

awesome!

Now let's see that 912 with the sti motor!!

I added a link to the build in the description, but its here too: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911...-old-912-a.html

Started with this:


Dealt with this:



Finished with this:

Wow

And I would add to your list if it was me. Get a set of 914LTD stiffeners, the Mad Dog is good stuff, 914LTD goes front to back. Pickups the rear suspension point, unless your moving the pickup points. Since you found tangerine racings website I am sure you noticed all of Chris trick suspension modifications.

Enjoy the ride, can't wait to watch the build

That 912 is fuch'n awesome. I want to come see it in person!

Looking forward to seeing your 914 project....I am local to help.


Matt

Made some good progress recently:
- Welded in mounting plates for rear suspension trans-mount crossbar
- Finished up rebuild of passenger side heater tube
- Finished repairs to passenger long, lots of rot to replace
- Finished up work on the chassis stiffening kit. The longs are burned in.
- Received my roll cage kit from Tangerine today, started with mock-up

Feels like good progress, though welding this stuff always seems to take longer than expected :/ Working hard to get the wheel-wells stripped and cleaned up, still thinking about paint. I would absolutely *love* to get this chassis acid-dipped or bead-blasted, but Id really rather put that cost towards speedy bits. Its a trade-off, need to think about it a bit more.

Thanks for reading!

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Cool build(s). I know you're still in mock-up phase, but can I suggest, from experience, that you consider bracing the door gaps, checking dimensions and consulting with Racer Chris before you finalize the cage? Welding that cage in can REALLY change the dimensions from all the heat. I believe the common practice is to actually have the car on jackstands when welding it in. But Chris would know the best method for sure.

Thanks, will do. I measured today and Im pleased to say my windshield-to-targa bar is perfect on both sides.

I am sympathetic to the weight of the cage flexing the longs while its on the rotisserie, so Im going to keep a close eye on it. Tangerines instructions are pretty specific on the installation too, basically tack it all up, then burn in everything but the feet, then cut the tacks on the feet to relive tension, then finally burn in the feet. Seems logical, heh.

Question for you: concerning the chassis kit, is it common to just stich-weld every few inches or should I be welding a solid bead around the entire outside the panels? Do you know?

Stitch is better.
Use sealant if you want to keep moisture away from the space between.

Looking forward to more of this build! You've obviously got the skill and the tools, your experience speaks for itself with the pics of your previous builds. I'm getting ready to tackle my floor and my car looks really similar to yours in the progress phase. You're ahead of me in a few areas but seeing someone else in the same general spot of their build is always intriguing! Keep up the good work while I hijack your ideas!

Did not see it listed, what motor are you planning on stuffing into this 914?

Seeing how nice Chris' roll cage fits to the A pillars, I need to send him a note. Thank you for posting the pictures.

Finally was able to get some time on the project this weekend, and it was all dedicated to the roll cage. Was able to fit the driver door bars, the knee bar, and the windshield bar. These are just tacked in for now. The passenger door bars still need to be cut down and fitted.

I was also able to add the trans reinforcements, but I still need to add a cross bar between the towers.

Finally, I was able to cut and burn in the backing plates to tie the main hoop of the cage to the rear shock towers. I also plan to tie in the front towers to the forward hoops but I haven't gotten around to making the plates yet. Soon.

This chassis fab stuff just takes so long and its so tempting to cut corners for the sake of expediency. A day here, a day there, its just a matter of being patient and working hard. I got the sign-off from Chris @ Tangerine on the placements, so Im feeling pretty good about burning it all in once the passenger bars are fit. Onward!

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Great looking progress!

Reason I asked what engine your running, if it was anything I could do a firewall mount with, I would cut out the -4 mounts. Get rid of the heater channel, and box this up to the rear shock towers that also ties in the rear suspension pickup.

Red Cut, blue add.

Click to view attachment

Keep up the great work

Awesome progress....terrible use of the word "burn"

Its been a long time since my last post, the holidays really sucked up all of our time. My brother and I were able to get his car out on the road and I was able to start finishing up projects on my 911. The 911 is just about wrapped up so the 914 will be coming into the garage shortly, so I get started on the 914 floorpans.

So the floorpans... The plan is to cut the bottom out of the driver side of the rear pan and drop the driver seat down by an inch or two. I've seen a few examples, Patrick Motorsports has a couple of cars that they've done this to, I think its smart:




I had to cut the entire floorpan and center tunnel out of the car to fix the longs, so before I can start putting in the pans I need to fit the seat. I've been hedging about what seat to buy for a few weeks now, but was lucky that a friend had the exact seat I was thinking of. I picked it up this morning and will start fitting it with a custom tunnel.

