All very well but you may have noticed that I no longer have a fuel gauge!

Some of the GT cars had a gauge mounted on the dash in place of the radio. Here's a picture here you can see it's mounted at an angle to face the driver.


The last time I saw one for sale it was for an eyewatering amount. Again I had to get creative.

The case of these gauges had a 60mm circumference todays VDO gauges are just 52mm and all have a rather modern look. My first task was to find a 60mm case. VDO has made gauges for many manufactures and in the mid 60's they made this for SAAB.

And look... a lovely silver dot too.


Unfortunately the internals weren't compatible with the 914 sender unit, so for compatibility I got this.


Now it was just a simple case of merging the two together. :shock:


The really didn't want to come apart!


Saab gauge in pieces with the new gauge internals pictured.


I wanted to use the original spade connectors on the back of the Saab gauge so that meant modifying the new VDO gauge to suit.


The needle on the Saab gauge wasn't quite Porsche enough for me and it wasn't quite long enough either, so I went about creating a new needle. This was the final version and it was made from a milk jug Yes and milk jug!


It turns out Revell enamel Matt 25 is a great match for a faded Porsche needle.


To create the dial I used several images of GT gauges to create a new artwork I could print. These are just some of the early printouts.


As always happens I forgot to take photos of the build up but here's what I ended up with.


Together with the rest.



Another fun project completed. The last one I saw for sale was advertised for 950 euros. This cost me less than £70.

Dude! So awesome. Great job and fabulous result!

Outstanding job on the gauges.

Time for a little update after taking a bit of a break from the car.

As seen earlier I made a GT style fuel gauge, no it was time to create the pod for it to sit in.

A previous owner had installed something other than the standard size in the radio aperture, step one was to fit that. Tough welding as the metal is so thin!





Although it'll be covered by the fuel gauge, if I want to install a radio I'll have the option.


A piece of 61mm ID tube and sheet metal cut to size is all that's needed.



In primer...



No more Bahia Red!



Many thanks to Garry at Classic FX for the basketweave.



All safely stored away in the loft until installation time now.

Back to the front of the car to complete the oil cooler installation.

The trouble I went to finding someone to make the louvred panel for me was ridiculous. No one would reply to my enquiries and I end up using a guy that took about a week to reply to each email. Soooooooo frustrating! Even more frustrating was after stumbling across a time-warp metal merchant locally earlier this week, that whilst lovely old boy there hobbled off to cut some sheet to size I find myself staring at a sign - 'Louvred panels made to order'

Anyway, here's my original front trunk floor looking rather shabby, a previous owner had mounted a kerb or similar and made a bit of a mess. This was the perfect opportunity to rectify that.



Most of the damage repaired and offering up louvred panel.



Lots and welding, grinding and swearing later! Ta da!



I can now finish off the front grill I made and get everything dry fitted.

That is an awesome work!!!

Did you forgot the cutout for the 914/6 steering column with the left hand iginition switch in the dashboard ?

Keep up the excellent work!
BR Benno

I decided a while back not to convert the ignition. The price of the parts versus what it gives you in return isn't worth it to me.

ah, o.k. ...

if you browse through the forum here you will find some instructions, how to convert 911 and 914/4 steering columns to a 914/6 replica steering column.
I did this my self and it's very easy and not so expensive ..

anyways, great work !

br

Benno

I don't know how I missed this (or do not remember) but what a GREAT job on finding solutions around the problems - especially the gauges! Very interested in following it form now on!

T

Now just on more thread to follow, and Over keep up the great work.

as to why people have such a large fear over doing instrument work. I can understand Quad cam carrera engines, and even a 911 engine , but gauges come on they are so simple to work on. Really like your setup.

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

Following, great inspiration!!

I missed it too and agree that was some amazing guage work. Really like the milk jug solution and I always miss some of the inprocess pics as well. Great work! You have weighed in on my GT project and I will continue to follw yours.

Really enjoying the engine work you're doing. Luckily I bought my engine already rebuilt.

