I need everyones expertise on this. I recently picked up a 914 in decent condition, had some body issues on the passenger fenders which im working on replacing.

This post is about the rear deck lid. It fits extremely poorly. I know the rear deck lid has a dent in it, and I'm thinking it might be bent pretty badly. Which might be causing the poor fitting issues. From the pictures below, you can see how poorly the lid fits.

First Picture - Just showing the rear end with deck lid up. Is the middle portion between the tail lights supposed to have a slight dip in it or be perfectly straight across? My thoughts would be it should be perfectly straight across.


Second picture - Here I have the deck lid down without the latch spring installed. You can see the deck lid severly overhangs the rear tail lights. Bad enough that if the lenses were installed you'd probably couldn't shut the lid properly. However, the deck lid lines up fairly well with the fender.


Third picture - Here the latch spring is installed and you can see how poorly the deck lid fits if it were installed and latched. The deck lid does not line up with the fender at all on the passenger side.


Fourth Picture - This shows the poor fit on the passenger side near the fender. Fairly large gap here.


Fifth picture - this shows the ok fitment on the driver side fender. Still an overhang with the tail light.

There is a lot of damage on the rear of that car. Look through the right side rear wheel opening at the unit body rail center of the opening. Bet there's a kink there. Also the rear of the back where the bumper bolts are. The tail light panel is bent, the trunk lid is bent and there is trapped damage in the right quarter panel. Also check the right trunk lid hinge mount on the body.

I would source a rear lid, tail light panel and right quarter panel, Bring the car to a shop that can pull the trapped damage and build it from there.

Take a few more photos. Trunk floor, and right rail through the wheel opening.

I've begun replacing the right rear quarter panel already. There were some dents on the rear panel. I will have to get some pictures of the inside wheel well. Should I be taking pictures assertions the hell hole area from inside the wheel well?

I noticed engine + trans is out of the car. Be aware that because of the removal, a lot of weight is gone, this also can be of influence on some of the gaps (i.e. around door etc,). I'm no expert, but the above was the case with my previous 914.

First get the trunk lid mount squared away. That's a common thing. The mounting points that get the stress need rebuilding. No big deal there.
But this can get squirrely fast. It's simple fab, so that part is no big deal.

Listen to Rick.

Do some stuff and report back.

Greatly appreciate the replies. A big thank you to everyone.

After taking some more pictures I think I may have found a symptom of this problem.

The passenger side trunk lid does not currently have a roller on, so the torsion bar is not contacting that side of the trunk. Thus not applying any pressure on the passenger side. The first picture shows the missing roller and the torsion bar pushed up against the rear trunk(you can just barely see it)


Here are some more pictures. The wheel wells look pretty straight and solids. There is definitely some denting in the rear most corner of the trunk just behind where the main dents on the fender were. I didn't see anything that looked bent or smashed in any way underneath the car or the wheel well.







Definitely some denting in the top right corner of this picture of the wheel well. Where that denting is located is where the exterior dents were.




Looking down towards the hell hole


Looking towards the rear bumper. This is where the majority of the dents were found on the exterior of the vehicle. Definitely some dents in here.


Not sure if this helps, but the longs look pretty good, no twists or major dents anywhere.


I have on order a new rear deck lid. I was planning to go with gas struts for the front and rear lids. So, I'm hoping that the roller and torsion bar is a big part of this problem.

The rear deck lid has a definite bend to it, so it needed replacing anyway.

I will admit, this was the first time I jacked up the rear of the car(since ive owned it, maybe 3 weeks) and seeing the door jams not move was awesome. The car is pretty solid besides the rear end issues.

Thanks again everyone, the help is greatly appreciated.

check where the hinges meet the body. Sometimes they can break loose, but not be very visible. It will mess up the alignment and fit just enough to be irritating.

Konrad