Click to view attachment

Progress is slow but it'll start ramping up in the coming weeks.

Brought the chassis into the garage, she's finally out of the elements and the real work can get started.

I've started test fitting the front and rear floor pans. Don't sweat that rear pan placement, I found out I was doing it wrong AFTER screwing it down. No worries, it's not permanent.

Fitted the seat, looks like its going to work. Im still planning to drop the seat pan down by 2" and I need to get busy on the custom tunnel.

Im investigating drivetrains (likely EJ205) and pedal clusters this week and will be picking up the Rennspd bodywork in February, excited to get my hands on it all.

Also thinking about gusseting the front hoops of the cage to the A-pillars. Does anyone have an opinion on it?

Thanks for looking!

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Unless you tie in the roof, you are only gusseting 18 ga sheet metal. You are basically re-enforcing the A-pilar. Worth anything, maybe in a crash, for stiffening on an open car, not really. Now if your going 916 style roof, I would say go for it. But DOM always wins over sheet metal. And depending on the class if you ever get the racing bug, they count as another point of attachment. For attachment points I try to make them as big as I can and cover at least 3 planes of contact. But again, people have rules, so you have to read them carefully. In NASA we get points per attachment point of the cage beyond 6 "older rules when I built the car" have not read this years yet. So if I was taking points I would make sure it had a valid result. Also if I was gusseting a bar into the chassis it would be the cross bar at the front. And I would take the dash out, run it to the front fire wall and gusset it across the entire wall. That gets it away from your knees and adds a huge amount of chassis tie in. I also added a bar across the back behind my seat that went down picked up the center seatbelt points and back across. Any time you can make a complete hoop, and not rely on the chassis the better off you are. Next I would concentrate on the tie into the suspension points.

? how much of a street car do you want this to be

Bought the motor and trans this past week. EJ205T from eBay. Great deal, couldn't pass it up.
Also started work on replacing the firewall that rotted away. Its coming along nicely and will be a good foundation for a center tunnel, for tying in the dog-ears, and for mounting the engine.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Today I worked on dropping the drivers floor pan down by 1 inch. Cut along the outside of the pan, made a few bends in the metal brake, and welded a 1" strip of 16ga around the perimeter. The goal is to get the driver seat nice and low, Im 6'1", need to get my helmet away from the top of the roof and below the roll cage. I've seen this done on a few of the Patrick Motorsports builds, seems like a well-known mod. I still need to figure out how to mount the seat brackets to the pan and decide if I'll use sliders or not. A few questions left to be answered...

I also started thinking about how to build the custom tunnel / shifter console. I have a few ideas but Im going to need more steel and welding gas. I'll likely start in on it next weekend after gathering parts. Its tough to fit anything without the seat mounted in :/ I need to pick up used shifter (seems like people are using Toyota MR2, I wonder if there are other options?) and a pedal cluster (thinking Tilton or Wilwood at the moment).

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Like the dropped pan!

Ok, question for you guys: how aligned should the seat be with the steering wheel? haha, i kid.

I started lining up the seat last night and noticed the only way I could get a proper alignment of the seat + wheel is to move the seat towards the center so much so that its no longer sitting in the stock areas of the floorpan. This seems like a bug. Is this a common thing?

You can see in the pics that I've got the seat lined up nice and straight, but then look at where the brackets are sitting. Im already planning to make my own custom tunnel / shift console, so its not a big deal to me to mod the pan. I just want to know if Im headed down the right road here.

Is this correct? Thoughts?

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Neat build. I can double check, but I don't think the seat, steering wheels, and pedals line up well on a stock 914. I know the pedals don't for certain.

I think I just got used to it after 25+ years.

-Steve

Another productive weekend!

I was able to get a bit more work done on the floorpan. I really had to cut out and drop a huge section to get the seat to line up, I really had no idea that the alignment was this bad in these cars. Oh well, the cuts are made, need to get in there and patch it all up, reinforce the lowered areas, and mount the seat sliders. Feels like good progress though.

I also did a bit of work on the rear suspension points. The inner points got a bit of reinforcement and I'll be adding a heim-joint connector from the dog-ear to the firewall soon. The reinforcements are not quite finished, I'll take some pics when its ready.

