Hello Everyone.
This started back in October, I was at Buttonwillow raceway for a 24 Hours of Lemons race and pitted across from my team was this car:


They were working on it most of the weekend and I must have walked past it 100 times. Next weekend I was bored and got on cl and found a 914 around the corner from me. It looked like it was sitting for awhile, but looked complete. I checked it out and after a week of thinking and learning about 914, I decided it would make a nice project for the winter.

I've been poking around here reading up on 914 and see what everyone has done to them, been coming here more and more. Then the other day I stumbled across the build challenge and decided to throw my hat in even though I'm a few months late and share the progress I (hope) to make.

OK, to catch up on what I've done:
Got it home and spent the first few days going over it to get a better idea of what its going to need. Its is filthy, Looks like it has been siting under a tree or in a barn for years with somethings living in it.




Have both seats, cloth is mostly gone, foam is rock hard and smells real bad, need full reupholstering. Carpet gone, dash is intact, but will need to be redone.

November:

Next couple of weeks:
Spend alot of time on 'net learning about these, what common problems are, what other people have done, get an idea of what I want to do.

My goal is to make a sporty daily driver with the occasional track day( PCA runs at Spring Mountain, nice track and close). keep it close to original as reasonably possible. ( $400 dollars for an original rebuilt fuel pump vs $100 for new quality replacement). Original drive train unless there is something really wrong with it, then suby engine.

Start digging in to car, removing interior and crap to see what floor looks like, see what condition engine is in, examine body.

I put charger on new looking battery, pull plugs, they are new looking, as in out of box in engine, never ran. Not sure if thats good or bad. take fuel pump out to see whats leaking and see if I can fix it. Get a bad gas bath because lines are brittle and cracked everywhere( could this be the leak?) test pump, no leaks but make more noise then moves fluids. Decide on new pump and relocation.

Try compression test on engine- it turns slowly. mess around with it for most of the night spare battery, clean connections, run wires directly to starter. still turns to slow. Not good.

Pull interior put, vacuum out the 2" deep mound of sand, leaves and who knows what else out and floor is not bad, but enough light showing on ground to be good. New floor pan.

Tear into the rocker panels, pull off outers, not too bad but could use replacements, driver iner ok, needs some patching, pass side alot more work, Constant rain of sand and rust make me afraid of whats underneath. At least its more sand the rust.

I decide to build the auto rotisserie I've been thinking about. That will keep me busy for the next several weekends.

.....so you want a challenge? Hopefully, you got a good deal on the mouse house

.........check "hell hell" and passenger side "longs" for more abuse

Yes, I have been reading through several of the rustoration projects here. Gives me inspiration.

December:
Been busy at work, not much time for play. Decide to pull the engine and transaxle out. And slowly start stripping body. Ordered a rotisserie kit from US Car Tool and some steel from California Steel in North Las Vegas. and start on the rotisserie.






Not a fan of red cars, this is my first. Just when I start warming up to having a red car, I find this:


Plate with the color code seams to be missing. I guess I'll find what color is was originally when I start sanding. Maybe.

There is an insane amount of resources here for all your questions and needs.

I almost bought that car for parts. The pass long is half gone and will likely collapse on the rotisserie. It was creaking and flexing THAT bad when I jacked that side up.
Restoration Design makes most of the pieces you'll need and Pelican is the cheapest place I've seen to buy it from.
Most of the sheet metal is 1mm in case you decide to buy a sheet and fab some of the patches.

Glad to see another one is getting saved.

I say screw the resto and build something fun

Good luck with your project!

Great project. Good that you have skills and can weld and you seem very realistic about what you bought.
Welcome.
Looking forward to see your updates.
Ps what did your team run in the 24 hours of Lemons ?

I don't know what your budget is but JRust has a complete Subaru bolt-in drive train for sale on pg 3 of the Classifieds. $3800

One of the things I have been thinking about is to reinforce/rebuild the longs with thicker metal to make the chassis stiffer.

Brad Mayeur, a well respected member here, makes what he calls a repair kit which is made of thick metal. There is also an inner re-enforcement kit, originally designed by Engman, now made by Maddog (also member).

Good luck,

Scroll this thread...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=100567

I drove in the Subaru in Pit Crew's Revenge Team.

January/February:
Didn't get much time to do real work on the car. I did finish the rotisserie, slowly stripping the car down, and have been poking around the car to see what needs to be done.

Driver's door jamb where the paint code sticker should be and more evidence of blue. Anyone recognize this color?


Blurry picture of rotisserie when I ran out of gas just before finishing. Put it together to see what it would look like.


Got bored one night and started sanding, found what I suspected, corner has been damaged. Doesn't look too bad, so far.

I had searched the VIN on the database and did't find anything. Must have fat fingered it because I went to add what info I have to it and there it is. Guy I bought it from had posted about it here:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...289909&st=0

He didn't do much more then take some of the interior apart before I bought it. Didn't even remove the rocker covers. Looks like he gave up shortly after the last post.

Well no progress to report this month. Came down with the flu on the first and then my lower left leg started to swell and turn red. Turned out to be an infection under the skin. no idea where it came from, couple of scraped knuckles, but nothing else. Five days in hospital, then 2 more weeks in bed. Still on IV antibiotics and banned from garage and anything remotely strenuous.
Better now and looking forward to getting back to work. Dying to dig into the hell hole and longs and see what kind of damage needs to be repaired.
Be back soon....