I'm starting to obsess over detail but in my opinion that's what makes a good car.

I was planning a car free day today as we have family over shortly. But, being able to draw and having a vinyl cutter made this very easy and start to finish took less than an hour.

It'll look smart next to the new fuel gauge

You also added a wrinkle finish to the gauge pod?
Looks great.

Click to view attachment

No, that was how it was finished. To be honest I assumed that was original. Can anyone confirm.

Could be a later surround Porsche used ABS in latter years.

What vinyl cutter did you use? Been thinking about getting one for paint masking and etching. Also is that just model paint?

It is metal with a wrinkle finish actually. I think I'll leave it as is as I quite like it.

My partner does a few craft bits as pieces and bought a Silhouette Portrait cutter. Bottom end of the range really but it does the trick when set up correctly.

The paint was Plastikote, I had an old can if white laying around.

Great project, and love the quality of your work. I'll definitely keep watching your progress.

Love the 914 GT fuel gauge !

No 8K tach?

Yea noticed that 4cyl tach.

Hopefully I'll get an 8k teach at some point. I'm yet to find one for reasonable money that doesn't need a full refurb. When they come up for sale over here people are asking big money.

Very nice work!

Jeff B

Time for a September update I think.

Lots has gone on this month and it's seen me get to a stage where there's is little left to do other than work on the shell of the car. The coming posts are of various bits and pieces that have been finished off.

Getting close to finishing off the front oil cooler install. I wanted to use the original mounting holes on the oil cooler shroud so I made this adaptor plate.




Being a very early US 73 2.0L my car sadly didn't have sway bars that became standard. Having driven 914's with and without there was no way I wouldn't be installing one. I initially found a original one but then changed that with this Weltmeister as I wanted to extra performance that offered. Installation was fairly simple.

I finally bought an engine stand and got my engine off the floor from the palette it had been sitting on for almost a year. Although covered it had been a bit neglected so it was time to give it a clean up and add the new tinwear and ancillaries.

For starters I had the valve covers powdercoated


Then installing the tin wear.







This wasn't staying red


That's better!



PMO's going on.


That's it almost done - SC decals added


I'm just waiting on my conversion wiring harness to be made by Perry Kiehl.

I've been doing the seat rails for months, seemed like a lot of work for yet another something no one ever sees, but they certainly needed some TLC.

Worse condition than I remembered.


Stripped down, frame blasted and painted. Bright parts replated.


Refitting those springs were a bit of a nightmare but I finally came up with a solution after bending a couple of screwdrivers

New custom made Hayward & Scott heat exchangers arrived. Such a shame they're going to be hidden away under the car.

Hayward & Scott are fairly local to me and were really good. I called them a few months ago to discuss what I was after. They mention they had just finished a couple of sets for a US customer and I was more than welcome to pop in to take a closer look. During my visit I placed an order.

The last mechanical part to look over was the gearbox. I had always had issues with mine in the past and I knew it needed attention. My initial plan was to rebuild it myself but after spending a fair amount of time reading up I decided it was best to get someone else to do it. I did buy a replacement gearbox a few years ago but that also had issues although it was much better than the one I had. The plan will be to make one good from the two and replace other parts where necessary like the syncos. I would just do the easy part and do some cleaning.

Removing paint that had been put on years before.


More time later than I care to mention!


This really didn't want to clean up very well....


... so I dropped in off for vapor blasting.



I'm hoping to drop the boxes off for rebuilding soon so will update on the findings later.

So with almost everything else completed and stuffed into every nook and cranny in the house it was time to get back to bodywork.

About the only part really left unexplored was the underneath of the floor. The top was almost perfect so I was hoping the underside was in a similar condition.

Looks promising!


The brown parts are just underseal residue. The floor is again almost perfect - 99% original paint and just a tiny bit of very light surface rust.

Over the past few months various small projects have given me the opportunity to get my welding skills up to scratch for the main event adding the GT flares to the car. With almost nothing left on the car to restore now was the time.