Oh, and I also fab'd up the outer rear suspension console adjusters / supports / etc. That was a neat job to do, and I really feel I saved myself a ton of money and trouble by doing it myself. Don't mind the surface rust (its ugly, I know), its all going away when I get the chassis media blasted.

Finally, the motor and trans arrived. Its a big dirty lump, but its here and its ready to go in. Excited!

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Made a bunch more progress in the last few days:

• Finished welding up the floorpan drop
• Fab'd and welded in the seat rails where the sliders will attach.
• Welded in the floorpan cross bracing and center tunnel
• Welded in seatbelt attachment points on center tunnel and chassis
• Broke down the engine/trans, put the engine on the stand
• Cut the backing plates needed to tie the rollcage into the front struts, will weld in tomorrow. No pics yet.

The engine is looking like it was driven pretty hard. The clutch is showing wear and the non-stock exhaust, plug wires, and silicone lead me to believe it was somebody young and reckless, heh. Im sure its fine, but its not quite what I was hoping for when I hit "buy now" on eBay.

So, next steps are:
- I need to buy a pedal cluster (likely Wilwood) before I can finish the floorpan and weld it in.
- Planning to tie in the roll cage to the front struts tomorrow
- I have one of the dog-ears reinforced, need to do the other, and then Im going to build heim-joint connectors to the lower firewall.
- My brother is bringing the fiberglass body in 2 weeks, so trying to get all this prep work done before it arrives. Should have the body mounted by the end of the month!

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Great looking progress! What are you going to do for the intercooler?

"The engine is looking like it was driven pretty hard. The clutch is showing wear and the non-stock exhaust, plug wires, and silicone lead me to believe it was somebody young and reckless, heh. Im sure its fine, but its not quite what I was hoping for when I hit "buy now" on eBay."


This was the reason I went with a 6. That being said, if there are issues it will probably be with the center differential. But you'll be trashing the diff anyway.

The next challenge: how to plumb the radiator.

Im struggling here. Im looking over the various approaches here on 914World.com and Im trying to reconcile longevity, complexity, and cost. The last time I built one of these systems I used all aluminum piping, not long runs of hose, and I built them into protected places that would never fail.

So our options are:
- under the floorpan
- along the rocker panels
- inside the longitudinals in the heater ducts
- inside the the cabin, either along the longs or down the middle of the center tunnel.

Materials:
- gold-stripe radiator hose
- aluminum tubing with silicone connections

I really don't feel comfortable running lines under the floorpan of the car where they can get hit or cut by road debris.
Id prefer to run along the rockers, but I don't see how to do cleanly.
I've seen many different methods of running hose inside the heater ducts of the longs, but that feels like too much hose over too long of a distance.
Id like to run mostly aluminum tubing, but I cant' see way to run it along the longs inside the cabin. The seatbelt mounts on the passenger on both sides will conflict.


So Im at a bit of an impasse here. Im even thinking of how to put the radiator not at the front of the car but back in the trunk or in the engine compartment (some builds have done that too!). I dunno, I just want to make it last, but the locations and materials are just not friendly at the moment.

There has to be a solution in there someplace...

Someone on here ran 1.25" SS bent to follow the channels of the floor pan and reported an exposure of 1". That's about equal to the OEM air deflectors. Down the rocker panels you'll have to turn into the cabin or wheel well.

Mount it at an angle in the trunk with ducting under the car coming out of the top before your rear spoiler or ducted out between the taillights. Hose run is shorter, you retain the frunk and possibly part of the trunk too if isolated properly. You will have more weight in the rear though which may (but not totally) negate the benefits of a mid engined car...

Do it like a Buel, run it through the frames, Porsche also did the same thing on the 917. In your case, add some DOM and run it that way. More of a joke than a solution BTW, But I have thought about it.

One of the first documented sub conversion did it right down the tunnel with copper pipe.

Click to view attachment

Might not be the way you would go, but it has been done.

Here is what You have to look at.

What has been done. The Alien has racked up many miles, Rick used hard lines under the car.

Renegade Hybrids have racked up many a mile on their V8 conversions same idea, but they use green stripe under the car.

But I am with you, when I look at the floor pan, and the dents I have, I think Norfolkingwaypal, but proven designs are what they are. I have thought about moving everything under the car, fuel lines, brake lines, coolant, etc. Maybe add a couple of beams to make it a little more protected. None of my modern cars have any lines fuel, brake, or other lines on the inside. Only thing in the cabin are electrical harnesses.

Doubt I solved your problem.

It would be good to hear (and see!) how you ran your fluid lines outside the cabin...

