Looking good, needs some more filler rod on the bottom one and you might get a cooler weld if you go a little bit faster. But to be honest, because it was upside down its really not bad! A bit of advice i got was work with higher amps faster rather than medium amps slow.

@tazz9924 - I've been trying the "hotter/faster" but absolutely need to get better at the faster part. It's what I've been working on. Just that much harder when out of position and overhead, as you know! Hey, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Stunning car,really like the early cars my interest was E28's ,early stuff is built so when you pulled them apart they went back together ,my E39 was an example of a newer car ,anytime you took a part off the plastic clips broke and the car failed so much I sold it.
Good call on the euro bumpers ,that will make it look heaps better,are those early Alpina rims ?.

Nice welds. Clamped to a bench and working over it, I can't weld like that ...Or anywhere near that.

Man I love that E9, one of my favorite cars right there. Those are great welds on the brace, keep up the great work.

Chris looks good. As a welding instructor for over 20 years now I can tell you that your now have the hang of it. You will continue to improve as you weld more often. Its all about muscle memory. Keep it up.

A cool new tool AND a beautiful E9!!!
All that and generous with your time and resources.

The welds look fantastic to me. The BMW looks fantastic too. Can't wait to see it in person with the Euro bumpers.

those are some very nicely stacked dimes Chris.

...how I mustard the hot dogs while attending a Dodger game, can't help it
Click to view attachment

@Maltese Falcon Impressive, Marty. Can you do that up side down while laying on your back?

I did try that only Once, and I have the burn scar (through the workshirt) on my left bicep. Happened in 1989 while reinforcement/ roll cage fabrication on the black flat fan car. It's my dueling scar

As long as we're this far off track:
My E9 made the "cover" of next month's BCR event announcement email!

What about the 914? The trans is awaiting a back-ordered shim needed for the ring & pinion set up. It was the only size CMS didn't have in stock. Of course it was...!

Actual 914 stuff: Prepping the engine bay for seam sealer and some primer.
Can I just say that I like fab work far more than paint prep...
That said, I can't wait to see things all tidied up and in a single color.

Paint prep is the worst. It feels as if it will never end.

More fiddly stuff: With the reverse opening flip trunk set up, I didn't need any of the stock hinge mounting brackets - so out they came. It's getting pretty tidy in here!

And those little blocks you see? Those are my patent pending "914 Flip Trunk, Front Edge Positioning Pads". They're Delrin.
I made up a couple brackets that mount to the standard hinge mount locations on the trunk lid. Those bracket are held down by the pads on engine lid side panels. And since they extend under that area, a bit beyond the pads, they also serve as safety catches.

That 2nd pic is of the initial, way too complicated version of the brackets. I didn't get a pic of the final version, but you get the idea.

The underside of the lid is then held up by the pad in the seal channel. I sized the pads to work in concert to position the front edge of the lid, with the smallest bit of interference, this to ensure no rattles.
Yep, just more little stuff that took forever to figure out. But it works like a charm!

Your car is definitely going to WCR! Yay! Congratulations on the BCR cover photo- very neat.

For those who may care, these are the final version rear lid latch/catch parts, just back from powder coat. A nice 1/2 gloss, sorta matte finish. I like the look! And as you can see, far simpler and lighter. A "less is more" example.

Speaking of finishes, here are a few other pieces I had done.
- battery tray/fuse mount
- passenger foot rest/electronics guard
- trans mount: this started out as a Renegade kit part but was modified to account for the elimination of the factory transmission mount in favor of a custom cross bar/suspension tower brace.

I have to say, it's satisfying to see all these bits I've made get all prettied up. Almost looks like I knew what I wanted!

Wow those look awesome, you have mad skills.

Can't wait to see it all assembled with color, powder coating, plating, etc.

Those parts look really great with some color finish on them. Brings out the little details!

Like most of the stuff you have done to the car - a work of art

That trans mount is one hell of a piece!

WOW! Those parts look amazing!

Thanks for the nice compliments on the powder coated parts.
But what the heck is this? Well, I was trying to get to know the sprayable seam sealer gun ahead of taking it to my car.
With a quick turn of a knob, it sprays a wide "sound deadener" pattern to the other, narrower looks you see here.
Wish me luck, I'm going in...

In typical fashion, what seems easy while you're practicing on nice flat surfaces with complete access ends up being a bit more challenging to pull off on the car.
But here's how it turned out.
I think once it's top coated, it'll be fine but I may try spraying another, very light layer of sealer to see if I can close up those little holes.

I plan to prime then paint, or perhaps, since my entire engine bay/trunk area is exposed to the elements, shoot Wurth Stone Guard over all the sheet metal. Still thinking about that.

Curious what the SEM gun manual recommends for cleaning

I bought my Wurth gun used so no documentation. I know it is recommended to leave sealer loaded in the gun between sessions. That works great for many months between uses. No problems there.

However, I’m packing up all my tools for extended storage (1-2 years) and don’t feel comfortable leaving sealer in it that long. Last night I cleaned the gun - what a nightmare. Lacquer thinner really didn’t touch the sealer. 3M spray gun cleaner - slightly better but doesn’t really dissolve the sealer. Ugh!

