I've another thread running on another forum and I thought it a good idea to have one here too as this forum has taught me so much over the years. Quite frankly I'd never have started it without the knowledge you guys have shared. Thanks.

Some of the earlier posts are a few months old but I'll repost them in order here up to where I am right now. From there on I'll post simultaneously.

I've had the car now for coming up to 11 years. It hasn't had much use in the last few years due to personal circumstances but I've always wanted to do a flared six conversion, the dream I know a lot of guys share here. At the end of last year that dream started to become a reality

I tentatively put feelers out for an engine. Barely a week later I'd done a deal on a rebuilt 204bhp 3.0SC engine that was now fitted with PMOs. Exactly what I wanted.

I intend to do as much work on the car as possible, sure I'll need professional help down the line, my welding skills are limited. But I'll be giving it my all and I hope my perfectionist nature helps me achieve the results I'm after. The only part I know I won't tackle is the paint, that part will be done by a professional.

As a reminder this is how the car looked. It's a good car, not perfect but a very clean, solid example that had paint about fifteen years ago, it had also been converted to carbs many years back. There was a couple of small bubbles here and there but so far after further investigation I'm yet to find anything major.



Starting the strip down.




I'm looking forward to the journey and sharing it with everyone.

Things have been a bit stop start on the car and although I'd like to be further ahead that I am, I'm happy with the progress.

However plans have changed slightly! What originally was six conversion and then a GT rep-a-like too is now all of that and pretty much a nut-and-bolt restoration. It snowballed! I decided that I was just not going to be happy doing half a job.

I've been stripping and cataloguing the car for sometime now and I'm finally at the stage where it's just one piece of metal albeit with doors, boot lid and bonnet still attached for safe keeping. No ones tells you just how much space a car takes up when you strip it. Car parts everywhere! :shock:

Overall I'm really impressed with the condition of the car. The excessive amount of underseal that was applied to the car years ago has really done its job thankfully. Removing the stuff has been the bane of my life though, it's everywhere and I mean everywhere. The control arms are covered, the struts, brake lines, cables - it's f£$*ing everywhere :evil:

Getting there...


After cleaning up, nice original paint.


It's never all good news though, I had always suspected the offside rear wing had had a knock in the past. A poke around the other day revealed this.



:shock: Lovely, but it's what I expected. Fortunately I picked up a nice used rear wing a few months ago so it'll all be replaced and made good.

Corrosion wise I think I got away lightly, just a few areas that need attention. The sills were both full of crud around the jacking points. The drainage hole just aren't big enough and it's a common problem with 914's used in the rain frequently and not cleaned properly.



They'll both be removed and replaced with new.

There's a small amount of rust in the hell hole which is easily sorted and a large patch on the firewall due to a soggy sound pad. Usual 914 stuff. Other than a small patch at the base of the windscreen on the scuttle that's it, so not bad at all.

After weeks of stripping the car and cleaning I decided I needed a change and to work on something a little more exciting.

Since buying another engine lid I've been eager to cut it up and make a GT style engine lid. Now I've seen many takes on this and people have different opinions on the best way of doing it. After plenty of research this is what I decided on.

One crusty engine lid ready for surgery!


Cut out arear marked


Radiused corners to match the existing


Volia!


And of course you can't forget the Sladey holes!


Lots of fettling later


Altogether I think it came out well. I want to tidy up the end of the new grill by welding in a plate to make it all flush. I'll get to this after I get the lid back from media blasting.

In order to save on space I've decided to start with the suspension. In its current flithy state I don't fancy stashing it away in the loft so I thought I'd break it down and get to making it all as new. Obviously I had to remove another couple of pounds of f$*&ing underseal! :evil:

Rear removed and partly cleaned. Shocks and springs will be replaced - more on that later.


Front components - again shocks to be replaced.


New bushes, ball joints and bearings ordered. All were in fairly poor shape and needed to be replaced. Quite how the ball joints made it though the last MOT I'll never know!

Cataloging everything before plating and powder coating where necessary. I found visulising it this way made it all seem really simple and easy to mark out items that need to be replaced with new. Only time will tell when I come to put it all back together!

Received my front brake calipers back from Classic Car Automotive a few days ago. Looks like they've done a great job and an extremely quick turnaround too. I specifically asked for a plain zinc finish and they did just that.

I've been held up for a few weeks as the powder coater was on holiday and I only dropped parts off to him last week. And despite dropping off all the parts to be plated three weeks ago to the platers, it's all still sitting there in the bucket I delivered it in. Slightly frustrating but they did explain restoration projects take a back seat to their mainstream work.

Last week Rich (abzadams) came down for the day to lend a hand and help pull out the wiring loom. Definitely a two man job, and not one I was looking forward too. It's surprising though after spending so much time on the car I can almost identify any wire and name where it goes. All of a sudden the wiring doesn't look as daunting as I first thought. The fun though, will be mating up with the SC harness several months down the line; a job I'm really not relishing.


Almost there...


Rather than just strip the car and pack it away I decided to restore parts along the way, it was nice to be able to jump back and forwards and also rewarding to see parts being refreshed.