Had a couple of good nights of work lately:
- Tied the cage into the front suspension points, its now an official 8-pt cage
- Working on gusseting the cage in a few places, no pics at the moment
- Purchased the fiberglass body parts from Rennspeed.com
- Did some more work on the floorpan, need to purchase pedal set before I can do more
- Worked on reinforcing the dog-ears, still in progress
- Found a solution for plumbing the engine coolant up to the front trunk, cut the holes in the longs to route the green-stripe hose I plan to use.
- Fit the engine lid today, made it go around the roll cage
- Bought an MR2 shifter, haven't started mounting it yet.
- Researched lexan windshield options, parts needed for the engine, suspension options, vents for the hood, and a bit more. The research takes the longest, just of forum time, eBay, Craigslist, and of course 914World.com

I need to pick up the pedal cluster and the radiator before I can do much more. Once I have the pedals, I can get them mounted firmly to the pan, then the pans can both be welded in. Then I can mount the seat and the shifter. Once thats done, the car can be shipped out to the media-blaster for cleaning and paint. Then its all just fitting the panels, putting it down on the suspension, installing the engine, and we're in business.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Nice progress

Radiator the current darling of 914 world seems to be the Ebay Toyata Celica GT with shroud and fans, I think t is ~$150 I being different and having to cut my own path IE the harder way went Griffen and now get to build everything.

For the pedals I went Wilwood and used Titon M/Cs 5/8" for clutch, 3/4" for the brakes. I am currently running 1988 911 Calipers. They are heavy SOBs so I will most likely go Wildwood there also.

Here is the point to that above, the Tilton M/C are pretty short, almost as short as the Howe racing, more sizes. Not sure how tall you are, but you loose at least 2" if you keep everything inside the cabin. If you redo the pedal wall, you run into items on suspension tie in. Trying to figure my way around this one. The Tilton's also exit out the back, the howe's are angle up.

Other items of note, don't forget about your Intercooler. Most here have hound they get heat soaked when sitting still. And most go for Air to Water Intercoolers. That means two extra lines going forward. Another Rad up front, and a pump and box. But it is the best way to go. You can also do an ice box if you wanted to, for that extra bit of cooling.

Keep up the great work here!

Thank you, its been an interesting journey so far. Its fun that we're all building together, loving the progress from the other threads.

Radiator: thats great info, thank you, i'll check them out.

Pedals: Also, great to know. I am really kind of concerned about pedal travel / feel and total size of the cluster. I haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet, but any advice on it would be welcomed. Im 6 feet tall and would prefer to not lose any space in the cabin. Cutting out the pedal wall would not be my first choice either. Tilton (I think) makes a cluster where the masters effectively sit under the heels of your feet, so those may be an option, but I know nothing about the feel of the travel on those things.

Intercool: {sigh}. Yeah. On our 912-STi build we tucked a huge intercooler under the ducktail and put a full-time fan on it which worked pretty well, but there are plenty of disadvantages. Not sure what I'll do yet, need to do more research. Are air-to-water ICs as efficient as air-only ICs?

Thanks a bunch
- Mat

I'll let the people who build a good system let you know

Following lifted from Frozen Boost.com

"Is Water to Air for me?

A Water to Air Intercooler setup is similar in principle to a traditional air to air setup, except that there is water passing through the core of the intercooler instead of air which is responsible for drawing the heat out of the intake air. There are many benefits of using a water to air intercooler setup.

Water to air means incredibly low pressure drop.

Pressure drop on a standard water to air intercooler core is only .05 PSI. That's not a typo, pressure drop on a water to air intercooler setup is up to 20 times less than a comparably performing air to air setup.

Water to air means better engine cooling.

Many people who try to road race with a front mount intercooler have overheating problems because the air going to the radiator has to pass through the hot intercooler first. With a water to air setup, you have far more flexible options. The core will probably be in the engine bay, and the radiator can be mounted in the trunk, under the car, or in some applications a radiator is not even needed.

Water to air means better throttle response.

Instead of the horrible mess of pipes that is normally associated with an air to air intercooler, a water to air intercooler can be mounted in the engine bay, directly between the turbo outlet and the throttle body. A shorter intake route with fewer bends is beneficial in every way.

Water to air means no heat soak.

A water to air intercooler setup circulates water through the core even when the car is not moving. This is especially useful during drag racing, when the core temperature raises significantly during a pass, and then the car sits still for several minutes waiting for the next pass.

Water to air means extreme auto-x racing advantage.