I finally got it clean after complete disassembly, sacrificed a couple round bristle brushes, and lots of patience just picking the stuff out of threads with a pick!

SEM offers this cleaner:
https://www.semproducts.com/product/sprayab...cleaner/cleaner
But you do have to disassemble the gun.

It's looking great.

Details, details. Here's the foot rest/guard with the grill in place, then installed.
I still need to sheath the chassis harness so forgive the visible wiring. It'll all but disappear once I complete it.

OK, yes. I'm bragging a little. I happily confess I'm pretty proud of this piece and the quality of the fit I was able to get. The gap along that curve is consistent all along the rising radius of the inner fender - and buried in the foot well where no one will see it.
Another of the "but I know it's there" details I love about this build.

People are going to have to remove their shoes when they get in because those parts are just beautiful Chris.

Absolutely beautiful! Love the mesh design. What is the finish on the entire piece? Makes me think of Cerakote.

@Mayne - it's powder coat. It's a color called "Black Magic II", which I think the guy referred to as "1/2 gloss" or something like that. I can find out, if you want specifics. PM me, if so.

I will not be quitting my day job to become a paint guy. Ugh. I hated every minute of this process.
The details: Since I'm planning to blow the car apart, media blast it and get it painted at some point, for now, I opted to use a 2k rattle can epoxy primer and good ol' Rustoleum "Smoke Gray" to at least tidy up the engine bay. Essentially, a typical race car approach: Forget what color/livery the outside will be. The business areas get painted a light color so it's easy to spot fluids, easy to touch up, etc.
Anyway, it looks 100X better than it ever has. Should look pretty good once it's all back together.

The transmission shim is supposed to arrive at CMS today and they expect to finish assembly and ship this week. It's going to be tight getting it all back together and tested in time for WCR.

That does look very nice. Paint work is all about the prep and it is no fun.

Here's another non-914 part that will never be seen: the removable bulkhead panel at the aft end of the tunnel. Now all nicely powder coated and back in place.

Yes Sir, this is pretty slick.
This auto of your has turned into a Mona Lisa Project. Perfect in every way, yet never quite done. That and it's also had an Italian up her skirt.
Some day, they'll come up with a material that will actually take weight away from the car And you'll need to do this stuff all over again. I tip my hat Sir

Things go from flat...

So many cool fab toys! I'm jealous.

...to that. A protective cover for the ECU. With the seat in place, you can only see the front portion of it but that doesn't mean I can ignore the style points!

The rectangular areas will get the same mesh as the foot rest/guard. It'll get the same powder coat treatment, too.

And in keeping with my typical approach, now that I see it in the metal and in place, I decided it needed a few design tweaks, so I updated the CAD file. Unfortunately, I ran out of the needed material. I'll get to the steel supply tomorrow and see if I can knock this out.

Dont let people eat food in your car, i can only imagine trying to vacuum out crumbs from under the dimple die floor!

A rare sighting: An actual 914 part!
Thanks to @bdstone914 for the lovely powder coated pieces and new hardware.

Though to keep with the "mine is different" theme, that is a custom washer and oversized bolt to work with the Renegade engine crossbar.

@tazz9924 - There will be mesh to stop entire french fries and pickle slices from falling through.
But it's also likely that the front portion of the ECU cover and the foot rest up to the mesh will be covered by carpet. It'll probably be "quick release" carpet so I can remove it, if I want the cool bits to be visible.

The metal supply place didn't have anything but full 5' x 10' or 4' x 8' sheets of steel and I have to order them to be cut in half, which take a couple days for them to process. I didn't feel like waiting so I opted to use some .063 AL I had on hand. Once it's powder coated, I doubt anyone will be able to tell.

Anyway, this updated design is a better fit and the holes are more accurately positioned. Plus, it's lighter!

On to the fastener set up.

My transmission shipped on Friday! Should be here mid next week... so what to do in the meantime?
I mentioned earlier how boring I find "plain" things. Well, my radiator shroud couldn't have been any plainer and I've been wanting to do something about it since I first made it. Well, today was the day.
First, I worked up a design that I hope echos the stamping in the fuel tank bulkhead and matches the curve of the frunk opening. Is it too simple?
Too late - it's off to the plasma table!

A behind the scenes look at "stamping station". The tubing bender hydraulics are dry break, quick release and can be hooked to the H-press. A pretty handy set of capabilities, if a bit cumbersome and on the large size. But it sure works well for this sort of thing.

With the stamping die male components welded in place to the male backer, the shroud is placed between the two pieces. Note that, as always, I cut the die to be the same shape as the piece being stamped, making it simple to get everything positioned nearly perfectly.

Into the press it goes. And this isn't a "one and done" operation. Because of the size and shape of the area the press presses at any one time, I have to walk the assembled die/part through the press in order to get stamping force on all parts of the assembly.

This was my first time stamping aluminum, and it's always a bit nerve-wracking pulling the part out of the dies, wondering, "How'd I do? Is the part ruined?"

Here's the before and after and I'm calling it a success.
There are a couple flaws but since it'll be getting powder coated, I'm pretty sure it'll be fine.
It's certainly a LOT more interesting looking and I think I achieved the design goals I was after.