I won't go in to any detail and most of these have been covered in detail many times before.

Despite being upgraded with bronze bushes at some time in its past the pedal cluster was looking a little rough so I set about stripping and repainting. I also added a new set of bronze bushes for good measure.

Before


Making full use of that targa roof!


After - Much nicer.

There was no way this was going back in the car like this. Look like a PO had taken a paint brush to it in the past.



Strip and repaint. Just waiting for a new grip and a couple of small parts to arrive.


Believe is or not under multiple layers of underseal is an indicator/sidelight housing


I actually combined two sets of light to get the best set. After a bit of work they now look like this. Just a bit of tweaking and they're done.

After much deliberation I decided to have the just the shell media blasted. I spoke to several people about the benefits and pitfalls of both blasting and dipping and decided for my project blasting is the best way to go. As the lids and doors are very good they won't be touched. So it'll be off in a few weeks and I can't wait to get it back.

Before that there was a few jobs I wanted to tackle. First was removing the dreaded tar soundproofing. I decided dry ice was the way to go but one morning I was staring at the car wondering what to do next and I thought I'd give the soundproofing a go with a heat gun and scraper...

1.5 Hours later... Nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be. The reward was a nice solid floor with just a couple of small patches of light surface rust... Phew!


For a few years 914's had this support structure in the front trunk. It's shape followed the outline of the spare wheel and on top rested a carpet covered floorboard. The early cars didn't have this and it needed to be removed in order to add a front oil cooler. So out it came, although not as easily as I'd hoped, but it was my first time doing something like this.

Making a start...


Doing the easy bits first


The last part being rather stubborn! Above that part is the base of the headlight housing when the lights are down. It's just over the spot welds making this impossible to drill out.

Finally done and partly cleaned up.


Next was to remove the no longer needed 4-cylinder engine mounts. It's not an essential job for a six conversion but makes for a cleaner finish and more in keeping with an original six.

Here's the, like everything else, covered in underseal drivers side mount.


And a few hours later! Thick metal and in places three layers thick. After that I can't say I'm looking forward to the other side.

I've been buying parts for both the restoration and conversion along the way but as yet held off from buying lots as there never seems to be enough room to store everything! I'm sitting here in my den at my computer. On the desk to my right are my new rear coil springs to my left my fuel sender - broken, my fault :evil: I'll cover that story another day when that mini project is over. I've also got all of the cars glass behind me begging me to trip over it and an exhaust for another project.

However on the other side to the room is this...


A NOS 914-6 oil tank. Scored for a price less than a replica from the US. I'm just a bit happy about that.

Not much work has happened on the shell the last couple of weeks. I decided it was time to upgrade my compressor and stupidly sold the old one before it's replacement arrived. And when it did arrive it was DOA. Long boring story but I finally got another one yesterday and I'm in business again.

Whilst that was going on I got to restoring a few other bits and pieces.

Starting with these.



They were in a shocking condition and despite trying the method Darren used to restore his, painting them was going to be the only solution. The internals were all revamped too. Those white thumbscrews had yellowed significantly over the years but a bath in bleach and Vanish for a week brought them back to life

So with the back lights done it was on to the front.



Yes they needed work and it was time to replace the old sealed units with some H4's

Fully stripped and repainted. I found that RAL 7046 Telegray 2 was a fairly good match to the original and ordered an aerosol from an online supplier.



And finished with all new fittings and H4 connector as the originals shattered when I touched them.

I may have got a bit carried away with this one, but what's the point in going to all this effort if you don't do everything

Yuck!


Much better




This was whilst I was waiting for the compressor to arrive. I needed anything to pass the time.

Ooh shiny bits!

I needed a local powder coater and a friend said he knew of one but had not experience with them. He turned out to be a bit tricky to track down and to be honest a little aloof over the phone. Anyway as is quite often the case he turned out to be a great guy, a one man operation and does work for most well known Porsche/VW restorers in Essex. He'd done it all before and knew exactly what parts needed to be masked. Less than a week later I collected everything.

http://www.shotbeadaquablasting.co.uk

Here's just a sample. Really lovely work.

I didn't have quite as good an experience with the plating. Certainly a lesson learnt with this one.



Most of it is great but some parts could have been cleaned a lot better. Next time I'll clean it all up myself before I hand it over.

Now there's quite a few bits there and as it's my first time doing this I was sure to catalogue, photo and measure everything. Although daunting when I got everything back six, yes six weeks later! I knew I could rely on my system.

What I hadn't prepared for was the amount of missing parts :shock: :evil: washers, nuts, spacers, bolts you name it. No pattern to what was missing, almost like someone had grabbed a couple of handfuls and thrown it away! Needless to say I wasn't happy and their response was to blame me. :evil:

Typically quite a few of the parts were NLA but after a week of searching here and there almost everything is now accounted for. I just now have about a dozen bits that need plating and no plater nearby.

One of the two parts I couldn't replace were three missing seat runner washers so I knocked these up yesterday morning. I used metal that I cut out from the front of the car so you could say they're almost original.