You can add ice to your reservoir, if so equipped, which will drop your intake temperature BELOW ambient. Of course, the ice melts, which is why this is so good for auto-x racing.

Water to air means Mid Engine No Problem.

Every modified mid or rear engine turbo vehicle should have a water to air intercooler setup. It is not practical to have a front mounted air to air setup in these applications, but you can have a water to air intercooler in the back of the vehicle and the radiator in the front, providing greater cooling than an air to air setup."

I'll let you decide

Bought a radiator!
The eBay Celica Gt radiator that was suggested to me is a *perfect* fit.
Mounting was easy enough: Bend metal, drill hole, weld in, repeat.
The feet are welded in, the top tabs are backed by riv-nuts
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Also got around to mounting the new hood. The latches are basic eBay models, super affordable, nothing special. I really like the look of them though, they look like business. Getting them all squared up on the hood was probably the hardest part, welding the backing plates wasn't too bad.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

My friend Alex gave me all his parts to build the rotisserie that the 914 is on right now. He needed one to put his Z project on, and he refused to ask me to take the 914 off the stand, so we bought a whole new set of parts and built another one. The new red one is so much better than the orange one my car is on, its got probably $100 worth of casters on it, its so easy to move around. He's happy, so Im happy.
Click to view attachment

I was also able to get the passenger side body work /mostly/ done. The fender and quarter are 95% mounted up and I've started in on the drivers side. I need to take more pictures, not taking nearly enough.

So yeah, next update will be all the driver-side bodywork, then I'll probably cut the hood open and route the radiator cooling out of it. I'll probably work up some aluminum shrouding, something simple to keep the water out of the tub when washing the car. It'll take some time but I think it'll be worth it. Then the rear trunk, going to use J-West mounts and the same black racing latches. Eventually tail-lights too, I plan to make my own.

Ughs, bodywork takes so long...

Open a hole.
Close a hole.

Man, that lower lip is going to need all kinds of fab work to get right. Its just mocked up for now.

JWest trunk mount kit arrived today too, so trunk can be mounted up.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Busy couple of days!

Bought a WRX fuel sender/filter/pump and modified it to work in the 914 tank.
Cut and bent the lower portion downwards to fit well and pull from the lowest portion of the tank.
Modified the internals of the tank, pulled out some baffles, and welded up the bottom.
Installed an aluminum inner ring and then riv-nut'd that in to give support to the tank area.
Bought a fuel filler neck, more on that later...

Next up was the air outlet through the hood.
Cut a nice big hole and fab'ed up as best I could an outlet vent.
I need to work on my aluminum welding, I've done better work :/ But it'll do for now.
I plan to finish it in black paint and mount externally. It'll be industrial looking, and functional.

I was also able to get the front lower lip mounted, the drivers rocker, and the rear trunk hood pins all attached. Pics aren't too sexy so maybe I'll skip 'em for now.

Next up: fuel filler neck install on the tank and through the hood, put the rotisserie back on the front of the car, fit and mount the rear bumper, reinforce the drivers-side dog-ear, and buy a bunch more parts, haha

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

That is looking very nice. Like the hood opening, BTW, you don't need that much of an inlet, and you might want to put a brace between the two front torsion bar mounts. Since they can move around a bit and you cut that vertical section out of the front of the trunk.

Other items I see that might need attention: Not to pick your build, just trying to save you future grief.

Radiator mount should not be hard mounted. From the pictures it looks like you hard mounted at least the top. It needs to be floating, otherwise you have made it into a structural member, and it will over time crack. If your luck is like mine, it will happen at the least opportune time and make your day.

Other than these two items get back to work, love the build.

Be very carefull with those noname hood pins. A friend had his break at 100 mph on track causing broken hood, windshield dented roof and front spoiler damage. Needless to say the money "saved" by buying cheap parts were long gone...

Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it. You know, I always get a little insecure when I post up pics of the build, there are so many amazing builders and lots of guys on here that have "done it all". Im really here to learn and to improve my skills, so the feedback is so valuable to me.

Re: Inlet. - Yeah, I agree, its a bit over the top but its nice to have the accessibility. I need to clean up the cuts a bit and I do plan to reinforce it.

Re: Radiator - Agreed. It will be rubber-isolated when its done. Chassis-flex actually cracked your radiator? Interesting... I didn't' think it would be much of an issue given the way the torsion-bar suspension is designed.

Thanks again!

I know its been a bit of radio-silence on my end, but I've been busy!