I had the chance to follow James 23e Heure's build. When his arches were installed they saved the off cuts for me. This enabled me to cut them up and practice welding them back together. My first attempts weren't great but I was going to do this and my perseverance was finally rewarded.

It took a lot of confidence just to do this!


Initial fitting


It's common knowledge that the bottom of AA flares don't have the same profile as the wings on the car so a bit of fetling it required.





Slowly...




Finished

Moving on to the rear

The rear quarter is exposed because of the previous accident damage, I'm in the process of repairing that now but am waiting on repair panels. In the meantime I can intall the GT strengthening kit.

First to prep the area.


Weld Thru Primer


The parts supplied in the kit needed to be bent into shape and I found the needed a bit of trimming too. I made some carboard templates from them and adjusted them to fit before applying those back to the parts and trimming them to fit.

The cardboard GT sstrengthening kit


Final Test Fit



That's it, up to date again. I'll be in the garage again tomorrow welding all that in.

On the 8K tach, just build one

Also don't spend the time on the GT kit, unless your building a period correct GT

I would go with these items from Tangerine racing before I did the GT kit. First two items on the page will make a huge difference to the stiffness of the rear suspension pickup points.

BTW, very nice work

Awesome work!!! Well thought out and well executed.

We are following each others builds and I enjoy that. I may be a little bit ahead build wise but not by much from the way your going! I am doing mostly the nits and nats and it is time consuming as hell with slow progress. And sometimes 2 steps backward with one step forward.

Your egine sheet metal came out great and looks good on the engine! I love before and after shots and the distributor, seat tracks, and tans are great examples of your attention to detail. I happen to have the same front sway bar on mine (installed 2 owners ago) and look forward to driving my car with it. One of my next tasks is to do the underside so thanks for the inspiration picture I was under there looking at it last nite and seeing yours, now I have to get to it.

But what I really want to comment on is the fender fitting and welding you are doing, seeing it being done as you've shown is great!
Number one it looks to be coming out very good! You got skills!
Second, is that my car came to me with the fenders and paint complete (again 2 owners ago) so since your car is also white and I have zero pictures from when the fenders and paint was done to mine, I am going to through your pictures in my folder and pretend it was my car circa 1998 going through all that.
double thanks for that!
Keep up the good work and postings!

Edit to revise

I loved what seemed like your 10 post blast of information update today. I'm subscribed and thought things went hay wire at first when I saw my e-mail.

I've already given some thought to building a tach, I may just do it. Just needs to get my hands on another tach to act as a donor.

I understand what you're saying about the GT kit and no I'm not building a period rep. I've been in a couple of road GT's with the kit and it has been recommended. Will I personally use it to it's potential, probably not. Will someone ask.me why I didn't install it, probably.

It's great to see other builds going on at the same time. It's easy to feel very lonely in the garage, hour after hour, day after day. Seeing other builds always give me ideas and the inspiration to crack on with mine.

My skills are improving all of the time. Although I'm doing this for myself it's to prove to myself that I can do things when I put my mind to it. I lost my father just a few years ago and many of my skills came from him. I wish he could see my progress, he'd finally understand that I was listening to all of those things he taught me

Beautiful work on that flare!

There is just nothing prettier than a metal finished flare. Great work.

Amen!

Where did you get that great looking sticker on your fan clamp! Is it a remake?

All the stickers came from http://car-bone.pl/ Yes they're remakes, very nice ones though. I think Sierra Madre do them too.

Car Bone is great but a lot of people here in the States either don't know about them...or are scared because they are located in Poland. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. Plus they can custom reproduce anything if you furnish an example.

They are a legit company.
I get reproduction hockey puck horn buttons from a guy in Poland. Half the price of others and shipping just takes a couple extra days.

Indeed, several friends over here in the UK have used them and all regard them highly. I'll be having a new vin sticker from them soon along with another couple of stickers I forgot to order last time.

Great set of thread updates, Stephen.

Keep it up: 10 months to go until we convoy to Le Mans Classic...

Room for 1 more

That'd be a good convoy!

You Euro types have all the fun.