So just one last piece to find. A large washer that's part of the gearbox mount. I might ask Sladey if he can use his new found enthusiasm to make me one. I'll drop him a PM when he gets back from Spa.

And that's about where I'm up to now. I'm hoping to have the car off to the media blasters buy the end of July there's a few repairs I want to get sorted before that happens so the clock is ticking. I'll be back with an update in a few days.

Looking good!

Looking good .. Yours is much more rust free then mine. Let me know if you need any conversion parts happy to help.

I've already got your engine engine mount Ben. You can just about see part of it powder coated just above. Once I get the car back from blasting it'll be time to weld in the other part.

Great work and documentation of the restoration/build. That is definitely the way to do it.

Thats someone elses mount. I only make factory style mounts (single mount)

Either way looking good.

Awesome work!

Looks like Rich Johnson mount / I used that one as well.

Sorry Ben, of course you're right. I got this from Maddog. I must say I really wanted a pair of your heat exchangers but sadly the current exchange rate, shipping, duty and VAT makes it difficult for us in the UK at the moment. Keep up the great work, I've been reading your restoration thread too.

Fantastic work.

Well done starting the thread on here...

Will it being staying light ivory?

Make sure you get a good high quality engine harness

Nope

Thanks Perry. I've heard there's a guy around these parts who can help

A job I've been wanting to make a start on for a while was the front oil cooler. Because I don't intend on building an exact GT replica there was no need for the expensive of a original Behr oil cooler - fortunately.

A while back I got a GRP copy of the GT cooler shroud, with this came a piece that went under the cooler itself. I didn't like the fit of this so wanted to do something else. Fortunately from following 23heure's build the guys who built his car came up with a better solution and I adapted mine from that.

Cooler Shroud in Place.


Measure twice - cut once!


Phew!


Fabricated lower panel and oil cooler mount. These need welding together.


Oil cooler in place.

I wanted to fabricate a GT style grill - this is what I came up with.

Starting with the side parts - Metal used here was for a 914 engine lid I used to make my GT lid.


Top part...


Trying the grill for size. I used the cut out piece to help form the shape.


Bottom piece fabricated, cleaned and ready to weld up.


Frame welded and finished.


The finished piece...


Held in place along with GT valance.


I'm happy with that. Now to test fit with the bumper once the relevant fittings arrive.

Can you share what oil cooler you decided to use? You are doing a great job!

Yeah sure I went with the Setrab Slimline 420mm 10 Row.
http://www.setrab.com/products/proline/products/slm/

Looks really nice!

very nice work!

Super nice work. I think it is looking better than new so far.

Bob

Thanks guys, it's been a steep learning curve as I've never really done anything like this before. It's been a lot of fun though!

Great build !

Great work so far,handy to have those fabrication skills,looks to be a good solid car for the conversion.
I think a build on a 4cyl is a form of madness but tackling a six conversion is a whole new level of insanity .
.

P.S. the first time you turn that key and the six roars into life ..that's priceless

I dream of that day!

You are on track to having the nicest 3.0 914 in the UK... keep going!

I still won't be able to keep up with you though!

It was my initial plan to use the original oil cooler fixing holes on the oil cooler shroud to fix on to my oil cooler with an adaptor plate. This was completely unnecessary but would look more correct. After going over what I'd done previously I found the oil cooler was sitting just a bit too high. So I set about modifying it all to enable me to lower it.

After a few hours I came up with this. I think it's a much better solution and I now have the room above for the adaptor plate.

Ever had the sick in your stomach feeling?

Nice fab work! From the looks of your skills, that body work will be no problem to sort out.

Thanks very much. However before starting this project I'd never done anything like this and I've only been welding a few months. I love a challenge

Same here. Worth the effort! It's gratifying.

Great build, you are doing a fantastic job!

This will be an awesome car when done.

John

That's a lot of plastic on that quarter !

There sure is! I suspected some there and I'd already sourced a quarter to replace it with. Sadly I'm going to need a new door too as this one has a lot of bondo in.

Don't let a little bondo get in the way of progress!!!

Great attention to detail on the parts. Looks good.

Whilst hiding from the car and it's filler problems I turned to another little project.

I plan on having a very stock interior in my car, most of what was in the car was already in great condition and the few parts the weren't, have been replaced.

The dash and gauges were in a lovely original condition and fortunately didn't need refurbishment. However now having a six cylinder engine I wanted more information on the dashboard.

Being an early 914 the car had silver dot gauges. It's common with six conversions to swap out the large 914 fuel gauge and replace it with an oil temp and pressure gauge from a 911. Unfortunately those gauges are expensive now and I really wanted a cheaper solution.

My engine is a '83 3.0l and more by luck than anything else I managed to get hold of a reasonably priced gauge from the same era. The lucky part being my sender units on the engine were a perfect match to the gauge. The only problem with these gauges is the lack of a silver dot. But not for long.

911 oil gauge on the right and partially torn down 914 fuel gauge.


Silver Dot from the 914 gauge not stuck on to the 911 oil gauge.


Reassembled - A trio of silver dot gauges.