So what have I been up to:
- pulled the wheel bearings out of the trailing arms, bought new bearings
- discovered one of my front a-arms was bent, sourced new arms on eBay for cheap
- bought new front turn signal lenses
- bought dash gauge panel
- researched and bought rear brake calipers
- sourced a powder-coating shop, going to take all the suspension pieces in for coating
- converted my subaru trans to 2wd (found some ugly bits in there, turned out be harmless)
- installed my through-hood gas cap

Its been a busy couple of weeks, no? I need to take more pictures! Every time I do one of these updates I realize how few pics I have to show, heh.

Generic gas filler from some internet site:
Click to view attachment

Installed. Separated the neck from the ring, welded in. Took off the bottom of the bowl and welded around the perimeter. Need to add a drain, but that ain't no biggie. Not a lot of room to work with in there!
Click to view attachment

Not a bad look, no?
Click to view attachment

Bits of ground up center-diff c-clip. Had me worried! Turned out to be just fine.
Click to view attachment

Tail panel bolted up after the conversion
Click to view attachment


So making good progress I think. The next steps are:
- Take the suspension bits off to the powder-coater
- Strip down the gas tank and paint it
- Buy a pedal cluster, fab into the floorpan, then the pans can go in permanently
- Then take the chassis off to the blasting shop, strip and prime

Easy peasy, right?

Neat gas tank filler mod!

Where have I been lately?

Weeellllll.... not working on the car nearly as much as Id hoped. But there has been progress!

• Rebuilt a set of Carrera rear calipers to use instead of 914 calipers which will allow me to use vented disks in the rear.
• Bought new front suspension arms (mine were damaged, grr), sent all the suspension pieces off to the powdercoater
• Started mock-up of the lightweight custom LED (cheap) tail lights Im building
• Welded in the lower rear firewall and rear pan section
• Bought Wilwood pedals, MCs, and bias adjuster. Now I can start fab / install of the front pan section
• Put a new header and oil pan on the WRX engine. The old header was rusty and the pan had a crack.
• Bought a new Momo wheel and hub. Looks so good in the car, loving it.

I spoke with the local blaster / powdercoater and he'll blast and prime the chassis for around $1400 so I may go that route. It'll be a real challenge to get the car over to him, but we'll see. Its going to be a busy couple of weeks coming up (dad in town, Monterey Car Week, work, etc), but ill find a way to get some work in.

This weekend I'm aiming to:
• Fab a plate to mount the pedals to the floorpan
• Cut open the header tubes to run the coolant hose
• Weld in the front section of the floorpan
• Finish fab work on the rear pan and firewall

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Picked the suspension pieces from the powder-coater yesterday too, super happy with the results:

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Some good progress lately, chassis is ready to go off to the blasting shop!

A few things of note since the last update:
- mocked up the floors and Wilwood pedal cluster, looking good so far
- reinforced the rear suspension consoles. its not the most /technical/ solution, but I think it'll work
- rebuilt the rotisserie with a center connector and better wheels, should be able to get it onto a trailer now
- finished up a bit more of the rear firewall

Not a huge amount of progress, but trying to keep the ball rolling here. Took my 911 to the racetrack and beat the crap out of it, repairing it took a few extra days. Theres been a bunch of family events this summer too, so thats been taking up time.

So whats next:
- I've got a trailer scheduled, going to take the chassis to the blaster early next week
- Going to put in a big order for the rest of the suspension bits (shocks, t-bar, ball joints) soon, get all that wrapped up and ready..
- Once the chassis is back from blasting & prime, Im going to install the floors and shifter console.
- Once the shifter and floors are in, well, its probably ready for paint at that point!

Feeling good, moving forward, getting closer.... sorta, haha.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Well, the Build-Off Challenge is over but work continues at the MichiganMat house.

So whats new:
- Loaded up the trailer and took the car off to the blaster. Came back minty-fresh
- Pretty happy with the result, not too much blow-through from the blaster, chassis is pretty much ready to take to paint
- Fully welded in the floor pans and the shifter console
- Liking the ergonomics, its coming along

I waited to install the pans before blasting on purpose. I wanted to make sure all the shitty stuff under the dash got a good blast. The pics don't show it but I also tied the pan into the center "tunnel" structure, its nice and firm now, structurally sound.

Next steps:
- Friend who loaned me the trailer is moving, so I gotta get this thing off to paint ASAP.
- I need weld in some tabs for the dash, weld in mounts for the passenger rocker, and seam-seal the driver compartment, and then I get off to paint.
- I expect to be at painter in the next two weeks.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Looks good!